How many Olympians have been piss poor runners in HS?

piss poor is a poor choice of words I guess, the point is for Dave Wottle and others, a 4:20 mile is no indication of a gold medal or 1:44 800 later in life....

Steve Cram wrote:

[quote]big think wrote:

"As a teenager his father measured a 1,500 meter course in the woods on his property and timed Gunder on it. "

Yeah and I bet that was an accurate course!

Does it really matter? He lived on a farm miles from a proper track.

Andrew Rock - 50.XX 400 in HS, 44.66 and Olympic Gold in Athens. Not too shabby.

Don't forget Fred Tornedon.

9:40 in high school, and that was the first and only time he broke 10:00, at the state meet his senior year.

Ran 2:11 to win Twin Cities in '84.

D3 wrote:

Andrew Rock - 50.XX 400 in HS, 44.66 and Olympic Gold in Athens. Not too shabby.

Where to begin? True, it wouldn't be too shabby...if it had actually happened. Check your facts, there, champ.

Check the bio there, champ...

There are so many idiots on this board. Did D3 have to actually say it was a relay gold medal? Did you even watch the olympics? Back to the roads for you weekend warrior.

In the context, it appeared a reference to individual 400 gold. I concede you are correct about the relay, but individual members of a 4x4 relay, for all intents and purposes, are so obscure as to provide even a trivia buff such as the Scwab some difficulty.

As to the other guy: piss off, moron.

The bio lists Rock's season best his freshman year as 46.52. Did he really not break 50.00 in HS? That's some improvement.

thanks wrote:

In the context, it appeared a reference to individual 400 gold. I concede you are correct about the relay, but individual members of a 4x4 relay, for all intents and purposes, are so obscure as to provide even a trivia buff such as the Scwab some difficulty.

As to the other guy: piss off, moron.

Obscure? Jeremy Wariner, Derrick Brew, Otis Harris, Darold Williamson, Andrew Rock....these are not obscure runners. And it only "appeared" to be a reference to individual gold to you because you had no idea what you were talking about.

One Keg wrote:

Pat Porter wasn't all that good in high school. Did he actually make an Olympic squad though? For some reason I think he didn't. He did win 9 USA XC titles.

You're right, One Keg, Porter achieved a lot after high school. He was an Olympian in '84 and '88 and nearly made the team in '92....not bad for a 9:52 H.S. 2 mile runner who never finished in the top 5 at the Colorado State XC meet.

that aint poor i find it funny how some people brag about there prestations here they should\'ve all been pro\'s.One of the best runners ever started running ith a 4:30 1500 meter on soccer training at 17 with his first athletics training he got to 2:08 800m ANd his name was ivo van damme. He had more talent out of the thumb then most american pro\'s will ever have he had a tall solid frame ,huge legs, but he could use his tallness.

and he had good endurance(very well developpd heart) as well.If he wouldnt have died so young like pre over there he would\'ve seriously competed with coe for the world record on 800 meter.I see him a bit like the belgium version of pre but only faster on the short stride and maybe slower on the long stride.

Of course you have to make it a "Everyone versus America" thing by making comments like "he had more talent than any American, blah, blah, blah". yes we get it. there are people from other countries who are more talented than Americans.

legally blond wrote:

piss poor is a poor choice of words I guess, the point is for Dave Wottle and others, a 4:20 mile is no indication of a gold medal or 1:44 800 later in life....

Not necessarily. If he ran a 4:20 on 30 some miles a week and most of the people running 4:10 miles were running 60-70+ a week, it's just as good of an indication that he'll be great as it is for the 4:10 guys.

Although a 4:20 miler in HS is decent. I so realize that today we have seen some recent top talent come out of HS. However across the board the times are much slower today then compared to 20-30 years ago even at High School level. Just look at some of the times at state meets.

I would say a 4:20 HS miler is decent however not indicative of being a world class or national class as they mature. Again though you never know. I will say in my era in the 1970s it took a sub 4:20 mile effort to win anything with my state having 7-8 sub 4:18 guys. That was 27 years ago. How have times changed.

Most of that is just mileage, talent shouldn't even really factor in. The bottom line is, most of the fastest guys in high school are doing high mileage and the 4:20's milers with a good amount of talent are not sub 4:15 guys simply because they are only doing 30 miles a week or they are still running and playing soccer.

I want to here a story about someone who did high mileage in high school, didn't run amazing times, and then became an olympian. Probably won't be any stories like that.

I m not sure what kids run for mileage today. However I can tell you that most of the guys I ran with were 30-40 mpw runners. With moving up to say 60-80 mpw in college.

I don't think kids are training less or harder today as in the past, but I do think that this generation with few exceptions really does runs as hard and thru pain threshold levels as past generations. Not just in athletics.

I ve spoken to former swimmers as well as other athletes in various sports and the general consensus is that kids today are not of the same competitive nature as in the past.

Again were seeing exceptions ,but I rarely see a kid flat on their back or hanging over up chucking after races. We did that after almost every workout and race. Go to almost any track meet ( HS or college level ) and you rarely see athltes run to the brink of exhaustion. That is what I ment about times have changed.

Allen Iverson only ran 4:40 and he went onto the Olympics.