Without a doubt Lasse Viren was the greatest distance runner of the 1970ties. As a German I do apreciate, that Klaus-Peter Hildenbrand won the bronce medal. I personly believe, that he had not to dive in order to do so. It is a pity that Rod Dixon was not rewarded here. He was a very talented and nice athlete.
Magnificent Lasse Viren. His coach instructed him to hit the front with 800 metres to go and not let anyone go past him. The way how he out kicked all those fast finishers was simply magnificent. One of my all time favourite races. Cannot believe it that in a few months it will be 43 years since this epic race.
i guess Im asking the wrong place but does anybody know a way to log back into an Instagram account?? I stupidly lost the account password. I love any assistance you can give me
@Carlos Henry Thanks for your reply. I got to the site through google and Im trying it out atm. Takes a while so I will get back to you later with my results.
The greatest 5000m ever. Viren totally controlled the race and thus succeeded in the most successful lesson of speed killing tactics ever by starting the end game at 800m point. At this point in his career he was running over 8000km every year and most of those kilometers he ran in the most punishing of weathers and surfaces. Crazy.
For the last 600 metres, every successive 100 metre segment is quicker than the one before. That's serious cojones, to run the kick out of the fast finishers like that. Watching someone make the long run for home like Viren is about the most thrilling thing in athletics. Chapeau to him. Quax, Dixon and Hildebrand are FLYING over that last 300, and still they can't get past him. What a legend.
Katsottiin aikanaan kapakassa tuo juoksu. Olihan jännää: Miehet hakkasi nyrkillä pöytiin, lasit tippuivat pöydiltä, tuolit kaatuivat ja kaikki huusivat. Tarjoilijatkin itkivät ilosta...
My humble opinion on this. This is the most heroic, gusty, and brilliant run by Viren. Sisu, yes, helps. But it was a combination of many factors. Viren was slight, lithe, tough-minded. With a slippery and most economical stride (which made Puttemans want to puke), and he tactically ran always close to the inside edge of the track, limiting his distance run compared to others who run in the second and third lanes, especially on turns, so he ran the shortest distance. Next, training. Huge mileage base, based on Lydiard. Massive amounts of running---in winter. Then high altitude training in South America, in the mountains, hill-work. And then little to no racing, over the years, in order to peak, at the right time. And lastly, speed work. Viren said in Montreal that someone would have to run 13:05 to beat him. He knew exactly what his capability was. In this case, with fast 1500 meter runners in the race, he switched tactics. What no one expected. It was a last minute plan by coach. it killed the legs of the kickers. No one---no one---was prepared, no one had done his training. It was the same plan with Pekka Vasala. He did hill training in New Zealand that would have killed anyone else (getting his heart rate above 200 beats per minute). He came prepared to win. Toughest conditioning, plus speed work. That is the Finnish ethos. HARD WORK. Confidence, toughness, intelligence. It takes the fearlessness of a Finn to do this. Yifter appreciated Viren. That is why he was prepared for Viren in Moscow. Pure speed of his kick, to beat Viren. Viren unfortunately was injured, and his training was too late, and did not have enough rest, and not sufficient time to do the proper speed work. Had Viren not been injured, not had surgery, been healthy, rested, and with sufficient speed-work, it would have been a different outcome. Hard luck that year. As for Finns, today? They are too soft, spoiled, and do not have good coaching anymore. As someone has remarked---hard to train on one's own. Definitely. Pride in country is gone. No government backing. Western materialism, morality, emasculation of men, laziness, and effeminacy and cowardice, is why there are no great runners anymore. Boys want to grow up and be millionaire hockey players in the NHL, I guess. Same in cross-country skiing. Save for Ivo Niskanan (and Krista Parmakoski). His win, like Viren's 5000 in Montreal, was "superhuman" (the Norwegians were in awe). Great runners are coming from Africa. Poor nations. They know what it is to struggle. Mind over matter.
