Tell me a great story of how you interacted with an Elite athlete, whether running, shopping, etc.

reading comp 101 wrote:

And most of them don't talk about any kind of interaction beyond just meeting the person. I think the point was about how you interacted with the elite athlete, not just what elites you've met. No mention of non-running celebs.

Don't be a sore loser. It's fun reading this thread--running or non-running athletes...speaking of..

I once met Tom Lehman. We went to his house for a charity function. Very nice and laid back kind of guy.

[quote]man of the east wrote:

I have spent LOTS of time with Ian Dobson, Max King, Bronwyn Crossman, Melody Fairchild, the Dettmann twins, etc at Steens Mountain Running Camp. Down to earth, FUN people to be around!

Back in the early 90's I worked for Eddie DeBartolo in ohio, and he had alot of NFL superstars come to his place. Met a lot of cool players, Rice, Craig, Barton, Montana, Young, etc.

I also met Charleton Heston there as well. Strange but true. Chatting with Heston was priceless, I think he kind of believed in paranormal stuff, which is ok by me. We talked about the Ten Commandments movie.

What's the big deal with meeting celebs? Most of them who are worth anything just want to be treated like normal people in the first place. Much like sub-elite runners who want contracts for a 2:23 marathon, the D list bang the drum the loudest.

My work has had me interact with a wide variety of athletes and entertainers ranging from Wayne Gretzky, Pele, Andre Agassi, Conan O'Brien, Justin Timberlake and others. All nice people away from the camera. Never asked for a photo or signature so that probably helped.

I ran against Carl Lewis, Maurice Green and Tyson Gay. I beat one of them.

I went to the Trials in 2008 and had a bunch of interesting experiences, including trying to get Hasay's autograph and getting rejected pretty hard. On the positive side, I ran into Meb on the street one day and hung out with him for a while. He was super cool, we were just going to get a pic and let him go on his way but he asked me and my dad to hang out with him for a while.

Also, randomly, I met Sean Elliott (former San Antonio Spur) at a cross-country meet in middle school. His nephew (I think?) was running so he was out there. I got an autograph right before the start and didn't have time to run back to our team area, so I stuffed it in my shoe and ran a 3k...haha what a great plan.

I also met Sarah Hall's middle school coach at a Cajun restaurant in Eugene, but he's not really a celeb.

I have a few.

-When I was about 6, I went to Giants training camp in New Jersey and my older brother was beating me up and Phil Simms came yelled at my brother "Hey, lay off your brother!" That was pretty awesome.

-When she was at Villanova, Carrie Tollefson used to run in my neighborhood a lot.

-I've seen Catherine Ndereba and a bunch of the other Kenyans (John Kagwe, etc.) in Valley Forge on multiple occasions and said hello. Quite friendly.

-I got my picture taken with Frank Shorter when I was about 12 at a race.

-I got to know Marcus O'Sullivan's daughter fairly well my freshman year and talked to him a couple times. He's probably the most visible of all the Villanova coaches on campus.

My reading comp is fine... wrote:

reading comp 101 wrote:

And most of them don't talk about any kind of interaction beyond just meeting the person. I think the point was about how you interacted with the elite athlete, not just what elites you've met. No mention of non-running celebs.

Don't be a sore loser. It's fun reading this thread--running or non-running athletes...speaking of..

I once met Tom Lehman. We went to his house for a charity function. Very nice and laid back kind of guy.

I remember Tom Lehman staying at an inn north of Columbus when he was in town for the Memorial golf tournament.

Very nice guy. All the people that worked there liked him.[quote]My reading comp is fine... wrote:

[quote]reading comp 101 wrote:

Facteezy wrote:I got to know Marcus O'Sullivan's daughter fairly well my freshman year and talked to him a couple times. He's probably the most visible of all the Villanova coaches on campus.

I ran a workout with Marcus's son, just the two of us, while Marcus was watching/coaching. I was going to do the workout alone, but he happened to be there, so we ran it together. Pretty good dude, I think he was about a 4:25 HS miler at the time. Marcus is a good guy too; I've seen him around several times and spoken to him a few.

