A rare image of Steve Prefontaine competing in Europe, 1973

Viren got beat bad in this race. Suspicious....

The planned second place to Wottle is BS. That implies that he could have beat Wottle if he wanted to.

Too bad pre never had the guts to train hard. Was ever such a huge talent squandered so much?

The planned second place to Wottle is BS. That implies that he could have beat Wottle if he wanted to.

You are right--the phrasing was misleading, but it looks like it has been corrected.

manbearpig wrote:

Viren got beat bad in this race. Suspicious....

Nah, not so much. Viren actually battled injury for years.

I won't dispute that "other factors" were likely at work in Olympic years, but he happened to be moderately healthy in 1972 and 1976 (and, to a degree, in 1980); in many other years, he was fighting through some longterm hurts.

Don't know if Steve actually said this in real life. There is a quote attributed to him. "The best pace is suicide pace, and today looks like a good day to die.".

PhoenixRunner wrote:

Don't know if Steve actually said this in real life. There is a quote attributed to him. "The best pace is suicide pace, and today looks like a good day to die.".

He didn't.

You botched the quote.

I think that quote was the result of either:

A) some people thinking his idea of racing tactics was horrible so they tried to mock him with that quote

B) a fellow competitor knowing his race tactic actually trying to go for the win saying this before the race started knowing going with Pre is suicide pace for himself

For some of the top US distance runners, going with Prefontaine at the start was suicide pace for themselves