This #throwbackthursday is from his final race, taken just hours before his death.
The Prefontaine Classic will be run in his honor this weekend at Hayward Field in Eugene.
“Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and
paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make
people stop and say, ‘I’ve never seen anyone run like that before.’ It’s
more than just a race, it’s a style.” Steve Prefontaine
Although it was one of the few international results Prefontaine, the only Olympic participation hides a successful career for the young man, who was only 21 when he competed in Munich. With one leg longer than the other, Pre, as he was known, held the national record of five tests of long-distance athletics - with a meteoric improvement during the years of high school and college.When freshman in high school in Marshfield, he was in 53rd place in a race held in the state. Training hard over the years, been improving positions and ended up winning it all in the state last year, which caught the attention of renowned coach Bill Bowerman. This, touted as one of the main characters to turn the race into a popular sport, something unthinkable today, with hundreds of street racing going on throughout the year. No wonder Bowerman was a founder of Nike.Despite great results Prefontaine, the coach was working with him at the University of Oregon. Pre had difficulty focusing on race strategies: started very strong, without worrying about whether or not put up with the late, was charged in practice. Some runners who later would break records left by Prefontaine, commenting inspiration from him about the importance of training hard. The willingness to train is not surprising if we consider the words of Walt McClure, who trained in Pre college and says that the choice of athletics did not come from man, but from frustration Pre to be too small to play football.During college, he won almost everything he played and was unbeatable in the long distance events in the NCAA, winning four tournaments of Track & Field and Cross Country three - the only one that did not win was in 1972, when he competed in the Olympics. In the video below, proof of 5000 meters, which came to lead, but ended up falling to third place and lost the medal in the last meters - finishing fourth.
Prefontaine trained strong for better performance Olympic in 1976, when come to Montreal as one of the favorites for gold, which had lost four years earlier.
In 1975, Pre had the American record of all evidence between 2000 and 10,000 meters, the same training and working in a bar part time - according to the rules that did not allow it to earn more than $ 3 per day from athletics. The last of these records was established in May 9, 1975, in Marshfield, scoring 5 "01" 40 to 2000 meters. The following year, the race would have his name. That's because, in late May, a car accident would end early life of Prefontaine with only 24 years.
Pre - Lives!!!
As the story of a fourth place at the 1972 Olympics transcends generations and its protagonist is today inspiration for a race in the United States? In the same edition of the Games that Steve Prefontaine was fourth place in the 5000 meters race after passing the first round in front, Mark Spitz won over seven golds and overshadowed any athlete's U.S. Olympic delegation. The untimely death of Prefontaine in a car accident, however, helped turn it into inspiration for many runners.
Although it was one of the few international results Prefontaine, the only Olympic participation hides a successful career for the young man, who was only 21 when he competed in Munich. With one leg longer than the other, Pre, as he was known, held the national record of five tests of long-distance athletics - with a meteoric improvement during the years of high school and college.When freshman in high school in Marshfield, he was in 53rd place in a race held in the state. Training hard over the years, been improving positions and ended up winning it all in the state last year, which caught the attention of renowned coach Bill Bowerman. This, touted as one of the main characters to turn the race into a popular sport, something unthinkable today, with hundreds of street racing going on throughout the year. No wonder Bowerman was a founder of Nike.Despite great results Prefontaine, the coach was working with him at the University of Oregon. Pre had difficulty focusing on race strategies: started very strong, without worrying about whether or not put up with the late, was charged in practice. Some runners who later would break records left by Prefontaine, commenting inspiration from him about the importance of training hard. The willingness to train is not surprising if we consider the words of Walt McClure, who trained in Pre college and says that the choice of athletics did not come from man, but from frustration Pre to be too small to play football.During college, he won almost everything he played and was unbeatable in the long distance events in the NCAA, winning four tournaments of Track & Field and Cross Country three - the only one that did not win was in 1972, when he competed in the Olympics. In the video below, proof of 5000 meters, which came to lead, but ended up falling to third place and lost the medal in the last meters - finishing fourth.
Prefontaine trained strong for better performance Olympic in 1976, when come to Montreal as one of the favorites for gold, which had lost four years earlier.
In 1975, Pre had the American record of all evidence between 2000 and 10,000 meters, the same training and working in a bar part time - according to the rules that did not allow it to earn more than $ 3 per day from athletics. The last of these records was established in May 9, 1975, in Marshfield, scoring 5 "01" 40 to 2000 meters. The following year, the race would have his name. That's because, in late May, a car accident would end early life of Prefontaine with only 24 years.
Pre - Lives!!!
