The fact that German Fernandez held the U20 WR until this past weekend is truly remarkable

German’s body ruined him. I think the only coach that probably could’ve saved him was Alberto. Alberto (even without the allegations) was known to be fanatic about injury prevention. He resurrected Adam Goucher’s career.

Anyway, the reason German didn’t make a complete assault on the record books was because he was always worried about his next injury.

- When German was in 10th grade, someone asked him to a do a half marathon fun run. So German did for fun but felt good after a few miles done decided pick up the pace. The leader was shocked when the this 15 year old kid rolled up on him and started having a conversation with him. German was asking him how he fast he thought he was running. German ended running somewhere around 1:09 for the half the day. (Fact check the time)

- Every year in HS prior to senior year he was hurt and never got to run fast time. His senior year they decided he do 50-60 miles per week but with no true speed work. He said he barely or ever ran below 60s pace even though he had run 4:00.

- college nationals xc. German was running with the team until about 6-7k. At the point, Dave Smith let him lose. He was in 3rd gaining (either Rupp/chelanga or Rupp/mcdougal). He felt a twinge in his Achilles and ended up dropping out.

- German ran 7:47 3k with a 4:02 last 1600 and 3:55 solo mile. He then got hurt in February.

- he was in walking boot for 2-3 weeks either right before world jr xc or just after. He then ran 13:31 his first 5k in March which was amazing considering he had missed time.

- German was super young, like Centro. He didn’t turn 18 until he was already in college.

- definitely sad to never see him become what he could have

He ran he was just hurt all the time

German was 18 years, 4 months and won by 11s.

I don’t think a lot of kids will be doing that.

This is a good post but I think there are some minor errors. He ran the half marathon at the Davis Stampede his junior year. There's a thread on here from the time where a dude who ran with him posted about it. I also believe he had just run a 1500 the day before or something. His sophomore year was his first year running both track and xc, and he was state champ in xc after not training all summer. The thing is after both of these amazing feats, he eventually got hurt. He tore his meniscus between sophomore xc and track playing basketball but I believe he just kept running league meets on it until it was too much and needed surgery. His junior year track he was dealing with shin splints, I believe but still ended up 3rd in the state 3200. Finally his senior year it all clicked together, for both xc and track as his xc coach, Bruce Edwards, coached him for track as well (he had been coaching tennis the previous years and it seems like Riverbank's track coach would just run German into the ground at league meets). There's a poster on here who coaches in the same league as Riverbank and saw German firsthand so he can correct any of the errors I may have made but I think that's the general trajectory in high school.

Basically my point was that German had a long history of injury before he got to OSU. It also seems like German had a tough time keeping a lid on his training and with his ability, he could rip workouts that then ended up doing his body harm. I've heard stories of crazy 10 milers at sub 5 pace on rolling hills out in Stillwater. That Flotrack video of the mile reps in the best documented example, as he goes toe to toe with Ryan Vail (5th year senior) on every rep and races the last one through 800 in like 2 flat. When it worked, you had amazing days like his 3:55 indoor mile or his NCAA 1500 champ (he lead the whole thing and still managed to outkick guys like Garrett Heath and Dorian Ulrey who were much older than him) but then it always seemed to breakdown at some point and by the end of his time at OSU he wasn't NCAA champ level anymore. At Bowerman he really seemed to struggle as I can only remember a win at the Stanford invite 1500 and no notable USA placings.

I would say their dads being among the best in the world at their sport was the major advantage.

Dell Curry played over 1,000 games in the NBA.
Matt Centrowitz Sr was a 2x Olympian.

Few, if any, will argue that Centro was a greater "talent" than German, but Centro was not exactly some middling HS Footlocker finalist who brought it together in college and beyond. He was a HS stud and he capitalized on his HS trajectory to run 3:36 as a Soph

4:38/9:47 as a freshman

XC State champ and 9:13 as a sophomore

XC State champ and 8:20 for 3000m as a junior

XC state champ, 8th at FLCC, 4:03y, 8:41y dominant win (ie. Lindgren, Virgin, Ches territory; faster than Pre), PanAm 1500m Gold

I know he struggled with injuries a lot. Maybe he would have been somebody who would have been able to stay healthy with super trainers and would have Olympic hardware and WRs by now. Or maybe he would have suffered a career-ending injury first time out in super shoes. We'll never know...

