one 4 the ladies - video of 1984 womens marathon US Olympic trials

No, YOU can't be serious. Being fast has nothing to do with it, moron. I'm not angry with anyone, just setting the record straight. Go read Anne Audain's bio sometime if you want your eyes opened.

Jaguar1:

The most obvious reason is because her best time (2:57) in the marathon was 6 minutes slower than the qualifying time for the 1984 Olympic Trials (which was 2:51.16). She ran her best time 6 years before the Olympic Trials. 267 women qualified for the Olympic Trials in 1984. In other words, Ms. Petronella's best time was 6 minutes slower than the 267th fastest American woman in 1984. As far as I can tell Ms. Petronella broke 3 hours on one occasion. She was not a world-class runner. She was never a favorite to win an Olympic gold medal.

You sure came up with those stats awfully quick. Patti... is that you??

canada77 wrote:

Complicating:

You can't be serious. She is one of the greatest runners in history. While I acknowledge that being a world-class athlete does not make someone a good person, I have never heard anyone describe Patti this way. Why do say this about Patti?

Think of what Patti did:

1) 12 U.S. road records

2) 3 time American record-holder in the marathon

3) world records in the 20k. and the half-marathon

4) 3 time runner-up in Boston and NYC

5) 3 time Honolulu Marathon Champion

6) 2:27 marathon

7) 1980 Runner of the Year (The Runner Magazine)

8) Peachtree Champion

9) Cascade 15k. Champion

10) Bobby Crim Champion

11) Montreal International Marathon Champion

Perhaps you should focus your anger on the person who appears to be rewriting history and not somone who actually accomplished something significant in the sport.

Hardly. Take a look at Bloom, "Run with the Champions" (Rodale, 2001), pp. 187-190.

The author of this book provides a list of the top 50 female American runners of all-time (obviously in his view). Patti Dillon is ranked number 12. Strangely, I can't find Ms. Petronella's name anywhere in this book.

Complicating, you say:

"No, YOU can't be serious. Being fast has nothing to do with it, moron. I'm not angry with anyone..."

It sure doesn't sound like you are angry. Perhaps you should stay away from sharp objects this evening.

Please re-read the message which upset you. I expressly stated that being a world-class runner does not make someone a good person. I'm not sure how you could possibly be confused by that statement.

My point was that I have never heard anyone describe Patti that way. I will take a look at Audain's biography. I take it that you have no other reason to describe Patti in such negative terms.

On any issue, if the outccome could be determined based on a battle of credibility between Patti Dillon and Ms. Petronella, I have a strong hunch I know who most reasonable people would believe.

canada77 wrote:

Jaguar1:

The most obvious reason is because her best time (2:57) in the marathon was 6 minutes slower than the qualifying time for the 1984 Olympic Trials (which was 2:51.16). She ran her best time 6 years before the Olympic Trials. 267 women qualified for the Olympic Trials in 1984. In other words, Ms. Petronella's best time was 6 minutes slower than the 267th fastest American woman in 1984. As far as I can tell Ms. Petronella broke 3 hours on one occasion. She was not a world-class runner. She was never a favorite to win an Olympic gold medal.

Did she try to qualify, and if not, why?

Really? What, exactly, did you HEAR??

You're the one confused here. I'm still not upset. If you believe what you say then why did you go into listing off Dillon's resume? It's irrelevant, gratuitous, has nothing to do with her credibility.

You take it however you want, since that's your habit. You asked for confirmation, I gave you some. Simple enough?

It's not about that, silly. The implication was that you should find someone with a bit more sterling reputation to give testimony. That's all. Have you contacted JBS about this? What is her take?

Would you hit it? I would!

Patti has the attention span of a flea. It's not surprising were she to forget anybody's name.

And where is Babington's name in all of this. He coached Benoit as much as anybody did. Sev was more of a mentor/advisor. Babington conducted the workouts on the track when JBS was of a mind to do track work. She was doing the workouts with Beckford and Jennings part of the time under Babington's guidance.

Both Babington and Sevene should be mentioned as her coaches not just Sevene.

Canada 77,

Have you e-mailed the TV station that conducted the interview posted on Youtube? I would think it is partly their responsibility to follow up on something if they misrepresented it. They might want to correct any misleading information.

Your responses are hilarious. Please keep them coming.

Your consistency is as impressive as your position on this issue. In two e-mails you call me a "moron" and "silly". You also say you are not upset or angry. I would love to see you when you were upset or angry. I suppose in your world calling someone a name is an excellent substitute for a factually based discussion.

