Olympic Photo: Steve Prefontaine & Lasse Viren

 


Below is a digital scan of a photo taken during one of the most electrifying 5,000m races in Olympic history at the 1972 Munich games.   Steve Prefontaine only 21 at the time leads most of the race following his own strategy, "running from behind is chicken sh#t".  Lasse Viren (228) is in second and would go on to win.  Prefontaine's untimely death in 1975 prevented a rematch between these two running legends.  Viren swept gold medals in the 5k and 10k in '72 and '76 Olympics establishing him as one of the greatest performers in Olympic history.  Viren is best known for his negative split running where each lap is faster than the one before.  In the 1976 5,000m finals for example, Viren's last 1500m would have placed him 8th in 1500m finals that year.  Many marveled at Viren's dominance in the middle distance running especially with having little to no racing experience in-between Olympics.  Viren was a full-time police officer in Finland who would take off work and train hard 1-2 years before the Olympics, often running in altitude in Costa Rica.  His favorite workouts were running trails in the Forests of Finland and sprinting the straights and jogging the curves on the track for miles.  The race between Viren and Prefontaine captivated the imagination of the running world and both would reach legendary status in their own unique ways.  

Just an awesome print of these two legends given to me by the best photographer I know, Greg Huey!  Will treasure this one for multiple reasons.  Thank you so much Greg!!!  What a daisy!

Olympic 5k, 1972:  Steve Prefontaine followed by Lasse Viren (courtesy of Greg Huey)





Popular posts from this blog

Young Great Horned Owls: Morning Walk, April 24

Image
  While walking through the frisbee gold course across the street in the morning, we happened to see a family of Great Horned Owls, first time I had ever seen in the wild.  The parents were off a ways watching, the two young ones were very high up in the largest tree on the course.  Got several good photos below all shot with similar settings at ISO 100 and 400mm.  We did run the images through Topaz Sharpen AI using a Standard setting of 14% to sharpen them up a bit as these were all hand held photos pretty far away. Years ago at Indiana Dunes I remember reading about the Great Horned Owl in one of their exhibits.  It said that their night vision was so good that they could hunt inside the Lucas Oil Stadium with only a single candle lit in the stadium.  Unbelievable night vision! 1/500, f8, ISO 100, 400 mm 1/200, f7.1, ISO 100, 400 mm 1/320, f6.3, ISO 100, 400 mm 1/320, f6.3, ISO 100, 400 mm
Read more

Topps Legend Series (First HOF Class, 1936)

Image
  Babe Ruth (6'2", 215 lbs):  2004 Topps Legend Series Back of card: "Babe Ruth, who did more than any other player to establish baseball as an American institution, is still considered by most the greatest slugger in history.  His 0.690 slugging percentage - buoyed by 714 HRs - remains a career record, achieved in an era when the league-wide mark was 0.404.  He retired in 1935 with a 0.345 AVG and 12 HR crowns." Babe Ruth:  First Class HOF (1936) From the 2004 Topps Legend Series.  Three of the five first Hall of Fame Class:  Ty Cobb (6'1", 175 lbs), Honus Wagner (5'11", 200 lbs) and Walter Johnson (6'1", 200 lbs).  Babe Ruth and Christy Mathewson are on their way. Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson
Read more