I watched the clip posted, and though it is heavily edited, I had the impression that she meant she ran a 4:49 1500m. Based on the info posted on this thread, I find that claim to be entirely believable. I was impressed she even knew to note the difference between a 1500m and mile!
I'm with you. I read the whole thread straight through and appreciate those that did some digging.
Things that I think are more likely than not/takeaways:
She meant the 1500, knows the difference between that and the mile but used a verbal shorthand instead of going into the weeds to explain the difference.
She was a pretty fast kid and, as a lot of girls do, could have recorded her best times in her early teens and not as a senior.
Based on top 1500 times in the country in that era, she would have been good but nowhere near off the charts.
Her body type in the photos is what I would expect to see from a 5:12 miler/4:49 1500 runner.
I see no reason not to believe her. And even if she is off by a few seconds, I would think that is simply that memories get foggy over time. (I've looked up some of my times from 35 years ago and found that I can be off by a few seconds, one way or the other. But admittedly not about my PBs.)
Had the same impression. I’m impressed, didn’t know she ran middle distance.
to me this is straightforward but then not. i buy she ran. i wouldn't be surprised if she was pretty good. i think she's garbling the distance and perhaps the time too. conversely, if she is the middle schooler putting up those times and then running 449, that would show up someplace too.
i get the point that some people start out hot, then get distracted or another passion and quit. but she's actually saying she ran HS and improved from middle school times to what would have been top notch HS ones. that then needs to manifest someplace also.
even if you're saying she ran staten island 13/14, then was a good HSer, you're saying she never did that again 15/16 or 17/18? even 1 year before quitting? or she somehow didn't but did these fast times?
i have a feeling she was fairly quick but not amazing but has garbled exactly what.
You keep posting she's not on these lists, but it doesn't prove or disprove anything. If she ran 4:49, and the list has a top 10 that ends in the 4:3x range, then of course she's not on it; her time would be beyond the top 10.
Jennifer Lopez says she ran a 4:49 Mile in high school - Did she? Let's find out.
This is the title of this post. The Lists are from track and fields old prep magazines they used put out every. I believe they no longer are in circulation.
Re-look at the list. For the mile 4:49 would have been on those list for those years.
The question of the thread is let's find out if she ran 4:49 for a MILE. Not 1500 or any other distance.
i see that questioning means nothing but downvotes 20 to 1. interesting. i got like 100 plus downvotes to 3 upvotes. counting my own downvote.... which means a people are reading this stuff. never knew that would be a thing.
there seems to be evidence that she ran 520 1500, if so that's legit for a 15 year old girl.
I ran in NYS hs in the 90s, I can tell you that we always called the 1500m the MILE and the 3000m the 2mile...we often ran them at the same time as the boys who were doing 1600m and 3200m....neither are mile or 2mile ...but that's what we called them. regardless, 4:49 for the 1500m in hs is very respectable!
She didn’t run 4:49 in the 1500m. She just made it up during the interview
ya, that was the idea at the beginning of the argument, and said she didn't know what a mile was. at the end of the day it seems a minute or so off the mark and 110m short.
to throw in my 2 cents, when you are doing TF college recruitment you commit your PRs to memory typing them over and over. i then broke some of them in college and not others. then kept running into adulthood. i can't forget them. i remember where they all happened and down to the tenth what i ran. she did not go through that process and moved on to different stuff. that can get garbled.
also, she probably dates back to when result sheets were handwritten. sometimes those got typed up for final results, sometimes not. it might get typed up for the paper. it's maybe the 90s before it's all on computer but typed up by someone with a delay. it's maybe 2010s before it's real time and the computer outputs results and even splits.
i'm old enough i remember dads with stop watches, who then had to figure out what the heck to do if they knew you finished faster than someone but the stopwatches had it backwards. and then that got handwritten in a typed heat sheet. which is roughly jlo's era as well.
Thanks for the additional information about Colgate. I remember watching the Lynch sisters at Millrose and other meets in the 1980s, and this brings back great memories.
