@@AlMan42 He amounted to becoming a true legend in track and field and overwhelmingly admired after more than 50 years since he passed. This man is the Jimi Hendrix of distance running and I bet that Ian Stewart would give up his own bronze medal to have the worlwide recognition Pre still retains to this day.
Thanks for posting. Amazing race. Remember watching it in 1972 when I was still at school. Pre made that race when he surged to the front with 4 laps to go.
He needed to 'surge to the front' a lot sooner following such a slow opening mile. He may have split the field and stood a far better chance of being one of the medal men.
In an interview when he returned home to Oregon, Prefontaine admitted that he had run a terrible race and said he knew he was in trouble when they passed 2 miles at nearly 9 minutes.
Prefontaine set the American record of 13:22.8 in the 5,000 meters at the 1972 Olympic Trials in Eugene ! He should have done that time or better than that had he run his way !! I wonder what made him choose to lay back for most part of the race, it cost him dearly and us the Pre fans !
in the movies (both Editions) his coach told him not to front run and wait till last mile. Even though he ran to the front in his Eugene qualifier and won in American record of 13.23. ..5 seconds faster.
Viren ran intelligently and almost always avoided the additional meters on the curves, by running them normally close to the track's inner edge. Besides, he maintained a steady running rhythm. Gammoudi, then 34, ran bravely but accumulated extra meters by running many curves wide. Stewart lost contact with Viren, Gammoudi+Prefontaine with over 400 meters to go, and despite his terrific final kick, he was only able to clinch the bronze medal. Prefontaine tried to exhaust the other runners during the last 1,600 meters, but he had run many curves wide+shifted his position too often. Viren managed to accelerate even faster+thus exhausted Prefontaine.
@@GeneTrujillo Exactly. No way he would have placed like he did in those races without blood doping. He played dumb about it, though. "What is hemoglobin?"
@@krakhour2 ??? OK just show your documentation then. But, frankly, I am sure that none exists, since it would certainly have been a major sensation here in Finland.
Yes, he was great. Gammoudi (silver here) was also great., winning four medals over the span of three different Olympic Games. He won a gold at Mexico City (1968).
@@zagortenay33arguably one of the most known distance runners of all time and you say irrelevant. Steve’s story is incredibly sad and a tale of what could have been. He made the sport relevant for a large chunk of this country and we are better for it. His rivals in this race were all timers and nobody is denying that. Pre stays relevant because we all wish he could’ve run in 76 and possibly beyond. The potential was immeasurable, especially with an all time great coach. Your comment speaks volumes about you. If you can’t find joy and inspiration from Pre because of some complex about the coverage he’s received long after his death, you’ve got some serious soul searching to do.
Uno de los 5000 más grandes d ela historia olímpica, Viren, Puttemans, Prefontaine, Gammoudi, Stewart, qué corredores. Una gema de estos juegos junto con el inolvidable 10,000. Todos son inmortales del atletismo. Gracia spor poner los parciales, ilustran las estrategias que se desarrollaron y nos da una idea de qué velocidad final tenía Viren ¡¡¡4 minutos los últimos 1600 metros!!! aun ahora es asombroso
Ingebregsten just ran a final 3:53 mile on his way to a 13:13 He too needs to race the first 2 miles a bit faster then push it the final 1.1 mile for a LOW 13:00 5,000m
What I really came away with is how utterly strategic Viren was! He made so many calculated moves; he was watching every runner, and clearly knew their tendencies. He led early, to push some people out. But the move that was genius starts @11:18. That's when with three laps left he settles into 2nd place. He knows the pressure on Pre will burn his energy with a lot of race remaining. Then with 2 laps he effortlessly takes the lead. Pre moves too early @13:00 to retake lead and Viren just lets him do it. Then look at how Pre drops and Viren smoothly runs away with it. Painful to see Pre try desperately to stay with him and Gammoudi, literally sprinting after 4800 meters of world-class running. Maybe, just maybe if Pre had waited a hair on that he could have taken bronze. Viren just planned it right, Pre needed a bit more experience. What a race!
What was sad was that Ethiopian runner Miruts Yifter (who had placed 3rd in the 10K) was unable to run in this final because for some unknown reason he was unable to get to the starting line of the heat he was scheduled to run in!
yifter had stomach trouble and had to visit the toilet for some time - by the time he could come out his race had already started - i think that is what happened anyway.
I think I read he missed the bus from Olympic village to track, so he ran there but went to wrong gate and they wouldn’t let him in (security pretty high by this point). By the time it all got worked out the race had started. Maybe stomach issues made him miss bus initially?
@@mrgobrienthis s good example of why track and field is unfair and unpredictable to many variables to contend with the 4 years of hard work and anticipation the qualifying heat s etc etc etc ..😮
at these games the kenyans tended to avoid competitive races and pick easier ones (ones with lesser athletes in them in these games) - e.g. that made kip keino of kenya pick the steeplechase instead of this race (obviously a harder event outright but at these games it had weaker competitors) - it was a race which he easily won so a wise choice (i suppose olympic athletes don't owe anything to the spectators) - and i think yifter (ethiopia) had stomach trouble for this 5000m race (or his heat) - by the time he emerged from the toilet the race had started - hence he wasn't in it either - he had won a medal in the 10, 000m though.
How is steeplechase harder to win than 5000m for example? There is fewer steeplechase specialist but almost every long distance runner competes in 5000m and 10000m runs@@mrgobrien
Pre had stated that “The best pace is a suicide pace, and today looks like a good day to die.” Pre's plan had been to draft behind the rabbits setting the pace but they never materialized. Pre knew that a slow pace favored the big kickers at the end so he pushed to the front for the last mile and ran a 4:04, negatively splitting the race. Pre ran to win the race, not to medal.
yes - the problem was everyone expected david bedford to lead and set the pace (he tended to) - when he didn't it confused everyone - but as i say that applied to many athletes in the race including ian stewart - (i am british and vaguely knew ian stewart as we ran for the same club but in different eras) stewart said he felt like he wanted to throw his bronze medal into the crowd afterwards since he only wanted gold - stewart also said that when pre baulked him (see at about 650 metres left in the race - 11 minutes 48 in the race - 12 minutes 56 in the video) it cost stewart the gold - looking at it now i don't think that is true though but it is what stewart said .
