Kim Gallagher

I went to Upper Dublin's rival school (Wissahickon), which is only about 3 miles away. I was too young to see this, but I've heard the stories from 1982.

Pennsylvania State Track Meet 1982. The Upper Dublin women's 4x800 (led by Kim Gallagher) breaks the national record. This is followed by the Wissahickon boys 4x800 also breaking the national record. Two back to back races and two high school national records. Pretty impressive.

(I'm not entierly sure if this is ture but I've heard the story so many times from so many different people that I can't believe it isn't)

true, one would never confuse kim gallagher with the 2000 OT version of regina...

anyone else find it odd that some of the best US track and field athletes from the 1980s have had severe health problems...scott with testicular cancer...flo jo with av malformation and h/o sz...gallagher as mentioned above, unfortunately, there is a link with anabolics and cancer of the gastrointestinal system (and teasticular cancer in men)...ben plunknett, etc

I think the Doc is on to it. Take a look at todays Sports in NY Times for an interesting article

I had the great honor to have graduated with Kim from Upper Dublin High School. Kim was not only an Outstanding Runner.

Kim was also one of the most down to earth people you would ever have the pleasure to be around. I consider Kim a friend of mine. I for one will miss her deeply. I also would like for Kim's family to know that they have always been in my prayers and will stay there forever.

To: Kim,

Rest in Peace Dear Friend.

Your Friend and Schoolmate,

Melanie

Melanie:

I for one would be curious to know what kind of person she was. I worshipped her when she was running. This is tragic for parents to lose two children before they reached 40. Did you run on the team with her?

Just a bump. Only today did I realize that the HS record holder in the 800 was also a two time Olympic medalist. A female phenom who made good on the big stage - rare!

I mean no disrespect by posting this, just curious. Was Kim biracial, or what was her ethnic heritage? Gorgeous gal.

I ran in the old Suburban One league when Kim was at Upper Dublin. It was a beautiful thing to watch her run.She was the kind of athlete that comes along, not once in a generation, but maybe once in a hundred years. I was a kid and even I knew watching her run around Franklin Filed as a 15 year old and set a national record.It was like watching Secretariat .You literally stopped what you were doing and said to whoever was next to you,"who is that?"The answer came: THAT is Kim Gallagher. She had 5,000 people on their feet for her at Madison Square Garden as a 16 year old girl( 30 years ago).Forget the Olympic Medals, in late 70's and early 80's she showed a whole generation of 13, 14, and 15 year old high school girls what could be done in sports.She didn't talk about it, she simply went out and blew everyone away , broke national records at 14, went to the olympics trials in high School and ran like the wind....Every college coach in the country came to the Philadelphia suburbs to recruit because they figured if they couldn't get Kim they would get some other girl who was 2nd, 3rd or 4th behind her. I don't know if any of us would have aimed so high if Kim wasn't out there running 2:04 as a 14 year old and showing us it could actually be done.THAT is what she contributed.

I am not sure why Upper Dublin has not honored her. Personally, I don't think this is the forum to discuss the school and family dynamics that went on back then except to say, water under the bridge. She was a great runner and an inspiration to everyone. It is as if Michael Jordan's HS didn't mention him.

Clearly she was a long time drugger. Her brother coached her in high school and fed her steroids. This is one of the reasons she ran 2:00 in hs. she was coached after by DeBus in the same club as Kersee.

DeBus was convicted of feeding his athletes steroids. Cancer is caused by excessive use of steroids, and she fought colon cancer, stomach cancer, and then died of a stroke. Interestingly, she said that she didn't enjoy running, but did it to pay the bills.

Sad story.

MR Right wrote:

Clearly she was a long time drugger. Her brother coached her in high school and fed her steroids. This is one of the reasons she ran 2:00 in hs. she was coached after by DeBus in the same club as Kersee.

DeBus was convicted of feeding his athletes steroids. Cancer is caused by excessive use of steroids, and she fought colon cancer, stomach cancer, and then died of a stroke. Interestingly, she said that she didn't enjoy running, but did it to pay the bills.

Sad story.

