Koen was my #15 for 6 points Hayes was my #9 for 12 points
Like TN1965 I first read about Blankers-Koen in a book in my primary school library - maybe the same book? And I remember thinking how amazing it was for her to lose her prime years because of WWII and also to survice WWII and then produce those performances in London.
Hayes? Well I just remember watching this full scale movie the Japanese made about the Tokyo Olympics and this seemingly huge brooding colossus just dominated his fellow competitors. It was a great shame he never ran track after Tokyo as he would have undoubtedly become the first sprinter under 10. Jim Hines would never have had a chance against him in Mexico. Altitude and a tartan track. Under 9.90 I reckopn. And heck, if the lane draw rules had had him in lane 4 or 5 that day in Tokyo, instead of the chewed up lane 1, he probably would have broken 10.00 that day.
And I am now down to 11 athletes left.
10 male, 1 female
4 x USA, 2 x Russia, 1 x NZ, 1 x Australia, 1 x Jamaica, 1 x Norway, 1 x Czech
5 x distance 1 x sprints 2 x jumps 1 x multi event 1 x throws 1 x hurdles
Joanie Benoit was my number 1. She's a year younger than me, so we were running marathons during the same years. In Boston in 1979, I hit the wall and was painfully jogging in when she came up behind me with 1 mile to go, wearing her Red Sox cap and Bowdoin singlet. I got a big spark of energy from seeing her on American Record pace.
Then, of course, her LA win in the first women's Olympic marathon was a huge highlight. She ran a tremendously gutsy race - while the American male marathoners, fearing the conditions. tried to start their race conservatively and come from behind, she took her race early on and ran away with it. This race brought tears to my eyes.
Always a fierce competitor, she was gracious and considerate as well.
For several years she served as an analyst for the Boston Marathon for one of the Boston TV stations. A fairly clueless announcer asked her during one of the broadcasts in the mid-nineties, "Joan, do you lift weights as part of your training?" A mother of two, she replied, "No, I lift children."
I'm not a big nationalistic flag waver, but when Joanie entered the Coliseum finishing the OG Marathon ....wow was that ever a Special Moment. Talk about an Ultimate Ego Trip that we all dream about......
Gabriella wrote:I was never a fan of her supposed 'grace'...I always thought her uppper body looked rather awkward and her arms criss crossed her body, but she had a great long stride and I loved her face when she decided she would fight; she looked fierce.
Couldn't agree more. From the waist down she ran like a gazelle, from the waist up she ran like Rocky Balboa.
mump boy wrote:57th (4 votes 54 points) Joan Benoit (maybe Allyson Felix can those that voted for her please let me know so i can correct) 55th (4 votes 58 points) Bob Hayes
Yer killin' me, Homes! Joanie and Bob in the FIFTIES?!?!
It will be interesting to see who is the first poster to have all 20 of his/her picks listed... as previously mentioned I only have 2 left. Anybody else with that few ?
DecFan wrote:Joanie Benoit was my number 1. She's a year younger than me, so we were running marathons during the same years. In Boston in 1979, I hit the wall and was painfully jogging in when she came up behind me with 1 mile to go, wearing her Red Sox cap and Bowdoin singlet. I got a big spark of energy from seeing her on American Record pace.
Then, of course, her LA win in the first women's Olympic marathon was a huge highlight. She ran a tremendously gutsy race - while the American male marathoners, fearing the conditions. tried to start their race conservatively and come from behind, she took her race early on and ran away with it. This race brought tears to my eyes.
She was my number four. For a while She and I had both the same marathon time and 15km time -- to the second. Then she got really good ...
I also saw her in LA. It was frustrating being in the stadium and getting these pictures of her then the following runners but no indication of the gap and how it was changing. I was repeatedly starting a watch whenever she went by a recognizable landmark while hoping that would flip to the next group while that hit the same spot...
On my list she is almost surrounded by (other) marathon runners.
dukehjsteve wrote:It will be interesting to see who is the first poster to have all 20 of his/her picks listed... as previously mentioned I only have 2 left. Anybody else with that few ?
