ONCE IN 119 YEARS
In 1904 American runner Thomas Hicks won the Olympic marathon. During the next 119 years, right up to the present 2023, only one American male, Frank Shorter, won it again. It was 1972 in Munich and was carried live on TV. His win was so widely publicized that he was labeled “the man who invented the marathon.”
Shorter was born in Germany while his father, an Army doctor, was stationed there. When he was back in the U.S., he participated in a variety of sports but showed no outstanding talent. After high school, he just briefly attended medical school, as he found it took too much time away from his new-found passion: running. Shorter’s running times on the track and cross country eventually improved to the point where he realized he might make the 1972 American Olympic marathon team. He switched to law school and found it fit into his running schedule quite well. Roger Bannister was also a med
student when he broke the 4-minute barrier for the mile, but training for the marathon is more time-consuming than training for the mile. Frank was running up to twenty miles per day split
into two sessions, with law school classes sandwiched in between. He found these classes relaxing and a stress-relieving break from all the running.
Before the win in Munich, he ran 13 marathons, winning 11 and placing second in two. He sometimes trained at altitude but found it took two weeks to regain full speed after returning to low ground. He often raced a 10K per week and raced one five days before the Olympics.
The 1972 Olympics were marred by terrorists who stormed the Olympic Village killing 11 Israeli athletes and one German policeman. Frank thought the games would be canceled and was expecting to go home. Instead, they were simply delayed one day. His plan was to surge early, and he did so at 9 miles. He knew there were many twists and turns, after that point, and followers would not be able to see him. He believed he was running 4:33 per mile at that point. He entered the stadium more than two minutes before the next finisher, but there were no cheers. An imposter had jumped on the track and crossed the finish line first, causing confusion among the crowd. In 1984 when Joan Benoit became the first and only American woman to win the marathon, there was wild cheering. Frank said he was not bothered by the confusion at the finish. He won in 2:12:19.
Now, 50 years after his historic win, he was interviewed on the phone by Alex Ashlock of the New York Times. At 75, Shorter occasionally runs 4 to 5 miles, but most days jog-walks. He still trains two hours per day with weights, core work and spinning on a bike. He was actually speed-walking at the time of the phone call. He ended it by saying, “There are just certain people who love a certain kind of motion or sport and need to do it for a certain amount of time every day.”
Frank Shorter’s one-of-a-kind Olympic marathon win truly ranks among the greatest in American sports history and will long be remembered.
Sam Graceffo, MD