Flashes of Panic

I just went to the IAAF website to check a statistic for a story (which I’m past deadline on) and discovered that Al Oerter died. The USATF release arrived in my inbox minutes later. Oerter probably isn’t a name that’s familiar to younger track fans—including my own generation—but the IAAF is calling him “the greatest athlete ever to compete in the men’s discus throw.” Oerter not only competed in four consecutive Olympics, beginning in Melbourne in 1956, he won four gold medals—setting Olympic records all four times. Twelve years after retiring in 1968, Oerter came back to contest the 1980 and 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials, and threw his best-ever mark in 1980 at age 43.

This morning, I had another press release in my email, noting the passing of Asics chairman Kihachiro Onitsuka. Again, longtime runners will see the resonance of that name: before Asics was created from the merger of several sporting goods firms, Onitsuka founded his own company to encourage Japanese youth in sports following the second World War. Onitsuka had a hand in the birth of two major running shoe companies, since Blue Ribbon Sports, the forerunner of Nike, was founded by Oregon’s Phil Knight to import and market Onitsuka’s Tiger running shoes in the USA.

Technorati Tags: al oerter, asics, athletics, discus, olympics, onitsuka, running, runningshoes, shoes