I'm down to 3; curiously, I still have two Finns left while all my Americans are gone. The average should be around 6... but with picks like Dyldin it's hardly amazing if I'm below that
dukehjsteve wrote:It will be interesting to see who is the first poster to have all 20 of his/her picks listed... as previously mentioned I only have 2 left. Anybody else with that few ?
I'm down to 3; curiously, I still have two Finns left while all my Americans are gone. The average should be around 6... but with picks like Dyldin it's hardly amazing if I'm below that
I also have two Finns still left (as well as 13 others). And I suspect those are the same two people.
dukehjsteve wrote:Glad to see Bobby Morrow appear... he was my # 3. Again, timing has a lot to do with my choice of him. 1956 was the year Track & Field became my # 1 sports interest. He met the best, beat the best, and made a great comeback in 1960 that just fell short. There was a great article about him in Sports Illustrated about 10 years ago. Maybe someone else can dig it out and post it. He was deservedly SI's " Sportsman of the Year" for 1956.
I've got 2 left.
Good post about Morrow! He HAD to appear. But only 4 votes each for Morrow and Hayes . Well, they beat Nelly Cooman.
Morrow was my # 5. Injuries caught up with him in '60.
Two of my votes appear in this group - Marlies Gohr and Bobby Joe Morrow.
Marlies Gohr was pretty high up my list. She was a fantastic athlete, hyper consistent and, with her 10.88, the first sub-11 in history. I liked her as a person as well though. She would go from stony-faced before a race to the epitome of joy and delight afterwards, and she was very gracious as well, particularly in her relations with her great rival Evelyn Ashford. When she won the World 100 in 83 she said "Ashford is the best runner in the world", she made a point of congratulating her after the Weltklasse 100 in 84 despite having to compete at a disadvantage with an extra round, and in 86 she had a heart to heart with her in Rieti despite the risk she would have faced with GDR authorities by having such close contact with a Western athlete. I also was impressed by the bravery she showed in throwing away the baton in the 84 Friendship Games 4x100 in protest against the senseless Eastern European Olympic boycott. This may have been related to the fact that the Soviets conspired to prevent her winning Olympic 100 gold in Moscow by giving her faulty blocks, but she bounced back to win many major golds afterwards. On a final note I loved her "skimming" running action as well!
Bobby Joe Morrow was well before my time but I have seen footage of him and he looked like a fantastic natural athlete. Anyone who has read my posts will be aware that I am very cynical about drugs in athletics, but in real life I am actually not a cynical person at all. My attitude that "they're all doing it" was born through having my illusions shattered by the words of someone so well connected with the sport that I had to believe them. In fact I see athletics as being of two separate periods - before and after 1988 - as that was the year I was told what world class athletics was really like. I would love to believe in a clean sport and this is where the greater part of my admiration for Bobby-Joe comes in - the sprints were always my favourite events and I have this belief that he may have been the last clean Olympic 100 Champ.
I didn't vote for her but kudos to Join Benoit - she was the only female athletics Champion in 84 who beat the best in the world to get her gold medal, and to do so she ran a brave, brave race. I also like her quote that when she was in the tunnel before entering the stadium she realised that as soon as she got on the track her life would change forever as she would become a truly public figure, and she had to consider whether that was what she really wanted or not. In these days of worthless celebrity, the fact that she actually had such perceptiveness despite her profound achievement is praiseworthy in itself.
Rog wrote:I also was impressed by the bravery she showed in throwing away the baton in the 84 Friendship Games 4x100 in protest against the senseless Eastern European Olympic boycott.
I almost added Gohr to my list she was definitely unorthodox with her pitter patter running style which was part of the attraction. I had not heard of the baton throwing incident before now. When did she throw the baton, during or after the race?
Rog wrote:I also was impressed by the bravery she showed in throwing away the baton in the 84 Friendship Games 4x100 in protest against the senseless Eastern European Olympic boycott.
I almost added Gohr to my list she was definitely unorthodox with her pitter patter running style which was part of the attraction. I had not heard of the baton throwing incident before now. When did she throw the baton, during or after the race?
During the race, she took the baton with a clear lead but then hurled it away. The GDR squad was promptly withdrawn from the 4x400!