Great point! Not degrading him but it is true 'he didn't know how good these guys were!' He ran many more meter's than he should have watching him trying to position himself PLUS this is a GRUELING event!
@@hvymettle well guess what!!! HE GOT HIS WISH..the EGO DIED sooner than needed...he was unable to deal with the FACTOR of what goes up will come down.. regardless
@@hvymettle HE WAS DOOMED NO MATTER HOW YOU WANT TO SHAKE IT ... there was more talent to deal with. And SIR LASSE VIREN IS THE GOAT OF HIS TIME..he was the QUEEN 's KNIGHT.. until CAESAR EL GUERRERJ came to the party years later he now stands as the GOAT..20 YEARS PENDING for the next Savior
Pre, was an advocate of front running and I am still boggled why he decided to run any different that day from how he ran all his life !! I do not say he'd have surely won gold with front running but for sure a silver or bronze ! He was bloody damn good.
Least he wasn't blood dopping like several of the Europeans and the Europeans paid to have their athletes train only while USA makes Prefontaine live off food stamps and work part time in a pub while trying to train. Yes he was great runner but had a lot of stuff caused by the AAU stacked against him. Now big shoe companies pay for runners to train only like the Nike Oregon project.@@RK-um9tu
@@RK-um9tu World record was set in '65 and was 6 seconds faster. Prefontaine had the 4th fastest time that year. Viren didn't break the world record until after this race. Idiot.
@@RK-um9tu At the time of this race, the World Record was held by Ron Clark with a time of 13 minutes 16 seconds. So Prefontaine's PB was 6 seconds off the World Record, not 8 seconds.
Yup. I'll always remember R. Lee Ermeys line - "You could have run for the bronze, you could have run for the silver. You ran to win. I couldn't ask for more from an athlete."
??? Schul WON the Olympics in '64, Pre didn't even medal. Not even best American distance runner of these Olympics, Shorter won the marathon. Great talker though, said he would run 4:00 for the last 4 laps and put crap in the competitors legs. After beating him for the bronze Stewart asked what made him think he was the only one who could do that,
A lot of people like to talk about the what if had Prefontaine gone out faster, but I think that the _real_ what if is if Yifter had gone to the correct gate or gotten it cleared up to get into the stadium to run the race. With a start that slow, I think that the gold would have been his with his blistering kick.
@@PaulVinonaama You mean a world record performance where Bedford led off the first few kilometers averaging less than 64 seconds per lap? The 5000 averaged 67 until the last mile. That's ready to order for a kicker.
@@wvu05 In the 10K, the "less than 64" laps were only the first four. Twenty slower laps (mostly above 67) followed, giving plenty of time to recover. And wouldn't the fast last mile in the 5K also have burnt some of Yifter's kicking abilities? What I have seen of his kicks lasted only for the last 300m or so (moreover, I don't know if he was such a phenomenal kicker already in 1972). Of course we shall never know, but I think he might have been a medal contender here but not for gold.
@@PaulVinonaama The fast final might have burned some of his kick, but the 10K burned his kick because it was a longer race that literally set a world record. The 5K was ten seconds slower than the world record. The amount of oxygen debt in each of the races makes it clear that 67-second 10K laps are much more difficult than 67-second 5K laps. For elite runners, anything faster than 10 mile or half marathon pace will involve some oxygen debt, and there is a limit to how much you can handle. With those first few laps in 61-64-64-64-64, you don't recover when you're still building more debt. Yifter's chances for gold in the 10,000 were destroyed in the first mile, but it never got that fast that early in the 5000.
Pre ran the entire race on lane 2 except a few times when he took the lead temporarily. So basically Pre didn't run 5,000 meters, he ran 5,100 meters. Viren ran the entire race on the inside lane except about 20 meters on the last half-lap when he overtook Gammoudi to take the lead and win. So Viren didn't really run any faster, he ran smarter.
Which is not typical of him. He made sme bad decisions too early in the race and paid for it. He knew he couldn' t outkick these guys at the end after running so much farther than them.
That summer,Pre said that he wanted to pass 2 miles in around 8:25.Why he failed to attempt it will always remain a mystery.The extra day off helped Viren.
4:15 per mile for the three miles, plus 30 seconds for the 200 metres would have given 13:15 and the gold medal plus a world record. He was capable of it but just didn't seem to push for anything like that.
@@PivotalRunning WOW! This is a spectacular find! Thanks for uploading it in such a high quality. I would have loved to have had this when I was making my documentary on Ian Stewart! You've filled in my knowledge gap on the first 4 laps!
Pre started to go and then he backed off. Then he started to go again and he backed off again. It was like he thought he could take them if he waited for the last 100m. He was probably surprised that they had more sprinting speed than he did. It's too bad he didn't get another chance in 1976 when he would have been older and stronger.
I am no distance running guru, but I’m sure the slow pace had a lot to do with setting up the best kickers in the world for that last lap, the pre-was the one that made the race interesting with his guts
I know this sounds weird but every time I watch that race again I am rooting for pre-and feel bummed in the end when he doesn’t win in phase to not get on the metal stand even though I’ve watched it hundred times and no very well. the outcome well, I was a kid growing up in Eugene, Oregon at the time, and idolize him
i first saw this race in the black- white- television, when i was about seven years old, later there were a plenty of runners who could have made a new world record under ron clarke´s 13. 16, 6, but the speed was in the early meters too slow
Although I don't think it would have guaranteed the gold, I think Pre's best bet was to run "his race", or to take the lead early and hold it, or at least to stay in lane 1, avoiding the extra distance from running on the outside. I wish we could see this race again, with Pre running all out, the whole distance, and without running the extra distance from being in lanes 2 and 3.
little known fact - the twin brother of the co-commentator to this race was shot dead in a terrorist attack the following year - and i don't think he could ever publicly bring himself to mention it - the bond between twins i suppose.
