He didn’t become a statistic of promising collegiate runners who burn out and retire at 23. Highly intelligent, Shorter was accepted to Yale where he came under the tutelage of Bob Geigengack, who unlike many other collegiate coaches, was in favour of a long-term, soft approach to training.ĭuring his Yale years, Shorter never ran more than 50 miles per week until halfway through his final year. “I was inspired by Mills and Schul in 1964” – Frank Shorter Yale Days But it was the Tokyo Olympics of 1964 that inspired Shorter to take it more seriously. Shorter showed talent at school, finishing in respectable places with little training. He often ran two miles to and from school. “I liked the feeling the first time I ran, and I enjoyed the idea of being a bit unusual” - Frank Shorter 4 consecutive wins at the Fukuoka Marathon.Olympic Marathon Silver, Montreal 1976.Shorter’s famous victory at the 1972 Munich Olympic marathon created such a stir around the world, and in particular the United States, that Outside Magazine claimed that this wiry Yale graduate with a thick moustache “invented running”. A tough childhood instilled a sense of resilience that no doubt assisted Shorter when the going got tough during races.

By Frank Shorter.įrank Shorter played a big role in igniting the worldwide running boom of the 1970’s. My Marathon: Reflections on a Gold Medal Life.Running with the legends, by Michael Sandrock.“Running at its core, is really pretty basic if you train well and hard over a period of years and avoid injury, you are going to get better” - Frank Shorter © 2019 Runner’s Tribe, all rights reserved ‘The Inventor of Running’ - The Training of Frank Shorter

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