Runner's World Ranks 40 Most Influential People and Moments in Running Over the Past 40 Years
List featured in November issue

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Posted Wednesday, 25 October, 2006

Contact: Chris Brienza, (212) 808-1358; Chris.Brienza@Rodale.com

NEW YORK - (October 16, 2006) - American marathon legends Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers and Alberto Salazar, along with women's running pioneers including Grete Waitz, Joan Benoit Samuelson and Kathrine Switzer, are among the enduring names and moments named to Runner's World magazine's list of the 40 Most Influential People and Moments in Running over the past 40 years.

The list, featured in the current (November) issue of the magazine, was compiled in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of Runner's World, the largest running magazine in the world and the global authority on running information.

The list, which runs in chronological order and begins with Kansas teenager Jim Ryun's world record 3:51.3 mile in 1966, includes runners, coaches, doctors and business pioneers - and some who are nearly a combination of all four, such as Nike co-founder Phil Knight, his renowned Oregon coach, Bill Bowerman; marathoner / Power Bar founder Brian Maxwell and Marty Liquori, one of the world's top 1500 and 5000 meter runners as well as "the first businessman-runner," according to USA Track & Field CEO Craig Masback (himself a part of the list on the strength of his athletic and administrative successes).

The individuals and moments chosen were cited by Runner's World editors because of their "stunning achievements, inspiring ideas and bold exploits (that) were revolutionary in their time, but the true measure of their impact is their lasting legacy."

Among the male runners included are Shorter, the gold medal winner in the marathon at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich; Rodgers, who won four Boston Marathons and four straight NYC Marathons; Salazar, who won Boston and also joined Rodgers as one of only two men to ever win the NYC Marathon three straight years and Steve Prefontaine, the Oregon runner and U.S. Olympian who at one point held all seven U.S. records from 2000 thru 10,000 meters before his tragic death at age 24.

Benoit Samuelson, who won the first women's Olympic Marathon at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and also won Boston, Chicago and other major marathon titles, is among the women whose impact is cited on the Runner's World list. She is joined by Waitz, the winner of an unprecedented nine NYC Marathon titles; Switzer, the first woman to ever officially run the Boston Marathon in 1968 and the winner of the 1974 NYC Marathon and Nina Kuscsik, who captured both the Boston and New York City Marathons and whose activism on behalf of female athletes helped lead to the creation of the women's Olympic Marathon in 1984.

Alongside those indisputable running legends are some surprising names: Oprah Winfrey's 4:29 time at the 1994 Marine Corps Marathon certainly didn't challenge the race's elite runners, but it is credited with influencing the nation's female running boom that shortly followed, including a 25% increase in female entrants into the next year's Marine Corps Marathon. Likewise, Rosie Ruiz is most closely associated with her bogus "win" at the 1980 Boston Marathon, but it was because of her chicanery that race checkpoints (including video) and computerized tracking systems were soon incorporated into road racing.

Also included are several individuals who helped spark running's growth throughout the country by their actions, words or both. Author Jim Fixx spawned perhaps the nation's biggest-ever running boom when he wrote The Complete Book of Running, which at the time of its publication in 1977 became the best-selling hardcover nonfiction book ever. New York City Marathon race director Fred Lebow helped found the race in 1970, expanded it to include all five NYC boroughs in 1976 and grew it into the largest marathon in the world and the late George Sheehan, M.D. created a huge, devoted following with his musings on running and life, including a New York Times number one bestseller (Running and Being) in 1978.

The final noteworthy moment over the past 40 years listed by Runner's World: the 2004 Olympic Marathon medals by Meb Keflezighi (silver) and Deena Kastor (bronze), which revived U.S. standing in international distance running as the U.S. became the only country to medal in both marathons.

For more information on the list, visit: RunnersWorld.com or get your copy today at newsstands.

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