@@bazza-e9t by coincidence bt (falsely) claimed (the long dead) steve prefontaine was the inspiration for the 118 men in the tv adverts - but were forced to settle the court case brought by bedford (for a start prefontaine obviously spoke with an american accent and the 118 men were clearly british and ran in the bedford style not how prefontaine ran and had long black hair not long brownish hair etc).
He should have done his thing, front run from the start flat out ! That appalling pace was not Pre's thing, he shoukd have gone with his instincts instead of doing what he'd never done his life, run in a pack ! 😢
@@RK-um9tu Your logic is asinine. And by your logic, Viren must have also been afraid as he also did not take the lead until well into the race.Of course neither men were afraid, its simply a matter that championship racing at Olympic level often regulates the pace by the sheer daunting gravity of the event. It matters not how well you plan your race in an Olympic final, all bets are off when the starters pistol fires. Viren was unbeatable and Pre was as brave as a runner could be.
I wonder if Pre and his coach discussed this kind of possibility (SLOW pace) and what to do about it if so. I don't know of course, but this pace would have had to mess with Pre's mind. He did not like to race that way and I think if it had gone the way of a "TRUE" race (I don't like tactical races like this), Pre could have medaled.
It appears to me that Pre gave up with about 200m remaining, knowing that gold was out of reach, and began looking around, to protect his medal standing.
He started his sprint 200 meters too soon, he went empty into the 3rd turn. If he held pace thru the backstretch he would have had his all give vs Viren over the last 200.
@@garyhanson638 There was no strategy nor athlete to beat Viren in 1972 and 1976. All kudos to his good friend Brendan Foster, a wonderful competitor and a gentleman.
Gave Up? Wow dude! Have you ever been in a middle distance race before? My guess is NO. Pre gave it everything he had, he pushed it to the wall. That was a race car that ran out of gas on the home stretch.
His tactics weren’t too bad until last lap. He kicks about 3 times in last 400. If he would have just gone steady and kicked once w 100 to go he might have gotten a medal, but don’t think anyone was going to beat Viren that day.
Pre only knew one way to run and that was all out. He made a tactical error on the last lap, going for the lead on the back stretch. If he had waited to the home stretch, he likely would have won the bronze. Of course, he ran only to win, 4 minute last mile.
Would have liked to see what might of happened if Bedford had really tried to break it open between 2 and 4 k, but then he was probably worn out from the 10k and 5k heats.
@@PivotalRunning Probably, It amazed me that in all of the finals that David Bedford ran, (Euro 71, Olympic 72 and Comm games 74) he never really ran to his strength which was to go hard from early on.
david bedford was a "choker" (bottler) in title races (david moorcroft and paula radcliffe were similar british athletes) - so only a fool relied on him - though to be fair that wasn't universally known about bedford by this time.
In my humble opinion - and with respect for him, his loved ones, his friends and admirers, his fellow runners, and his sponsors - Prefontaine was a somewhat too self-confident, overly optimistic, outspoken, arrogant, and foul-mouthed person. As a born-again Christian, I am grieved by his untimely death at age 24 in Oregon on May 30th, 1975, under the influence of alcohol - and just hours after winning his last race - 5,000 meters.
No, this was from a time when Arthur Lydiard was National Distance running coach of Finland. You remember Lydiard.. the guy with a bread trail of Olympic medals amongst his athletic stable (?) that spanned decades.
they ran so slow because they were afraid of the Little Guy from Coos Bay and knew what times he was capable of.. . The leaders were cautious and had to slow the pace because they could never keep up if he got the chance to run his race.
For me, the real winner of this race was Steve Prefontaine. He would have deserved gold here. It's always easy to stay behind and let others set the pace. It may be tactically clever, but not the right way to do it in my opinion. Steve Prefontaine always gave his best in every race, for me those are the true heroes of the sport, not this tactic of runners. Letting others set the pace and then sprinting ahead at the end. In Prefontaine's defense, he lived right near the Israeli athletes who were killed in the attack. Not a good situation for this race.
The pace at 3000 meters was slow...4:30 mile pace and Pre didn't take the lead until 3400 meters, held it for two laps before giving it up at 4200, then regained it at 4400 only to give it back at 4600 and never regained it. So he held the lead for only 2 1/2 laps of the entire race. Hardly setting the "pure guts" race that myth has perpetuated for over 50 years.
We can easily undo the non-American record breakers by blaming it on doping, because they weren't Americans. Let's cut the crap and realize that American life is not the favored form of excellence.
We spell it "meter" in the US. We don't usually do the "re" routine for words ending in "er." "Center" in US, "centre" for UK; "theater" in US, "theatre" for UK, etc.
@@smc9291 Where is the evidence? It would have required a large syringe in those days to extract enough amount of blood and the hole would have rather visible on the arm.
@@larrymant1484 Name calling. Good argument. There's a lot of that going on nowadays. Everybody is using drugs -- of some kind; at least everyone lining up for the finals. It's an ongoing battle between the doctors, pharmacologists, and athletes (and national sports foundations (if any -- hello, East Germany) on the one hand, and the supposed defenders of truth and virtue and their mass spectrometer drug detecting apparatus on the other. Blood doping likely came out of Finland about 1970. Pekka Paivarinta; remember him? He came out of nowhere to break the world record in the Steeplechase. His brother was a doctor. If you really want to increase performance to the utmost you have to use every capability. Of course you can't take a man off the street and make him a world champion, you need natural aptitude, nutrition, coaching, training, the whole nine yards. In Viren's case he was gifted with a large heart (kind of like Secretariat) and moreover was subsidized to travel all over the world to train in good weather and at high altitudes. If you want to be the best you have to do everything. One wonders, though, why anyone would want to do all of that to be the best. Certain sports, especially Olympic sports, are very big business nowadays, and records are a large part of the hype (multibillion dollars worth). So it's not part of the incentive for the governing bodies and their big business allies (and the reporting apparatus) to be too concerned about ferreting out every last bit of pharmacology. They prefer to sit back and pretend everything is fine and fall back on this "there's no proof" argument. Unless it's too obvious, like Ben Johnson and Marion Jones. It's a circus.
so cool to have the entire race in good quality AND with coleman's commentary
It's awesome to see a classic race with the Splits! Got some running to do, thank you for the inspiration video!
