Photo: Larry Sharkey, Los Angeles Times / CC BY 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)

Steve Prefontaine

スティーブ・プリフォンテーン　/　すてぃーぶ・ぷりふぉんてーん

American long-distance runner

January 25, 1951 – May 30, 1975　・　Coos Bay, Oregon, United States

Oregon
long-distance runner
athletics competitor

My Take

Prefontaine is one of those athletes whose myth outgrew his short life, and I find that genuinely moving rather than tragic clickbait. A kid from tiny Coos Bay who rewrote every American record from 2,000 to 10,000 meters, then died at 24 with the 1976 Olympics still ahead of him. What grabs me is his style: he refused to sit and kick, he led from the front and dared the pain to catch him. That honesty is rare. Decades on, runners still invoke his name, and I think it is because he ran like he had nothing to hide.

Overview

Steve Roland Prefontaine (January 25, 1951 – May 30, 1975) was an American long-distance runner who set American records at every distance from 2,000 to 10,000 meters from a period of 1973 to 1975. He competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics, and he was preparing for the 1976 Olympics with the Oregon Track Club at the time of his death in 1975.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

1. Profile

Name (English): Steve Prefontaine
Name (Japanese): スティーブ・プリフォンテーン
Reading: すてぃーぶ・ぷりふぉんてーん
Born: January 25, 1951 – May 30, 1975
Zodiac / Chinese zodiac: Aquarius / Rabbit
Origin: Coos Bay, Oregon, United States
Blood type: Private
Height: 175 cm
Agency: Private
Occupation: long-distance runner / athletics competitor

2. Background

Elementary school: Private
Junior high: Private
High school: Marshfield High School
University: University of Oregon

3. Relationships

Spouse: Private
Children: Private
Parents: Private
Siblings: Private

4. Personality

Motto

Private

6. Links

Official sitehttps://www.prefontainerun.com/
Wikipedia (Japanese)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve%20Prefontaine

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