David Torrence is Dead: RIP / Appreciation Thread

would you mind posting those threads if you have them? good/funny stories would be great in this tragic time. i'm a family friend friend and novice runner myself. many thanks.

Was he in swimwear or street clothes?

judge holden wrote:

Was he in swimwear or street clothes?

Not sure. There has only been very vague information released so far.

His last run on strava is titled "quarters of death"

Looks like it was 10x400 in 60 with short recovery. The recovery laps are kinda wonky according to Strava, ranging from 12s to 47s. I'd guess it was 30s. He did 63 for the 9th then split the 10th into 2x200. Good workout.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1155856620/overview

When I was President of Hoka One One, I signed David to a sponsorship contract. He would come by our office when he visited the Bay Area and always brought energy and good spirits to the entire staff. Cheered him at meets, commiserated after tough races, talked about race tactics etc. Always cheerful, always willing to help out in any way - always a tough competitor in every race. His race in the finals of Rio 5K was typical David - he hung on to a tough pace till he fell apart with a couple laps to go. Some of us know how hard it is to hang on until the point of virtual implosion. David certainly did and that is the mark of toughness, grit and competitiveness. May we all learn how to handle life and it's challenges as well as David did.

Fact King wrote:

Wow, what a loss for the sport.

LetsRun update: Our article on Torrence's life in running is now up:

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2017/08/remembering-david-torrence-olympian-us-champion-us-peruvian-national-record-holder-legendary-downhill-miler/

Terrible loss.

I often swam to cross train and relax. When I was in top shape, sometimes I would hold my breath under water resting to check my fitness. My best was 5 minutes. That particular time was solo at a condo pool. I consider myself extremely lucky once I learned about shallow water blackout.

What came to mind when I heard the sad news.

Big loss. He was a talented, effervescent human being. Condolences to those who knew him.

wtf? This is a "RIP / Appreciation Thread" and you and others are all grassy knoll on this. Totally in appropriate speculation here or elsewhere. It's shocking, lets wait to hear what happened.He was an amazing and personable guy whom I've met several times over the years. I'm stunned and feel for his family. RIP

oliverbrown wrote:

its sad and its strange. what more can i say?

mysterious. some thought come to mind regarding the cause:

1. was he fatigued (due to intox. like alcohol or due to hard training) and had some reaction in the water?

2. its hard to think of him as nothin but top notch fit. cud he really have an unknown heart failure/condition? wud it not have shown (like arytmea etc) earlier during races/hard workouts before?

3. what was his swimming skills like? western people are usually better than people from developed countries.

4. other than accident...

too many questions.

one theory, he jumps into the pool with head first and breaks necks. was he "careless" and someone who wud dive into a pool rather than take the staircase?

rip david.

Thank you Jim, very kind words and much appreciated.

Even though my direct involvement in track and field in very minimal these days, I am around elite athletes more than most. Most years, at a minimum I go to the NCAA Camps, USATF Nationals, Millrose, Penn Relays and the NON high school meet. Over the years, I have been to 3 Olympics, all of the GL/DL meets except for Doha and Shanghai, World Cross, IAAF Relays, so forth and so on. I run into athletes on the plane, hotels and just hanging out. I have had a lot of what I call brief encounters. In all of those years, I have only met a hand full of athletes who openly expressed their love for our sport and how they want to give back; one was Ryan Shay and another was David Torrence. It is ironic and sad that the athletes who gave so much and had so much more to give are taken away too soon. My hope is that David is memorialized in a way that demonstrates the importance and encourages other athletes to be good stewards of our sport.

This news about David Torrence really hurts. One of my favorite runners ever.

In his memory please remind your kids to not swim alone, ever.

Hopefully they had security cameras near the pool which could help solve this mysterious death.

RIP to a true legend.

fromtheheart wrote:

This news about David Torrence really hurts. One of my favorite runners ever.

In his memory please remind your kids to not swim alone, ever.

So are we all. I can't help but speculate but that's because in a sport where many top athletes have zero personality or warmth, David was an exception. RIP.

It's actually towards the end of monsoon season so humidity has been much lower. Not like it matters much it's still frighten hot. Lows have been in the mid 80s with highs near 110.

hot humid and no fun wrote:

mwwwin wrote:

Makes sense. Thank you.

Isn't now a miserable month to be training in the phoenix area for any sport? Still super hot and isn't it the beginning of monsoon season so even super muggy too and not the the classic dry heat?

David stayed with me before the Falmouth mile one year. My neighbors were having a cookout and he was so gracious and kind for the meal, talking to everyone like he had known them his whole life. My mother loved him and although not a huge track fan, would always follow his races because he made such an impression on her.I remember telling people what he had run for the mile and they didn't believe me. He was so humble, I had to drag it out of him in front of everybody. My thoughts and prayers to his family, he was a great guy.

Someone at my he briefly ran at ucal Berkeley so I fbed him and he was really really cool and nice guy. I chatted w him a few times in cyberspace and I remember rooting hard for him in 2011, 2012, and 2013 to make the US team. I can't think of anyone else who actively thought so much about how to make distance running exciting and who reached out to the masses. There was palpable excitement for the guy on reddit w his AMAs

In honor of Big Wave Dave, there will be an informal downhill mile in Berkeley this Friday night at 10 PM. Meet in front of I House at the top of Bancroft if you happen to be in the Bay Area and want to commemorate his historic run.

A lot of people say that about swimming. Plus it looks like it was said 3 years ago. Doesn't really seem eerie

I loved that guy!

bhhasf