Thank you for watching!
“I’m an artist, a performer. I want people to appreciate the way I run.”
Steve Prefontaine
He is a loser who never set a WR or won an international medal.
Luckily he died before the Africans took over completely.
Lasse Viren
Go PRE
@@AlMan42 He amounted to becoming a true legend in track and field and overwhelmingly admired after more than 50 years since he passed. This man is the Jimi Hendrix of distance running and I bet that Ian Stewart would give up his own bronze medal to have the worlwide recognition Pre still retains to this day.
Thanks for posting.
Amazing race.
Remember watching it in 1972 when I was still at school.
Pre made that race when he surged to the front with 4 laps to go.
He needed to 'surge to the front' a lot sooner following such a slow opening mile. He may have split the field and stood a far better chance of being one of the medal men.
Thanks for putting this up! Great race.
Pre should have got the silver but went for the gold 😢. One of the great Olympic races. Thank you for uploading.
Agree. & besides ran
Many laps on 2& 3 lane . He defenetly ran more than 5000 meters 😢
Not even close to being one of the great Olympic races.
Time was slow and Viren won easy.
Prefontine was lucky to get 4th.
@@RK-um9tuthis is a horrible take
There were far more better runners then Pre on this day. He hadn't been "in a war" yet or really pushed until this race. Viren was clearly better.
@cosmosrunner if Yifter ran the 5k Pre might have only been good for bronze
“Gammoudi is bankrupt” David Coleman! What a commentator 👍🏻
Guess... what !!!.. give time it's designed this way.. when that day comes .. remember I gave you the heads up... factomundo
really burly
@@mikenealon4042 Total cringe commentary. I laughed when I heard that one.
In an interview when he returned home to Oregon, Prefontaine admitted that he had run a terrible race and said he knew he was in trouble when they passed 2 miles at nearly 9 minutes.
Prefontaine set the American record of 13:22.8 in the 5,000 meters at the 1972 Olympic Trials in Eugene ! He should have done that time or better than that had he run his way !! I wonder what made him choose to lay back for most part of the race, it cost him dearly and us the Pre fans !
@@facepuller Yea but Viren had ran 13.19 and Puttemans (5th here) ran 13.13 after this race. 13.22 was not too special.
He had a hell of a gas tank but not the stride length for a sprint at the end. The other guys just out kicked him.
in the movies (both Editions) his coach told him not to front run and wait till last mile. Even though he ran to the front in his Eugene qualifier and won in American record of 13.23. ..5 seconds faster.
@@facepullerBill Bowerman told him not to attack til the final mile so he could break the runners apart.
Viren ran intelligently and almost always avoided the additional meters on the curves, by running them normally close to the track's inner edge. Besides, he maintained a steady running rhythm. Gammoudi, then 34, ran bravely but accumulated extra meters by running many curves wide. Stewart lost contact with Viren, Gammoudi+Prefontaine with over 400 meters to go, and despite his terrific final kick, he was only able to clinch the bronze medal. Prefontaine tried to exhaust the other runners during the last 1,600 meters, but he had run many curves wide+shifted his position too often. Viren managed to accelerate even faster+thus exhausted Prefontaine.
All those extra frozen red blood cells really assisted Viren!
@@GeneTrujillo Exactly. No way he would have placed like he did in those races without blood doping. He played dumb about it, though. "What is hemoglobin?"
In a nut-shell!
David Coleman an amazing announcer!
Commentator.
The best of the best!
Incredible, Viren runs a 56 in the last lap to win this 5000m and the 10,000m as well. Two Golds.
yeah was confirmed years later for blood doping...in todays testing he would have been disqualified
@@krakhour2 Please do not spread false information.
Not sure what your talking about can show you the documentation , So please show me your documentation@@PaulVinonaama
@@krakhour2 ??? OK just show your documentation then. But, frankly, I am sure that none exists, since it would certainly have been a major sensation here in Finland.
It was at the time . Finland was suspected back then and back then it wasn't illegal so that's why it wasn't headline news@@PaulVinonaama
Viren was some talent. 5k and 10k winner that year and same again 4 years later
Yes, he was great. Gammoudi (silver here) was also great., winning four medals over the span of three different Olympic Games. He won a gold at Mexico City (1968).
Known blood doper, freezing his red blood cells. It wasn't illegal then, but he was still a cheat.
Yet everybody talks about an irrelevant guy called Prefontain. Very weird indeed...
@@zagortenay33race happened over 50 years ago. Stay salty 😂
@@zagortenay33arguably one of the most known distance runners of all time and you say irrelevant. Steve’s story is incredibly sad and a tale of what could have been. He made the sport relevant for a large chunk of this country and we are better for it. His rivals in this race were all timers and nobody is denying that. Pre stays relevant because we all wish he could’ve run in 76 and possibly beyond. The potential was immeasurable, especially with an all time great coach. Your comment speaks volumes about you. If you can’t find joy and inspiration from Pre because of some complex about the coverage he’s received long after his death, you’ve got some serious soul searching to do.
Uno de los 5000 más grandes d ela historia olímpica, Viren, Puttemans, Prefontaine, Gammoudi, Stewart, qué corredores. Una gema de estos juegos junto con el inolvidable 10,000. Todos son inmortales del atletismo. Gracia spor poner los parciales, ilustran las estrategias que se desarrollaron y nos da una idea de qué velocidad final tenía Viren ¡¡¡4 minutos los últimos 1600 metros!!! aun ahora es asombroso
Ingebregsten just ran a final 3:53 mile on his way to a 13:13 He too needs to race the first 2 miles a bit faster then push it the final 1.1 mile for a LOW 13:00 5,000m
Thank you for posting the entire race with splits and live commentary!
