Carlos Lopes - 1984 Olympic Marathon Champion

My reading says that he had achilles surgery in the early '80s after struggling with it for some time. Comeback completed by 27:17 10k in '82, I think, behind Mamede's WR. Then, tested the marathon waters and, of course, blew everyone away in LA at age 37. Wasn't done yet, however, with another World XC championship and a WR in the marathon.

Seems like his legs "lasted" because of the achilles injury hiatus.

GlobalView wrote:

Seems like his legs "lasted" because of the achilles injury hiatus.

How is that? He lost some time to the injury but not years. He ran through it mostly which is why it got worse.

GlobalView wrote:

My reading says that he had achilles surgery in the early '80s after struggling with it for some time. Comeback completed by 27:17 10k in '82, I think, behind Mamede's WR. Then, tested the marathon waters and, of course, blew everyone away in LA at age 37. Wasn't done yet, however, with another World XC championship and a WR in the marathon.

Seems like his legs "lasted" because of the achilles injury hiatus.

Thanks for the info. My main question though is why he was very average up to the age of 29, and then became world class. I'm absolutely not questioning his integrity whatsoever. I'm just interested to know about his career especially his early days and how he transformed to being a world class athlete.

He won a bronze in the '76 games behind Viren and Foster.

Hardly average.

He was average before 1976 and he got Silver in 76

xxx wrote:

He won a bronze in the '76 games behind Viren and Foster.

Hardly average.

Steak and coffee.

In this page you have a good biography

http://www.clgoldmarathon.eu/eng/eng001.htm

04072511 wrote:

He was average before 1976 and he got Silver in 76[quote]xxx wrote:

He was not average before 1976. He was among the best in the world. He just didn't have an Olympic medal.

obviously wrote:

He was not average before 1976. He was among the best in the world. He just didn't have an Olympic medal.

He definitely wasn't among the best in the world until he won World XC in 1976. Not even close. Before 1976 he was an unknown 8:39 steeplechaser.

This is from Sporting hero's.netBy the end of 1975, and at the age of 28, Lopes had a personal best of only 28min 30.6sec for 10000m, and it seemed that he would see out his career as only a bit player on the international scene. However, Lopes made an astonishing breakthrough in 1976, starting with a win at the World Cross-Country Championships at Chepstow on 28 February, and then a sensational lowering of his 10000 best to 27min 45.71sec at Munich on 29 May. So i dont think he was one of the best in the world.

obviously wrote:

04072511 wrote:

He was average before 1976 and he got Silver in 76[quote]xxx wrote:

He was not average before 1976. He was among the best in the world. He just didn't have an Olympic medal.

Nice PRs

1,500m: 3:41.1 in 1982

3,000m: 7:48.x in 1976

5,000m: 13:16.38 in 1984

10,000m: 27:17.48 in 1984

3,000m SC: 8:39.6 in 1973

Marathon: 2:07.12 in 1985

If you want some in depth reading about his training, check out the Hadd and Cabral thread (link below). Cabral seems to have intimate knowledge of his training and goes into some pretty good detail.

The thread is a discussion between the 2 coaches talking about training specificity based on muscle type. Cabral uses Lopes as an example for Portugese training methods.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2375989

In the early winter of 75 Carlos Lopes with 28 years old then, for the first time changed his training from once a day to twice since he gets a work part-time permit and could do morning runs and more recover.

Then his coach profits that 75/76 training facility to change his training schedule structure. He starts to train twice a day, some more miles but also less track workouts. He used to have 3 workouts on every week all year round and since that 75/76 season he reduce his track workouts to twice a week while he introduce on his training fast continuous runs from 20 to 40 minutes 2-3 times every week or so.

In the winter of 76 he did win the WCC champ, in the summer he did silver in the 1000m the 76 olympics

That´s not true that I between 76 and the 80s he did nothing. In 1977 he did second in the World Cross Country Champ once again and he did some good results up to 81. Simply he gets several serious injuries during that 78-81 period. That’s not true that he did surgery. He didn’t. he said he would prefer to give up his run career than to do surgery. He treated the achilles and knee injury with acupuncture.

In 80 he was ready to win the Moscow Olympics in the 10000m and the marathon but Portugal did boycott and he miss that Olympics. In the early 84 when he realises that in the Track & Field ranking he isn’t on the top of any long distance event considered what for him it was an unfair ranking he decides to prove the americans and track and filed experts they were wrong about him. Knowing that both the 84 WCC Champ and the 84 Olympics will take place in American soil he had a quite perfect opportunity to show that the Americans or everyone that would doubt he was the best. He starts to train hard to win both. That’s what he did. Some special runners he wanted to smash – the Japanese and Castella in the marathon and Alberto Salazar in both - the cross and the marathon. That’s what he did. Actually he says me he thanks to all that did doubt of him – that did doubt of his way to train and compete. That’s what it motivates him to win them all.

Soon I will post more about Carlos Lopes training insights.

If you are interested to know more about Portuguese training of that era, as well as more information about Mamede, Lopes or about other training issues, follow the Cabral & Hadd thread "2 kinds of runners: Which are you?" Subject: "More than one approach to running and racing" by clicking on this link.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=2375989&thread=2375989

This is a private thread and is developing into a wide-ranging discussion on various aspects of training. It is suggested you save it as a Favourite, because it drops off the front page quickly since only Cabral & Hadd can "bump" it.

If you have a question you would like to ask, or a particular aspect of running you would like to see discussed in the thread, just drop an email to:

John Hadd —

hadd101@yahoo.it

~

or

Antonio Cabral —

coach2run@gmail.com

Thanx much for this thread - Lopes was inspiring for us "potentials." To some extent, his running redefined the age barrier. Hope to hear more from Cabral; would appreciate it.

He was injured and missed some running which was why, according to his coach, he was so good at an advanced age.

Letsrunners would have hated him- he rarely raced. His coach believed in more than 4 10K's s year and marathons late in life- no Sammy Wanjiru.

He was very good and came through in the Olympics- certainly did not come out of nowhere in 76 or 84.

I believe that Lopes often raced every weekend, especially in 1984 leading up to the Olympics marathon.

"In the early winter of 75 Carlos Lopes with 28 years old then, for the first time changed his training from once a day to twice since he gets a work part-time permit and could do morning runs and more recover."

"Then his coach profits that 75/76 training facility to change his training schedule structure. He starts to train twice a day, some more miles but also less track workouts. He used to have 3 workouts on every week all year round and since that 75/76 season he reduce his track workouts to twice a week while he introduce on his training fast continuous runs from 20 to 40 minutes 2-3 times every week"

He ran that 27:17 in 84, 3 weeks before the marathon.

Track Fan wrote:

He ran that 27:17 in 84, 3 weeks before the marathon.

6 weeks before the Olympic marathon. 5 weeks and 6 days, to be exact.