Frank Shorter: From Olympic Champion to Anti-Doping Crusader

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In 1972, Frank Shorter won the gold medal in the men's Olympic marathon in Munich. No American man has captured the top spot since. He is also the only American athlete to win two medals in the Olympic marathon event; he took silver in 1976. Along with Steve Prefontaine, Shorter was the driving force in the running boom that swept this country in the 1970s and continues to this day. With these athletic credits to his name, Shorter was the chairman from 2000 to 2003 of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, a body that he helped to establish. His talk touches on marathoning and focuses on his work with the US Anti-Doping Agency, and how that work can and should be implemented across athletic disciplines and for varying levels of competition.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Frank Shorter
• Men's Olympics
• Marathon
• Munich
• Steve Prefontaine
• running
• athletes
• doping
• anti-doping agency
• Chicago Humanities Festival

[YiftertheShifter1]

@minolta7i No, this is not implausible. Endurance events (Tour de France, marathon running, ironman) can best be done on the mature legs of an athlete in their mid-30s. Gebreselassie had a lot of pace as a younger athlete and had the capacity to translate it into longer distance speed.

[MargaritasAntesPorco]

Frank has got to be one of the most articulate and bright guys in american track and field.

[minolta7i]

So, Frank maintains that these drugs work too well. Is he shooting arrows at someone like Haile Gebresalassie. He runs TWO world record marthons within in one year at 36-37 years old, after a very long and dominant career on the track. When I listen to Frank this kind of achievement would seem impossible!