Every time I watch this, and I saw this live on TV in 1972 , I cheer Steve on thinking that he just might pull off the victory this time.
Every time - and I too saw this live in 1972 - am equally happy that Viren won. Stewart's kick was great, too.
SO TRUE Viren had him running an extra 30-40 meter's keeping him on the outside that was his strategy to make him run more. Steve was out of gas!
@@PaulVinonaamaWasn't Viren blood doping at this time?
@@teller1290 I am not in a position to know for certain, but there is no evidence whatsoever.
I’m glad he didn’t as it allowed Ian Stewart to run him out for the bronze medal .. sweeeet 👌
👍🏴
That FRONT picture is 100% awesome, it +simply shows the DETERMINATION ON THE RUNNER FACES VAMOS !! !!
and nothing else.
What I really came away with is how utterly strategic Viren was! He made so many calculated moves; he was watching every runner, and clearly knew their tendencies. He led early, to push some people out. But the move that was genius starts @11:18. That's when with three laps left he settles into 2nd place. He knows the pressure on Pre will burn his energy with a lot of race remaining. Then with 2 laps he effortlessly takes the lead. Pre moves too early @13:00 to retake lead and Viren just lets him do it. Then look at how Pre drops and Viren smoothly runs away with it. Painful to see Pre try desperately to stay with him and Gammoudi, literally sprinting after 4800 meters of world-class running. Maybe, just maybe if Pre had waited a hair on that he could have taken bronze. Viren just planned it right, Pre needed a bit more experience. What a race!
Yeah, but interestingly Viren (23 years) also wasn't terribly experienced.
Lasse Viren, one of the best.
True
What was sad was that Ethiopian runner Miruts Yifter (who had placed 3rd in the 10K) was unable to run in this final because for some unknown reason he was unable to get to the starting line of the heat he was scheduled to run in!
yifter had stomach trouble and had to visit the toilet for some time - by the time he could come out his race had already started - i think that is what happened anyway.
I think I read he missed the bus from Olympic village to track, so he ran there but went to wrong gate and they wouldn’t let him in (security pretty high by this point). By the time it all got worked out the race had started. Maybe stomach issues made him miss bus initially?
@@mrgobrienthis s good example of why track and field is unfair and unpredictable to many variables to contend with the 4 years of hard work and anticipation the qualifying heat s etc etc etc ..😮
Thanks for uploading this, I remember I bought the race on a burned DVD on ebay some twenty years ago. Also thanks for the split times.
Thank you for posting splits!!!!!! Well done!!!!!! Thank you. It’s why I clicked but already did it
Love the brutally honest and colorful commentary about how slow the race was
Those were the times: An Olympic 5000 m-final without ANY runner from Kenya or Ethiopia. Unimaginable today.
Or Uganda, Morocco and Algeria. Good luck trying to find a Belgian or Finn that can challenge for medals in any major track meet these days.
They didn’t show up till the late 70s early 80s and the rest is history they were more about the marathon at this time.
at these games the kenyans tended to avoid competitive races and pick easier ones (ones with lesser athletes in them in these games) - e.g. that made kip keino of kenya pick the steeplechase instead of this race (obviously a harder event outright but at these games it had weaker competitors) - it was a race which he easily won so a wise choice (i suppose olympic athletes don't owe anything to the spectators) - and i think yifter (ethiopia) had stomach trouble for this 5000m race (or his heat) - by the time he emerged from the toilet the race had started - hence he wasn't in it either - he had won a medal in the 10, 000m though.
Not quite. Kenyans had won 1500m, 3000m steeples and 10,000m in Mexico City 1968. In 1972 Kip Keino won the steeples.@@AnthonyMcqueen1987
How is steeplechase harder to win than 5000m for example? There is fewer steeplechase specialist but almost every long distance runner competes in 5000m and 10000m runs@@mrgobrien
👏✌️✊️ to Finland from Sweden 🙂
Pre had stated that “The best pace is a suicide pace, and today looks like a good day to die.” Pre's plan had been to draft behind the rabbits setting the pace but they never materialized. Pre knew that a slow pace favored the big kickers at the end so he pushed to the front for the last mile and ran a 4:04, negatively splitting the race. Pre ran to win the race, not to medal.
yes - the problem was everyone expected david bedford to lead and set the pace (he tended to) - when he didn't it confused everyone - but as i say that applied to many athletes in the race including ian stewart - (i am british and vaguely knew ian stewart as we ran for the same club but in different eras)
stewart said he felt like he wanted to throw his bronze medal into the crowd afterwards since he only wanted gold - stewart also said that when pre baulked him (see at about 650 metres left in the race - 11 minutes 48 in the race - 12 minutes 56 in the video) it cost stewart the gold - looking at it now i don't think that is true though but it is what stewart said .
Great point! Not degrading him but it is true 'he didn't know how good these guys were!' He ran many more meter's than he should have watching him trying to position himself PLUS this is a GRUELING event!
@@hvymettle well guess what!!! HE GOT HIS WISH..the EGO DIED sooner than needed...he was unable to deal with the FACTOR of what goes up will come down.. regardless
@@hvymettle HE WAS DOOMED NO MATTER HOW YOU WANT TO SHAKE IT ... there was more talent to deal with. And SIR LASSE VIREN IS THE GOAT OF HIS TIME..he was the QUEEN 's KNIGHT.. until CAESAR EL GUERRERJ came to the party years later he now stands as the GOAT..20 YEARS PENDING for the next Savior
@heavy SOUNDS great, until you come up short on medaling in the Olympics, AND with your ulterior personal goals, as Pre did on that day…
Great race 💪
Pre, was an advocate of front running and I am still boggled why he decided to run any different that day from how he ran all his life !! I do not say he'd have surely won gold with front running but for sure a silver or bronze ! He was bloody damn good.
Because he was scared. Also, a best of 13:22 which was 8 seconds off the world record is hardly "bloody damn good."
