RIP Former Mile WR Holder & 1960 Olympic 1500 silver medallist Michel Jazy

One of the trailblazers in the middle distances. Legend. Michael Jazy RIP.

An amazing runner, a true legend. I had the privilege of running in a couple of all comers meets at the Michel Jazy track outside of Paris a while back. He is remembered.

Michel…sorry about misspelling his first name. He deserves a black page, or at least a lengthy tribute.

Jazy was great but had the bad luck of coming along at the same time as Herb Elliott who won the 1960 Olympic 1500 in world record time. Elliott retired at age 22 undefeated in 44 world class 1500/mile races. Too bad there was no money in running back then. What could Elliott achieved if he stuck with running?

His career was sort of wedged in between Elliott's and Snell's. In those days most European runners ran for an athletic club in their town. Many of the high profile clubs had members who were well connected in that town and would often set the better runners in their club up with an employer who would hire athletes at full time salary but were generous with time off for training, racing trips, etc. It was similar to the Japanese system but on a smaller scale. I know Gordon Pirie's club got him a job like that in a bank and I'm pretty sure Jazy had that kind of job. So there was some money in the sport then, at least indirectly. And in a more direct way there were ways to do very well with appearance money as well as the stuffed envelope handed out after meets.

I was just getting into the sport when he retired and didn't know much about him until years later. I read a Sports Illustrated article in which he said he was much more interested in running fast times than he was in winning races. In another place I read that he did not like running on tracks and rarely did so outside of races, most of his running was in a park in Paris. And a couple days ago I was thinking about the upcoming Olympics and thought that if he was healthy enough to carry the torch and light the flame doing it would be a well deserved honor. So much for that. RIP to him.

racingpast.ca

Racing Past-Michel Jazy Profile

John Cobley

The history of Middle and Long Distance Running, Great Races, Runner Profiles and Major Games.

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Jazy had great range and might have been even better at 5K than at 1500. He was picked to win the '64 Olympics 5K but had poor judgement in trying to gap the field too early. It cost him, as he faded to 4th behind winner Bob Schul of the U.S., silver medalist Harold Norpoth of Germany, and bronze medalist Bill Dellinger of the U.S.

HRE, thanks for the link, it was a wonderful opportunity to read up on a famous name whose career I wasn't very familiar with.

The article mentioned that he consulted with Gerschler but didn't like his track interval system. Does anyone have any insight into his training other than he liked doing it in a natural setting? Was he still doing set intervals or was it fartlek? Was he a mileage guy?

I was very impressed with his career and accomplishments. For someone who never ran on cinders or in the 50s/60s era spikes, a photo of a somewhat torn up lane 1 (at HRE's link) makes his times more impressive.

God rest Michel Jazy's soul.

I saw that at the link. I will have to watch a recording of the race. I wonder if he went too early, to suddenly, or both. Sounds like he was a gutsy racer.

1970, Jazy after his "retirement", running in Parc de Vincennes with Shorter and Pre and Riley and Howell.

From what I've read, he dictated the run: 2k surges

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I never knew he was from Poland

Incredible man. I was privileged to have shared a dinner with him in Paris in 1994 not long after the 50th anniversary party for Bannister’s first 4 minutes. Truly a humble man, and extremely knowledgeable. Quite an enjoyable meal. Of note, he was extremely complimentary of Ryun and Ovett. He also felt that both had not achieved to the fullness of their capabilities, and Elliott was the most talented of them all.

You're welcome. There is a profile of his training in one of Fred Wilt's "How They Train." I know that those books were on line somewhere. If I get ambitious I'll see if I can find it and put up a link. If I don't find it and get really ambitious or maybe just have too much time to fill in I could get the book and type some of it in. What I recall from when I read the profile he did good volume, usually ran twice a day, and his fast stuff was heavily done as fartlek with little track work. I know I found it very appealing.

Thanks, HRE. Part of the reason I asked, as an old middle distance guy, is that I did a lot of my training off the track as well and found it intriguing.

I remember Jazy vs. Jim Beatty in a mile race. Beatty, the first to break 4:00 indoors, won by an inch or two in 3:56. I recall national TV coversge of the event. Also, watching Beatty breaking 4:00 indoors on Wide World of Sports. Jazy was a great runner and a better person. RIP.

He showed that judgement is crucial at the top of the sport - and in that race he blew it. Too hard too early in the final lap. It was a bit like Pre 8 years later in Munich. Jazy was unlucky to come up against the genius of Elliott in Rome and lost his chance in the 5k at Tokyo. He never quite achieved at Olympic championship level what he suggested with his records. A bit like Ron Clarke in that respect.

In the '60 years, the Italian middle distances practically didn't exist. So, the Italian Federation (FIDAL) for the first time organized some camp abroad with agreements with French and Polish Federations, for middle distances, sending young coaches for learning.

In France the coach of Michel Jazy was Renè Frassinelli, of Italian origin. A small group of young coaches went Saint Maur for 3 times remaining every time about 2 weeks for learning from Frassinelli the principles of training.

Frassinelli used a system combinig the training phylosophy of Ernst Van Aaken, German doctor who had the theory of "pure endurance" (he was the coach of Haraldo Norpoth), or Peter Snell and his marathon training and, approaching the races, the long interval training of Mihail Igloi (he didn't believe in the classic interval training of Gerschler).

In those meetings I, very young coach, had the opportunity to meet the two Michel (Jazy and Bernard) very much stronger than the Italians, and I found persons of great humanity very humble, and open to explain their experiences.

For that reason,, we can say that Jazy and Frassinelli had an important role in building the great season of the Italian middle distances that from 1985 and 1995, was the best in Europe and one of the best in the world, winning World Championships in steeple (Panetta 1987), in 10000m (Cova 1983), in HM (Baldini 1996), winning Olympics in 10000m (Cova 1984) and Marathon (Bordin 1988 and Baldini 2004), European Championships in 10000m (Cova 1982, Mei 1986 and Antibo 1990), in 5000m (Antibo 1990) and Marathon (Bordin 1986 and 1990, Baldini 1998, 2002 and 2006) and steeple in 1990 (Panetta) and 1994 (Lambruschini), plus a lot of silver and bronze medals.

RIP my old friend.

Jim was my father's college roommate and I know he knew Jazy well. I will let him know of Mr. Jazy's passing.

It is ironic that Jazy's name became etched in running folk lore - and my memory - because of a loss, his defeat in Rome at the hands of Elliott. The reason for that is the sheer distance he was behind Elliott at the finish - an unprecedented margin in an Olympic final for the 1500 - and the commentator repeating his name after Elliott's in the race commentary. It is paradoxical but it was his defeat that highlighted the extraordinary brilliance of Elliott in that final.

Thank you for that. As I said, his career was ending just as I was getting interested in the sport so I knew a bit about him but not all that much. Now I know a bit more.