Never knew about this runner and his accomplishments. Recently watched his 1988 NCAA indoor double on YouTube. Feel like I’ve been an American distance fan since the early 2010’s but I’m still discovering past great US distance runners from the 90’s and 2000’s. Am I just a bad fan for not knowing him or even David Krummenacker? Or is this just a symptom of the sport and future fans won’t know who Boris Berian is either.
That's part of the fun. Now with YouTube you can watch all these old races online. NCAA finals, Olympic Trials/finals, national/world championships, state meets, there's plenty out there. Enjoy.
I still recall Falcon's 3:49 Mile win at Oslo.
800lover wrote:
Never knew about this runner and his accomplishments. Recently watched his 1988 NCAA indoor double on YouTube. Feel like I’ve been an American distance fan since the early 2010’s but I’m still discovering past great US distance runners from the 90’s and 2000’s. Am I just a bad fan for not knowing him or even David Krummenacker? Or is this just a symptom of the sport and future fans won’t know who Boris Berian is either.
Ahh. The good old days, when one of our best 1500 prospects was training in prison.
800lover wrote:
Never knew about this runner and his accomplishments. Recently watched his 1988 NCAA indoor double on YouTube. Feel like I’ve been an American distance fan since the early 2010’s but I’m still discovering past great US distance runners from the 90’s and 2000’s. Am I just a bad fan for not knowing him or even David Krummenacker? Or is this just a symptom of the sport and future fans won’t know who Boris Berian is either.
Joe had sub 13 written all over him.
Joe was a legend. I remember watching him toy with the field at NCAA Indoor 1988 in the 3000, waving to the crowd and pumping his fist as he took over the lead with a lap to go.
Not sure if it's more urban legend than fact, but I remember people saying Joe could bench press well over 200lbs.
Even though the late 80s and 90s is considered a weak period for the US, it still had some great runners who got fairly lost to time. Falcon is one of the best of the bunch but sadly he never made an Olympic team.
There were lots of great legends about Falcon's 300 pound bench press. I don't think that was exactly true, but he was a pocket rocket. Super powerful for a small dude. Arkansas heyday.
Who is Boris Berian?
He’s the reason i’ll never be the fastest guy named Joe.
joe mother wrote:
He’s the reason i’ll never be the fastest guy named Joe.
Right, as if 12:51 runner Joe Ebuya wasn’t enough of a reason.
I grew up one state over and one year late in high school we went to an XC invite in Joe's state. To say he was in another dimension is an understatement. We were all shell-shocked. From then on out if we won something in our state it was a bit muted.
grainy and noisy but a great finish in his first(?) ever 5000
800lover wrote:
... I’m still discovering past great US distance runners from the 90’s and 2000’s.
From an even earlier period - Google Dave Wottle's 1972 Olympic 800m.
erobinson wrote:
I still recall Falcon's 3:49 Mile win at Oslo.
I remember when he ran that. Had a track & field news cover with him on it winning but I was never actually able to watch the race until it went up on YouTube a few years back.
Got knocked down in the finals of the 1992 Olympic Trials 1500m. If he had run the 5000m then he likely would've made the team and had a shot at a medal in Barcelona. The problem was after he won the 1990 Oslo Dream Mile everyone pegged him as a 1500m runner, but he could've been a sub 13 5k guy which in the early 90's was big-time. He was an NCAA XC and 10k Champ too I believe, great range, some awesome legs at the Penn Relays too.
He made the 1991 Worlds team, but was injured. Got injured again in 93 and that was about it.
Brief summary wrote:
Got knocked down in the finals of the 1992 Olympic Trials 1500m. If he had run the 5000m then he likely would've made the team and had a shot at a medal in Barcelona. The problem was after he won the 1990 Oslo Dream Mile everyone pegged him as a 1500m runner, but he could've been a sub 13 5k guy which in the early 90's was big-time. He was an NCAA XC and 10k Champ too I believe, great range, some awesome legs at the Penn Relays too.
He made the 1991 Worlds team, but was injured. Got injured again in 93 and that was about it.
There was a lot of talk that Joe could break 13. There was never any evidence of it. Joe might have run 13:05 or so if he had stayed healthy but he never showed sub 13 ability. Sub 13 was first achieved by a U.S. runner in 1996 I believe, when Joe would have been about 30.
Paige Turner wrote:
grainy and noisy but a great finish in his first(?) ever 5000
Wouldn’t be his first ever, the announcer says it’s a 25 second improvement on his PR, but this is for sure the first time people took notice of him as a 5k guy and that kick was something else. I remember that race well, we thought we had our next Prefontaine in him for a bit. His inability to make an Olympic team and Bob Kennedy’s two sub-13’s later in the 90s made people forget Falcon, and that’s a shame.