Least he wasn't blood dopping like several of the Europeans and the Europeans paid to have their athletes train only while USA makes Prefontaine live off food stamps and work part time in a pub while trying to train. Yes he was great runner but had a lot of stuff caused by the AAU stacked against him. Now big shoe companies pay for runners to train only like the Nike Oregon project.@@RK-um9tu
@@RK-um9tu World record was set in '65 and was 6 seconds faster. Prefontaine had the 4th fastest time that year. Viren didn't break the world record until after this race. Idiot.
@RK-um9tu How far away is gold medalist Mo Farah's 5k PR from Cheptegei's WR 5k time? Does the fact that it's about 18 seconds mean your logic sucks?
@@RK-um9tu At the time of this race, the World Record was held by Ron Clark with a time of 13 minutes 16 seconds. So Prefontaine's PB was 6 seconds off the World Record, not 8 seconds.
For Prefontaine. The win or nothing. He thought he got nothing, except for the respect of everyone watching today and for years to come.
not patience at the las lap specuially.
Yup. I'll always remember R. Lee Ermeys line - "You could have run for the bronze, you could have run for the silver. You ran to win. I couldn't ask for more from an athlete."
Thank you for this!
Pre was a great great runner, and he was just learning how to run international races at this point in his short life
The greatest America ever had, truly.
??? Schul WON the Olympics in '64, Pre didn't even medal. Not even best American distance runner of these Olympics, Shorter won the marathon. Great talker though, said he would run 4:00 for the last 4 laps and put crap in the competitors legs. After beating him for the bronze Stewart asked what made him think he was the only one who could do that,
@@aldopedroso6212 I know all that. I still think pre’s legacy is superior.
@@wesleytwiggs7687 So America's greatest legacy, not greatest 5000 runner... marketing not talent. Got it.
@@aldopedroso6212 dude who gives a fuck. Relax.
@@wesleytwiggs7687 Who gives a fuck about Pre? No idea.
Pre unfortunately used up what he had for the final kick on tbe back stretch.
still ran a 4.03 last mile...What more could he do
yep - pre shouldn't have waited a little more - easy to say in hindsight though of course.
RIP PRE
A lot of people like to talk about the what if had Prefontaine gone out faster, but I think that the _real_ what if is if Yifter had gone to the correct gate or gotten it cleared up to get into the stadium to run the race. With a start that slow, I think that the gold would have been his with his blistering kick.
Hardly gold. Look at what happened in the 10,000m in the same Olympics.
@@PaulVinonaama You mean a world record performance where Bedford led off the first few kilometers averaging less than 64 seconds per lap? The 5000 averaged 67 until the last mile. That's ready to order for a kicker.
@@wvu05 In the 10K, the "less than 64" laps were only the first four. Twenty slower laps (mostly above 67) followed, giving plenty of time to recover. And wouldn't the fast last mile in the 5K also have burnt some of Yifter's kicking abilities? What I have seen of his kicks lasted only for the last 300m or so (moreover, I don't know if he was such a phenomenal kicker already in 1972). Of course we shall never know, but I think he might have been a medal contender here but not for gold.
@@PaulVinonaama The fast final might have burned some of his kick, but the 10K burned his kick because it was a longer race that literally set a world record. The 5K was ten seconds slower than the world record. The amount of oxygen debt in each of the races makes it clear that 67-second 10K laps are much more difficult than 67-second 5K laps. For elite runners, anything faster than 10 mile or half marathon pace will involve some oxygen debt, and there is a limit to how much you can handle. With those first few laps in 61-64-64-64-64, you don't recover when you're still building more debt. Yifter's chances for gold in the 10,000 were destroyed in the first mile, but it never got that fast that early in the 5000.
Pre ran the entire race on lane 2 except a few times when he took the lead temporarily. So basically Pre didn't run 5,000 meters, he ran 5,100 meters. Viren ran the entire race on the inside lane except about 20 meters on the last half-lap when he overtook Gammoudi to take the lead and win. So Viren didn't really run any faster, he ran smarter.
Which is not typical of him. He made sme bad decisions too early in the race and paid for it. He knew he couldn'
t outkick these guys at the end after running so much farther than them.
Do you understand why!
YES!
@@hyperthreaded you big foolish doe doe!!!.. OMG
@@hyperthreaded obviously you are not a elite distance runner.. you don't get it on how it all works... best to listen closely.. rather than talk
That summer,Pre said that he wanted to pass 2 miles in around 8:25.Why he failed to attempt it will always remain a mystery.The extra day off helped Viren.
4:15 per mile for the three miles, plus 30 seconds for the 200 metres would have given 13:15 and the gold medal plus a world record. He was capable of it but just didn't seem to push for anything like that.
viren had run the 10,000 heat and final so that helped pre rather more i think.
@@mrgobrien Viren had ran the 10k with a new world record.
@@467076 thanks - i didn't know that.
13:24 did he say “the chunky American driving for home”?
Where did you get this footage? I've never found film of this race from the very beginning, only starting midway.
I found this at my parents house while going through old videos.
@@PivotalRunning WOW! This is a spectacular find! Thanks for uploading it in such a high quality. I would have loved to have had this when I was making my documentary on Ian Stewart! You've filled in my knowledge gap on the first 4 laps!
@@PivotalRunning I don't suppose you have the two heats of the 5000 metres? They would be very interesting to watch.
@@PivotalRunning Thanks for the share. Prefontaine made that race
@@rundreamachieve Your Welcome Nate! Totally agree. I hope you enjoyed the splits as well. Thank you for your service to USA. All the best!
Whats weird is only 7 years prior to this Pre was playing football saw some runners and and thought it was stupid. How does that happen so quick.
7 years is not a short amount of time when you are 21 years old.
12:05 - belgium and britain has similar olympic outfits for some time - like here it often caught out commentators and tv viewers etc.
I remember watching it live!
What a race
I remember watching this olympics live and thinking, "this Viren guy is unbeatable.> He ran smart races."
