Not a major, but how about Jones in 85, going out hard like he did. A teensy bit foolhardy and may have cost him the WR, but he also destroyed anyone else's hopes in that stellar field in the first 10M.
Also, Frank Baumgartl in 76 OG steeple. Possibly had a WR in hand and crashed and burned at final water jump. Got up and finished in 8:10.36 for bronze and still third best ever.
Almost right Bazza. He finished then collapsed and was being carted off on a stretcher. That's when the medal ceremony started. Jones got off the stretcher as they are taking him from the stadium and stood to attention.
Billy Mills has to be put on this list. He ran 1 secon slower than his all time 5k pr through the first half of the Olympic 10k. Clarke and Gammoudi both went by him at the end of the race and he managed to battle back and sprint past both of them in an Olympic record of 28:24. His seed time and personal best prior to the Olympics was 29:10. His last lap was a 59.8. No other American distance runner has won gold in the 10k before Mills or after.
A second to Mills. Amazing performance on the world scene. What a time to PR in the 5K.
Interesting - Sammy kipketer, mentioned for his 58- first lap was doing what previously Komen had done in the Commonwealth Games 10,000m...
And Ng'ugi should get a bonus because prior to his Olympic Gold in 1988 he had finished dead last in the World's 1987 10,000m.
My vote? Benoit trials, Radcliffe Seville, Ngugi OLY, Benoit OLY, and Carlos Lopes OLY.
Ah yes! Thanks, I thought I'd got it slightly wrong.
Here's another contender:
Dave Moorcroft, 1984 Olympics. Went into the race as WR holder (13:00:41, 1982), but had missed most of 1983 with injury. Got back into great shape in 1984, but an injury in the final caused him to be lapped by eventual winner Aouita. Never considered quitting.
I can't believe nobody mentioned Kip Keino's run in the 1968 Mexico City 1500. He had already run the 10k (and passed out at the end) and the 5k (when he got outkicked gammoudi) earlier in the week. He did all this with some kind of intestinal infection. He had never beaten Ryun and still went out at a suicidal pace and hung on for the win. That is the first thing that popped in my head when i read this topic...
Moorcroft didn't get lapped. He really had to dig down to make sure that didn't happen.
LOL! I'm going senile! Okay, before I post anything more on this thread I'm going to double check it first...
I think brave is the wrong word here. Bold moves would be more appropriate. I think we should save the word brave for those who go into combat or rush into a burning building to save others. Those kind of things. It is hardly brave to try to win a race and make some money. It is only running.
One of my favorites for this category is the first miracle mile or mile of the century between John Land and Roger Bannister in Vacouver, Canada in 1954. Landy could have made it a half mile race and maybe would've had a better chance to win. However, he felt that they might no break four minutes in that case and the sport would suffer from the slowness of the race televised in North America. He was bold but not brave.
Rome and Tokyo Olympic Marathons are the two bravest performances in athletics.
How about Lindgren's 1964 win in the 10,000 at the USA-USSR meet as a school boy??
RE Fish
Its very nice to want to reserve the word brave for heroic
acts; however, the word brave can also apply to individuals in athletics. Your pointing out, the subject/title should have been could bold move-it may be a bold move but is was a brave individual who iniated the move.
The act of going out and seizing a/attempting a victory against opposition that is your equal or superior to your ability is brave, especially when it is done on the athletics largest stage: World or Olympics! It takes bravery to fight for a victory against your opposition, even if it is Track and Field.
Vipam
At the Euro Champs in 1954 Vladimir Kuts took off on a world record pace in the 5000 while Chataway and Zatopek waited for him to fade. Kuts never faded and went on too set the world record. He ran most of his races this way either creating an insurmountable lead or run 'toe to toe' and hoping the other would fade.
Not only did he race hard he wasn't afraid of being sent to Siberia for protesting against the Soviet sport system...in 1956 the Russian athletes were flown to Melbourne but to cut costs they had to take a boat all the way back. To protest the conditions (bad food, no tp etc.) Vlady went on a 3 day drinking binge, he was halled in front of a commision for punishment but was too drunk to stand and was let go.
