###

READ Gary Smith’s excellent article on Bonnie Richardson from Sports Illustrated

ENJOY THIS INTERVIEW OF BONNIE RICHARDSON

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

Charlie Engle, a 44 year-old business developer and reformed cocaine addict led the expedition. Ray Zahab, a 37 year-old personal trainer who had taken up running just a couple year prior after tiring of the party scene in his native Canada. Kevin Lin, a 30 year-old grad student from Taiwan and experienced marathoner, rounded out the team.

They ran an average of 50 miles per day for nearly four months straight without a day off in 2006. They endured dehydration, dust storms, sweltering heat, extreme fatigue and other physical hardships. But, they made it. Their run lasted 111 days and took them through 6 countries.  Their test of endurance and human will serves as a motivational story for all of us.

The Running the Sahara expedition is told in a documentary film, narrated and produced by Matt Damon and directed by Oscar-winner James Moll. “The film follows the runners and captures the diverse culture of the Saharan people.” Read more about the expedition at www.runningthesahara.com including the charitable component:  H20 Africa.

Running the Sahara movie trailer:

She was fitted with a braces on her legs to help straighten them. “I spent most of my time trying to figure out how to get them off,” she said. “But when you come from a large, wonderful family, there’s always a way to achieve your goals,” said Rudolph. Within a few years, in a Forrest Gump-like fashion, she shed her braces. Her parents found her one day playing basketball barefoot with her brothers.

Following in an older sister’s footsteps, Wilma played basketball with a passion. In high school, she led her team to a state championship and set a state record for scoring in one game — 49 points. A track coach encouraged her to pursue running track. At 5’11″ tall, she had a long, powerful stride. She soon became a track star.

She went to her first Olympic Games in 1956 when she was just 16 years old. She won a bronze medal in the 4×4 relay. But, that was just the beginning. At the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Wilma became the first American woman to win 3 gold medals in Olympic history. She won the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, and ran the anchor leg on the 400-meter relay team.

After being told she’d never being able to walk, she was now recognized as the “fastest woman in the world.”  Wilma wrote, “Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: the potential for greatness lives within each of us.” Wilma Rudolph’s story continues to inspire people today.

ENJOY THIS VIDEO

Read more: M.B. Roberts article on Wilma Rudolph at ESPN

“Every time I look at it, I’m going to be like: ‘This medal was given to me. I don’t deserve it,’ ” Crawford said, when he first learned he would be receiving a medal.

Netherlands Antilles sprinter Churandy Martina was the original second place finisher that was disqualified for stepping into another lane. Eight days after the Olympics, he was in a hotel room and he received a call that a package was waiting for him at the front desk. In the package that Crawford delivered was the silver medal.

Universal Sports’ Dave Ungrady reports

“”It was a surprise,” Martina said. “I was amazed, astonished. I didn’t expect that to happen.”

The caller, who did not identify himself, was American Shawn Crawford, who was awarded the silver medal in the 200 meters at the Beijing Games after Martina finished second but was later disqualified. Crawford felt the medal belonged to Martina.

With the Beijing medal in his hands for the first time, Martina called Crawford and invited him to his hotel room to talk. “He told me he didn’t fell good that it was his medal,” Martina said by phone Monday from El Paso, Tex. where he lives. “He said he doesn’t deserve it.”

Crawford’s act of sportsmanship is believed to be the first time a track and field athlete has willingly given an Olympic medal to a competitor out of a sense of fair play.”

To read complete article: Universal Sports

Another take on the story: ElPaso Times

Churandy Martina’s website where he notes: “Yes !! It is true, Shawn gave me my Olympic medal back…”

The grandson of a slave and the son of a sharecropper, Owens’ victories were significant on many levels. Perhaps most importantly, it affirmed that an individual’s performance distinguishes one more so than race, religion or national origin.

The 5-foot-10, 165-pound Owens won his first final in the 100 meters by edging out teammate Ralph Metcalfe.

