1976 Olympics 5000m

[VirenKickedPresAss]

VirEN!  VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN! VirEN!

[rawirimckinney1]

Kiwis dont cheat

[Finnmark4]

Let us say for the sake of argument that Viren was blood doping. Weren't the Finns under suspicion four years earlier in Munich? With 4 years to play catch up, don't you think that the Brits, Kiwis, Danes, Soviets, Belgians, East Germans, West Germans, US be doing the same by 76? Some US cyclists got busted at the 84 games. Certainly it didn't take the US 12 years to start experimenting.

[rawirimckinney1]

Dixon was told to take off at the 250 he declind as he knew he was the fastest in the field being a 1500 runner. Quax boxed him in on the turn deliberately held him made him chop wide then set off after Viren. The NZ runners should have gone 1 and 2 but took each other out.

[VirenKickedPresAss]

Prefontaine would have been friggin' DESTROYED in this race...

[metsrule107]

@VirenKickedPresAss Even though you could never know that, Pre's PR was faster than this winning time.

[VirenKickedPresAss]

@metsrule107 That's old news, buddy. And Viren also ran faster. If the fastest times meant anything, then Bedford and Clarke would have gold medals, wouldn't they? I guess maybe they should just write them down on a piece of paper and send them in, and then they could just pick the fastest three, and then they would be able to cancel the Olympic Games. Think of all the money they could save! But then, "you could never know that."

[YiftertheShifter1]

@metsrule107 That's a bad explanation for how Pre was going to win here. The Olympic games are rarely about times, which explains how many who could run fast times couldn't win in a championships. To put into perspective, in the Beijing final, all of the top five had faster PBs than 12:57, but the one with the fastest finish, Bekele, triumphed. Go back further to Athens: the winner, El Guerrouj, had a slower PB than Bekele, but triumphed in a sprint. That's how an olympic 5K works.

[kozmon0t]

@metsrule107 Having a PR faster than an Olympic winning time doesn't mean much, if anything.

Pre never held any world records, and he was drunk driving when he died. It's time for the US to outgrow him, or no American will ever win distance gold. All the best prospects have had to live in his shadow, and they've all failed.

[metsdudenj]

who got the bronze here?

[crwnikeboy]

Viren just REFUSED to be passed.

[99999rus]

Respond to this video...

[dgagnon313]

Didnt Viren admit to blood doping after he retired?  Why didn't they take his medals away?

[VirenKickedPresAss]

@dgagnon313 WTF are you talking about? Go get your facts straight, dumbass.

[dgagnon313]

@VirenKickedPresAss My facts are straight. I just double checked Viren's autobiography. On page 152 he says "...I wasn't always clean. But as far as my competition was concerned, I was the cleanest."

[VirenKickedPresAss]

@dgagnon313 ....PFFFFT. Viren was offered $1 million to to tell if he was or was not on any doping. He said no.

[crwnikeboy]

@dgagnon313 He never admitted to it.

[findinggracy]

blood doper



[YiftertheShifter1]

@findinggracy WOOOW, way to rip a legendary performance. Are you a blood doper?

[stonekeeper86]

@findinggracy I agree!

[englishman1960]

5000 metres is 3 miles 172 metres,because you must remember that 3 miles is 12 laps plus 28 metres and 3.2 cms to be precise.

[YiftertheShifter1]

Yeah, I know. One mile is 1609 meters, making three miles 4827 meters. I'm not sure, though, if in the 1970s the runners would start the three mile 27 meters from the finish line, rather than running 12 laps, amounting to 4800 meters.

[englishman1960]

its 4828 metres, because 1 mile is 1609 metres 34.4 cms.

[futuremodal]

Although Viren did not run as fast in '76 as he did in '72, his tactical ability vastly improved, and that is the sole reason he won this race. He knew his kick was on par with the ex-milers, so if he had the inside rail he would win. I doubt though that he would have outkicked Yifter (if he had been here), nor Vaatinen or Haase in their prime. If Pre had been here the last mile would have gone much faster, and there would have been a battle for that inside position with 300 to go.

[BartMu2]

If the New Zeland runner has INTO line, and not on the second line (outside), may be he win, because run a couple of meters more than Viren, but Viren, the most tactical runner that I can saw, stay in his possition, saving energy to the last meters, and WIN

[YiftertheShifter1]

Steve Ovett, watching this race, said that whenever anybody came close to Viren hit the wall. The New Zealand runner (Quax) was finishing fast (coming from 5th to 2nd off the bend), but once he came close to Viren, he hit the wall as Viren gained, one meter... two meters... three meters. An awesome fight with a clear winner

[Trck4]

VIREN LOVES TO BLOOD DOPE

[FinnMove]

I don´t think so. Those spoken about blood dope are about rubbish. It was taken when that New Zealand boys didn´t work very well. The world was completely different at that times. Nowadays they say

that only Soviet and DDR used doping.

I myself believe that the Finns were in a good shape when they were champions.

[knightsxc06]

MMM... Not entirely true. Kaarlo Maaninka admitting to doping in order to grab that silver behind yifter in the Moscow 10k, and Martti Vainio was DQed for drugs in L.A.1984. The Finns were definitely not completely drug free, but i personally believe that Viren was.

[VirenKickedPresAss]

I wish PRE would have been in this race! He MIGHT have gotten 6th or MAYBE even 5th!!

[thefallen2124]

His beast time is 12:51 or 12:57 I forget, so maybe he would've gotten umm... I don't know, FIRST.

