I am doing a proj. and it is supposed to be on someone or some event that inspired us. I hae watched many marathons, meets, and the greek sprinter who won the 200m, but it has to be inspiring towards the class, so i need to know someone who persevered, despte an illness, disease, and so on. I could use Tesfaye Tola and how he became great despite being poor, or Rudolph, but I need others too.
Just show them Running Brave or Chariots of Fire. Or Without Limits. Your call :)
When I read this, I immediately thought Billy Mills Olympic 10k champion in 1964. Also Gail Devers is another name, as she has battled graves disease. Hope this names help.
What about Lance and the cancer?
Check out Glenn Cunningham. Silver in '36 1500 and a 4:04 miler He was burned severely on his lower body as a child and lost several toes and the arch of one foot was damaged. Contemporary of Lovelock and Beccali(1928-36 roughly). A long time ago but very inspiring.
Add Wilma Rudolph to the above list.
take all great north african runners into account.
Lance Armstrong. Get his book, which I thought was very good.
Alain Mimoun - France - lost to Zatopek over and over in Euros, Olympics, 5K, 10K, marathon. Finally, in the twilight of both of their careers, beat him in the Olympic Marathon. Zatopek, always the gentleman, saluted and praised his friend and rival. A good episode is in a video called "100 Years of Olympic Glory" which aired on TBS sometime back.
Well, when Jon Drummond was younger he had Spina Bifida and was told he would never walk.
Barefoot runner, Abebe Bikila
I hear Carl Lewis likes to "come from behind".
There's always Marla Runyan -- if youur project is presented around the NYC Marathon there's a topical element, she may acutally be well-known. That "I check hairstyles and follow Jane's ponytail or whatever she said when she first bbroke thru has great crossover (nonrunner) appeal, accordign to my informal survey work (what my Summit train-station acquiaintances mention when we're waiting on the platform forthe train in the morning).
Battling fatigue and and making the time to train are inspiration enough. If the class doesn't get it, screw 'em!
Sebastian Coe was born with a rare but well documented birth defect that he had to overcome to reach the top of his sport. The young Seb was born with a large silver spoon sticking out of his butt. Despite this cumbersome impediment he persevered and became one of the true greats of running.
Sebastian Coe a hero among men. ;-)
I got the perfect story for the class, MT. Once there was this... uh.. girl, we?ll call her Jane Meirhoff. Now, Jane had a rough go of it in Jr High and HS. She got beat up every week (or teased and gossiped about). She wore glasses, Ozzy shirts, and leather jackets w/ cammo pants. Clearly she was cast with a different mold. She ran a little, but not so well.. something like a 9min mile in Middle School, and she was even voted "Most Un-athletic" at her HS. Obviously, her self-esteem was challenged during this time as she often felt useless and stupid. But, Jane made it through.
She kept up her running and actually got pretty good at it. Nontheless, the dark days still came from time to time, sometimes even worse than before. Not one to quit, though, she "found" herself through running and decided to give it her all. She went overseas and trained like a madwoman, and although she didn?t became the best in the world, she did become good enough to qualify for the US Olympic Trial race, and to this day she is not done.
Now, her detractors still point out her deficiencies. She does tend to talk a lot about herself (on message boards of all places (unbelievable)), and the argument could be made that she is impulsive in some of her posts. Furthermore, they cry out, "She talks like a sailor! She?s a slut! She is disrespectful! Racist!" Nevertheless, our heroin proceeds in her journey of life. You see being attacked is all she knows and it is part of normalcy for her. Many would crack under similar situations, but she has come to even invite verbal assaults as they are somehow comforting.
Eventually, Jane will get beyond the various ways that she "asks" for criticism. But, her skill that she has learned of overcoming adversity will stick with her always. Who knows how far Jane will go, not necessarily in running, but in life.
I believe Gail Devers had/has Graves Disease and Jackie Joyner Kersey has asthma.
Do none of you guys read the posts first so you're not repeating the same thing? Rudolph was mentioned by the original poster. Devers...already. By the way Carl Lewis prefers to "go out in front" off track.
Sorry...missed the Devers up above.
Flo-Jo had to compete with a badly swollen testicle.