A visor on a guy?

As a cretin, I need to poll the fashion expertise of the LetsRun crowd. How queer would it be for a guy to run in a visor? I am sick of the sun glare and sick of being hot on humid days wearing a full coverage hat when it is raining and warm/humid out, but a visor just seems, well, queer-looking (not that there is anything wrong with it). I will go with the LetsRun expert concensus.

how "queer" would it be to care? would caring about something like this indicate latent homosexual tendencies?

the winner of the 2001 Las Vegas marathon was wearing a visor and sweat bands

I wear a visor, but I also shave my legs.

It would look like this:

http://www.g-bears.com/photo/history/1989ironman.jpg

Do you wear women's clothes, then? Do you wear a fanny pack? Carry a purse? If not, you must be latent homosexual.

Visors. A girly accessory or not? It isn't a moral question, it is a fashion question.

I am really, really disgusted by the thought of eating liver (but I recognize that disgust isn't founded in fact but is simply an unconscious reaction and I bear no ill will to those who do). I must really secretly love liver.

Heterosexual disgust at homosexuality and distaste at appearing effeminate is quite consistent with recognizing the socio-cultural origins of that fear and the knowldge of said origins does little to ease the instinctive disgust. If only "facts" could so easily change feelings. The sorry history of humanity can only affirm this the weakness of the intellect to make inroads into the emotions. If it could, who would fall in love with someone wrong for them (as happens quite often).

Actually you might look like this guy!

A tip of the cap, 30 years later

BGSU's Wottle stunned world with gold-medal run in 1972

Dave Wottle crosses the finish line in a time of 1:45.86 in the 800-meter finals at the 1972 Olympics in Munich as Evgeny Arzhanov of the Soviet Union falls to the ground.

( ASSOCIATED PRESS )

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By MATT MARKEY

BLADE SPORTS WRITER

A couple from California is looking for just the right place to further their son's education as they shake the hand of the dean of admissions from Rhodes College. They exchange introductions and move in assembly-line fashion through the array of exhibits at a recent college expo - but suddenly they freeze as something hits them simultaneously.

"You're that Dave Wottle - the Olympic gold medalist - the guy with the golf cap?"

While the 50-something administrator in the neat, dark suit sheepishly acknowledges that he is, indeed, that Dave Wottle, the couple gushes as they recall the image of the rail-thin distance runner from Bowling Green State University, in his trademark hat, edging out a Russian at the finish line to win the 800-meter gold in the 1972 Munich games.

Then, in a stark reminder of just how long it has been, the couple's obviously disinterested son turns and asks: "Who?"

It was 30 years ago today that Wottle stunned the track and field world by coming from last place halfway through the race to clip Evgeny Arzhanov of the Soviet Union by three-hundredths of a second and win the gold medal.

Dave Wottle listens to the U.S. national anthem on the medal stand. He left his golf cap on unintentionally. A fierce patriot, he was embarrassed by his forgetfulness and apologized.

( ASSOCIATED PRESS )

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Wottle started to wear a cap in June, 1971, the year before the Olympics, while training in Ohio's heat and humidity.

The Olympic champion from Canton said he wore the hat for practical purposes. "It was a sweatband, a sun visor, and it kept the air out of my eyes. I just got comfortable wearing it."

He got the hat while officiating track meets and out of competition due to injury. They gave all the officials a cap. It was a generic golf cap with a ball and tee and two irons criss-crossed.

Wottle, who also serves as the head of financial aid at the Memphis school where he has worked for the last 17 years, said the 800-meter race, the Olympic gold medal, the golf cap - those are all frequent topics of discussion when he meets the parents of prospective Rhodes College students.

"In some ways that whole Olympic experience seems very close by - like it could not have been 30 years ago - some of the memories remain very fresh," Wottle said. "But I guess that nowadays when I think about it or talk about it, it is harder than ever to imagine myself running that fast. It almost seems like it is someone else."

But it was Wottle - a BGSU junior at the time - who stood on the podium with an Olympic gold medal around his neck. He was an unknown outside of U.S. track and field circles - that is, until he tied the world record by running a 1:44.3 in the 800 in the Olympic trials in Eugene, Ore.

"The 1,500 was his race - that's what we were shooting for," said Mel Brodt, Wottle's track coach at Bowling Green. "He turned some heads with that 800 he ran in the trials, but I don't think many people gave him much chance of even getting a medal."

After the first 400 meters, Wottle was last in the eight-man field and about 15 yards behind the closest competitor as the leaders streaked well out in front. Wottle moved to the outside, but the distance seemed impossible to make up.

"I wasn't optimistic going into the race," Wottle said, "because I had been injured prior to the Games, and as an athlete you have a sense when you're not at your best. I felt I was at a competitive disadvantage because the injury did not allow me to train adequately."

