He'd actually be a hero since no American-born 5,000m runner has matched or surpassed his 4th place Olympic finish.
He'd actually be a hero since no American-born 5,000m runner has matched or surpassed his 4th place Olympic finish.
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Make no mistake Craig Virgin was one of the premier runners of that era
ncaa Xc d1 winner
World Xc 2 x winner
countless other big races
That could be…My recollection was he didn’t go over too well with the local top runners when he came to run Boston.
too polished I think
Awesome runner by any standards
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Bad Wigins wrote:
He would have ended up like Frank Shorter, barely ever a topic of discussion at all. Who cares about some guy who came in 4th at the olympics and held a few AR's?
Nike would not have hyped him or named a track meet after him. He'd be about as high profile as Marty Liquori. You could probably search up old posts by him about his glory days
Thats about as ignorant as can be. Shorter and Liquori were rock stars in the day. They couldn't walk through an airport without being noticed. Pre was someone who would only be noticed by rabid track fans.
As for his status with Nike, Pre would've been the 2nd biggest shareholder. Knight is the world's #1 sports groupie, and no one ranked higher than Pre in his eyes.
This thread is about NOW dummy! If Shorter and Liquori are ignored, Prefontaine would be even more ignored, if not for the martyrdom thing.
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Bad Wigins wrote:
This thread is about NOW dummy! If Shorter and Liquori are ignored, Prefontaine would be even more ignored, if not for the martyrdom thing.
No he wouldn't. For the reason I said. Knight.
How could Phil Knight lavish more attention on a living, retired Prefontaine than he has on the dead martyr hero Prefontaine?
Nobody cares if some old ex-runner is part owner of a company, except if it's Knight himself.
So much of this is contingent on how high profile Prefontaine would have been post career. Had he been with Nike he'd still be a household name and fairly prominent as a Nike exec type guy as much or more than as a runner.
But for the guys on Let's run who weren't around back then...
Pre was as big a deal as any track guy at the time and was probably only rivaled by Ryun and Shorter and maybe Bill Rodgers as an American distance runner. Difference being that Pre was way cooler and hipper. Fortunately for those of us at the time, John Walker took up that mantle after Pre's death.
There is no doubt that Pre got "James Deaned", but the dude would have had a legacy regardless because of his dominance and charisma.
Why would lets run hate him? He espoused everything the modern athlete benefits from today. If anything, he would be more influential in both the sport and with Nike...and a very rich man, too.
Half would love him, half would hate him.
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Polariser wrote:
Half would love him, half would hate him.
Why would anyone hate him? Did you think he would run for POTUS?
LetsRun hates everyone. Pre would be no different.
Pre would be waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to liberal for this board.
*too
Disney Date wrote:
Pre would be waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to liberal for this board.
Do you know the politics of Shorter, Rodgers or Liqouri? I sure don’t. Why would Pre be any different?