zmeg

It seems to me that Steve Prefontaine merits a high quality biography. His story is the stuff of legends, so much so that high school cross-country kids wear "Pre Lives" shirts from Nike not fully aware of who the guy is. For five years, Pre remained undefeated in the U.S. at any distance over one mile. He ran two 10K races. In the first, he set the American record. He never won on the biggest international stage, the Olympics, but he had the unfortunate timing of being at Munich and he died before his probable prime. And, ironically, his next Olympics would have been none at all because he would join the other infuriated American athletes who would have to miss the Olympics because they were in the Soviet Union and the U.S. boycotted them. He's not the only athlete to run his mouth with an arrogance that some love and others cringe at, but he's really the first runner to bring a blood and guts toughness to distance running. He is also the first athlete-promoter for a company (in this case, Nike), and he led the fight to end "shamateurism", the Olympic and AAU rules that treated athletes like crap, expecting them to somehow train full-time and not get paid for running in races. But this biography is very disappointing. I don't think a non-runner would bother reading through this flavorless endless list of split times and workout routines, and any runner would be bored and disappointed to see such a legendary figure turned into numbers. You receive little to no window into what Steve Prefontaine the man was like. I know he was no Da Vinci, but his life outside of track was interesting and it is barely mentioned in his biography. The end of the book is moving, but that is because the story is so sad, not because of Tom Jordan's writing. The whole thing reads like a just-the-facts AP article. Pre deserves much more.

2023-05-29 15:12