Olympic Pressure Gone : Now, Steve Cram Can Run for Fun

Steve Cram’s disastrous 1984 season ended with a silver lining, but now the British 1,500-meter Olympic star finds himself at a crossroads in his track career.

Cram, currently vacationing in the United States, said he was going to try his hand at the 5,000-meters in a few races this year on the European outdoor circuit. He also was planning to run a number of 3,000-meter races.

“I want to use this year to have a go at one or two (5,000s),” he said. “I want to run a 5,000 in our Three-Year Championships, but I’m not looking to move up in the near future. I just want to look at a gauge to see if it is a possibility.”

Cram was the toast of the track world in 1983. He won numerous races on the European circuit and topped off the year by defeating a field of the world’s best 1,500-meter runners at the first World Championships in Helsinki, Finland.

However, in 1984, Cram found himself struggling after a series of injuries. To add insult to the injuries, he was not originally chosen for the British Olympic team. Instead, Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett were picked alone to compete in the middle distance races.

To prove he belonged on the Olympic squad, Cram was forced to run a race in Britain while the British team was already in Los Angeles preparing for the Summer Games. He was given permission to compete and then made the most of it by winning a silver medal in the 1,500 meters behind Coe.

“That is the way track and field goes,” the British track star said of his troubles. “In 1983, everything was going well for me. In 1984, I had a lot of injury problems. I would have liked to have been there (in Los Angeles) in 100% shape, but I felt I was fortunate to come away with the silver.”

Cram said, with his injuries behind him, he is looking forward to this season.

“It’s a year when the pressure is off,” he said. “You can just go out and run the races you want to run and not worry about the trials and peaking at the right time.”

The British runner believes that the relaxation on the circuit may lead to faster times.

“I think more often than not, people end up running a fast time and you end up with more world records (in a post-Olympic year),” the 24-year-old said. “Look at 1981, it was a great year for world records.”

Cram said he has not seen a great deal of Ovett since the Olympics, but has heard rumors the British middle distance star is training hard once again. Ovett developed a lung problem at the Los Angeles Games and was forced to withdraw from the competition.

“I haven’t seen much of Steve at all this winter,” Cram said. “He was undergoing a lot of tests at the hospital to make sure everything was OK. But lately I’ve heard he is training very hard again. He certainly still is good enough to give us all some hard races.”

Cram said there are also a couple of promising youngsters coming up in the British club ranks that might well establish themselves in the upcoming outdoor season and challenge England’s big three.

“We have one youngster in my club by the name of David Sharpe who has done quite well,” Cram said. “He’s already run a 1:48.1 for 800 meters and 3:45 for the 1,500. He is running much faster than I or Steve Ovett did at his age. There is not reason to doubt that he will continue the British tradition of good miling if he keeps working hard.”

As for Cram, the British runner expects to be very busy this season on the European circuit.

“I’ve already mapped out a program of five or six 1,500 meters and one mile race,” he said of 1985. “The rest will be 3,000 or 5,000 meters. At the moment, I have 15 or 16 races planned, but that might change because the European circuit is so congested. I’ll also have to see how I feel.”