The following day, Owens was nearly out of the long jump competition after qualifying began. He fouled on his first two jumps. One of the jumps was a practice run, but officials counted it as an attempt. With just one jump remaining, Luz Long, a German long jumper who was Owens’ toughest competition, introduced himself. Long had the blond hair, blue-eyed look that Hitler so favored, yet Long didn’t buy into the “master race” propaganda that Hitler espoused. He offered a suggestion to Owens. To play it safe, make your mark several inches before the takeoff board and jump from there. Owens used the advice and qualified on his last jump.

Later that afternoon, Long’s fifth jump matched Owens’ 25-10 in the finals. But Owens won the gold medal with a final jump of 26-5½ on his last jump. The first to congratulate Owens was Long.

“It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler,” Owens said. “You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn’t be a plating on the 24-karat friendship I felt for Luz Long at that moment. Hitler must have gone crazy watching us embrace. The sad part of the story is I never saw Long again. He was killed in World War II.”

Owens added to his gold medal count with wins in the 200 meters and the 4×100 meter relay. The German crowd at the stadium, some 110,000 strong at times, cheered his accomplishments and sought his autograph in the streets during the games.  Jesse Owens’ inspirational sports story captured newspaper headlines across the world.

To learn more about Jesse Owens, visit his foundation’s web site: www.jesse-owens.org

ENJOY THIS VIDEO — Jesse Owens re-visits Berlin in 1964 and relates his experiences during the Olympic Games of 1936.

Derek gets off to a good start. Coming around the first bend in the track, tragedy struck as Derek’s hamstring went. Initially he thought he had been shot because the pain was so great. His leg would not function. London’s The Guardian newspaper quoted him, “Everything I had worked for was finished. I hated everybody. I hated the world. I hated hamstrings. I hated it all. I felt so bitter that I was injured again. I told myself I had to finish. I kept hopping round. Then, with 100 metres to go, I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was my old man.”

Derek hopped on one leg for half a lap before his father came to his aid. Together they finished the race arm-in-arm to a standing ovation. Now, some 17 years after the race, not many people remember who won that semi-final race or who even won the final. But, many still remember Derek Redmond.

ENJOY THIS VIDEO:

30 second Visa Commercial capturing the event (Is there a better voice in the business than Morgan Freeman’s?):

###
Square (Derek & Dad walking) photo credit: Gray Mortimore /Allsport

At 5’7″ tall and 122 pounds, Carpenter isn’t pulling a lot of weight up the mountainside with him. In a test of his body’s ability to process oxygen, Carpenter scored a 90.2. As a reference point, Lance Armstrong recorded a 81 on the same test. Matt Carpenter’s resting heart rate has been recorded at 33 beats per minute.

According to the NY Times, Carpenter runs for one hour and a half on his “rest” days — 3 hours a day on training days.

Read article: NY Times

ENJOY THIS SHORT CLIP (from the film “14,115 Feet” by Pozole Films)

“Precious Medal

An altruistic act by eight high school runners in Washington reaffirmed the value of sportsmanship

Phil Taylor

A YEAR free of scandals and scoundrels is probably too much to expect. But for every failed drug test or recruiting violation that made us wonder if sportsmanship still existed in 2008, there was a tale of those who did the right thing—the noble thing, even.

The trick, as always, is in knowing where to look, because the most uplifting examples often occur in the most out-of-the-way places—like the state 4A track and field championships on May 23 in Pasco, Wash. That was where Nicole Cochran, a senior at Bellarmine Prep in Tacoma, thought she had won the girls’ 3,200-meter title by 3.05 seconds until a judge disqualified her, ruling that she had stepped outside her lane on one of the turns. Almost everyone, including Cochran’s competitors, agreed that the judge was in error, and a video of the race later showed that one of Cochran’s teammates had actually committed the violation. Still, the title was awarded to the runner-up, sophomore Andrea Nelson of Spokane’s Shadle Park High.

Nelson was almost as upset by the injustice as Cochran. “That’s not how I wanted to win state,” she says. “It wasn’t fair. She deserved it. She totally crushed everybody.” After the eight top finishers each took the podium, Nelson decided to do what she could to make things right. She stepped off the platform, walked over to Cochran and placed the first-place medal around the neck of the rightful winner. “It’s your medal,” she told Cochran.”

