Trained to Succeed: How Melanie Menter’s Pepperdine Education Equipped Her to Help Elite Athletes Achieve

During the 2026 London Marathon, the impossible became possible.

Sebastian Sawe, a renowned long distance runner from Kenya, won the 26.2 mile race with a world record time—1:59:30. The first person to ever break the two hour barrier in the midst of competition, Sawe’s performance defied the limits of human endurance. 

He tore through the London streets at a pace of 13.2 miles per hour. His average mile time was clocked at four minutes and 33 seconds. And as he got further and further into the race, Sawe actually got faster, running the last 13 miles a full minute quicker than the previous 13. 

For most spectators in London, the Kenyan’s performance offered a rare chance to witness history. For Pepperdine alumna Melanie Menter (’17 ), it was just another day on the job.

An Interdisciplinary Calling

“We knew he was capable of it, and we knew it was going to happen,” she explains. “We just weren't sure if it was going to happen in London.”

Menter is an athlete science and performance specialist for Adidas—the German-based apparel and footwear company.  For years she and her coworkers have collaborated with Sawe to ensure the marathoner’s footwear enables him to perform at his best in the biggest moments. 

A healthy mix of data analytics, experimentation, engineering, and interpersonal relationship building, Menter’s chosen profession challenges her to exercise many skills and learn a multitude of languages. She now lives primarily in Germany, but you’ll regularly find her globe hopping to Kenya or wherever else her athletes happen to be training. 

It is difficult to imagine an academic curriculum capable of equipping someone for a job so interdisciplinary and intercultural, but at Pepperdine University, Menter claims she found the perfect training ground. With expansive global opportunities and an emphasis on experiential learning, Seaver College helped the sports scientist discover her purpose and chase after her dream job.

The Global Language of Sport

“What drew me to Pepperdine was the University’s International Programs,” explains Menter. “I'm German-American, and ever since I was young, I've always loved to travel. Now I get to see the world as a result of my job, but before this, I’d already been to so many different places because of Pepperdine.”

As Menter mentions, Pepperdine offers students unique study abroad opportunities through its seven international programs, which span four different continents (North America, South America, Europe and Asia). In addition, Seaver College undergraduates have the option to expand their foreign studies by taking part in the University’s wide array of global summer programs.

Menter studied abroad at three different international locations—Buenos Aires, Argentina; Heidelberg, Germany; and the Republic of Uganda. In addition to completing her academic studies in these various locations, she also developed the ability to immerse herself in new communities. At each location, she became more adept at picking up and appreciating cultural customs outside of the American norm. In the process, Menter’s worldview grew, enriching her experience as a global citizen.

While abroad, Menter specifically found that sports offered a real chance to build bridges and forge friendships, no matter who you are or where you’re from. Whether in South America, Europe, or on the continent of Africa, everywhere Menter went children chased soccer balls, people competed, folks ran.

“Those study abroad experiences taught me that sports are such a global language,” she says. “They gave me the chance to see what athletics actually mean to the world, and from that point on, I definitely knew I wanted to go in that direction.”

The Limits of Human Performance

Athletics were always important to Menter. Throughout high school she had competed in both soccer and track and field. However, before studying at Pepperdine, Menter did not know that working in sports was a viable career path.

As a student, she initially chose to pursue a pre-med track through Seaver College’s biology program, but she quickly found that the sports medicine curriculum was more compatible with her interests in helping athletes achieve. After changing her major, Menter realized that athletics could be more than just a hobby; it could actually be a vocation. 

Classes such as kinesiology, exercise physiology, and biomechanics fascinated Menter. She even picked up a computer science minor to help her program, process data, and refine her logical thinking as an analyst. But what ultimately convinced Menter to pursue sports science as a professional path was the opportunity to serve as a student researcher alongside her faculty mentor, Holden McRae, a professor emeritus of sports medicine at Seaver College.

“Serving in the research lab with Dr. McRae introduced me to what it actually means to be a sports scientist,” she explains. “It taught me what kind of opportunities were out there. Most of all, it taught me that I really enjoyed collaborating with athletes who were trying to push the limits of human performance. Before that learning opportunity, it never even crossed my mind that I could do that, that it was even a possibility.” 

Full Circle

Menter emerged from Pepperdine with practical sports science training, as well as a wide array of international travel experiences. Her undergraduate education supplied her with the confidence to jump at a six-month internship opportunity with Adidas in Germany.

Well, six months has turned into seven years and counting. The internship has turned into a master’s degree, a PhD, and a full-time job working as a member of the Adidas Running Innovation team. As such, she not only has a front row seat to watch the world’s greatest athletes (like Sawe) compete, she also has a direct impact on their performance. . . even and especially the ones that make the impossible seem suddenly possible.

“It's just so cool to be a part of an athlete’s journey,” says Menter. “Whether the end result is a medal, a personal best, or, in this case, a world record, it’s all just so special.”