Investigation- 2 deaths by Athletics West Runners

I, like many here, am quick to jump on the contraBANDwagon, but I can say that , unequivocally, no drugs were around in the Sevene years at AW. Before that period,I have my doubts. Nike spent big bucks investigating Drenth's sad death and cleared his name of any foul play. Sev insisted on that kind of thoroughness.

On another note, we should all just train wisely and hard until we get good enough for someone to offer us drugs with medical backup, and THEN, existentially, hold onto our principles and turn the offer down.

van wrote:THEN, existentially, hold onto our principles and turn the offer down.

Why be a loser? You have nothing to lose in trying to win.

What would JTD say, hmmmmm? Malmo knows what's up.

I believe in Lasse Viren he rules, you people are fools.

I remember when Jeff Drenth made his first world cross team. We were at a meet at Eastern Michigan the next week and I congratulated him and he was so incredibly humble. I too would like to think that he never would have knowingly taken anything illegal.

I find it appalling that not one person will step up about the AW stuff. I see alot of people talking about having balls, but not really showing much of anything. Could there be one person that would take on the corporate Goliath the way that Pre took on the AAU?

If Jeff took anything illegal, he was unaware of it. Walt (his older brother and closest friend) would have been aware and hung Nike out to dry. Walt is a great guy and an excellent coach and his values would not of allowed Nike to get away with murdering his brother if he was aware of anything.

Portland Runner (Nike apologist) has closed his mouth since malmo and others have lended credibility to this debate.

Malmo,

Not knowing all of the insiders that you named, how many of those guys are still on the Nike payrolls?

Jeff Drenth shared a house with Nan Doak Davis in Eugene. Both were coached by Sevene. At the time of his death(June 1986)Jeff was struggling with a sore piriformus muscle and he was looking forward to being sent to Europe for a series of races. He was having alot of physical therapy and trying hard to get healthy. I spent time with him and Nan at their house that spring and during that period Jeff and I roadtripped to the Oregon coast for a day of waterfowl and whale sightseeing. His VW was a mess and full of Twix candy bar wrappers (his favorite). There was no evidence of any drug use and it is irresponsible and inaccurate for anybody to claim that there was such use.

Both Jeff and Nan were trying to move up in the world of elite running. They had made world cross teams and were ambitious about becoming faster track runners. By dint of hard work, discipline and good coaching they were on their way. I spent too much time around Nan and Jeff: traveling with them, racing at the same meets, hanging out after races, spending time in their shared home, had too many phone conversations with them, and went on too many runs with them, had too many letter correspondances with each of them to have missed any hint of drug use.

AW did close up physical shop in the Eugene Building but AW continued until it was morphed into Nike International in autumn '89. We wore AW uniforms for the last time at national cross in San Francisco. By January 1990 we were officially Nike International. I am not a Bob Sevene fan but I must vehemently disagree that Jeff Drenth was any sort of vicarious victim of Nike and or the coaches employed by AW. That is rumor mongering of the worst kind.

I'm not so sure Portland Runner can be classsified as a "Nike apologist" as much as he seems to be one who prefers to live in the world of facts, not rumor. What I believe he is saying is that talk is cheap on the internet. Every day you can read false and defaming comments. Just because you read something here doesn't mean it's true.

Malmo,

How many of those guys are still on the Nike payroll?

Nike payroll? That question is out of my purview.

Sports Illustrated June 16, 1986

June 16, 1986

SECTION: SCORECARD; Pg. 7

LENGTH: 515 words

HEADLINE: AN EXTRAORDINARY DEATH

BYLINE: EDITED BY CRAIG NEFF

BODY:

The world of running was beset by tragedy last week. In addition to the apparent suicide attempt of North Carolina State junior Kathy Ormsby at the NCAA track and field championships in Indianapolis (page 18), there was the sudden death in Eugene, Ore., on Monday of Jeff Drenth, 24, who had represented the U.S. in the last three world cross-country meets and had lived in Eugene since early 1985. Writes SI's Kenny Moore:

Jeff Drenth was a runner of diligence and boyish charm, and his death shocked his community. "He collected friends like leaves," said Scott Pengelly, sports psychologist of Drenth's club, Athletics West.

Drenth, a native of Charlevoix, Mich., had taken a morning run on Monday, done his laundry and received a massage at Athletics West headquarters. He told masseur Rich Phaigh that he felt good and joked about his subpar performance in the 3,000 meters in the Bruce Jenner track meet two days earlier in San Jose. A moment later, Drenth stepped into the rest room, collapsed and died.

An autopsy showed that Drenth's brain, lungs and heart were in perfect health. His heart was large and had been capable of sustaining 215 beats per minute, remarkable even among distance runners. Its stark absence of damage seemed to suggest an electrical malfunction, which leaves no telltale clot or ruptured vessel. For now, the Lane County medical examiner, Dr. Ed Wilson, is listing the cause of death as a heart rhythm disturbance, a judgment supported by Drenth's history of arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat.

Runners of all abilities deluged the Athletics West offices with their regrets and fears. There are hundreds of kinds of arrhythmia, and it is not unusual for top athletes as well as the unathletic to have episodes of irregular heart pattern. These are usually of insignificant risk.

Drenth had had several electrocardiograms in the past, but none had caused his doctors concern. To find the cause of the electrical distrubance that led to Drenth's death, Athletics West has commissioned extensive blood and tissue studies, but these may not yield much more than is known at present, which is that Drenth's heart simply stopped.

News stories saying Drenth died "following a run" seem to imply that somehow his exercise brought on an "attack." The secretion of adrenaline during exercise can, in theory, provoke the flow of electrical current among cells, says New York cardiologist Dr. Philip Weintraub, but to assume this happened in Drenth's case is "highly speculative, impossible to prove." "Jeff would have hated his death's leading to fear of running," says a friend, collegiate mile-record holder Leann Warren. "There just was no connection. If there had been, he'd have died after the effort and exhaustion of the world cross-country race in Switzerland [in which he finished 87th last March]."

In the wake of Drenth's passing, athletes are reminded that their natural gifts come with no firm guarantee. And they will proceed with increased regard for how the best among them seem to enjoy a precarious tenure.

Thanks, Bob, for retrieving the SI article...it brings back many bittersweet memories. Kenny Moore's touch was a perfect match for the man he was describing.

maybe Jim Fixx was using too?

people die, thats life (at least the end of life)

Make that Craig Neff's touch was perfect in describing Jeff. The piece has a Kenny M feel to it.

Can't we all just get along???

--- Rodney King, 1992.

Somebody must have dolled out some hush money for all of the stuff from that era (and Nike certainly wasn't the only culprit) to be so neatly swept under the rug.

Pre is probably rolling in his grave.

Shameful

I guess money is all that talks