Frank Charles Shorter was born on October 31,1947 and is an American former long-distance runner who won the gold medal in the marathon at the 1972 Summer Olympics and the silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
21 Facts About Frank Shorter
2.
Frank Shorter was born in Munich, Germany, where his father, physician Samuel S Shorter, served in the US Army.
3.
Frank Shorter grew up in Middletown, New York, where a street was named in his honor.
4.
Frank Shorter Way was formerly part of the Orange Classic 10K course route, which Shorter won in its inaugural race in 1981.
5.
Frank Shorter first achieved distinction by winning the 1969 National Collegiate Athletic Association six mile run title during his senior year at Yale.
6.
Frank Shorter won his first US national titles in 1970 in the three mile and six mile events.
7.
Frank Shorter won the US national cross-country championships four times.
8.
Frank Shorter was the US Olympic Trials champion in both the 10,000-meter run and the marathon in both 1972 and 1976.
9.
Frank Shorter won both the 10,000-meter run and the marathon at the 1971 Pan American Games.
10.
Frank Shorter was a four-time winner of the Fukuoka Marathon, generally recognized as the most prestigious marathon in the world at that time and held on a very fast course.
11.
Several months later, on March 18,1973, Frank Shorter won the elite Lake Biwa Marathon in 2:12:03.
12.
Frank Shorter won the prestigious 7-mile Falmouth Road Race on Cape Cod in 1975 and 1976 and Atlanta's 10-kilometer Peachtree Road Race in 1977.
13.
Frank Shorter achieved his greatest recognition in the marathon, and he is the only American athlete to win two medals in the Olympic marathon.
14.
Frank Shorter was not bothered by the silence from the crowd who had been duped into thinking that he was running for the silver medal.
15.
Frank Shorter was confident that he was going to win the gold medal because he knew that no competing runner had passed him.
16.
Frank Shorter received the James E Sullivan Award afterwards as the top amateur athlete in the United States.
17.
At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Frank Shorter dropped out of the 10,000 meters in order to concentrate exclusively on the marathon, winning the silver medal in the marathon and finishing behind previously unheralded Waldemar Cierpinski of East Germany.
18.
From 2000 to 2003, Frank Shorter was the chairman of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, a body that he helped to establish.
19.
Frank Shorter was featured as a prominent character, played by Jeremy Sisto, in the 1998 film Without Limits.
20.
Frank Shorter was the next to last person to see Prefontaine alive before he died in an automobile accident.
21.
Frank Shorter was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame in 1984, the USA National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1989, and the National Distance Running Hall of Fame in 1998.