Rog wrote:...Anyone who has read my posts will be aware that I am very cynical about drugs in athletics, but in real life I am actually not a cynical person at all. My attitude that "they're all doing it" was born through having my illusions shattered by the words of someone so well connected with the sport that I had to believe them. In fact I see athletics as being of two separate periods - before and after 1988 - as that was the year I was told what world class athletics was really like. I would love to believe in a clean sport and this is where the greater part of my admiration for Bobby-Joe comes in - the sprints were always my favourite events and I have this belief that he may have been the last clean Olympic 100 Champ.
I've found that the people closest to the sport are the most jealous; I would take anything told to me by an athlete, ex-athlete, manager, agent, administrator, councilmember with a grain of salt the size of a boulder. It's like the gossip who has to tell something, anything, to make themselves important. That said, you have to be nuts to think that somehow there were ever a time in Olympic history, especially when testing did NOT exist, that an entire sport was above suspicion - especially in Morrow's day, imo. (Like in anything, a miniscule amount cheat, but not everyone.)
One more thing: I can't wait for the day that gh actually decides that comments like "...I have this belief that he may have been the last clean Olympic 100 Champ" are interpreted as going against the rules of the board. It's wrong and posts like this shouldn't be allowed to stand.
Another that almost made my top 20. It's amazing we don't see more 400/800 doubling. Or more to the point, it's amazing that he was so good at it, given the scarcity of people willing to try it.
malmo wrote:Those of us who saw it will always remember we were lucky; we saw running become art.
I sat at the south end of the East Grandstands behind two cackling Princeton athletes. They were completely bewildered by Rono's running, gleefully pointing out to anyone who'd listen how stupid he was to run so 'recklessly.' I sat thinking to myself, 'These two knuckleheads don't understand what they are privileged to see.
Over the years we've all heard many athletes declare themselves to be artists. Rono never claimed anything; he just ran. But if ever there were a 'performance artist' in our sport, it was Rono. His performances were ephemeral. The only record left is the spoken (and written) word. So far as I know, there is no video record of his world records, nor of the joyous romps in Eugene. If there were, I could sell thousands of "The Rono Tapes" from the trunk of my car.
After his 8:18.63 in the steeplechase heats, when the curtain came up again for the 5000 heats, Rono wasted little time. On each straight Rono sprinted, each turn he'd cruise. On the straights Rono had this special way of cocking his head back, he'd lean forward, push his chest way out, pump his arms -- and whooosh -- it looked like he had his own personal wind carrying him down the track.
On the turns he'd float like he was walking on air. He's hit another straight, push that button of his, and the crowd would respond. You could hear the crowd on the other side of the track erupt as he flew down the track. He'd float the turn, push that switch again, and it was our turn to roar.
Rono had taking running to a new level. He wasn't simply running, he was performing.
It has been said that on the West Grandstand straight Rono even passed NCAA long jump champion Larry Doubley as he ran down the runway. I believe it.
Over the years we've all been privileged to see some great runners -- Kipketer, El Guerrouj, Gebrselassie, Tergat. All great runners, all with silky-smooth strides, and yet they all could be described as being mechanical. Rono was a 'runner's runner' who ran for the sheer joy of it, and left anyone so privileged to see his 'work' awestruck.
Let's put it this way: could Gebrselassie ever run 13:22 in a Spokane blizzard? Could an EPO-induced Brahim Boulami ever run 8:05 in a rainstorm during a dual meet in Seattle? I don't think that anyone knows what could have been with Rono. It doesn't matter to me. What I saw was enough.
Without a doubt, my memories of Rono got me through many a rainy winter training run. I'd cock my head back, lean forward, push my chest out, pump my arms and let my body follow my imagination down the road.
I even think there were a few times that I felt what it must have been like.
Waitz was my number 20. She was a barrier breaker for women's running, competing with grace and grit. I wish she had had a women's Olympic marathon to run in 1980.
The quote from Malmo well states the phenomenon of Henry Rono. What he accomplished was amazing; the settings in which he made those accomplishments boggle the mind.
How fast could Rono have run had he peaked for a top effort? The question is unanswerable not only because he never did, but also because he never could. Rono was a free spirit far beyond Gabe Jennings.