Pre started to go and then he backed off. Then he started to go again and he backed off again. It was like he thought he could take them if he waited for the last 100m. He was probably surprised that they had more sprinting speed than he did. It's too bad he didn't get another chance in 1976 when he would have been older and stronger.
At the 10 minute mark (in the race) I started Chariots of Fire on another tab.
I am no distance running guru, but I’m sure the slow pace had a lot to do with setting up the best kickers in the world for that last lap, the pre-was the one that made the race interesting with his guts
I know this sounds weird but every time I watch that race again I am rooting for pre-and feel bummed in the end when he doesn’t win in phase to not get on the metal stand even though I’ve watched it hundred times and no very well. the outcome well, I was a kid growing up in Eugene, Oregon at the time, and idolize him
Pretontaine gave it all he had. It wasn't enough.
I will never forget hearing about his death on the radio a few years later--an awful shock.
looks like bedford had a haircut between the 10,000 and 5,000 - i couldn't pick him out at first.
i first saw this race in the black- white- television, when i was about seven years old, later there were a plenty of runners who could have made a new world record under ron clarke´s 13. 16, 6, but the speed was in the early meters too slow
I would like to work it out so that in the end it comes down to a pure guts race if it is I can win it Steve Prefontaine 🎉
Although I don't think it would have guaranteed the gold, I think Pre's best bet was to run "his race", or to take the lead early and hold it, or at least to stay in lane 1, avoiding the extra distance from running on the outside. I wish we could see this race again, with Pre running all out, the whole distance, and without running the extra distance from being in lanes 2 and 3.
Today's world record holder would have almost lapped them all.
Väätäinen had lumbago, as far as I remember.
Lasse Viren,Champion
2 veces campeón Munich y Montreal ,inigualable y todavía se cayó,
little known fact - the twin brother of the co-commentator to this race was shot dead in a terrorist attack the following year - and i don't think he could ever publicly bring himself to mention it - the bond between twins i suppose.
Thought it was Norris. 75 his twin was assassinated.
For UK viewers, David Bedford was the inspiration for the 118 118 adverts.
@@bazza-e9t by coincidence bt (falsely) claimed (the long dead) steve prefontaine was the inspiration for the 118 men in the tv adverts - but were forced to settle the court case brought by bedford (for a start prefontaine obviously spoke with an american accent and the 118 men were clearly british and ran in the bedford style not how prefontaine ran and had long black hair not long brownish hair etc).
@@mrgobriendid not know that, very sly, deceased won't sue.
Pre, best
At losing and duing nothing of importance on the world stage.
@@RK-um9tu😭
My first Olympics.
Pre should not have been running in the 2nd lane for half the race. He would have at least got 3rd.
He should have done his thing, front run from the start flat out ! That appalling pace was not Pre's thing, he shoukd have gone with his instincts instead of doing what he'd never done his life, run in a pack ! 😢
@@facepuller It was a great shame he didn't get a medal.
Pretty clearly you know nothing about track
He was too afraid to take the lead
And didn't want to get box-in
@@Ruda-n4h No it isn't. He is a loser...
@@RK-um9tu Your logic is asinine. And by your logic, Viren must have also been afraid as he also did not take the lead until well into the race.Of course neither men were afraid, its simply a matter that championship racing at Olympic level often regulates the pace by the sheer daunting gravity of the event. It matters not how well you plan your race in an Olympic final, all bets are off when the starters pistol fires. Viren was unbeatable and Pre was as brave as a runner could be.
I put it on 2x and Prefontaine won in an astounding 7 min. and 43 sec.( roughly)😁!
Go athletic beatle!
Lasse was a bad ass in the day
druggie....blood dopping
I wonder if Pre and his coach discussed this kind of possibility (SLOW pace) and what to do about it if so. I don't know of course, but this pace would have had to mess with Pre's mind. He did not like to race that way and I think if it had gone the way of a "TRUE" race (I don't like tactical races like this), Pre could have medaled.
In 1980,I saw Herb Lindsay beat Viren at Jackie Kennedy's farm in NJ.
The "boys" must have given Viren an offer that he couldn't refuse.
It appears to me that Pre gave up with about 200m remaining, knowing that gold was out of reach, and began looking around, to protect his medal standing.
He started his sprint 200 meters too soon, he went empty into the 3rd turn. If he held pace thru the backstretch he would have had his all give vs Viren over the last 200.
@@garyhanson638 There was no strategy nor athlete to beat Viren in 1972 and 1976. All kudos to his good friend Brendan Foster, a wonderful competitor and a gentleman.
He did not give up, he was completely spent and did not have anything left in the tank.
Appears to me that Pre ran out of gas and was lucky to finish 4th.
In a time that was 6 seconds slower than his AR.
And 12 seconds slower than the WR.
Gave Up? Wow dude! Have you ever been in a middle distance race before? My guess is NO. Pre gave it everything he had, he pushed it to the wall. That was a race car that ran out of gas on the home stretch.
His tactics weren’t too bad until last lap. He kicks about 3 times in last 400. If he would have just gone steady and kicked once w 100 to go he might have gotten a medal, but don’t think anyone was going to beat Viren that day.
Chaque fois que je regarde cette course, j'espère que Pre finisse dans les 3 premiers mais ça ne se réalise jamais.
Pre only knew one way to run and that was all out. He made a tactical error on the last lap, going for the lead on the back stretch. If he had waited to the home stretch, he likely would have won the bronze. Of course, he ran only to win, 4 minute last mile.
3 other guys ran faster over the last mile.
Prefontaines lack of patience cost him this race even though he was facing off against the best in the world at that time.
Would have liked to see what might of happened if Bedford had really tried to break it open between 2 and 4 k, but then he was probably worn out from the 10k and 5k heats.
If Bedford goes between 2 and 4K the world record 13:16 (Ron Clarke 1966) would have gone down.
@@PivotalRunning Probably, It amazed me that in all of the finals that David Bedford ran, (Euro 71, Olympic 72 and Comm games 74) he never really ran to his strength which was to go hard from early on.
@@johnstirling6597 ??? He certainly went hard from early on in Munich 10,000m.