I knew Kim as an athlete and personally. First off, Kim was a star long before she entered high school, she held several youth age group world records. She split 2:04 as freshman and 2 flat as a junior; she ran a lot of relays and multiple events and rarely got the chance to run one event fresh. Running 2 flat was almost a given once she got the opportunity. Perhaps you think she was doping at age 12 or as high school freshman. Bart's best mile was 4:32, if he got his hands on some steroids, I am pretty sure he would have used them on himself instead of his little sister. Kim's cancer was heredity, Bart also died from cancer around the same age Kim did and the Gallagher's have had several family members diagnosed with cancer.

In terms of Coach DeBus giving Kim drugs, first off, why would anyone take drugs when you ran 2 flat at age 18. I would assume you have the natural talent to be champion. Also, the Gallagher's were homeopaths, I recall Kim refusing to take an aspirin for menstrual cramps. Bart and Kim even refused chemotherapy for their cancer. Kim was aware and/or suspected certain athletes in her LA training group were doping and was 'implicitly' offered drugs herself, but she refused. Since Steve Scott also training under DeBus, if you assume Kim was doping, you would have to assume Scott was doping as well. For the record, Kim once told me which LATC athletes she thought were dirty and clean; she is convinced Scott was clean, as well as Tony Campbell and few others. In fact, Scott is the person who turned in DeBus to TAC. Some of Coach DeBus' athletes were doping, almost exclusively sprinters, but some were not.

A side note, long before Kim was working with DeBus and Bart was thousands of miles away. Kim briefly attended the University of Arizona and was training for the upcoming NCAA XC season. Instead of doing a long run, one Saturday Kim jumped into a local 5K and ran a 15:45 in 80+ degrees in the old Adidas cross trainers, the leather ones. I found out about 2 weeks later and mentioned to her how fast that was and she laughed and reminded me that it was only a minute faster than what she ran at age 15. At that time, it was one of the fastest road time by an American women of any age, Kim was only a 2 months past her 18th birthday. Btw, Kim had incredible endurance, but didn't like racing anything over 800m. During that time period Kim was training with the men's UofA men's XC team and I recall an old Dyestat post from around the time of her death where an ex UofA athlete said Kim could have ran on the men's team. The point is, Kim Gallagher didn't need drugs to succeed.

She always reminded me of a fawn.

And once she took flight.

It was a true thing of beauty.

WOW. just WOW. One of the most informative posts I have ever read. Thank you.

exthrower wrote:

doc... wrote:

true, one would never confuse kim gallagher with the 2000 OT version of regina...

anyone else find it odd that some of the best US track and field athletes from the 1980s have had severe health problems...scott with testicular cancer...flo jo with av malformation and h/o sz...gallagher as mentioned above, unfortunately, there is a link with anabolics and cancer of the gastrointestinal system (and teasticular cancer in men)...ben plunknett, etc

This....

I can think of about dozen track and field athletes who have battled cancer, some as young as high school and NCAA kids, it has never dawned on me that when a track and field athlete is battling cancer its probably the result of steroids. To the best of my knowledge, the long term side effects of anabolic steroids is heart and liver issues.

More importantly, is Mike Rossi update?

Found this old post about Kim and wanted to throw my two cents in.

I was a grad asst at Arizona the year Kim was there. Everything anybody said about her (positively) is true. She was beautiful, graceful, looked like a fawn but ran like a gazelle. Truly a phenom.

The dynamic was awkward as was stated, she spent a lot of time training with the men's team at UofA (not all) and competed for the women's team. All the while Bart was standing there observing. Bart was never really intrusive but he was always around. In the end he wanted more control over what she did and he felt like she was too good to mess around with college running.

I wish she would have stayed around. She was truly something special.

TrackCoach wrote:

exthrower wrote:

This....

I can think of about dozen track and field athletes who have battled cancer, some as young as high school and NCAA kids, it has never dawned on me that when a track and field athlete is battling cancer its probably the result of steroids. To the best of my knowledge, the long term side effects of anabolic steroids is heart and liver issues.

I think that Lance is the poster boy for PED-related cancer. Should certainly come as no surprise.

Rastrepus wrote:

This was on Dyestat this morning

Kim Gallagher dies

The all-time HS record holder at 800 and 1500 meters (2:00.07 and 4:16.6) died of a stroke at the age of 38 in Montgomery County PA. When she was 15, Gallagher won the 1979 Penn Relays high school girls mile in 4:49.2, still the meet record. She medalled in the Olympics 800 meters in both 1984 and 1988.

Not be disrespectful, but is 38 young to have a stroke?

38 is too young to die from anything!