Thanks for the article. But calling Young the "most complete American Distance runner ever" is I think inaccurate. Young competed in the steeplechase for most of his career and only ran the 5,000 by his own admission, only a few times. He ran the marathon twice. Somebody like Frank Shorter who competed (and won) on the roads, the track and cross country strikes me as a much more complete runner.
I wish I had started a thread just about whether Young was the most complete one ever. Guy was sub-4 in the mile and made an Olympic team at steeple, 5000 and marathon. Frank Shorter only did it in 10k and marathon right? I assume YOung is the only guy to make it in the marathon and an event shorter than 5000, right?
Or has a 1500 or steeple guy also moved up to the marathon?
Rupp obviously has made it in 5k, 10k and marathon and run 349 in the mile. But he's never run the steeple.
Shorter was a 4-time national cross country champion. Was double Olympic Trials champion in the 10,000 and marathon twice. Medaled in the Olympics in two consecutive games. Won the Fukuoka Marathon 4 times when it was the best marathon in the world. Ranked #1 in the World 3 times at the marathon, ranked #2 in world at 10,000m 2 times. Competed regularly indoors at 2M and defeated Olympic medalist Rod Dixon at a distance that favored Dixon.
As detailed in the article, Young raced steeplechase 90% of his races and his highest Word Ranking was #4 once. He never world ranked at any other distance. Marathon star Shorter was even faster than Young over 5,000m. When Young raced distances other than the steeple it was only because he saw an opportunity (Olympic marathon at high altitude) or was tired of the lack of respect the steeple got.
Evan Jager has probably raced more at distances other than his specialty than Young and nobody would ever label him the "most complete American distance runner ever."
My high school badminton coach, Jeff Fishback, ran with/against him in the steeple in the early 60s. He mostly talked about them winning in the USA vs USSR meet.
I was fortunate enough to hear George Young speak at a running camp this past summer. The man was gusty.
His story about running the marathon started on a 20 mile run with Billy Mills. He said he told Mills "Hey Billy, I'm getting bored. We should run the marathon" and Mills responded with "Okay".
Another crazy story I heard from himself and a coach who had close ties with Young involved him passing out on the track. He hadn't come home at the regular time so his wife called one of Young's friends who went over to the track and found Young sitting/laying on the ground next to the track. They asked him what happened and he said "I wanted to just run as fast as possible for as long as possible until I passed out" (this one is a paraphrase).
Young was an absolute legend, whether or not he got the attention he deserved.
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