Wottle nursed tendinitis in his knee, but for the last half of the race he ran like Superman. Wottle started to pass one runner after another, as if he had shifted into a higher gear.

"Dave had a great kick, but in that particular race the other runners went out very fast - too fast - and when they got to the final lap, they were decelerating while Dave was accelerating," said Brodt, who watched the race from the stands across the track from the finish line.

"If we ran the race 10 times, I might only win once or twice," Wottle said, "but that race just developed in a way that allowed me to win. I ran at an even pace, so what looked like a huge kick at the end was really me just pushing myself a little more while the rest of the field started to lose some steam."

Dave Wottle works as the dean of admissions and director of financial aid at Rhodes College in Memphis.

( SPECIAL TO THE BLADE/BUCK BAXTER )

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As he closed in on the leaders, the Russian Arzhanov and a Kenyan named Mike Boit, Wottle was not expecting to overtake them and win the gold.

"I was hoping to get in the top three - to get a medal - but I didn't think there was enough race left to pass them," he said. "Being so far behind at the start of the race was actually a blessing in disguise. In a sense it was very motivating to be last, and be striving to regain contact with the pack. Then all of a sudden, there were the leaders in front of me."

Wottle continued to surge while the torrid early pace dragged on Arzhanov and Boit. The Russian, who had not lost a race outdoors since 1968, stumbled as he tried to stretch to the wire as Wottle came up on the outside. For a brief eternity, no one was certain who had won.

"We all just stood on the track and waited for the determination - it was a true photo finish," Wottle said. "It seemed like forever, but I think it was about five minutes before they flashed the results on the two giant screens at the ends of the stadium."

The first line said: WOTTLE, D. - USA

"The elation I felt at that moment - I can't describe it," said Wottle, who ran a 1:45.9 in the 800 final. "My life change in that moment."

A short time later, a dazed and euphoric Wottle neglected to remove his signature golf cap as the national anthem played at the end of the medal ceremony. Fiercely patriotic, he was embarrassed by the incident.

"That was unfortunate, because Dave Wottle was so strong mentally as an athlete, and he had just run the race of his life," said Sid Sink, another world-class distance runner at BG at the time who had just missed qualifying for the Olympic team. "I can picture the end of that race anytime - it is such a great memory."

Wottle, who roomed with marathoner Frank Shorter in Munich, still had the 1,500 meters to run after winning the 800. But the athletic events became almost insignificant after a group of Arab terrorists took members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage and murdered them. Wottle said it was difficult for many of the athletes to concentrate on the competition following that bloody event.

"We tried not to get caught up in all of the drama, but it was hard to stay focused when all of that was going on," Wottle said.

He did not fare as well in the 1,500 meters, but came home a celebrity and a gold medalist ready to start his senior year in college.

"This guy was a hero to everyone in America, not just here in Bowling Green," said Clif Boutelle, who handled public relations at BGSU at the time. "That hat gave him notoriety - it was such a part of him - and people remember it to this day. After Dave Wottle won the gold medal, Bowling Green was on the map - there was a lot of national interest and contact that followed his return home."

Wottle went on to win a number of other major races and was the NCAA champion in several distance events.

"There was an aura around the guy after the Olympics," said Brodt, who retired in 1985. "We had some great runners over the years there at Bowling Green, but he and Sid were the best. Dave Wottle was a very serious competitor and a perfectionist. He rarely made a mistake in a race, but if he did, he never made it again."

Wottle travels frequently these days, recruiting the next generation of students at Rhodes.

His gold medal spends most of the time in a safe-deposit box, coming out on occasion when Wottle has a speaking engagement.

"I have to take care of it," Wottle said, "because I'm too old to win another one."

Wottle was a guest speaker at a coaching friend's summer camp recently, and when his host asked the gathering of 200-300 high school distance runners how many of them had heard of Dave Wottle, not a single hand went up.

"It's always been pretty much my generation that remembers the '72 Olympics and my gold medal - but that's OK," Wottle said. "I was never very comfortable with the notoriety anyway. I'm just a small-town guy from Ohio who loved to run."

Thirty years have passed since he made history in Munich, but Wottle's accomplishment might have actually gained stature - not lost it - in the three decades hence. His was the last gold medal in the 800 meters won by an American - with or without a golf cap.

Fashion Idiot wrote:

Do you wear women's clothes, then? Do you wear a fanny pack? Carry a purse? If not, you must be latent homosexual.

Visors. A girly accessory or not? It isn't a moral question, it is a fashion question.

it's OK "fashion idiot". no one judges you. it's NOT YOUR FAULT.

Wottle did not wear a visor. It was a hat.

yeah, but a mighty fine hat I must say!

wear whatever you want but why don't you just get sunglasses?

yeah, i agree with luv2run wottle wore a hat. BIG difference between running in a hat and running in a visor. the latter should never happen.

So long as you win races, who cares?