If I may add. Jim Ryan--had he not fallen in the heats and made it to the final---would not have been able to beat Vasala in the Munich 1500 meters. Vasala was tough and had 800 speed (he had run 1:44 before the games). Jim Ryan was plagued by psychological troubles (speedy Coe managed to overcome his cowardice and stupidity in competition to win his gold medals), and had left his best racing behind him, as a young man. He had burned out from the heavy and intense training he had done at so young. So time had passed him by. And he was better suited to the softer, looser, cinder tracks of the 1960's, he ran his records on, suited to his lanky loose stride. He never ran well on the harder, rubberized tracks. Snell, too. His 800 meter world record was run on grass, and his gold medals on cinder. Times change and so do runners. Look at the Norwegian, Jacob Ingebrigtsen, now. Astounding for his age.
Again---Vasala had the most perfect form and stride---upright, elegant, pure. A thoroughbred. As was Viren's smooth, slippery stride perfect for distance running. As Boit is an anomaly. The Steve Prefontaine case is unwinnable. His tactic was always to lead and win from the front, which does not work well in Olympics. Overrated, for sure. His best times were simply not good enough.
The wonderful thing about this clip is the fact that even the Finnish commentator himself did not seem to believe his own man could win until about 50m out. The formidable group of former milers he had to outkick makes this one of the best races of all time for suspense.
Want to know something even more amazing? Viren's schedule: July 23: 10000m heats- 3rd- 28:14.95 July 26: 10000m final- 1st- 27:40.38 July 28: 5000m heats- 4th- 13:33.39 July 30: 5000m final- 1st- 13:24.76 July 31 (18 hours!): Marathon- 5th- 2:13.10 So he ran over 72,200 meters, or 44.87 miles of olympic competition, more than anybody has ever done before or since. Remarkably he ran in a 2 mile race four days after the marathon and placed 3rd (marathoners usually take 2 weeks off).
That's just nuts, really. But even more nuts was his training schedule: over 8000km a year. And the environment he trained in the Finnish forests in the freezing cold winters was just another crazy aspect. Most of those other runners wouldn't last two hours in those places.
Viren joutuu viimeisellä 200 metrillä ahtaammalle kuin kolmessa aikaisemmassa olympiajuoksussaan yhteensä. Hildenbrand pääsee melkein tunkemaan iholle, joten pitääkseen strategisesti tärkeän sisäradan hallussaan Viren iskee viimeisen kirivaihteen silmään. Vauhtia ei pysty enää lisäämään, nyt on maksimit pytyssä. Quax lähtee polkemaan kevyellä jalalla ja aikoo ratkaista pelin loppusuoralla, jonka alussa Anssi Kukkonen selostamossa ei vieläkään usko Myrskylän miehen voittoon ("Onko hänen kirinsä sittenkään tarpeeksi voimakas?"). 60 metriä ennen maalia peli on vielä auki: Viren painaa nasta laudassa, mutta Quax ei ota tippuakseen, joskaan ei saa senttiäkään enää kiinni. Kaikkien aikojen kovin taktiikkajuoksu.
Viren maalissa kävelee rennosti, "kävin tuossa päivälenkillä". Vielä olisi ollut värkeissä varaa. At Lassen Vire's after run, "I went there for a day training run". There would still be capacity until the end, if only for that.
Joka kerta kun tämän katson niin se tuntuu lähes yhtä jännittävältä kuin silloin 1976 kun pikkupoikana näitä tapahtumia töllöstä seurattiin. Kiitos Lasse! Tämä Montrealin 5000 metriä oli kyllä sellainen paukku että alta pois.
Like many others, the greatest race I ever saw. "Here come the big New Zealanders" said David Coleman, or something similar. Viren did the hard yards in training and had consummate will to win. Very tragic the American athlete had lost his life. We cannot know how he may have performed. The stats would suggest outside the medals. Some of the comments on her are delusional and almost disrespectful of Viren's legacy, and indeed Prefontaine's own. Bizarre.
Yes, just like Bill Rodgers with long legs / 38in inseam and a tiny upper body /chasis and small hips. Barely touching the ground! POetry in motion like Seb Coe who also had 38in inseam at 5ft 9in and 114lb!! They seem to float over the ground with their feet barely touching the ground!! Their legs / heart = Engine
I think the ironic thing about this race is that it was the opposite of the 1972 5000-meter race. In Munich he had to worry about the frontrunners (Pre and Bedford). In Montreal he had to worry about the kickers. So what did he do? Exactly what Pre failed to do in '72 because of a poor race plan by Bowerman: Viren wore out the kickers by forcing the pace early. I mean Viren was a supreme tactician. He could read a race early on and control the outcome.
