Running Longevity - Impressive Performances

Here is a three time Olympian that qualifies. Paavo Nurmi competed from 1919 to 1934 and ran in three Olympic Games. He was in Los Angeles in 1932 to run the 10,000 meters and Marathon and was training in the Village but he was barred from running in his fourth Games because he had accepted money making him a pro. Nurmi won three gold medals and one silver in 1920, 5 gold medals in 1924 and one gold and two silver in 1928. (Three of his gold medals were in team events.) The others were in the 1,500, 3000 meter steeplechase, the 5K and the 10K individual events. Paavo Nurmi set world records at events from 1,500 to 20,000 meters.

Rock Opera wrote:

Marty Liquori: Made Olympic 1500 meter final in 1968. World-ranked #1 in the 5,000 in 1978, behind Henry Rono.

Liquori was ranked number #1 in the 5000 in 1977 not 1978.

Running longevity? Al Oerter? Don't think so.

Skuj wrote:

OrvilleAtkins wrote:

Skuj,

How about this? Al Oerter won 4 Olympic Gold Medals in a row in the discus starting in 1956 at age 19 or 20. He set a new Olympic record each of the four years. Oerter retired after the 4th Gold Medal in 1968 but then showed up for the 1980 Olympic Trials. He was 4th in a personal best at age 43.

Hey Orville, yeah of course, thanks for reminding me about Al. I remember a program on him when I was a kid....how much pain he was in during one of those later victories.....amazing!

But I never knew the 80 trials was PB. WTF??? Wow.

Skuj wrote:

I had the honour of meeting Mr Gammoudi on a couple of occasions.....he was so very kind, smoking cigars, signed my Olympics book.....when he got on the bus I bagan a chant of "Gammoudi...Gammoudi...." and everyone, from various, countries joined in.

I did this, I did that, me me me....

Paul Tergat

Skuj wrote:

Thank you. I suspected this, but I wasn't sure....foggy memory and all. Sub 1:44 11yrs apart....has anyone else ever managed that?

He was in the top 10 (in fact, lowest place was 7th) fastest over 800m every year from 1977 (4th-1:44.95) up to 1989 (=2nd - 1:43.38), with the exception of '87, when he was out all season with a foot injury. That's a span of 13 seasons!

If we look at 1500m, European junior bronze medallist in 1975, World Cup silver medallist in 1989. That's a 15 season span.

Ovett's span impressive too, if we include a range of distances.

European (senior) silver medallist at 800m in 1974, Commonwealth 5000m gold medallist in 1986.

Emil Zatopek and his wife, javelin thrower Dana Zatopkova both belong here. They were born on the same day, 9-19-22. The 1944 Olympics and the training, developmant and racing time of their teens and early 20s were taken away from them due to a World War and yet look at their Olympic results.

In 1948 Emil won gold in the 10 and silver in the 5. In 1952 he won gold in the 5, 10 and marathon. It was his first marathon and he set an Olympic Record of 2:23:04 coming within three minutes of the World Best at the time. In 1956 Emil entered the marathon even though he had missed training due to a serious groin injury. He placed 6th. His best times were 13:57.2 and 28:54.2. Both were world records. He retired in 1957 at age 35.

Dana Zatapkova won the 1952 Javelin Gold an hour after Emil won the 5K. She was 7th in 1948, 4th in 1956 and 2nd in 1960.

Joe Henderson's Running Commentary this week is about the essence of the great athlete, Emil Zatopek.

And then there was Alain Mimoun who was born 1-1-21 and also had at least one Olympic Games taken from him. In 1948 he was second to Zatopek in the 10K and in 1952 he was runner up to Zatopek in both the 5 and 10. In 1956 he was 12th in the 10K. And then, on the day that his daughter Olympia was born, he finally beat Zatopek and won gold in the 1956 marathon on a day which was said to be 97 degrees. Mimoun ran the 1960 Olympic marathon and placed 34th in 2:31:20 at age 39. He won his last French Championship in 1966 at age 45

Skuj wrote:

Rock Opera wrote:

How can a regional runner be a running god?

Oh come on.....I'm sure there was a guy in BC who did sub 50sec 400m for 20yrs in a row......that is NOT world stage, but, it is still Godly.

Steve Boyd (in this thread) is a GOD, even though he didn't go to Olympics.

Etc. Etc. Etc. Tell your Regional stories. In many cases, they beat the World stories.

The point is, we can't do anything about our genetic endowment; but, we can do something about how much of it we realize. When people with ample genetic endowment do this, the results can be spectacular. But when anyone does it, it's impressive. After all, how many of us have the drive to realize more than even a fraction of our potential in ANYTHING we do?

Well said Steve, and anyway, what you are doing now at 46-47 surely puts you in the World Class ranks.

This thread is about longevity - do you ever see yourself saying "ok, enough, I'm just a 'fitness runner' now"?

Allen Culpepper

alain mimoun

Don't forget that Kevin Sullivan was a prodigy too - running 1:53 for 800m in the 8th grade way back in 1988 (which was an age-group world best at the time: http://www.flotrack.org/articles/view/1380-kevin-sullivan).

No, not if I have anything to say about it. In my view, there's only one satisfying way to do this sport: as hard as your body will allow.

And how about a nod to John Walker, for his decade and a half near the top, and willingness to throw down anytime, anywhere, indoors and out?

george young

Steve Scott

malmo wrote:

Rock Opera wrote:

Marty Liquori: Made Olympic 1500 meter final in 1968. World-ranked #1 in the 5,000 in 1978, behind Henry Rono.

Liquori was ranked number #1 in the 5000 in 1977 not 1978.

You're right, malmo, he was #1 in 1977. I meant to say that he was ranked #2 in 1978 behind Henry Rono, since 1978 was the last year that he was world ranked in the top 10 (or in the US for that matter).

BTW, he was ranked #7 in the US in the 1,500 meters in 1967. So, 1967-1978. That's a 12-year span, although in some years he was off due to injuries.

I think we can both agree that Liquori had an impressively long career at the elite level.

The Chairman! Sub 4 at age 40

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eamonn_Coghlan

John Walker was known as the world's most durable athlete. He was a world class miler from 1974 until 1990.