Viren,Gammoudi,Stewart,Prefontaine:5000m Final,1972 Olympic Games,Munich

Defending 5000 metres champion ,the great Tunisian runner Mohamed Gammoudi ,at the age of 34,knew this was going to be his final track race ,and,having fallen in the 10K ,forcing him to drop out ,wanted to finish his career with one last gold. Up against him were a new generation of athletes,including the gold and silver medalists from the 10000 metres race earlier in the week,Finland's Lasse Viren(aged 23)and Belgian Emiel Puttemans(25 ),both of whom would lower the 5000 metre WR in the weeks after the Games. Also in the field were Britons Ian Stewart (23 )who had already won European and Commonwealth golds at this distance, future 10K world record holder Dave Bedford(22 ).and American hopeful Steve Prefontaine (21) . Also lining up were the Fin,Juha Vaatainan ,who had blistered his way to a European 5/10 K double just the year before and the German Harald Norpoth ,who'd won silver at this distance in the '64 Olympics .In the end Viren made it all look too easy, out sprinting Gammoudi down the home stretch to take the gold and thus complete the historic 5/10K double,whist Stewart had to make do with bronze with a mad dash at the line to pass a fading Prefontaine.Final thought:probably lucky for some,a future champion over this distance,Ethiopian Mirus Yifter,was mysteriously a DNS...he might have made a difference!

[@tommytempo1]

Commentator David Coleman at his peak. 👍

[@airingcupboard1187]

This is my earliest sporting memory - I had just turned 6 when I saw this on TV - but it wasn't those who finished in the medals that has been seered into my memory for decades but the last three runners in - the 2 Brits with the classic hooped vest(Bedford and Mcafferty) running across the line together, then the final finisher with a distinctive running style and mutton chops. For nearly half a century I have remembered his look but not his name, only finding out last year it was Juha Väätainen

[@PaulVinonaama]

Väätäinen was the best in the world in the previous year (1971), won two European Championships. Here he was troubled with lumbago, I think.

[@eliot7964]

Good quality of film.

[@GeoAce777]

Ten Nations represented here, just wow

[@timberry8427]

This Race should be watched by Distance Runners who aspire to do their very Best...*The Competitive Era in Earlier Times!* Enjoy the Beautiful Athletic Strides & Change of paces!

[@capt.lovestarii2752]

Pre was plucky but unlucky but , you know, Gamoudi and Stewart were pretty special too. As for Viren, well he had it in his blood, didn't he.

[@btqy]

lol

[@Ruda-n4h]

I stand corrected although I still couldn't see him winning in Montreal.

[@oleggorky906]

Lol! I see what you did there. Blood transfusions and all that. Not illegal then; but immoral … or at least so in the opinions of the New Zealanders, Dick Quax and Rod Dickson, who were both expected to beat him in the 1976 5,000 metres race. They finished second and fourth, respectively. For the uninitiated, it worked something like this: a pint of the athletes blood was removed a couple of weeks before a race. Then, just before the race, the red cells are put back into the athlete, whose body had already recovered and made good the loss; that meant that he\she had extra haemoglobin and thus, extra reserves of strength. Viren always denied it. Those who are sceptical would say that there were other times between the 1972 and 1976 Olympics when his performances weren’t so good, with him oddly improving dramatically, right before the biggest event in track & field sports on the planet. As for the gutsy Steve Prefomtaine, who is said to be the first athlete to endorse NIKE, sadly he was killed in a car crash in 1975.

[@bawlibuch]

Hey do you want to sell your KZbin channel

[@Николай-р7р4з]

В великой стране были великие спортсмены!

[@crashdavis721]

Pre was a gutsy little bugger, beaten only by experience and not heart

[@bradgross6138]

you dont think VIren had as much talent as Pre? i love Pre but lets get real.

[@Ruda-n4h]

@@bradgross6138 Prefontaine was a big fish in a small pond, the greatest American distance runner on the track but overrated at the highest level.

[@bradgross6138]

@@Ruda-n4h i agree with you. Pre was a gutsy character but Lasse Viren's achievements stand alone

[@MyChristine6]

You are being disingenuous to Ian Stewart, he showed plenty of guts and determination.

[@Ruda-n4h]

@@MyChristine6 Bad tactics at the bell let him down and he should have won the silver at least.

[@Ruda-n4h]

Prefontaine was a big fish in a small pond but overrated at the highest level. His actual times were not particularly fast by international standards, but he made his reputation due to racing against lower quality (at that time) fields in America and his rebel image with the media. When he came over to Europe for the Munich Olympics his lack of experience against the top racers and naïve tactics cost him the bronze medal in the 5000m. Had he competed in Montreal it is likely that he would have finished 4th again, as he did not have the 1500m speed of the kickers. Had he lived he would probably have been better off concentrating on the Marathon where his lack of basic speed would not have been a handicap.

[@broke_runner6953]

Absolutely not. What the others had pre made up for on work rate. He was underrated if anything and he was just a bairn to the sport at the age of just 21. Way ahead of his time and could have achieved so much more on the international scene.

[@rentslave]

Track and Field News picked him to win.

[@bror8228]

@@broke_runner6953 He was just a joke...big in mouth but a loser on track...like the most of Americans...

[@garyrowlatt1932]

Experience it’s all I hear from certain people . The guy ran his way , a way none of us coukd ever achieve

[@Ruda-n4h]

@@garyrowlatt1932 But not the right way --certainly not in Munich.