@@Tehui1974 To be precise, Rod Dixon took 4th place in this race, but had already received bronze in Munich '72 in 1500 meters. Which was won by another Finn of course: Pekka Vasala.
I can't imagine how Pre could have beaten Viren. Watching this race over and over and over makes me wonder how anybody could have beaten Viren on this day. Very much comparable to Bekele's recent 5000m victory in Berlin (which even Brendan Foster compared that race to this one).
Enough with the Pre-would-have-won already. For a start, it's nonsensical; no-one can ever know, so it's unprovable either way. The only facts are that Viren held off a bunch of quicker finishers, trained exclusively for the Olympics, was tough as old boots and tactically very smart too. This was his fourth Olympic title. That's seriously impressive; double the amount of a legend like Seb Coe. Viren is a worthy champion, one of the all-time greats. End of.
I really admire Steve Prefontaine's will in distance running. I don't know his complete lifestory, but in my opinion he gave his life for running. Can't imagine how he felt after finishing 5 000m in Munchen 1972. That defeat must have felt so bitter for him. And must say that I feel so sorry for his early death in 1975. He really tried to make for the Olympic Games in Montreal 1976, but destiny did change everything. Well...for the end..just hoping there will be new runners for US and Finland :)
superman Viren.They all had a go at trying to get past him and none of them could.he led for the whole of the last 1000m and ran them into the ground.best mens 5000m ever.
I met him too in 1973 in Helsinki in Pukeva. I was the abot eight years old and Viren promoted his new book Kullatut Sekunnit. My father asked then how about the secon time for gold medals ? Lasse answered that there are so many tuff runners, I don´t know. But this was the result.
Lasse Viren refused to lose! He trained harder and raced even smarter than everyone else!! Viren was a winner just like Rocky Marciano!! Both of these athletes were tougher than everyone else!!
As for all the Pre debate on this thread, let's just say that we'll never know, but the fact that Viren had won three Olympic golds before this race suggests he knew his way round an Olympic final. Like Armstrong in the Tour, this was his turf. This was what he lived for. Very, very hard to beat a guy who thinks like that and trains exclusively for it.
The 1973 race with Harald Norpoth showed where Pre stood relative to the world elite, pushing Norpoth to his lifetime best (he had to "bleed for it") but hardly emerging as a dominant force internationally. The 5K WR was down to 13:13 in 1972 with Pre still working hard at 13:22. His 10K record under the conditions it was run may have been worth a sub 27:40 time when the WR was at 27:30.8. Indisputably a great competitor, arguably the greatest American, but no more can be reasonably claimed.
When Prefontaine was competing in Europe 1972-74, he lost almost all the races. There was always someone who was better. Norpoth won him, Puttemans, Foster, Dixon, even norwegian Knut Kvalheim. That means he just could´n´t win if there was world class runners against him.
2 funny(?) points: 1) Finnish runner Lasse Orimus ran faster in his heat than Viren in the final but was narrowly eliminated, 2) our commentators don't bother to mention in any way that Russian runner's mishap at 1:10 :D
The truth is also that the American records of the era were significantly inferior to the World Records at 5K and 10K. Pre was barely a factor internationally while totally dominant in the U.S. Pre never threatened a world record, and made little real impact on the world scene against the very top. It is not clear how much additional maturity would have changed that. I agree with prporter1 in his assessment of Pre's chances at Montreal in yet another tactical race.
I think we can all make a strong case for Viren being the greatest Olympic runner in history. Though you may mention Nurmi, let us not forget that five of his nine gold medals were won in events that are now defunct; as for Emil Zapotek... well, first of all you have to qualify for the Olympic Marathon, so your first Marathon can't come in the Olympic games, and second his winning time was 10 minutes slower than Viren's fifth place finish. Viren and his double double: unparalleled
Just a typical Finnish guy here...and wondering, why we don't have anymore distance runners like Väätäinen, Vire'n, Vainio or Maaninka in Finland...needing that information for own practising...or becoming for a coach in distance running. My age is 33 years...Finnish "Sisu" will give us a lot of strenght, but it's very lonely to do it by yourself...help needed :)
@dan32113 Perhaps his secret, if there was one, was that his coach, Rolf Haikkola, put him through a training regime that was, for the time, extraordinarily rigorous. Viren prepared for the Olympics in a way that no one had before him; he was ruthlessly disciplined. Today he is widely considered to be a founder of modern athletics, the prime exponent of peak performance. which can be the deciding factor.