Personally, I always think it's interesting when I find that someone in a completely different field has a track connection, whether it's Jennifer Lopez, Sheryl Crow, Michael Landon or someone else entirely.
to throw in my 2 cents, when you are doing TF college recruitment you commit your PRs to memory typing them over and over. i then broke some of them in college and not others. then kept running into adulthood. i can't forget them. i remember where they all happened and down to the tenth what i ran. she did not go through that process and moved on to different stuff. that can get garbled.
also, she probably dates back to when result sheets were handwritten. sometimes those got typed up for final results, sometimes not. it might get typed up for the paper. it's maybe the 90s before it's all on computer but typed up by someone with a delay. it's maybe 2010s before it's real time and the computer outputs results and even splits.
i'm old enough i remember dads with stop watches, who then had to figure out what the heck to do if they knew you finished faster than someone but the stopwatches had it backwards. and then that got handwritten in a typed heat sheet. which is roughly jlo's era as well.
to get at what i am saying with memory, particularly if you were in a "final on time" event, in that era, you might not check the results much. you might be shown a stopwatch end of the heat, or told a time by your coach off his watch. you might or might not keep up with published results. you might never see the results.
it's different than now where you have heat by heat cumulative times, in software someplace, maybe also in PDF on your team or conference websites.
if you're shown a stopwatch and never see the time again, that's easily garbled, particularly if you went on to other things, then get asked about it, and on the spot, oh, what did i run back then.
fwiw 449 would have been a serviceable middle school or JV girls 4x4.
The Starlets Track Club was a high achieving girls track team. Coached by Dorothy Clinton with her husband Artie and their daughter Rachelle Clinton competing with THE Jennifer Lopez!
Dorothy became the youth chairperson at the Metropolitan Athletics Congress in the 90’s and then the Executive Director of the MAC as it was affectionately called. The MAC was a prominent track and field organization brought to significance by Tracy Sundlun.
Yes. Facts. Mrs Clinton is a legend in NYC and she has spoken on this over the years.
Mile Split posted the receipts- the old local Staten Island newspaper clippings from back in the day about the Starlets race results, with JL's name mentioned.
I don't see proof that she ran the exact time she's claiming, but who cares? The rest is all true.
to throw in my 2 cents, when you are doing TF college recruitment you commit your PRs to memory typing them over and over. i then broke some of them in college and not others. then kept running into adulthood. i can't forget them. i remember where they all happened and down to the tenth what i ran. she did not go through that process and moved on to different stuff. that can get garbled.
also, she probably dates back to when result sheets were handwritten. sometimes those got typed up for final results, sometimes not. it might get typed up for the paper. it's maybe the 90s before it's all on computer but typed up by someone with a delay. it's maybe 2010s before it's real time and the computer outputs results and even splits.
i'm old enough i remember dads with stop watches, who then had to figure out what the heck to do if they knew you finished faster than someone but the stopwatches had it backwards. and then that got handwritten in a typed heat sheet. which is roughly jlo's era as well.
So she lied
There’s still no official record anywhere confirming a 4:49 mile or 1500 m result for her. Not even an 800m thinking she could run that. Until verified results appear, that time has to be treated as unsubstantiated. People can believe what they want, but in track & field, the clock and the results sheet don’t lie.
If memory serves me correctly there used to be a publication available in the 1980s that was a compilation of the best 100 performances by high school track and field athletes. We used to send away for a copy every year. There might be another old-timer like me that remembers the editor/compiler of the publications (I believe he was a retired HS sports writer for the LA Times?)
You might be thinking of the annual booklet called High School Track. I'm surprised this yearly booklet hasn't been referred to yet. The booklet started in the 1950's, wasn't published a few years in the 60's, then I believe Track and Field News published it from 1969 to 1979 ish, and then Jack Shepard has spearheaded it since 1980. The last edition I have in my library is High School Track 2023, which would have the 2022 results. I guess I need to order a couple years. These books have the top 50 HS marks for each event, among other things. A really good resource.
I looked at the girl's top 50ish list from the possible JLo high school years (1985-1990), I didn't see her name. The 1500's went 4:40 to 4:45 deep, and the 1600/mile (listed as mile) went 5:00 to 5:05 deep. No Jennifer Lopez. In fact, if she ran a 4:49.99 mile, the outdoor ranking for that time for 1985 to 1990 would be 9, 4, 4, 1, 2, 1.
Like someone said, maybe it was a 1500 time. Or ???