Elite Runner Who Just Walked Away Before Their Potential Was Realized - ?

Nearly every great runner before the 70s 'walked away' and retired from the sport in their mid-twenties or even earlier to pursue non-athletic careers. The only ones who didn't were generally East Europeans like Zatopek who were basically full time professionals although nominally 'in the military' (a bit like Kenyans such as Rudisha and Kiprop being 'policemen' today).

Herb Elliott has obviously been mentioned. Not only should he have had a great rivalry with Snell in 1964, both could still have been duelling with Ryun and Keino in 68. Snell retired at 26 or something just when he would have been still in his prime and running on synthetic tracks and with better competition to push him. Probably would have won a third successive gold in Mexico and a 1:43 or even faster.

Roger Bannister was similarly young when he retired.

Dave Wottle retired very early (or rather went professional for a couple of years and then retired), but I think that was largely due to injuries.

Zola Budd walked away from competition at age 21 or 22, but came back to represent South Africa in her late twenties, but she wasn't the same athlete. She still has a number of junior records over 30 years later.

Curtis Robb was a very talented British middle-distance runner who didn't achieve a fraction of his potential. He coasted into the Barcelona 800m final at age 19 or something whilst doing 16 hour hospital shifts as a medical student. He decided to pursue his medical career instead of athletics.

David Sharpe, a training partner of Steve Cram who many thought had greater potential, never seemed to have much motivation and walked away in his mid twenties (although injuries had a part in that).

danijela grgic,a 400 meter runner from croatia.ran 50.78 at age 17,then nothing much after that.nelya neprodnaya of ukraine.ran a 4.04 1500 at age 17.nawal el jack of sudan.super quick 400 at age 17.susanne wigene of norway.ran a 30.32 10'000 meters in 2006,and hardly heard from again,after that.

How has nobody mentioned Daniel Komen??

Seen some brilliant kids give up sport.

One lad ran about 1:54 for 800m at 16 off limited training. He had his natural endurance for xc as well. Dale Canning.

What impressed me most is in a 400m. He blitzed past our clubs top sprinter down the back straight. He did him for speed which was most impressive.

On way to a xc he was in a car crash and his mum died. He kept running for about a year but he just seemed to lose interest.

Notmentionedyet wrote:

How has nobody mentioned Daniel Komen??

He currently holds the world record for the 3000 metres both outdoors (7:20.67 set in 1996) and indoors (7:24.90 set in 1998). In addition, with his 7.58.61 world record in the 2-mile race set in 1997, he remains the only man in history to run back-to-back sub-four-minute miles, splitting circa 3:59.4 on both the first and second half of the race.

Komen was also the second man, after Saïd Aouita, to break both the 13:00 mark for the 5,000 m, the 7:30 mark for 3,000m, and the 3:30 mark for the 1,500 m. He is STILL only the second man ever to do this.

He is still 3rd all-time in the 5000m, which he set the WR of 12:39.74 in 1997. He has THREE marks in the top nine all-time (12:39.74, 12:44.90, 12:45.09); FIVE marks in the top 46 all-time; and SIX marks in the top 54 (22nd - 12:48.98, 46th - 12:51.60, 54th - 12:52.38).

He still has more than 10% of the top marks at 5000m, more than 20 years later. He is THIRD all-time. He still holds the 3k WR indoors and out, and is the only person to ever run sub-8 for 2M.

Just how much faster could he have gotten? Are you thinking he could have broken 3:26, 7:14, 7:52y and 12:28?

He could have run more years, but the last 20 years have shown he would not have run faster.

jiaaf wrote:

SJWHippie wrote:

Dr. Robert Kempanien. Prof at Univ. Of Minn. Med skl.

Two Olys, national cross champ and 2:08 at Boston...and threw it all away.

Bob did not exactly "throw it all away." Bob was 30 years old and had been battling injury problems. Bob made the right choice.

Actually an assistant professor, so he's still got two more rungs to go at age 52.

He was the top American marathoner of the '90's. Why couldn't he have deferred med school for a few years to concentrate on running? Lots of people don't start med school until their 30's.

As far as the injury problems, did he have any major problems besides one bout of ITBS? I imagine bouncing between bouts of lower mileage and lack of sleep during med school and a couple of breaks to do much higher mileage could have contributed to getting injured.

Does anyone know where he set his half marathon PR of 1:00:48? That would indicate 2:07 marathon potential, but it would probably take a couple years or more of consistent 140+ mile training to reach that level.

Oh, sorry, I was looking for the thread on an elite walker who just ran away before their potential was realized.

I don't think Dennis walked away. He tried at least a couple of comebacks. One year in the early/mid-80s there was word he was back in fantastic shape. He was still living in Tennessee but was going to come up for nationals and blow everyone away. He didn't show and word was he'd been injured in a fight. Dude was fierce.

Great Snowy North wrote:

Dennis Stark

Shaquille Walker

Oscar the SA wrote:

Pistorius.

I think he hopped away actually

Kai Wilmot. NXN champ and meet record holder, ran once in college then never competed again.

I call b.s. wrote:

Stephen PRE wrote:

PRE

In 1976 Olympics, Prefontaine would not have finished in higher than fifth in either 5000 or 10000.

Pre would likely have earned silver in the 10k, and would have been shut out in the 5k.

He was a great responder to EPO in the years when the E. Africans were using as much as possible. And everyone knows it.

Joshua Hermens wrote:

He was a great responder to EPO in the years when the E. Africans were using as much as possible. And everyone knows it.

+1

Why did Komen walk away from athletics btw?

Was it a drug bust that was hushed up, similar to what allegedly ended the career of another East African who 'walked away' very young - Noah Ngeny?

Wonder how many guys budding careers were detoured by women.

In 72, Bowerman told Wottle that getting married before the games would ruin his chances. He did, got gold, proving again, what a douche blustering Bill was.

How's Lukas doing these days?

Anyway for the chess category.

Yifan Ho, the second highest rated woman chess player of all time

is a Rhodes scholar recipient, this year. Walked away from chess,

rumor has it that she was bitter over being paired with other women.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=95916

Daniel Stellwagen from the Netherlands, great end game player.

Became Nano-Organic Chemist.

But my vote goes for Joe Falcon, that 3:49 mile was spectacular.

Here is another one - Hope Schmaleze of Northern Illinois. All American in the NCAA steeple . Made the finals of the steeple in the national championship, scratched because it was her wedding day and never raced again .

Franklin Sanchez. I believe he ran one year at Georgetown but don’t know much else.