@BrianBaldino1 Lasse Viren ran 13:19 in the 1972 Finnish Olympic trials and 13:16.4 three days after the Olympics in bad weather; Foster ran 13:14 in the commonwealth games; Quax and Dixon ran 13:13-13:16, the former later setting the world record, and Prefontaine was beaten by a good two seconds in the Munich Olympics (just in the last 100m)... tell me again how Prefontaine would win this?
With Pre's running technique and tactics? Not a change. Viren was more talented runner, trained more and better, had way superior running technique and was a master tactician. Unbeatable until he broke his ankle in '78 and that ruined his technique.
Ít was amazing. We were wathing it in nearly dead of night. The gentleman Brendan Foster said: Viren is amazing ! But bad loosers said very negatively. It´s Finnish Sisu like Foster said
Excellent points. People overlook that while Pre was almost unbeatable on American soil, on the international circuit his record was far more spotty. I think he raced too much, while Viren was much more selective and careful about how he trained and when he raced. I think Pre very likely could've medaled in '76, but I don't think he had a chance to beat Viren, who was one of the smartest, most efficient races, with one of the most devastating kicks in pro running.
Pre' was the one for whom, if not our guy, I think the whole of Finland would had gladly given that gold. Or to Brendan Foster, who was an absolute gentleman but had already received kind of consolation with euro championship in Rome '74 by a superior performance.
Munich was then a learning lesson for Pre as he didn't run his race. You could see he was holding back a little during the race where he could have distanced himself from the others very easy. But he didn't dam it !!!! He ran Bowerman's race instead of his customary style and lost the Gold medal. He could have had 50 meters on the whole pack with 400 meters to if he ran his race. He defenatley would have had Gold in Montreal. What a race that would have been eh??? We got robbed. Pre # 1
not in the Olympic Games... no one could beat Viren in the Olympic Games... he trained exclusivelly for them... in 1980, Viren was 31 and was dragging a thigh injury that cost him a medal in the 10,000 meters... Lindsay beat Viren after the Finn returned from his high-altitude training in Bogota and it is reported his muscles became too swollen
I ran with Steve at a track clinic here in N.J. in June of 1973 and he is the only athlete I ever met, ran with and got his autograph of his caliber. I grew up here in Jersey running and hanging out with Tom Fleming New Jersey's greatest marathoner of the 70's and 80's. Tom and Steve were good friends and I have a treasured picture of them together. Tom also trained hard with the Finns before his Boston Marathon heyday 73' 74' 75' and I have a picture of Tom with Viren from their 1973 days
But in my opinion I think Pre was quite close those World Records in the 70's. For example Viren did the World Records in 5K and 10K in 1972 (13.16.4 and 27.38,4) Pre's personal records are from 1974 (13.21,87 and 27.43,6) So, I think he was not so far behind. Nowadays Finnish runners can barely go under 30min in 10K and barely under 14min in 5K...so, a lot of work to do here. Galen Rupp is doing great job for the US!
I remember watching this in a summer night 1976. EVERYONE was careful what Viren is doing. Every other runners were afraid what he is doing. But it was beyond ever to Finnish People understand. We believed that Lasse Viren will win if the speed is about a new world record. But it was not and Viren smiled to the milers in his very strange tactic. I think it is called in Finnish SISU. It means something when your power is over your real power but when you believe in it, it works !
I remember watching all Viren champions. The only beyond belief was Montreal 5000. If you watch that last lap very carefully, there was a wall beyond Viren. They came with a very a large speed but failed. I speak with experience.
This is for everyone. In 10K and 5K distance running in Olympic games through out the history Finland is still the best if you count the medals. Our nation's last Olympic medal in 5K or 10K is from 1980, when Kaarlo Maaninka did great runs. But just count the medals. How it's possible that our small nation has the greatest number of medals in Olympic Games in distance running?