@@PivotalRunning A week after this, Virén actually made a WR. Then, after a couple of days, Puttemans made yet another (13.13).
david bedford was a "choker" (bottler) in title races (david moorcroft and paula radcliffe were similar british athletes) - so only a fool relied on him - though to be fair that wasn't universally known about bedford by this time.
Lasse Virén is a nice player.
But why isn't he getting the same buzz as Marita Koch or Kratochvilova?
In my humble opinion - and with respect for him, his loved ones, his friends and admirers, his fellow runners, and his sponsors - Prefontaine was a somewhat too self-confident, overly optimistic, outspoken, arrogant, and foul-mouthed person. As a born-again Christian, I am grieved by his untimely death at age 24 in Oregon on May 30th, 1975, under the influence of alcohol - and just hours after winning his last race - 5,000 meters.
VIREN🥰🤩
Was this still from the time that the Fins were still using legal blood-doping (with transfusions)?
No, this was from a time when Arthur Lydiard was National Distance running coach of Finland.
You remember Lydiard.. the guy with a bread trail of Olympic medals amongst his athletic stable (?)
that spanned decades.
BS...Documents of wide spread doping was uncovered@@whahappened8398
Viren was a beast. Prefontaine didn't run a smart race but what heart he had
Its worth watching just to listen to David Coleman’s overly dramatic commentary. How did he last so long at the BBC/?
These announcers really did not like Pre
I hear no dislike.
@@PaulVinonaama I agree. David Coleman actually called him 'an athletic Beatle.' That is a compliment right there for his popularity.
huh ....They said he was cocky and totally believes in himself. Just a cult runner. Sounds like a insult to me@@PaulVinonaama
viren period
Bedford must have been happy to beat Väätäinen!
🎉
the duke of plaza toro, leading from behind, says the word of the day was-appalling!
Viren run the shortest distance. Pre maybe 100 m more than him
If Pre was a Beatle, on this day, it was clearly Pete…
they ran so slow because they were afraid of the Little Guy from Coos Bay and knew what times he was capable of.. . The leaders were cautious and had to slow the pace because they could never keep up if he got the chance to run his race.
He would have been 170 meters ahead at the finish line, if he had run his normal race and nobody would come close to catching him...
Who the hell are you talking about?
This was bowermans fault, instead of running like he always did, bowermans had him lay back for the 1'st 2 miles, horrible coaching !!!
They look like the line up from a Monty Python sketch.
"The burliest runner out there"
For me, the real winner of this race was Steve Prefontaine. He would have deserved gold here. It's always easy to stay behind and let others set the pace. It may be tactically clever, but not the right way to do it in my opinion. Steve Prefontaine always gave his best in every race, for me those are the true heroes of the sport, not this tactic of runners. Letting others set the pace and then sprinting ahead at the end. In Prefontaine's defense, he lived right near the Israeli athletes who were killed in the attack. Not a good situation for this race.
The pace at 3000 meters was slow...4:30 mile pace and Pre didn't take the lead until 3400 meters, held it for two laps before giving it up at 4200, then regained it at 4400 only to give it back at 4600 and never regained it. So he held the lead for only 2 1/2 laps of the entire race. Hardly setting the "pure guts" race that myth has perpetuated for over 50 years.
We can easily undo the non-American record breakers by blaming it on doping, because they weren't Americans. Let's cut the crap and realize that American life is not the favored form of excellence.
Stewart should have won.
8.6 no one ever faster/
Daha kenyalılar etopyalılar para bulup olimpiyatlara katılamıyorlar hiç afrikalı yok
Too little too late from Ian Stewart...in his own words he had 'a complete disaster' of a race...
Yet he got his only Olympic medal.
Prefontaine ran the wrong race. He kicked too early.
It's 'metre'
It is "meter" in the US. We don't spell weird in the US.
@@ValleyoftheRogue That's because you can not spell.
When will people learn to spell properly. METRE is a measurement not meter
Doesn't that depend on whether you mean the British or American spelling? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre
We spell it "meter" in the US. We don't usually do the "re" routine for words ending in "er." "Center" in US, "centre" for UK; "theater" in US, "theatre" for UK, etc.
Nobody shook the American' s prefontaine hand...think about that..he was definitely not a humanitarian..
The Winner was a blood Dopper
That has never been proven.
@@smc9291 Where is the evidence? It would have required a large syringe in those days to extract enough amount of blood and the hole would have rather visible on the arm.
@@Ruda-n4h Doesn't necessarily have to be the arm.
@@larrymant1484 Name calling. Good argument. There's a lot of that going on nowadays.
Everybody is using drugs -- of some kind; at least everyone lining up for the finals. It's an ongoing battle between the doctors, pharmacologists, and athletes (and national sports foundations (if any -- hello, East Germany) on the one hand, and the supposed defenders of truth and virtue and their mass spectrometer drug detecting apparatus on the other. Blood doping likely came out of Finland about 1970. Pekka Paivarinta; remember him? He came out of nowhere to break the world record in the Steeplechase. His brother was a doctor. If you really want to increase performance to the utmost you have to use every capability. Of course you can't take a man off the street and make him a world champion, you need natural aptitude, nutrition, coaching, training, the whole nine yards. In Viren's case he was gifted with a large heart (kind of like Secretariat) and moreover was subsidized to travel all over the world to train in good weather and at high altitudes. If you want to be the best you have to do everything. One wonders, though, why anyone would want to do all of that to be the best.
Certain sports, especially Olympic sports, are very big business nowadays, and records are a large part of the hype (multibillion dollars worth). So it's not part of the incentive for the governing bodies and their big business allies (and the reporting apparatus) to be too concerned about ferreting out every last bit of pharmacology. They prefer to sit back and pretend everything is fine and fall back on this "there's no proof" argument. Unless it's too obvious, like Ben Johnson and Marion Jones. It's a circus.
Correct evidently you didnt watch the lance Armstrong tapes how he done it @@Finarphin
Steve ran with the balls of king kong, and not just at this race.