Prefontaine died in 1975 at age 24. Would he have medaled in the 76 Olympic 5K?

You made some good points.

Pre did run a mostly solo 2000 meter race on his high school dirt track a couple of weeks before he died to set the American record in 5:01. He had invited some Finns to come and run some races in the U.S. That's actually a pretty impressive time for the conditions and demonstrated that he was getting back into racing shape. Here's a link to a short video of it and to an interesting letter that he wrote to up and comer Bill Rodgers around that same time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNGs4k54DzA

http://www.runningpast.com/pre.htm

bolder1 wrote:Pre did run a mostly solo 2000 meter race on his high school dirt track a couple of weeks before he died to set the American record in 5:01

those circumstances are very interesting

the line i had for him was

~ 52.0 / 1'50.0 ->

3'36.5

3'53.5

4'54.9

7'35.5

13'06.7 !!!

27'28.3

if you knock off 1s/lap for dirt to synthetic for that 5'01, you get 4'56 ( & we haven't considered how much some pacing wouda helped )

i'm even more convinced that he was on the verge of busting out an awesome WR over 5k if he couda got the right race

He didn't look particularly tired after that 2K. He might have been in a lot better shape than people thought.

WJM wrote:Pre's talent is completely overhyped and his legend benefits hugely from his early death and media friendly personality. The myth surrounding him is perpetuated by the juggernaut marketing of Nike. If he hadn't have died young he would have been known as a great domestic runner who always fell short at the highest level.

i don't think so

if he'd lived, i'm sure sometime in '75 or '76 he wouda demolished the 5k wr & probably dipped under bedford's 10k wr of 27'30

any guy who couda done that is of legendary status

Here's a video where Shorter said that he and Pre were training harder than anybody in the world around that period. They obviously both had the upcoming Olympics in mind. Shorter was in good form in the marathon in the Montreal Olympics and would have repeated as Olympic champion if not for that drug cheat Cierpinski.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztVrRBsjApw

quax ran a 3:35.9 solo in a 4 x 1500 meter relay!.

which is second fastest split in relay history, including 329 guys!

http://www.alltime-athletics.com/m4x1500ok.htm

i got pre at 51 flat in the open 400.

i have viren for sub 13:10 and 27:10 but those might as well be epo times.

dixon and quax at 13:10

yifter wasn't up to repeat 62-63 second laps but he wins in 13:2high races.

pre was good for 3rd obviously in 72, could have been good for bronze on montreal on a good day, the 10k he might go silver and spank carlos.

I didn't realize that Quax was that fast. New Zealand had quite a talented trio in Quax, Rod Dixon and John Walker.

longjack wrote:i have viren for sub 13:10 and 27:10 but those might as well be epo times

i get him at something like 13'06/27'20 in '72

5k times back then were very poor & they shouda been more ambitious chasing the clock

i don't think he was better than 27'20 based on his '72 win

yifter wasn't up to repeat 62-63 second laps but he wins in 13:2high races

you clearly didn't see his awesome '77 win in world cup

he ran 13'13.8 less than 1s outside wr & in a tactical race ( nick rose tried a long run from home to break them )

brief highliights 4'00 ->

look at that kick in last 300 for a final time which was effectively the wr as they weren't chasing the clock

( 13'12.86wr of quax v 13.13.82 here )

yifter wouda been hugely below 13'10 if it had been an even-paced race v clock

to be honest, you have to assume this wouda been shape yifter wouda turned up in '76

it's hard to see him getting beat

That's the wrong video. It shows the 800 meters. But even if Pre had won a medal in '76, I guess it would have been a bit tainted due to the African boycott.

'you clearly didn't see his awesome '77 win in world cup

he ran 13'13.8 less than 1s outside wr & in a tactical race ( nick rose tried a long run from home to break them )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK7N25ZBye0

brief highliights 4'00 ->

look at that kick in last 300 for a final time which was effectively the wr as they weren't chasing the clock

( 13'12.86wr of quax v 13.13.82 here )

yifter wouda been hugely below 13'10 if it had been an even-paced race v clock

to be honest, you have to assume this wouda been shape yifter wouda turned up in '76

it's hard to see him getting beat'

Agree did he do any race in 1976 can't find much?

I think Pre would have gained motivation for the Olympics he seemed liked that type of runner - and would have been a medal contender. Viren was so tough on the wind up, can't see anyone other that Yifter beating him

Well-said! Viren has said on more than one occasion, since Prefontaine's death, that he was amazed that Pre ran so little mileage, compared to Viren's training and to anyone on the Lydiard system. I think that had Pre trained more like Viren and Shorter, then if Pre had made it to the 5000 meter final in Montreal, Pre would have had an excellent chance of winning it and certainly would have medaled. Quax and Dixon, for all their 1500m/800m talent and experience, could not out-kick Viren in that last lap. Viren trained like a beast--altitude, deep-sand running, and he did not hesitate to run wicked workouts in the deep snows in Finland, too. Look at Viren's logs and look at Pre's and notice that Viren, on occasion, was running twice the volume that Pre was running--that pays off, over time.