Friends Should Always Bow

[DoubleRBar]

Hope you all are having a good Halloween. Today (Wednesday) we celebrate two birthdays. Both people won two Olympic medals.

The older of the two Olympians turns 65 years today, while the younger athlete is 52 today.

Only one of the two was born in the United States. One of the two was born in the same city where this athlete won an Olympic gold medal.

Winning two Olympic gold medals, the younger athlete went to a school which was started in 1954 and sits over 6,000 feet in elevation.

Our 65 year old Olympic champion also won an Olympic silver medal and went to a school which was started in 1701 and sits at about 59 feet in elevation.

All four Olympic medals were won on the track and not on the field. You can forget the hurdles.

Name our two Olympic champions, both born on Halloween.

[lonewolf]

Frank Shorter 65

[DoubleRBar]

Very good, lonewolf. Happy birthday today to Frank Shorter who turns 65 years old. Frank was only 24 when he won the Munich marathon in 1972. Four laters later in Montreal, he took the silver medal. Of course you know that Shorter was born in Munich.

Now, which runner with two Olympic gold medals. turns 52 today? This athlete did not compete in Munich, Montreal, or Moscow.

[rhymans]

Is Alonzo Babers 52 or 51 today?

[DoubleRBar]

Happy birthday today to Alonzo Babers who turns 51 and not 52. Sorry about that, Alonzo. I'm adding too much to your age. Thank you, rhymans and good job. I should know how old Alonzo is since he was born the same year as was Carl Lewis, Calvin Smith, and Mark McKoy. Happy 51st to Alonzo Babers.

[DrJay]

Shorter's birthday was mentioned on Morning Edition on NPR today. And funny, early today I saw DoubleRBar's birthday headline (but from Oct 29): "Clean Speech, Clean Sport, Clean Scholarship, Clean Life" and thought, oh good, he's already got Shorter's birthday riddle posted.

Somehow Shorter turning 65 strikes me (in the gut, a bit) more than most other birthdays our favorite athletes have. Something to do with the passage of time. Maybe it's because I was a very young 10 (and he a young 24) during Munich, but old enough to follow the Games and appreciate that what he did was pretty cool. Those OG--largely Shorter and Pre--had several of us in the neighorhood going out and timing each other in one-lap runs around the block (approx 1400m). The running boom, of which I was very much a part of starting with 7th grade track in 1975, was launched in large part by Shorter. He was a peer and friend of Pre's, he of that bygone era. Shorter a bit of bridge from those times to later ones. He's really synonymous with American distance running of the '70s, moreso, I think, than Pre, or Bill Rodgers, Marty Liquori, Jim Ryun, Steve Scott, etc. He can't be 65! It was just yesterday....or the day before....that we saw him winning in Munich and almost in Montreal.