Was Prefontaine overrated?

Was Prefontaine overrated, no. Is Prefontaine overrated, yes.

inevitable. he was made more legendary by his tragic end, like hundreds of pop culture icons, spiritual gurus, etc. Pre was a great young runner and he died. the draw for younger runners, like Fam's current status, is that he was unorthodox and rebelled against conformity. Fam actually has done pretty well to raise a cult following for himself while he's living...

don't know why I'm getting on Fam...I like him...and I agree with what you said about Pre being over-hyped.

He didn't have the body of a runner, he had the talent, to quite a "recockulous" level

I woulda gave pre the ground pound.

OK, granted he WAS once overrated. But now, I'd say he enjoys most perfectly and justly rated status.

No he wasn't overrated, he was a great runner. Now he is overrated.

Nike take the piss.

He is now shoved down every high schoolers throat so the the big tick can wring him for as much dosh as possible.

These "Pre overrated" threads seems to pop up as surely as amen in church. Can´t you think of something else to debate?

since he held every American record from the 2k to the 10k at the time of his death, I would say.....NO!!

Prefontaine was great against other American runners. He was so-so against international competition.

His best performance in Europe was in Stockholm in July 1974, where he ran third in a two mile behind Rod Dixon and Emiel Puttemans. Prefontaine ran 8:18. Dixon ran 8:14 and Puttemans 8:16.

Pre's greatest victory in a race in Europe was at the Bislett Games in 1972, where he ran 7:44 in the 3,000 to defeat future Olympic Steeplechase champion and world record holder Anders Garderud.

Prefontaine is less overrated than your own sense of your insight.

If you saw him run you would not ask . its great to hear people talk some thing they no nothig about.

its great to hear people not KNOW how to spell. I hear hooked on phonics is very effcient these days.

assh0lerunner wrote:its great to hear people not KNOW how to spell. I hear hooked on phonics is very effcient these days.

"It's"

"efficient"

NO

I agree that he was so-so against foreign runners, but he was not over-rated. He wiped the floor with fellow us runners, and was not afraid to go down to the mile and race. Its hard to be dominant against the whole rest of the world. When's the last time you saw ritz run a mile? Ritz gets a lot of hype, and he is only "so-so" against americans, not to mention obsolete against the rest of the world. How about Tim Broe? Hauser? Luchini? I see threads every couple of weeks about where are these guys. Why have they waranted the "hype"? Just because Broe made the olympic final, he sure as hell wasn't "in the race".

Dictionary wrote:

assh0lerunner wrote:its great to hear people not KNOW how to spell. I hear hooked on phonics is very effcient these days.

"It's"

"efficient"

I'd like to hit you with a big stick.

throwing some "hard" analysis at it, the pre of '74 was certainly not over-rated ( theoretically ) :

from wiki :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Prefontaine

1,500 meters 3:38.1 28 June 1973 Helsinki, Finland [2]

2,000 meters 5:01.4 9 May 1975 Coos Bay, Oregon

3,000 meters 7:42.6 2 July 1974 Milan, Italy

5,000 meters 13:21.87 26 June 1974 Helsinki, Finland

10,000 meters 27:43.6 27 April 1974 Eugene, Oregon

1 mile 3:54.6 20 June 1973 Eugene, Oregon

2 miles 8:18.29 18 July 1974

3 miles 12:51.4 8 June 1974 Eugene, Oregon

6 miles 26:51.8 27 April 1974

5000 meters (H.S.) 13:52.8 1969

trying a calculator

http://www.jundo.co.uk/

( & remember he was born in jan '51 - making him only 23y in '74 - he wouda been expected to improve in '75, '76... ) & some commonsense : round up any 10k pb to next quicker 5s multiple for assumed sub-optimum pacing/conditions/etc - assume 27'43.6 is

27'40

then 27'40 with various assumed 400 ability at the time :

53.0 -> ~

1'51.8

3'39.4

3'56.6

4'58.5

7'40.5

8'16.4

13'14.0

52.5 / 27'40 ->~

1'51.0

3'38.3

3'55.5

4'57.3

7'39.1

8'15.0

13'12.6

52.0 / 27'40 ->~

1'50.2

3'37.2

3'54.3

4'56.0

7'37.6

8'13.5

13'11.3

51.5 / 27'40 ->~

1'49.5

3'36.1

3'53.2

4'54.8

7'36.2

8'12.1

13'09.9

with an experienced eye i'd look at his superb mile time of 3'54.6pb

if you are willing to assume he was in similar shape '73/'74, then he was certainly capable of breaking emiel's 5k wr of 13'13.00 in '74 in an ideal race