Having the opportunity to excel and succeed at a sport involves more than money. Golf, Tennis, Swimming, Gymnastics, and other sports that require private lessons and specific facilities to train require financial support. Running does not, it is the only sport in the world where anyone can run with minimal financial support. The other factor is genetics, having the genetics to train and compete are an advantage, but unlike the sports I named above running is not for everyone even if the genetics are there, the mental aspect is much larger due to it being an individual sport. Just because "Mommy and or Daddy" ran doesn't mean you're going to run. German was an amazing talent but could not stay healthy to truly develop. Unfortunately, that's the reality of running and staying healthy is part of that "Talent". Also, blaming various coaches is wrong. Over training/racing is a risk but you should learn from those risks and adjust accordingly by either changing coaches and or training environment.

I was in high school/ ncaa the same time as German. Kid was insanely talented.

From what I heard his body couldn’t handle the engine. He aerobic abilities were so huge, his muscles, tendons, bones etc couldn’t keep up.

I heard stories from the OSU guys that German could jump off the coach and crush a 50:00 ten miler on the hills nose breathing.

His freshmen year was insane.

7:47 while ill (he's interviewed after the race, for evidence) is certainly not laughable today for a freshman. He was enough of a talent that even after being injured or anemic his last three years, he got a couple months of health after the end of his senior year and ran 3:34 in Europe, when that meant something for an American.

Agree with all the comments about how great he might have been, had he been able to avoid injuries. Saw him run 13:25 5000m in Eugene as an 18 year old. As I recall, he ran most of the race by himself, in "no man's land." Was convinced, I was looking at a future Olympic medalist. Just awesome.

He was also the fastest non-African U20 runner in history in the 5000m from 2009 up until 2018.

(Fernandez did 13:25.46 in 2009, Jakob did 13:20.78 in Tampere in 2018)

Parker Wolfe (13:19.73) and Nico Young (13:22.59) are the only American juniors who have surpassed Fernandez so far.

Fernandez also finished 11th in the U20 class in the Cross Country world championships in 2009. (Jakob finished 12th in the U20 class in 2019)

This might be a stupid question, but what happened to Fernandez? Injuries? Peaking early?

I've followed athletics since 2005ish, but I didn't hear about Fernandez until 2017 (when I started digging in junior results throughout the decades. I'm not American btw)

I'm going to add some more context to just how impressive German's 2009 results were. I had to verify this just to make sure but I'm pretty sure his 3:55 was also the NCAA indoor mile record in addition to the world jr record. If that's wrong then someone please correct but from what I found was that it was the NCAA record until Mile Batty broke it with 3:54.5 at Millrose in 2012. Batty ran for BYU and was 24 at the time he broke German's record, taking 2nd to Centro in the Wanamaker mile.

His 13:25 5k was in the final at USAs where he placed 5th behind Tegenkamp, Solinsky, and Jager. All three former Badgers now running under Jerry went to worlds and Jager (only 20 at the time) ran 13:22. So an 18 year old Fernandez was just 3 seconds and 2 places away from going to worlds behind the absolute studs of that era.

And his 1500 NCAA title was won from the front in 3:39 flat ahead of Garrett Heath, Lee Emanuel, and Dorian Ulrey (all studs of that era and two of them were seniors). Hopefully all of this can explain why people still talk about German with such admiration over a decade and a half after his best running. Nothing was scarier to see lining up on the track than German wearing that bright orange singlet, sunglasses on, and those chile red Matumbos!

lol this video is just titled "mile" with zero description. Thanks for finding it, this would never be found otherwise.

He should never have been on the coach, then he could have done regular breathing. This is exactly what led to problems at Penn State and Huntingdon.

And a kind of massive fandom / hype that probably can't be matched these days, we have too many outlets and platforms where too many people are trying to create a fandom, most without a quarter of German's talent and ability, and even the real elites who deserve a following all kind of have to compete for fans' attention. There was just facebook then, no Twitter, Insta, Tiktok, etc. And really, more than anything there was this board. We'll never see the kind of hype around anyone, so focused on one athlete, again.

Can't forget the USA Junior Men's 8 km win at 17.

singapore-marathon.runnerspace.com

Noo Yawkers - Videos - German Fernandez Wins Junior Boys! - USA Cross Country Championships 2008

Filmed on 2/16/08 - German Fernandez wins!*Note: We were limited in what we could cover for this race, as it willbe shown on TV at a later time. We apologize for not being able to showmore. ~RunnerSpaceResults - Junior Men's...

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