Most naturally talented person you have known personally

Trinity Gray

Track was and still is my passion but he was the reason why I understood elite versus non elite. Genetic freak

we had a kid on my hs team who was a sprinter showed up to a practice or two then skipped the next two weeks and wanted to run in a meet so the coach put him in a 4x8 with sprinters. he ran lead off and through 600 he had a lead on us and the other school and they had to start cranking to catch him, he tied up a little but ran 2:05.

he eventually ran 1:56 without ever running more than a consecutive mile and never doing any workouts with the distance team and rarely with the sprinters.

Armstrong was gifted wrote:

Yeah but he was 15 at the time. 15

Lots of nationally fast 15 year olds. Sorry to burst the bubble.

Most of them are unaware or uninterested. Let's face it, t&f is not a career.

Pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:

Lots of nationally fast 15 year olds. Sorry to burst the bubble.

Most of them are unaware or uninterested. Let's face it, t&f is not a career.

False. There are not lots of nationally fast 15 yr olds.

False. Track and field is a career. Some of these people are making millions per year.

2 athletes that I ran with pop into my mind.

One was developed early on and was the best high school hurdler in the nation. He ended up getting injured in college and fizzled out. But going to practice and watching how he did everything has stayed with me through the years. I've always tried to emulate how he stretched, ran drills, and how he ran his workouts.

The other guy was the exact opposite. This dude was dumb as a rock, and I can only imagine how many strings were pulled to get him into college. But homeboy could straight FLY. When he showed up in January he had been kicked off his other college's XC team for grades and hadn't run since September. He ended up running a 47 4x400 m split off of really crappy training (coach was pretty terrible) in May. Of course that was the end of his stint with our team, as he failed virtually every class that semester. Somehow 3 years later he has found his way onto another college team. Only God knows a) how he got on that team and b) how long it will be until he flunks out again.

A sophomore on my high school team was a total headcase hurdler. He blew our conference meet two years in a row by false starting the 4x200 relay we were supposed to win.

Anyway, one day at practice he picks up a pole and vaults 12'6". Our actual pole vaulters were doing a mock competition. half the vaulters were already out and he did it after just watching two guys go before him.

Some of the vaulters were livid, and several didn't go out next year. I think this is why.

Pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:

Armstrong was gifted wrote:

Yeah but he was 15 at the time. 15

Lots of nationally fast 15 year olds. Sorry to burst the bubble.

Most of them are unaware or uninterested. Let's face it, t&f is not a career.

And it won't get ya laid.

But seriously, my frosh year at a Div. 1 school, a guy who had been an all-state football, wrestling and track guy (ok, he was from Rhode Island so small pool) started varsity football and first game was even before classes started, came out for indoor and outdoor track (though he skipped practice to work out with the football squad) and would come to meets win dash, sometimes hurdles, place in shot, and put up amazing decathlon numbers in the spring. he'd just watch someone do something, say throw the javelin, he'd copy, and do better than them. Unfortunately, not intellectually blessed, trouble with grades, then knocked up girlfriend back home.. left school, but still got drafted by the Patriots (say third or 4th round).

never heard from him again.

Went to Jr. High with a kid that ran a 4:47 mile off of minimal training in 8th grade. He eventually went to the CA meet multiple times in high school, but never won it all.

There was a guy on my college team who was very talented, but wasn't all that serious. ~3:50 for 1500m, 8:0x for 3k, 14:1x 5k 29:xx 10k, made the team for World XC (juniors). His brothers and sisters were all talented - or just damn tough. Interestingly, he ran track, a brother played football and a sister played volleyball. All were successful in whatever they chose, but they chose completely different sports. The guy that was on my team was only running interval workouts after XC season. He finished his last event, did a cool down and has probably never run another step since then.

Kid who I ran in high school with ran 50.x his first meet of freshman year. I think it was in February. Our coaching was poor so even though he ran all four years, he never got much better

Guy on my team who was a senior when I was a freshman. Ran 16:37 in xc, 48.53 in the 400, 38.xx in the 300m hurdles, triple jumped our school record on his first time triple jumping in a meet, and ran a 2:01 800m at a tri meet with no competition and without training for the 800 at all. He runs 400m hurdles in college now and I believe he ran a 1:56.xx indoor 800 at some point.

Saw a friend of mine run a 4:09 mile for $15 bet. Pathetic really, screaming at the top of his lungs the last 200m. I was impressed.

I knew a kid who was 11 and he could run a 14:23 5k off of 15 miles a week. He would smoke weed and drink every day and was missing an arm. This thread is stupid.

This guy who played wide reciever at a big d1 football school was on my high school track team. He didnt practice because he was on the basketball team and the season ran essentially until the county meet. He won the long jump at the county meet off of no training and broke 50 in the 400

Another guy was a triple jumper and never ran. Coach decided to have a b 4x400 team at a dual meet. I had just finished running the 3200 but thought it would be fun. The triple jumper ran 1st leg, I ran 2nd. He finished about 3 seconds ahead of our actual 400 lead leg, I held the lead until about 200m and then completely died (i was a 52 second guy at my best). A fan for one of the other teams on the backstretch yelled "hey buddy, the race is over there!" I thought it was pretty funny

Played basketball against a guy in high school who was the perfect combination of talent meeting hard work. He was short and didn't play varsity until junior year, but just kept getting better and better (while also growing) and improved way past the point where most players, even great ones, would plateau. He is a pro now and, though his talent is/was one of a kind, his attitutide and work ethic are great inspiration for the kids back home.

Only on LetsRun could I read a post about Lance Armstrong not being talented. Nice work.

Went to high school with a girl who wound up going to the Olympics. She was just an insanely talented athlete -- was also varsity in basketball, won states in both the 3200 and the javelin her senior year. She also worked super hard.

Armstrong was gifted wrote:

Yeah but he was 15 at the time. 15

I'm pretty sure he didn't crash at ST's until after he graduated from high school, 17. Drove that crappy oil leaking car all the way from Plano, and Scott yelled at him for parking it in his driveway

Jeff Samardzija, the two sport guy from Notre Dame that plays for the SF Giants now.

He was a pretty good track athlete in middle school, too, but that tends to conflict with baseball season.