You would be an excellent spokesman for Ms. Petronella. She appears to feel that not having a proven track record as an outstanding runner should not prevent someone from asserting that they were a favorite to win an Olympic gold medal. You seem to feel that Patti's accomplishments and position in this sport during the late 70's and early 80's are irrelevant to an issue regarding women's running during the same period. Interesting argument. Who else should we contact? Oh yes, you suggest Ms. Benoit. Ms. Petronella appears to suggest, in her book, that Ms. Benoit is lacking in credibility. I guess we now can't take the word of two of the greatest runners in American history.

In your rage, you seem to be missing the big picture. There is simply not a scintilla of evidence to support Ms. Petronella's claim that she was a world-class runner. There is no evidence to support her claim that she was a favorite to win an Olympic gold medal.

I am on the edge of my seat waiting for your response.

As already mentioned, she claims to have run 1:12 at New Haven. Somebody already pointed out that she didn't.

You are absolutely correct about John Babington.

Below you will find an excerpt taken from a Joan Benoit interview from a few years ago. It is odd that Joan didn't mention Ms. Petronella's coaching.

Q. Yet you were largely self-coached for long periods during some of your best years.

A. I worked a fair amount with both Bob Sevene and John Babington. They were both very important at critical points in my career. It wasn't that I worked with them every day, more like a couple of times a week. Though I did a lot of running with Bob at one point. Usually I'd come down for one Liberty [Track Club] workout a week, come to from Maine to Boston. And when I was coaching at BU there was a period of about a year, an academic year, when I ran just about every morning with Sev, and that was a real motivator. He'd start talking about somebody else's workout and that was enough to inspire anybody.

"Do you really believe that e-mailing her will make her reconsider?"

No, that's not what I meant. I don't think anything will make her reconsider as I consider her to be irrational, delusional, narcissistic... I'm hoping that a) she will at least attempt to explain b) prove herself irrational, delusional, narcissitic or c)as the negative e-mails pile up at least begin to change her pathetic behaviour as she realizes 'the word is out' and people are onto her.

Good Luck

(by the way, I think "complicating issue" generally agrees with you w.r.t. Petronella's outrageous claims, but questions Patti D's credibility as a refernce.)

Thanks Why.

I think you are probably correct on both matters. It is probably too much to hope that Ms. Petronella will accept that she can no longer continue taking the position that she was a world-class runner or an Olympic favorite. You never know.

As for "complicating issue", he or she may well agree with my position on the larger issue. I find his or her anger about my message and Patti's credibility interesting. Without conceding that Patti's credibility is somehow suspect (I don't know her and there has been nothing said about her on this board that would convince me that there is a problem), I'm not sure why Patti would lie about Ms. Petronella. Why would she do this? What is in it for Patti to deny knowing Ms. Petronella? Another poster suggested that Patti's memory is suspect - while I can't speak to whether or not that is correct, if the poster is right about her mmory, that has nothing to do with "credibility". That is reliability issue.

I'm jumping in this ridiculous thread . Like Patti (waving!), the name petronella rings a "little bell". I trained with Hansen, Gorman, Kinsey, was on a team with Cooksey, , raced Larrieu, Merrill,Brown, Decker (only one i ever beat was mary! and that was in cross when she was coming off an injury). I ran my first marathon on sept 10, 1978 in Eugene in 2:46.51.6 and made it onto the world list (I think 10) in an issue of T&F news. This was, of course pre Grete. By NY of that year, the game had changed. 2:46s did not make the cut. I was out of the sport by 1984 and pregnant with my first daughter, But I was quoted in an issue of runner's world in early '78 about feeling a bit out of sorts that there were no olympic marathons for women in 1980. I had friends on the 1980 boycott team,but none of them were LD women. long stuff just wasn't an option. Perhaps Ms P was encouraging to Joanie,(hell, we all had to cheer each other on because no one else would!) but as far as I was aware of, Benoit was coached by Sevene. Disclaimer: I was on the opposite coast and knew little of JB. I met her only once, at the Bonne Bell mini in NYC which I believe was a breakout 10k for her. Maybe I should write a book in my dotage to fund my old age. it would be much juicier.

I sent you no "e-mails", pal. Anyway, I don't have to be "upset or angry" to use those terms. I just use them when they fit. I have said nothing of Petronella, so I don't know why the hell you're trying to drag me into that nonsense. Are you so obtuse that you really need to be hit over the head with it? Dillon's running accomplishments have nothing to do with whether or not she's a credible source. Just because she was around then doesn't mean she can be counted on for honesty. Really, I couldn't care less about Petronella or her claims, either way. There's really no other discussion to be had with you. You have a pathetic way of putting out a lot of words and saying little at all in stretching out a discussion from basically nothing. Oh well, jabber on.

why wrote:

(by the way, I think "complicating issue" generally agrees with you w.r.t. Petronella's outrageous claims, but questions Patti D's credibility as a refernce.)

What he said.