The Russian
That was very interesting, I didn't know that Thanks! Lets narrow the subject matter down to the modern era like say Mexico City 1968 - present! Otherwise I think we all could agree the bravest/most herioc Olympic/World performace was when a certain individual ran 26 miles in Marathon, Greece carrying a message and died upon completion, thus the Marathon was given birth! Anyone know the individual name and where he ran to?
Vipam
I think the term brave here applies best to those in the highest pressure situations of running, the Olympics or World Champs, who had the balls to take risks and punish themselves in order to win. Its one thing to go to the front early in a non-championship race, but to use that tactic in a big race like the Olmpics is totally different.
But theres a fine line between brave and stupid.
Dave Bedford running 59 in the first lap and 4:08 for the first mile in Munich 10,000 was just dumb.
But Ngugi in 88 running 1:57 after a lap or two and breaking it open was brave and smart. He earned it.
Its too bad we don't see this that much anymore. THe competition is so much deeper everyone can hang on. You got El Gerrouj and his rabbitts in championships. And when was the last time you saw a men's distance race without signifcant help from pacers. I'd have to think Komen's 7:20 had to have been hard to pace for anyone!
There's something about one man racing the clock alone with no help lap after lap that was cool as shit. Like Moorcrofts 13:00. he was running all out 62's and 63's lap after lap near the end and was totally spent. I miss seeing this stuff, Its far more interesting to me then seeing Geb or someone like that run an unbelievable time then look like it was completely comfortable the whole way. Kind of boring to me.
Good call on Kuts. Worth noting however that a few weeks after his Euro triumph he raced Chataway again at 5000m in front of a 50,000 crowd at White City in London. Once again Kuts set off at a terrific pace, but this time Chataway stayed in contact with him. The time for Kuts at 3 miles was a new WR of 13:27.0, but Chataway inched past Kuts to win by just 0.1sec and break Kuts' WR by 5 seconds with 13:51.6 . (Kuts recaptured his WR soon after in a USSR v Czechoslovakia match in Prague. In another impressive display of front running, Kuts won easily in 13:51.2, with Zatopek 28 seconds behind in a distant second place. Kuts lost this world record to Sandor Iharos (Hungary) on 10 September 1955, but only eight days later the determined Kuts regained it straight back with a new time of 13min 46.8sec.
On a slight sidenote - Of course earlier that year Bannister ran his sub-4 min mile (helped by Chataway) and beat John Landy in a classic mile race at the Empire Games but it was Chataway who won the inaugral BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, ahead of Bannister. Chataway went on to have a successful career in politics and in still running in his 70s. In fact, about 5 yrs ago I beat him in a X/C race!
1. Joanie... I've seen the tape. She could have run thru a "Stone Wall" that day.
2. Jim Peters... known as the 'Lion Heart'. This guy collapsed at the very end (before finishing) of several of the biggest marathons of his time. He did set a world record and win championships.
3. Viren for getting back into - and winning the 10K after falling to the track.
4. Billy Mills for believing in himself.
5. Michael Johnson in the 200 WR. He was the OVERWHELMING favorite and had everything to lose. It was the BIG event of the games and he came thru.
Honorable Mention:
Zatopek, Pre 5K and NCAA XC Championship as a freshman), John Treacy champion at the WorldXC in Ireland.
IVE RUN ALL MY LIFE, AND I HAVE NEVER SEEN A MORE AMAZING RACE THAN BILLY MILLS 10000M IN 1964 TOKOYO OLYMPICS, EVEN AFTER WATCHING THE RACE A HUNDRED TIMES, IT NEVER FAILS TO
GIVE ME CHILLS. MILLS KICK IS UNBELIEVEABLE. I THINK IT WAS
THE GREATEST RACE IVE EVER SEEN ANYONE RUN AND IM A COACH, AND SEEN MANY RACES/GREAT PERFORMANCES.
SEE IT FOR YOURSELF.http://www.mines.edu/Outreach/k12/mathcamp/BillyMills.show.html
YOU WILL BE A BELIEVER
I loved watching Bob Kempainen at the 1996 Olympic Trials. Gutsy performance!