"I don't want to win unless I know I've done my best, and the only way I know how to do that is to run out front, flat out until I have nothing left. Winning any other way is chicken shit."
He was an odd looking boy. Skinny to an almost unhealthy extent, with one leg longer than the other and straggly hair that had never seen a shower, he also had the sort of moustache that only men in their late teens and very early twenties struggle to glow. But when he ran...
Steve Prefontaine was perhaps track and field's first rock star. This isn't because of the way he overindulged, although he did run with a hangover on occasion. Rather it was to do with the way he captured the public's imagination. A German-speaking kid from Coos Bay, Oregon, he didn't go out of his way to court attention, even though he was somewhat rebellious. However, the way he set about his running - always at the head of the field, always going flat out - made him the sort of athlete crowds wanted to cheer for.
Throw in the hair, the fact he wore what'd become the most fashionable training shoe on the planet and the small matter of Tom Cruise wanting to play him on screen and you might start to understand why, despite never winning a medal at the Olympics, Steve Roland Prefontaine continues to have a hold on the collective memory of athletics' fans the world over.
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