[VirenKickedPresAss]

"Beast?? So um, I forget. Didn't the other four, um, in the final have faster times and better kicks, so UM, Pre might have been 5th? UMMM? And your 12:51 and 12:57 was NOT for 5 k, IDIOT. 13 minutes wasn't broken until the 80's by Aouita. Go learn about running, why don't you.

[thefallen2124]

Just saying I've seen his race below a 13 minute 3 mile, you don't know very much about running, he broke 13 minutes, your a very rude person, get some manners.

[VirenKickedPresAss]

What a FOOL. If you count Pre's THREE mile time, then you have to compare it to the OTHER runner's three mile times, NOT their 5K. They had FASTER three mile times then PRE.

[thefallen2124]

Don't think they did.

[YiftertheShifter1]

"Thefallen," the 5000 meters is some 200 meters longer than 3 miles- basically add 27-29 seconds for an approximate 5K, given a 3 mile time. Running under 13 minutes for 3 miles was not that tremendous for runners even those of Pre's era. This race, for example, could have passed the 3 mile split in sub-13. Either way, Viren ran, A) a faster last mile in Munich (4:00 to Pre's 4:03); B) a faster 5K PB (13:16.4, a WR, vs. 13:21.x); C) a faster 10K PB (27'38.34, another WR despite falling lap 12).

[thefallen2124]

I always call a 5k, 3 miles which is bad on my part sorry, but whatever at least your not being an ass like the other dude.

[rmrooster01]

Yea and in 72 5000m Virens last lap was 56 seconds..... awesome!

[YiftertheShifter1]

I'm quite interested in what his last 100m split is for the Munich 10K/5K, and this race. If the mark starts where I think it is, and assuming my math is correct, it was 12.28 in the Munich 10K, 12.51 in the Munich 5K, and 12.27 in this race.

[Trck4]

Viren=a cheat and does not deserve any time he has ever gotten. Viren can go to hell

[VirenKickedPresAss]

I am sure Viren loses sleep with your comment, in tears looking at his four gold medals. LMMFAO!

[ctluba]

Did the diving guy with the beard get the bronze? It looked like the dive was timed perfect to take 3rd!

[prporter1]

Not True. Virens pr was 13:16, and it was the world record.

[ctluba]

I was not aware that Viren had run a 13:16. When Pre cut 7 seconds off his PR at the olympic trials he and his coaches must have thought that the gold was in the bag! To better your PR by 7 seconds at that level of performance is unreal!! Anyway, we american fans are just trapped in our pain of what could have been. Maybe Pre would have dropped another 7 or 10 seconds!! That is just it, we will never know and have to live with that. Hats off to Viren the legend!!!

[prporter1]

I found the PR's of the other finalists in Montreal in 1976. If Pre would have won because of his 13:22 PR, then we need to look at the other runners Pr's as well...Hildenbrand's pr, 13:13. Dixon's pr, 13:17. Quax's pr, 13:12. Viren's pr, 13:16, and each of these runner's having a fantastic sprint finish. Brendan Foster was 5th, and had a pr of 13:14. If we want to use Pre's times, I am afraid that his times fall short of the first five runners.

[FinnMove]

It´s hard to understand this one.

But the British gentleman Brendan Foster

said afterwards that when he meets

Finnish SISU that will become the best

in the world.

[pjoscely]

Too bad there are no more great Finnish distance runners anymore. In truth though, outside of Africa there are no great distance runners at all.

[VirenKickedPresAss]

I just spent another hour google-ing Viren, blood doping, and couldn't find anything that said he was guilty. Nothing. Those of you that say it has been proven, can you please post the website? I would sure like to see it.

[blaspherion22]

he had more dope in him in 76!

[ctluba]

Viren is a great champion and you cannot take anything away from a man who wins two events at each Olympics, unreal, legend!!! The frustation with Pre fans is that Viren never did beat Pre's best 5000 meter time(13:21). If Pre just tied his PR he would have won in Munich by several meters! Of course the real pain and frustration is that we never saw what could have happened in 1976. Pre would have been at his peak age and would have won gold. But it is all just dreams now. GO PRE!!!!

[prporter1]

No, Viren's pr for 5000m is better then Pre's- 13:16, and this was the world record.

[Viren4Pre0]

Also, Quax and Dixon from NZ were alot faster than Pre as well.

[Viren4Pre0]

Remember people, Viren was faster in 76 than he was in 72, and had a faster mile than Pre.

[FinnMove]

No, I think Viren was in his element in 1972. He would have made amazing world records between 2 miles and 10000 metres if there had been a good

situation to fight against those numbers.

[Viren4Pre0]

I agree! I think he was unbeatable in his time period. Certainly, in a championship event when it counted.

[wallasky]

Excellent race for the bronze!!!

[Juddermouse]

I don't mean to be mean. Steve Prefontaine was indeed a great athlete.

Viren was double Olympic Champion twice over 5& 10K. He broke some of the best runners the world has ever seen. Olympic Games have seen many upsets. Pre would not have been a dead cert. The only US dead cert to me (as a Brit), Michael Johnson.

[smurphdog32]

Pre would have taken gold if he was still alive. Its ashame he never got another crack a Lasse. The outcome would have been different. Its a sad subject to talk about but Pre was great and would have gone to th 76 olympics to win.

[j0wled]

He'd have had a very good chance, but it wasn't guaranteed. There were a lot of good 5000m runners about... he may have been the favourite though.