John Velzian once told me that, prior to the 1976 Olympics, a young and unknown Henry Rono had broken the world record for the steeplechase on a cinder track in Mombasa. John did not let the timers tell Henry, and purposely misreported the time in the results, wanting Rono to surprise and shock his fellow competitors in Montreal. After the team's arrival for the Games, the Kenyans ended up joining the African boycott under mysterious circumstances, so we never saw what would have been a marvelous race.
Now, I don't know how much stock to put in that story, as it clearly can never be verified, and John has told his share of yarns. Yet it wasn't ancient history at the time; Velzian told me that story in 1983. In any event, given what Rono accomplished two years later, I don't doubt that Henry could have done it
FBK was another of mine - and unless I've counted wrong - I still have 13 to go.
The TV show 'The Olympiad' (1976) introduced me to 'The Flying Dutchma'. Besides being in an episode about women Olympians (which, from memory, featured only track and field athletes) she was in another called 'The Incredible Four' which focussed on Jesse Owens, Emil Zatopek and (maybe) Bob Mathias.
I think I can still remember the final lines from her segments.
"A newspaper wrote 'In the Olympic Games, Holland has won four gold medals. And Fanny has won them all'.."
"On her return to Holland after the Games, her neighbours presented her with a bicycle 'so she wouldn't have to run so much'.."
My school had video-recorded 'The Olympiad' (before home video became common) so I watched some of those episodes over and over and over and over again at school.. Wish I had copies today - that series was one of the best ever and got me hooked on the history of the sport.
The quote from Malmo well states the phenomenon of Henry Rono. What he accomplished was amazing; the settings in which he made those accomplishments boggle the mind.
How fast could Rono have run had he peaked for a top effort? The question is unanswerable not only because he never did, but also because he never could. Rono was a free spirit far beyond Gabe Jennings.
John Velzian once told me that, prior to the 1976 Olympics, a young and unknown Henry Rono had broken the world record for the steeplechase on a cinder track in Mombasa. John did not let the timers tell Henry, and purposely misreported the time in the results, wanting Rono to surprise and shock his fellow competitors in Montreal. After the team's arrival for the Games, the Kenyans ended up joining the African boycott under mysterious circumstances, so we never saw what would have been a marvelous race.
Now, I don't know how much stock to put in that story, as it clearly can never be verified, and John has told his share of yarns. Yet it wasn't ancient history at the time; Velzian told me that story in 1983. In any event, given what Rono accomplished two years later, I don't doubt that Henry could have done it
Waitz was my number 10. Never met her and only ever saw her run on TV. However, she was such a colossus in the mid 1980s at a time I had given up jumping and decided to become a social runner as I wanted to try a marathon. Unfortunately I was your proverbial chickensh-- as my two half marathon attempts cured me of that desire.
As for Henry I met him when he was at WSU. I was competing at WSU when the first of our Kenyan athletes arrived - John Ngeno (5,000/10,000) and Kip Ngeno (110HH). With Kenya boycotting 1976 and 1980 Henry would probably be one of the unluckiest athletes in history as he had realistic chances at Gold in so many events.
Coach Chaplin was a great recruiter. In 1974 I think we had athletes on scholarship from about 13 countries. However, he had limited real involvement in the coaching of the athletes. This, I think, is the result of the way the US Collegiate system worked back then with a Head Coach and an assistant (Rick Sloan) trying to coach 30 plus athletes over all disciplines.
Rog wrote:During the race, she took the baton with a clear lead but then hurled it away. The GDR squad was promptly withdrawn from the 4x400!
Excellent! If I'd known about that I would definitely have had her in my top 20.
Marlies Gohr was my #2. I didn't know about the baton throwing incident also. I like her even more now. It really is a shame she didn't get the gold in 80- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqgnA25yEvc
Gohr was in my list too. Like the others, loved here staccato/pitter-patter running action although if you watch her in her early years it is more conventional and she becomes more pitter-patter and almost absurd as she gets older. I do believe that running action is not condusive to fast times and requires an enormous amount of strength. It's like she is restricting her natural action.
Anyway, I loved her idiosyncratic hand/wrists shaking at the start of her races - go watch for it - and her focus.
I did feel sorry for her in 87 when she got injured but the GDR authorities still forced her to run in Rome. Despite coming back to 10.89 in 1988, that injury did effectively end her career and she was never the same consistent athlete after that.
