Great Scott!

When Steve Scott was among the world’s best middle-distance runners in the 1980s, people occasionally questioned his courage.

He never won the big race, they said. No Olympic gold medal. No world championships.

No one questions Scott’s courage now. They applaud his comeback, less than two years after surgery for testicular cancer.

Scott turns 40 on May 5, an age when most runners are retired from serious competition. They’ll run to stay fit, but no grandiose ambitions about trying to qualify for the U.S. Olympic trials or break the world Masters record for the mile.

Those, however, are Scott’s goals.

“There’s a lot of inspiration involved in trying to make it to the trials (at Atlanta in June),” Scott said. “But it’s more personal than anything.

“A lot of people said I can’t do it. For what I’ve been through, people say I’m stupid to even try.

“But I look at Nolan Ryan for inspiration, for what he accomplished when he was past 40. He was an inspiration to middle-age America. You’re not dead (athletically) at that age.”

Scott’s goals are difficult. But nothing will be as difficult as the surgery he underwent for his cancer.

“The cancer was beyond my control,” he said. “I prepared for it (the operation) as though it were an Olympic final.”

After the left testicle was removed, Scott had to wait anxiously to find out the kind of cancer he had. It turned out it was embryonal seminomal carcinoma--the worst, because it moves from the testicles to the lungs.

Scott had two options. He could wait and see if the cancer had spread to his lungs. If it had, he would have to undergo chemotherapy.

The second option was to remove the lymph nodes from the reproductive system to the lungs, getting rid of the cancercous cells before they reached the lungs.

He chose the lymphectomy.

Doctors cut a 12-inch space up to the middle of his chest and removed 35 lymph nodes from his groin to his lungs.

“The after-effects were brutal,” he said. “For two weeks, I had a high fever and couldn’t eat, drink or sleep.”

But operation was successful--no cancer cells were discovered.

“The doctors were pretty sure it’s done,” Scott said. “They didn’t see any cells. I’m 100% OK now.”

Still, Scott has blood tests and X-rays every two months to make certain that nothing else goes wrong, that he remains in remission. Had the surgery been unsuccessful, then he would have needed chemotherapy.

So, he is training regularly and looking forward to a summer of major accomplishments. He isn’t foolish enough to envision a gold in the 1,500 meters at the Atlanta Games, but just qualifying for the trials and breaking Eamonn Coghlan’s Masters’ mile record of 3 minutes, 58.15 seconds, would give him extreme gratification.

He will attempt to meet the provisional trials qualifying time of 3:42 at a low-key meet at Santa Monica, Calif., May 12. Two weeks later, at the Prefontaine Classic at Eugene, Ore., he will go for Coghlan’s record, and try to become the first sub-four minute Masters’ miler outdoors.

Coghlan’s record was set two years ago on an indoor track at Cambridge, Mass.

“I first ran against Eamonn in 1976 at the NCAA Championships,” Scott said. “I’ve been chasing him for 20 years.

“The only two times I won the Wanamaker Mile (in 1982 and 1984 at the Millrose Games), he didn’t run. I was happy he broke four minutes . . . I hope I have what it takes to take the record away from him. Now, I have one more race against him . . . to get his mile record. Hopefully, it will be this summer.”

Scott is the U.S. indoor mile record-holder (3:51.8) and the U.S. outdoor mile record-holder (3:47.69). Only four people each--Coghlan, Noureddine Morceli, Marcus O’Sullivan and Ray Flynn indoors, and Morceli, Steve Cram, Said Aouita and Sebastian Coe outdoors--have run faster.

Scott also has run 136 sub-four minute miles, more than any runner in history. He has run the most sub-four minute indoor miles, 46, one more than O’Sullivan. And he has run eight sub-3:50 miles, one less than the record of nine by Morceli.

His best finish in an Olympics or a world championship was second in the 1,500 at the 1983 worlds.

Now, past his peak, Scott is making some concessions to age.

“My training’s going great, but I’m taking it slow,” he said. “I don’t see myself coming around so quick.

“It used to be that when I ran 64- or 65-second quarters, it was like a jog. Now, it feels like a 60.”

Even if he doesn’t break Coghlan’s record or qualify for the Olympic trials, Scott will not quit running.

“Whether I run well again or not, I’ll always compete, simply because I love the thrill of it,” he said. “My goals won’t be the same, but that’s OK.

“If you enjoy running as much as I do, what’s wrong with continuing to do it even if you no longer are one of the best?”