"What is John Trautmann Doing?" threads pop up from time to time. Here is a newspaper article from this summer that answers all the questions. For those who don't know he is one of the finest highschool distance runners in U.S. history and went on to be an All American at Georgetown with his career culminating in an unfortunate, injury plagued Barcelona Olympics (5000 meters).
From the Times Herald-Record of Middletown, NY:
It's a short article, so I'll just post the whole thing:
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August 12, 2006
What-ifs haunt Trautmann
He can't run anymore. He can't play basketball or any sport that requires his left big toe to push off surfaces.
Yet John Trautmann hesitates not a second when asked if he would change anything, including a teeth-grinding will to run through injuries that may have defined his undoing.
"I wouldn't change anything,'' says Trautmann, 38, a 1986 Monroe-Woodbury graduate and 1992 Olympian. "I really don't think so.''
The "what-ifs'' remain in his vocabulary.
What if he hadn't been injured leading up to and including the '92 Games in Barcelona? Trautmann had to drop out 1,300 meters into his 5,000-meter semifinal heat. What if the injuries hadn't multiplied following '92? Trautmann finally had to retire a month shy of the 1996 Olympics.
Trautmann is asked about another what-if. What if he had taken more time to heal his injuries? Might he have extended his career, at least through the '96 Games?
"It might of,'' Trautmann says over the phone fresh from another day trading bonds in New Jersey. "But I think the injuries were something that was going to happen eventually because of the way my foot was.
"If I did not train, maybe it would have happened a little later. But I wouldn't have run as fast.''
Trautmann says the what-ifs have tapered with age. He sounds as if he's come to grips with a bitter ending to an electric running career. Trautmann has parlayed his Georgetown diploma into a successful career as a trader living in Manhattan. He's single and still sounds as happy-go-lucky as he always was off the track.
Once on it, though, he was a steely-eyed running machine set on mowing down the competition, whether at Bear Mountain or New Orleans, where he buzzed past Bob Kennedy in the 1992 Olympic Trials 5,000-meter homestretch as if Kennedy were stuck in neutral.
Trautmann, the 23-year-old in the lead pack of America's distance-running future, won in 13 minutes, 40.30 seconds. He called it his worst race of the outdoor season, which may have had something to do with plantar fasciitis in both feet. The injuries, an inflammation of the band of tissue on the bottom of the foot, popped up just before the Trials.
"If you were with him with 100 meters to go,'' old friend and former Monroe-Woodbury teammate Chuck Sommerlad says, "you weren't going to beat him.''
Sommerlad remembers one race when Trautmann twice stopped to vomit before passing the leader at the finish line.
More adversity ensued after the '92 Olympics. The injury ultimately forcing his retirement was a deterioration of the joint on his left big toe.
"Because of his toughness,'' Sommerlad says, "he always ran in pain. He got lucky in high school: He got sick a lot. He never got injured but he would get sick. It was almost like his body telling him he needed a break.''
So Trautmann's career is forever a Catch-22. The same aggressive approach to training and racing that may have exacerbated injuries also led to running glory. Trautmann paid the price. But he got a nice return on his investment.
Just recently he heard of a doctor who may be able to alleviate Trautmann's toe problem and at least allow him to run recreationally. Or as Trautmann puts it, "run and keep the fat off my gut.''
He's starting a coaching program with a running friend that involves training affluent people for the New York City Marathon. Fees will be donated to Olympic hopefuls from the state for training purposes.
"I'm happy,'' Trautmann says. "I've almost forgotten what it's like to be able to run and to win. It's been a long time since I actually competed.''
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Where was his coach when he was running himself into the ground? Trautmann should've had a longer career.