Full 1972 Olympics 5k prefontaine race!!!

They are dressed just like the Olympic Hide and Seek final:

dailymotion.com

Monty Python - Olympic Hide and Seek

Heftyfeet

Monty Python - Olympic Hide and Seek

Link:www.dailymotion.com/video/x2rovw3

That clip was classic.

“The cocky American with utter confidence in himself…”

Awesome, thanks for this! In the 90s and early 2000s I was in a tape-trading group of fellow track enthusiasts and one day I was able to get a VHS that had all the then-current world records, plus as a bonus the full British broadcasts of this race and the Munich 10,000. I watched this race probably 5-6 times before it was time to trade the tape along for another bit of track history. Youtube wasn't around yet and in those days it never occurred to me to make my own copies of the videos I'd get or to digitize them, I just thought it was to see each tape's stuff while I had it then let someone else enjoy it while I moved on to the next tape I'd get in exchange. I know better now, I just downloaded this video in case Youtube deletes it, which happens. I'm glad to finally be able to see it in full again, all we'd had on Youtube for ages was the last mile or so.

Who was more disappointed, Pre after getting fourth, or the British and Paraguayan hide and seek finalists when they realized that after several decades of competition they'd ended in a tie and would have to do it all over again????

Joe Klecker has fun faster than Pre. Hell, tons of American runners have run faster than Pre

Yeah, there are a lot of little myths around this race, in part through the influence of the movies. People think Pre was boxed in until the last mile, but the video shows that's not really the case. He could have taken over the lead pretty much from the gun if he wanted but he was smarter than to try that against a world-class field, plus everyone would have seen David Bedford do that in the 10,000 a week before and fade once the favorites got going late. There's lots of little details you can spot in the full video, like how Puttemans, having finished a close second in the 10k behind Viren, seems to only make a move if Viren does, and seems to be shadowing him a lot when the Finn does do anything. "Do whatever Viren does" isn't the worst strategy but it meant he didn't really run his own race and in the end missed out on a medal.

I agree too on the difference between dying at the end vs just being outkicked, Stewart was famous for his closing speed. He was '69 Euro champ and '70 Commonwealth champ (over Kip Keino, and also Ian McCafferty who is in this field) so it wasn't like he was some chump. He'd have won this if he could have maintained contact at the bell... or at least always been that's my theory. In Montreal he was in contact at the bell and got dusted. He wasn't at the peak of his powers then like he was earlier in the decade though... who knows!

I know Pre is often overemphasized in the US running world but he was 4th at the Olympics as a 21 year old and was running world class times. It wasn't unreasonable to think he'd come back in Montreal and improve but that never happened. Of all the guys who have come since, there have been many faster but not a lot that were as competitive at such a young age. In fact, I don't think the only person who's come close is Hocker in the 1500 but most distance guys now aren't contending for medals until their mid to late 20s and I think if Pre had lived to reach that age he would've been a true world beater.

I promise I'll stop posting over and over on this thread but, I think going purely on times is also disingenuous just because... of course times are fast now than in the 70s, that's just what happens. When Pre ran his 13:22 at the Olympic Trials, it was the fourth-fastest 5k ever run, and he was the third-fastest individual ever, Ron Clarke having run faster two times. He slipped a bit down the rankings after the British trials and a few other fast races in Europe that summer but was still probably about fifth- or sixth-best in history when he ran this final. That's how I'd prefer to judge any runner, forget the times, which are just a product of the era they ran in. In a generation from now, when the WR is down in the 12:10s and Americans are dropping 12:30-40s on the regular, it won't necessarily mean a specific American athlete of that era is "better" than Grant Fisher, unless he has a better medal/ranking record than him.

Did Klecker finish 4th in Tokyo? Or hold all the US records from 3000-10000?

Put Klecker back in the early '70s or move PRE to the 2020s and we can talk performances and times. Otherwise, results and placements on the world stage are the only means of comparison.

Stewart was very disappointed in the race he ran in that Munich final. Was quoted as saying he "really did not deserve the bronze medal".

There was a part in the Pre book where one of Pre’s friends joked to him that he would go for 5000m again in Montreal, come up short again, and finally go to 10000m for 1980 and win gold or something

Stewart even looks disappointed on the medal awards ceremony on the podium. It is shown at the very end of the video.

If only they would have known about all the boycott BS… I can only imagine the quotes Pre would have given to the media in the run-up to that decision. It’s an interesting thought though, he was a very strong miler too so with his engine the 5k seemed like the right event at the time but I wonder if he might not have turned into a monster 10k guy eventually if he had survived. I know he ran around a 27:48 type time when the world record was what, 27:30-ish? It’s really difficult to imagine him being able to outkick Yifter in 1980 though, even if the boycott doesn’t happen.

And faster than Viren and Yifter.

Agree with that last part, getting away from Yifter seems almost impossible

Viren did just that in 1972.

And eight years later, Viren got left in the dust on the last lap of the Moscow 10k. Who knows who all would have been in the lead pack if all the boycotting nations showed up (in reality it ended up looking like a dual meet, three Ethiopians vs two Finns), but as it was, Viren tried to run the kind of race Pre would have needed to run - take over the lead and try to push the pace forward to run the kick out of Yifter's legs. It made no difference. One of the other Ethiopians would shoot into the lead every time Viren tried to take over and actually make the pace faster even than Viren wanted it, and even so, Yifter had a kick at the end. It's a crazy race to watch, and in my opinion all signs point to Yifter being unbeatable in 1980. Pre might have medaled in that race though, it was in some ways his kind of race, other than Yifter's unbeatable kick. If he stayed healthy and kept improving his PRs to keep up with the times, I can see a silver for him there if he'd been in it.

By the way, the same youtube user has the Munich 10k:

The poster says he found the 5k on a tape in his parent's. I halfway wonder if it isn't the same tape or a copy of the same thing I once had from my tape-trading group. I actually remember the 5,000 footage on the tape I had cutting to the medals ceremony at the end, just like the copy on Youtube does.