Cam Levins comes from
Black Creek and
Courtenay,
British Columbia. In college, he competed for the
Southern Utah Thunderbirds under coach Eric Houle. In 2012, he won the 5000 m and 10,000 m at the NCAA Championships. For his efforts, he also won
the Bowerman award as the top collegiate track and field athlete, becoming the first Canadian to do so. He qualified for the
2012 London Olympics in the
5000 meters and
10,000 meters events at the 2012 Canadian Olympic Trials in
Calgary,
Alberta, where he took first place in the 5000 m. At the Games, Levins finished 14th in the 5000 m in a time of 13:51.87 and 11th in the 10,000 m with a time of 27:40.68, despite catching the flu just before the finals. He finished 14th in the 10,000 meters at the
2013 World Championships in Athletics in
Moscow. Levins was the Men's 2012 Bowerman Award winner, which is the NCAA's annual award to the most outstanding collegiate athlete in track & field. He was the first Canadian recipient of the award. In the
2014 Commonwealth Games in
Glasgow, he led down the final stretch with a "spectacular kick" but finished third in 27:56.23, less than one-tenth of a second behind winner
Moses Kipsiro. On October 21, 2018, making his
marathon debut, Levins broke
Jerome Drayton's 43-year-old
Canadian men's record for the marathon, finishing fourth in the 29th annual
Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2:09:25, a 44-second improvement on the previous national record. He represented Canada at the
2020 Tokyo Olympics, placing 72nd in the
Olympic marathon in a time of 2:28:43. Levins finished fourth in the
marathon at the
2022 World Athletics Championships held in
Eugene, Oregon in a new Canadian men's record time of 2:07:09, taking two minutes off his previous national record set in 2018; it was also the best Canadian finish ever in the event. On February 12, 2023, he broke
Ben Flanagan's 2022 Canadian record in the
half marathon with a time of 60:18 at the First Half in
Vancouver, becoming the first Canadian to break the 61-minute barrier in the event (Flanagan's record was 61:00). On March 5, 2023, Levins improved his own Canadian marathon record by more than 90 seconds to break the North American record and finish fifth at the
Tokyo Marathon. He ran a time of 2:05:36, taking two seconds off the previous area best. Levins would make his
New York City Marathon debut on November 5. He came through 5 km and 10 km with the lead group in 15:29 and 30:39 before being dropped from the lead group after 13 km. After running detached from the leaders for several kilometres, he would drop out of the race around 20 km. On February 7, 2024, Levins, alongside fellow marathoner
Malindi Elmore, received an early selection to represent Canada in the marathon at the
2024 Olympics. == Competition record ==