To Finish the Story: www.vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com

MORE TO THE STORY

Nicole Cochran was reinstated as the 3200 meters Washington State Champion. Nicole notes, “Even though I am now the state champion in the 3200m, the thing I will remember most from that weekend is the sportsmanship displayed by those girls who didn’t need anyone to tell them the right thing to do. That truly gives me hope for high school athletics and its future in the hands of the athletes.”

Read more: Tacoma Weekly

THE STORY

From Rick Reilly’s column in Sports Illustrated:

“Strongest Dad in the World

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he’s pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he’s not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars–all in the same day.

Dick’s also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much–except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

“He’ll be a vegetable the rest of his life,” Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. “Put him in an institution.”

But the Hoyts weren’t buying it. They noticed the way Rick’s eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. “No way,” Dick says he was told. “There’s nothing going on in his brain.”

“Tell him a joke,” Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.”

TO FINISH THE STORY: Sports Illustrated

ENJOY THIS VIDEO

NBC Today Show Youtube video — “Today’s Real Heroes” segment (10 minutes in length, but well worth the watch)

MORE ON THE STORY

Dick and Rick’s achievements are staggering. As of August, 2008, Team Hoyt had completed 229 triathlons, 84 half marathons and 66 marathons. Wow!

Their achievements include these personal bests:

• A 2:40:47 marathon
• A 59:01 10 miler (Are you kidding me? That’s running sub 6-minute miles!)
• A 17:40 5K

Check out all of Team Hoyt’s accomplishments included events and personal bests at www.teamhoyt.com.

Australia’s 543 mile race from Sydney to Melbourne is considered to be one of the toughest ultra-marathons. World-class athletes typically took about 7 days to complete a race of that length by running for 18 hours per day and sleeping for 6 hours. These athletes, usually in their twenties or thirties, were backed by sporting goods manufacturers and equipped with the latest and greatest gear.

In 1983, a non-traditional entrant decided to race. A 61-year-old farmer, Cliff Young, came dressed in overalls and work boots. At first, most suspected he had come to watch the race. When he picked up his racing number, it created a bit of a stir.

A reporter asked him, “Who are you and what are you doing?”

He replied, “I’m Cliff Young. I’ from a large ranch where we run sheep outside of Melbourne.”

He went on to say, “…I grew up on a farm where we couldn’t afford horses or four wheel drives, and the whole time I was growing up — until about 4 years ago when we finally made some money and got a four wheeler — whenever the storms would roll in, I’d have to go out and round up the sheep. We had 2,000 sheep on 2,000 acres. Sometimes I’d have to run those sheep for two or three days. It took a long time, but I’d catch them. I believe I can run this race. It’s only two more days. Five days. I’ve run sheep for three.”

When the race began, the professionals quickly jumped out to an early lead. Young’s gait was more of a shuffle than a pure running style, as he appeared to move leisurely without expending much energy. When other runners stopped for the night to sleep and rest, Cliff continued to move. Although he was still far behind, he continued to make his path for the finish line.

Every night he pulled a little closer to the lead pack. By the last night, he had moved into first place. In a fable-like fashion, the tortoise had passed all of the hares. The 61 year-old, with no teeth, won first place breaking the race record time by 9 hours! After the race, Cliff said that he imagined he was chasing after sheep and trying to outrun a storm. His finishing time was 5 days, 15 hours and 4 minutes.

When awarded the $10,000 first place award, Cliff indicated that he was unaware of any prize before signing up for the race. “They’re five other runners still out there doing it tougher than me,” said Cliff, who ended up giving each of those runners $2,000 and not keeping a penny of the award. Cliff Young became a national hero.

Cliff Young died of cancer at the age of 81. The “Young-Shuffle” style of movement that Cliff pioneered was used by at least three winners of the Sydney to Melbourne race and is used by some ultra-marathoners today. Considered energy-efficient, the style works well for extreme distances.

ENJOY THIS VIDEO