“Pre didn’t understand the concept of winning”- Jonathan Gault

BTW Dellinger also picked a medal in the same race. Oregon boy, USA.

He won a lot of races including his last. He lost a real high profile one, true. But he won a lot of others.

Winning beats losing - every time. In every sense. Wottle knew that. Prefontaine was too susceptible to chest-beating ego. Those guys can be beaten by smarter runners.

One thing I'm 100 percent sure of -- Jonathan Gault doesn't have an effing clue about the concept of winning. Not even a smidgen about winning. Not even a single molecule in his brain does he know about winning. He's never won anything! He never had the courage to win. Sorry, that's your reality. Guys like him are so far removed from competitive running that he actually believes his own s/hit, and doesn't even understand who Pre was (other than the movies). Pre's entire career was about winning. If he didn't win the race then he was going to be right there in it, and was going to force him competition to extend themselves above and beyond what they had do before to beat him. He was a badass and all of his competition respected him.

Stop posting. This thread is stupid.

I seriously doubt that more than two billion people drove drunk in 1975, when the world's total population was right at four billion. (In fact, it was probably far fewer than that.)

If you got a dollar for each of those people, you'd have a couple billion bucks. Quite a few people have been richer than that.

But in fact you said a nickel, not a dollar. That brings you down to one hundred million. Great money, but a long way from the richest.

That was what I said. He won in 1964 unless you're trying to nitpick over less than one year it's been 59 years and 2 months.

It's a cheap shot over Pre's bones. He knows nothing about the man.

those of us who do great things in the mountains understand that there is a difference between climbing a peak and Climbing a peak. Just because you got to the top of some Himalayan graveyard while hanging off of a fixed line sucking on a bottle of oxygen as your sherpa hauls your sh*t up the hill for you doesn't mean you are worthy or respect. The aesthetics and purity of the journey are worth just as much as the destination itself. I think that Pre understood that there is a difference between winning and Winning, the difference between sitting on the shoulders of others versus striking out on your own and setting a new route towards the sky.

Would that American distance running today might have someone that talented, principled, charismatic, and gutsy. Please just one. Pre was the real deal, and among other running feats, went for it in the biggest race on the biggest stage at the age of 21, when most are still living with their parents, against the best in the world. He was still a relative kid teaching the big boys like Viren and Stewart, who admitted later he didn’t deserve his medal, how to find their courage. Living in a trailer and bartending because here were no pro contracts or sponsored clubs with flashy coaches. Caring as much about being true to yourself as an athlete and what you personally value, not the uninformed critics, is the most adult and rewarding thing you can do. He wasn’t a perfect human, but last I checked they haven’t found any of those yet.

Which supports Gault's point.

If that's Pre's concept of winning, then he doesn't know what winning is.

First across the finish line is a win. At the top level, this involves using your brain, as well as your body.

You're describing someone who was a big deal in his own country but didn't have that standing internationally. He inspired US college athletes. But other countries had their own heroes and some of them were better. They were Olympic champions and world record holders.

You've just made an argument that Prefontaine would give of his best but ultimately it wasn't good enough at the very top of the sport.

The thing that Gault appears to understand, which the Prefontaine fans don't, is that winning is crossing the line first. How you do it is immaterial. Track isn't the Harlem Globetrotters.

I believe the only loss he suffered on his home track in college was a one mile race to Dave Wottle. Lots of wins

Wrong. Winning is, well actually winning the race.

Dude..there were 4 billion people in 1975. Divided by 20 (a nickel is 1/20th of a dollar) yields 200 million dollars. Lots of people richer than that..

Jonathan said the comment before out podcast started when we were talking about how Graham Blanks won in Boston after running a self-admitted selfish race. I said something along the lines of "That race would make Pre turn over in his grave" and then Jon responded with his quote. We put it in the podcast just for fun but it's not like Jon doesn't respect pre. He was mainly defending Graham and we thought it was a funny line as it seems like Pre is almost a myth at this point - not someone that can be talked about objectively. And the faact that a volunteer mod deleted this thread kind of proves that point.

I think the question the OP has raised is a great one - if Pre had lived, would he have been able to win big international races?

What was his speed like. WHat's interesting to me is we see some of this nowadays with Jakob. He makes a big deal about how he is the pacemaker in the 1500. "I am the pacemaker." But have you noticed he wasn't the pacemaker in Budapest? Admittedly he was sick, but when he's healthy, will he set the pace there? I highly doubt it as his speed at 5000 is better than everyone else's.

Billy Mills understood the concept of winning! He doesn't get the recognition he's due. 1964 Tokyo Olympics 10K beating Ron Clark in biggest upset ever in that event.