Gerry lindgren article
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A Day Of Distance Running Magic For High School Boys, from 1964
From Walt Murphy. Shared with permission. Walt produces an info-rich daily ”This Day in T&F” newsletter. Contact him at waltmurphy44@gmail.com if you’d like to join his distribution list.
No question about what a historic year 2022 has been for mile and 800m performances by high school boys (and its far from over!), but let’s take a moment to marvel at what took place a lifetime ago in a single meet.
1964 – Two historic prep records were set at the Compton Invitational in California. First up was senior Gerry Lindgren (Rogers – Spokane, WA), who finished 4th in the 5000 meters with a time of 13:44.0, a U.S. High School Record that stood for 40-years until Galen Rupp ran 13:37.91 in 2004.
The winner of the 5000 was Bob Schul, whose time of 13:38.0 smashed Jim Beatty’s American Record of 13:45.0, which was set in 1962 (Lindgren was also under the previous AR!). Schul, of course, went on later in the year to win the gold medal in the 5000 at the Tokyo Olympic
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A LIFE ON THE RUN
A runner is a small-boned loner, built for flight and fantasy.
—DR. GEORGE SHEEHAN.
Twenty years ago, Gerry Lindgren was America's finest distance runner, a beloved and cheerful man. When his racing career ebbed, he settled with his wife Betty in Taco-ma, Wash., where he opened a running store. They had three children. Then, in 1980, he vanished.
Over the years, there were rumors of widely separated "sightings"—in Texas, in Hawaii—but Lindgren eluded all attempts by family, friends and reporters to find him. Where he had gone, and why, evolved into a perplexing mystery.
Lindgren was always delicate. Injuries kept him from two Olympics. An ulcer gnawed at him for most of his career. Yet he seemed to respond to every setback with jests and looniness. He was mysterious long before he disappeared, and central to his mystery, then and now, was the question of whether or not he was suffering.
I first saw him in the summer of 1963. He was breaking away from the start of an all-star high school mile in Eugene, Ore. I stood on the infield and I laughed at him, a spar
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Possibly America’s greatest ever high school distance runner, Gerry Lindgren first achieved international fame when he defeated two Soviets at the 1964 US-USSR meet over 10K. Considered a contender for the 1964 Olympic 10K, in which he competed just after high school graduation, he was hampered by a sprained ankle and finished ninth. Lindgren then attended Washington State and won 11 NCAA championships indoors, outdoors, and in cross-country, winning as follows: 1966: 3-mile, 6-mile, indoor 2-mile, Cross-country; 1967: 3-mile, 6-mile, indoor 2-mile, Cross-country; 1968: 5,000 metres, 10,000; and 1969: Cross-country. He was AAU 3-mile champion in 1967, and in the 1965 AAU 6-mile, he finished in a near dead-heat with Billy Mills, gold medalist in the 1964 10K, but they both finished in the world record time of 27:11.6, and shared the record.
In the 1980s, Lindgren later left the mainland, divorced his wife and left his family and settled in Hawai’i. He eventually became a track coach for the University of Hawai’i women’s team. Lindgren was one of the first runners who trained by at
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