1972 video of Debbie Heald

So whatever happened to her after a 4:38 mile at age 16?

What an exciting race to watch!

Did she run in Munich?

wow, i think ludmilla bragina won in munich

Heald did not run in the Olympics. The 72 US reps in the 1500 were Francie Larrieu and Francie Kraker. Bragina did get the gold.

Doris Brown also made the US squad, but was injured warming up for her heat at the OG, IIRC. No idea what happened to Heald.

And Bragina absolutely thrashed the field in the OG, running something like 4:00.4 in the final? I believe she set a WR in each of the three rounds, though maybe I'm thinking of Kazankina in later years.

And a note: Many do not know that Francie's considerably older brother, Ron, made the team in 1964. He (very)briefly appears in Ichikawa's film of the 1964 OG.

1972 was the first time that there was an Olympic women's 1,500. On Sept 4., Bragina ran a 4:06.5 World Record in her heat. On Sept 7th she ran 4:05.1 in her heat and then she ran 4:01.4 for a third World Record in the final on Sept. 9. Women's 1,500 running was coming of age!

After Francie failed to make the final, she came into the stands and sat with me. Naturally, she was upset. I explained that she was very young and that there would be other opportunities. I never dreamt that she would make four more Olympic Teams. In 1988, I saw Francie come 5th in the Olympic 10K. What a thrill!

After the 1964 Olympics, I moved into an apartment with Ron Larrieu and two other Igloi runners.

By the way, Ichikawa's documentary also shows Ron Clarke being followed by Gerry Lindgren and Bruce Kidd in the first lap of the 10K. I was one of Bruce's training mates for 5 years before that Olympics.

what an inspirational race.

One thing for all the young guys who say track will never be popular because ...

Look at that crowd and it wasn't just the US vs USSR Meets. There were a ton of indoor meets always full to capacity.

BUT- fewer sports, overall, to watch on TV.

Meets like this were often part of the Wide World of Sports and got newspaper coverage.

Just looked up her name and saw a great article on her. She was diagnosed with Schizophrenia around 1980. She has had a rough life. That video was awesome though. What a great talent.

So whatever happened to her after a 4:38 mile at age 16?[/quote]

http://articles.latimes.com/2002/jan/14/sports/sp-pucin14

present wrote:

And Bragina absolutely thrashed the field in the OG, running something like 4:00.4 in the final? I believe she set a WR in each of the three rounds, though maybe I'm thinking of Kazankina in later years.

Unfortunately, she was probably juiced to the max as most of the Easter Bloc athletes were then.

always running wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrvJ2bsFduY

Great race! Thanks for sharing. I remember her vaguely and I certainly remember the Richmond Coliseum - ran there several times.

Great video. I'd love to see a USA vs Russia indoor dual meet again in modern times.

I sympathize with her mental illness - sad story.

I was an age group running friend of Debbie. If anyone has contact info. on her, could you please e-mail me at:

sparks6@emich.edu

Thank you!