She also lost all motivation after Flo Jos surreal 10.49. In a German interview with her from a few years back she describes how she felt on hearing that WR and how she just couldnt get motivated for Seoul. I do remember back in 88 when the press asked her about the time and she said "she must have had rockets on her feet to run that fast, only a man can run that time". Love it.
I voted for Tommie Smith at No5 (in retrospect a little too high)
He's basically the athlete i haven't met yet, that i most want to meet. I'm a bit worried that if i do meet him i might cry
A man of immense talent, beauty and principle with an amazing sense of showmanship as well. Today when people are too scared to say anything in case they lose their sponsorship, his stand is even more special. He may have lost everything after Mexico but he made history and helped change the world which is infinately more important.
Koch was my number #5 athlete. Phenomenal dominance over most of the field but also an incredible rivalry with Kratochvilova. It was enthralling to watch them both compete. Again, a great rivalry brings out the best memories for me.
Ron Clarke was another of mine. Amazing record-breaking performances contrasted with his inability to win major medals at major comps. Of course, he was affected more than most medal favourites by the altitude of Mexico City and his efforts there were almost literally heart-breaking performances. As Mayor of Queensland's Gold Coast, he has been a key player in that city's successful bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Some of the GDR athletes mentioned above bring back a few memories too. In their trip downunder for the 1985 World Cup, their team competed in a warm-up meet in Sydney which was televised live on Aussie TV. Interviews during the event were conducted by a young journo, Debbie Spillane, who is now one of Australia's most respected sports broadcasters.
During the interviews, athletes such as Koch and Goehr were accompanied by an 'interpreter'. It was quite funny in some interviews to see Debbie ask questions, the 'stasi guy' (as I think of him these days) would interpret into German and the athlete would respond prior to his translation. In some cases, they would answer in German for 30-60 seconds and then the guy would turn to the camera and give a one or two word answer! On occasions, he wouldn't even translate the English questions to German and said 'I can answer that'....
At least on one occasion he started to translate Debbie's question but Goehr (I think) who seemed a bit bemused by the translator herself, interrupted him, saying she could understand the question and proceeded to give the answer in English.
Smith apart from being a great sprinter, Gold Medallist and WR holder was a brave soul justifiably standing up against the racist hypocrisies in the USA. The worst bu**ers of the lot were, and are, the IOC who insisted that Smith and Carlos be sent home pronto; yet the same IOC contain representatives of countries with the worst dictators, and corrupt politicos you will find round the globe.
As for Ron Clarke ... a memory which will always remain is his wonderful dominating run in 1965 at the White City, being the first man to run a 3 mile race under 13 minutes..so ordinary now by todays standards. 12 world records in total and a committed front runner most of the time. One of the greats never to have won a Goldie. Has the Gold that Zatopek gave him after running in Czechoslovakia, as was.
I grew up in the middle of India in a community built around a steel plant (built with Russian Collaboration). We used to get a magazine every month from the Russians called "The Soviet Land' (free). Just about when I was getting interested in track in the early 80's the Soviet Land ran an article on Koch (with a color picture of her in full stride)... I was really fascinated and started following her career. She was a phenomenal athlete.
That picture from the magazine is still stuck in my mind for some reason.
Viren and Rono were 9th and 10th on my distance-heavy list. How many NCAA XC races were as tough as the one Rono won in '76? And in '78, that magical year for him, I was 16 and really digging the sport. Then his overweight and out-of-shape win over Salazar in the rain in Eugene. It sounds like Alberto took him to his limit. There was an interview afterward in which Rono described the last few laps as really hard. Each lap, trying to hang on, he told himself, "I will go one more lap, then we will see." And some 66 seconds and a lap later, he'd say, "I will go one more lap, then we will see."
Amidst Viren's four golds, his 5th place finish in his marathon debut the day after the Montreal 5K final gets forgotten, yet is amazing.
I had Oldfield one place behind another shotputter, WKU's Jesse Stuart. One of my earliest T&F memories, other that the Munich OG, is Oldfield on the TV, running around the infield, bellowing "I want the steel tape!!!" after his 75' toss, and racing the tiny female sprinter (and beating her), then tossing her over his shoulder like most guys would carry their four year-old daughter.
. Well, they beat Nelly Cooman.
