While I cannot say I am a big track and field fan, I do recognize the name Steve Prefontaine and knew that he is considered a legend in the sport. It’s hard to believe he’s been gone 50 years - and was very glad to be able to obtain a copy of this book. Here is my review of “The Front Runner.”
Title/Author: “The Front Runner: The Life of Steve Prefontaine” by Brendan O’Meara
Rating: 5 of 5 stars (excellent)
Review: Steve Prefontaine holds an almost godlike status in the sport of track and field. This despite the fact that he did not win a medal of any type in the one Olympics event in which he competed as Olympic medals are usually the standard by which the legend of a runner will be set. This book by Brendan O’Meara, published 50 years after his tragic death at age 24 in a car accident, does a fantastic job of describing WHY “”Pre”, as he was called by his many fans, attained such status and also delves into his short life in great detail.
Prefontaine’s early life was marked by divorce and abuse but there was a special bond between him and his half sister Neta (he also has a full blooded sister Linda) in which Neta protected the younger Steve. When Neta left home, Steve started running and from that time Steve was a running machine. In junior and senior high school, Steve very rarely lost a race, was maniacal about his training and his goal and was brash enough to announce what records he’ll break and what he will do (strategy) to accomplish this.
It helped that aside from travel for international meets, Steve’s residence his entire life was in Oregon, a state where track and field is as important a sport as football is in Texas or basketball is in Indiana. His high school career, as well as that at the University of Oregon, is covered in great detail by O’Meara. This is aided by the many fascinating stories that friends, teammates and opponents of Prefontaine shared.
It should also be noted that Prefontaine was the first star athlete featured by an upstart shoe company making mostly running shoes with a new name: Nike. Long before Michael Jordan, Phil Knight realized the power that a star like Prefontaine would bring to sales and O’Meara gives the reader a good portrayal of that aspect of Prefontaine and the start of the Nike brand with its famous “swoosh.” It’s called that because it’s the sound of a runner passing by others.
The one Olympics event for Steve, the 5000 meters, was and still is considered both a triumph and a defeat. The latter, of course, because he finished fourth and out of medal contention. But given his strong running that briefly gave him the lead and the will to exert himself so much when his body was not cooperating was considered to be greatness seen and upon reflection, he took that view away. This is in line with the training and runs he would do regularly. The description of these is another excellent aspect of the book.
Readers already knowledgeable about Prefontaine, whether old enough to have seen him or through hearing stories about him, might be familiar with much of the material, but not matter one’s knowledge or fandom of “Pre”, this is a book that is well worth the time to read about a runner whose name still represents greatness 50 years after his death.
I wish to thank Mariner Books for providing a copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.
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