I saw Nick Symmonds doing a run the day before Penn Relays while I was stretching before some repeat miles. I called out to him, asked him what he was running (while I kept stretching and he kept running). I started my first mile very shortly after that, and blew by him (I ran something like 5:25; he was probably running 7:00 pace or slower). I waved at him on one of my recovery jogs, said good luck at Penn, he said thanks. Not much interaction, but it's pretty cool to blow by Nick Symmonds (though he would crush me in any race under 5K, and possibly longer than that too). I wasn't in great shape at the time, so it was reassuring to know that at least my tempo pace is faster than his easy pace.

Asked Jenny Barringer for a picture after her debacle at NCAA cross in 2009. She asked if I was sure I still wanted one, but was nice about it. I’m a jerk.

Shared a mutual nod hello with NY Giants coach (at the time) Dan Reeves when passing him on the Albany campus. Was cool to have normal human interaction with a legendary player/coach.

In the summer of 2010 I saw Kevin Durant at a mall in DC. In the Winter of 2010, I saw and talked to Abdi Abdirahman for a little while at the mall in Tucson. Last summer at Disneyland I saw and talked to Brian Scalabrine (pro basketball player). He was wearing glasses and a hat and I said, you look like Brian Scalabrine. He replies, "I get that a lot"...lol. Hard to hide when you are a 6'10'' redhead.

A friend called me while I was in college and told me to stop whatever I was doing and come to the San Francisco Tennis club right away. I ditched class and went there. I was face to face with Andre Agassi and didn't know what to say to him...

I met Khalid Khannouchi, very nice guy.

I also talked for 30 min to Miranda Carfrae after a triathlon in LA. Didn't know who she was at the time. She won the Kona Ironman last year and finished 2nd this year.

In college, I was playing hoops with some friends and the New York Knicks showed up on the court with us to pratice before playing the Warriors. Patrick Ewing was there. Pretty impressive to see these tall guys up close.

I met a bunch of NBA players that played for the Warriors like Mickael Pietrus (went to his house many times) and chatted with Andris Biedrins many times as well.

Young George wrote:

Hard to hide when you are a 6'10'' redhead.

Yet he's not the only one in the NBA, and he looks a lot like the other one -- Matt Bonner of the Spurs, who went to my high school and will probably be the only guy from New Hampshire to set significant minutes in the league for the next 500 years.

His dad was my family's mailman when I was a kid and at a mere 6' 8" he was probably one of the tallest letter carriers in the history of the USPS. His mom was my sister's grade-school teacher and stood 6' 5".

Got drunk wtih Andrew Carleson at the 08 olympic trials. Nuff said

I met Michael Jordan while skiing in Aspen. I was 7 or 8 at the time but I remember seeing him throughout the day as we skied. The best part was that he spent most of the day on the bunny hill with his personal ski instructor and a body guard.

I have three major ones

1. During Galens 10k race at the US championships I saw Alberto taking splits and yelling stuff at him every once in a while so right after Galen passed I took my Track and field news that had him on the cover and got it signed DURING Galen's race. Mr.Salazer did not even look away from the track.

2. After the 10k there was a little crack behind the awards podium in the fence, large enough for me to get my head and arm/shoulder. I got Galen's attention and he signed my other Track and field news and I got to chat for a couple minutes with him

3. 2 hours after this I was doing steeple drills on the athletes turf field for US juniors the next day and galen and alberto were walking and talking, as I passed I said "nice race Galen" and he said back "Thanks you to"

Obviously he hardly even looked at me but he thought I had raced!

I have met a bunch of athletes through working. Ray Bourque, Doc Rivers, Ray Allen, Dennis Eckersley, Sonia O'Sullivan.

A cool thing that happened recently was when I was out for a training ride. I passed this guy in a full kit, he was just warming up, I nodded as I went by and said "hello." About 4 miles later this guy rides up next to me and starts talking. A minute later after seeing his kit and liquigas cannondale, I realized he is this international pro that is over here for a couple months to race. I showed him around the area for about 2 more hours on my bike. I was close to being done when he met with me, so by the end of my ride I was seeing double. He actually gave me his number and we have met a couple times to ride together and I have done some motorpacing on a scooter for him. Super nice guy.

I have had numerous conversations with Rachel Longfors, a 6 time All-American and UF record holder in the discus.