Distance Running: a Foreign Affair : Scott Has Stood Almost Alone Against Thundering Horde

There’s the Irish Brigade, the collection of accomplished Irish middle distance runners led by Eamonn Coghlan.

And there are the enduring British runners, Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett, who took turns holding the world record in the mile that now belongs to a younger countryman, Steve Cram.

But where are the Americans?

It seems that Steve Scott alone endures. He has been America’s top miler for the last 10 years and with the exception of South African-born Sydney Maree and Jim Spivey, there are no other world-class American milers.

Jim Ryun held the mile record for nine years until it was broken in 1975. More than a decade has passed and the record has been passed around strictly among foreigners.

Moreover, no American holds a world record from 800 meters through 10,000 meters. It’s different in the sprints and hurdles, America’s provinces.

Coghlan, 34, who will compete at 2,000 meters in The Times/GTE Indoor Games Friday night at the Forum, says there are several factors contributing to the paucity of world renowned American middle and longer distance runners.

“We (in Ireland) just don’t have the modern conveniences that the people here in the United States are brought up under from the time they’re born,” he said. “We had to grow up under a tough kind of regimen. We didn’t get things too easy, so maybe it makes you a little tougher.”

Another track dinosaur, New Zealand’s John Walker, 35, who will also run the 2,000-meters, agrees with Coghlan.

“If you look at the present-day athletes who are world record-holders, you’ll find that Steve Cram didn’t have it easy when he was being brought up,” Walker said. “The same goes for Said Aouita of Morocco. As for the Kenyans and Ethiopians, they don’t basically have a pair of shoes. Still, they run to school.

“In New Zealand, a lot of athletes were brought up on farms. They traditionally had to run wherever they wanted to go. They weren’t taken by car. They didn’t get their first car until they were in their mid-20s because they couldn’t afford one.

“Whereas, a lot of teen-agers have a car here, or if they don’t have one their parents take them to and from school.”

The signal here is that some American youngsters are drivers, not runners. Still, they excel in other sports, so why not middle distance running?

“They have the pressure of football, basketball and baseball with all the million-dollar contracts out there for young people,” Coghlan said. “Track and field is looked upon as a high school, or college event in the States. It’s not a professional sport in the general public’s eye.”

But it is in fact. That’s why Coghlan, Walker, Scott and others continue to compete into their 30s. The liberalized amateur rules provide more than sufficient financial inducement.

Still, Coghlan points out that young athletes here are not as aware of the benefits of a track career as they are of the more popular sports in the United States.

“An example would be squeezing five minutes of track and field into the halftime television broadcast of the Lakers-Celtics game Sunday,” Coghlan said. “They made a joke of the event at the Meadowlands (the Olympic Invitational meet).

“I think it’s up to television and the media not to worry about every second on television being worth $100,000, but to realize track and field is a great sport.”

Coghlan also said that there is too much pressure put on American athletes to excel in high school and college without any long-range program.

“That same pressure doesn’t exist in Britain and Ireland,” Coghlan said. “That’s why runners in their mid- or late-20s are able to mature fresher and perform much better, while a kid from high school, or college in the States is all burned out at that stage and is not able to progress when he’s mature enough to do it.

“It would be better if the kids were brought along in high school and college to mature later on down the road, rather than being rushed into it.”

Coghlan said that if the system were geared to producing world-class runners, there would be an abundant crop of accomplished American milers.

But right now, the foreigners dominate.

“After all, there are 250 million people in the United States compared to 3 1/2 million in Ireland and 3 1/2 million in New Zealand,” Coghlan said.

Then, he added, smiling: “And we can still beat the socks off the Americans.”