The US has been the home of many tremendous athletes. There have been basketball icons such as Michael Jordan or Stephen Curry. There have been boxing legends like Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson. There have also been countless highly decorated Olympians such as Michael Phelps, Jesse Owens, and Simone Biles. But in the sport of distance track events, arguably none is as well known as Steve Prefontaine.
Although he died at the age of twenty-four in an automobile incident, Steve Prefontaine already held seven American distance records (from 2k meters to 10k meters), had competed in the 1972 Olympics, and had won nearly every NCAA cross-country and track and field race he competed in. He is such a running icon, that one of the biggest track meets ever is named after him (it is the Prefontaine Classic and I plan on watching it live this year). He is also very easily recognizable for his long blond hair and distinct mustache.
Prefontaine showed grit at a very early age. Although his freshman year mile time was only a 5:01 (the same as my freshman year time 😦), by his senior year of high school he was running an 8:41 two-mile, which is mind-blowing. To put that into context, the fastest high schooler in California (which is the fastest state) ran a PR of 8:48 just last week. Around 40 colleges recruited Prefontaine, but he decided to stay local and run for the University of Oregon (which has one of the best distance programs in the country).
Prefontaine had a very distinct yet risky racing strategy. He would always insist on going out hard and controlling the front. One of his most quoted sayings was "I am going to work so that it's a pure guts race. In the end, if it is, I'm the only one that can win it". Compared to other distance runners, Prefontaine had great speed. His mile PR (3:54.6) was only 3.5 seconds off the world record of the time. If you have time, I highly suggest you watch his Olympic 5k, in which he kicked a little too early and died out.
Unfortunately, Prefontaine made some questionable decisions that lead to his death at age 24. After a tremendous 5k on the 29th of March, 1975, Prefontaine went to a college party. When he started driving home, a little after midnight, he crashed his car and got stuck under the wreckage. He was still alive, but by the time emergency services arrived, he had passed. His blood alcohol level was found to be 0.16. At this level, you begin to feel sick and you suffering from gross motor impairment. His death truly marked the end of an era in the sport of distance running.
I really like this post! I find it interesting that although Prefontaine had a seemingly late start in running, he became one of the best in the world. It is interesting how Prefontaine was closely related to the running boom of the 1970s, closely following many of the social movements in the 60s which we had learned about in class. Although Prefontaine was indeed influential in helping start this boom, why do you think his death is considered the end of an era in distance running? I am not particularly familiar with the sport, so I am curious what exactly did he represent in a broader sense.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_boom_of_the_1970s