Ylivoimaisesti jännittävin Virenin olympiajuoksuista. Edelleen , lähes 46 vuoden jälkeen, kun katson tätä viimeistä kierrosta, pelkään, että uusiseelantilaiset mailerit vetävät loppukirissä pidemmän korren. Mutta ei !!!! Muistan tämän juoksun, kuin eilisen päivän.
@MrLepa91 minä muistan tämän juoksun, kun se oli ihan livenä. Yöllä katsottiin, kaikki huusivat, että Viren ei pärjää kirissä mailereille. Nytkin, kun katson, loppusuora menee vieläkin yli ymmärrykseni.
Hey, I respect Klaus Peter he's a great athlete but diving is not a component of running, sorry I dont like diving and the Olympic committee should disqualify anyone who dives at the finish. Rod Dixon deserved that bronze medal
@62liimis Yeah, he looks hardly out of breath, even though he has 30 kilometers in his legs and he's just conquered the most competitive 5000m race in Olympic history. On paper he shouldn't have even finished the marathon (his first marathon!), let alone place in the top ten, but like you said: Viren is the man.
been watching kiwi version,quax and dixon,they did not believe viren did this again... and that was their mistake...everyone thought tht viren got no sprint in end,and he didnt,but he run all others sprint with his patented 600m sprint...and he kept that same speed... and once done,he mentallied others,cmon,twice olympic champ...
@YiftertheShifter1 Thanks! But I doubt it. As Strother Martin says in Cool Hand Luke: 'what we got here is a failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach.'
Pre never set a WR in any distance. Instead, Viren set a WR in 10000m in the Munich Olympics and in 5000m some days after. Pre's PB in 5000m before Munich was 13.22 and Viren's was 13.19. Please get your facts right.
Pre was far too slow. That's why he never won anything outside USA. He was too young and naive at Munich in 72 and his poor tactics cost him a medal. By 75 his times hadn't improved but others had. He would have been swamped in Montreal. The only way he might have made the final would have been cause the Africans boycotted the 76 Games. This is from a guy who admired Pre's tenacity and front running against weaker US competitors. I was in the stadium in 76 and watched this race. The 5000m Heats were quite fast and Pre probably wouldn't even have made the final.
Please: look at that perfect moment of tactic. Viren beat faster, younger, ...runners! Bre WAS good, Quax was talented and Dixon was Runner with big R. But Viren is legend.
Did you know that Quax,Dixon and several other runners from the race tabled an official complaint about Viren with a very pointed suspicion of his "blood doping".It got nowhere because at the time it was not illegal, just immoral.This was after the 5 or ten thousand meters not sure which.
@@djangorheinhardt except Viren never blood-doped. Some Finnish skiers did but later it has also been analysed that Viren's runs months before the Olympics show clearly that his running times show no signs of blood-doping "peaking".
I honestly wish I could believe that another year of work would have brought Pre to the fore in 1976. But what I see at Montreal is an even tougher version of the Munich race that would have been no better for Pre unless he really could have taken it out early at WR tempo all the way in. Even at 10K he would have had to deal with Viren in top form, in total control of the race but without anyone to push him to another WR (and not spotting the field 40+m after a fall as in 1972).
No, they probably could've run faster than 3:01 for the final 1200m, but the ever increasing pace from the final laps all the way to the final straight must have caused their legs to tie up in the final 50-75 meters (you saw Hildenbrant literally have to dive in order to take that bronze medal). But otherwise you're right: they all probably underestimated Viren and were glad to sit on his shoulder, forgetting that he had great turnover in the final 100 meters.
@classicsteve720 It really doesn't matter. I'm certainly the 5k and 10k world records would have dropped a few years sooner, It may not have been Pre's name in front but anyone willing stayed with him until the bell has shot to also go under. Of course if he set the pace fast enough no one would stay with him.
@heresjohnnnyy1 History proves them wrong; Viren: 23, Bekele; 22-23, Gebreselassie: 24-25, El Guerrouj: 23-24, Seb Coe; 24, Cram; 24, Aouita; 25, etc. For the marathon runners peak in the late twenties/ earliy thirties. I know certain people Pre's age or younger who've shown far more promise in winning an Olympic race (including American(s)), yet they didn't succeed.
So there is was, Pre was stuck just over 13:20 counting actual 5k and 3M results up to his death. Ian Stewart summed it up well before Munich, that there were several, including himself, who could match his intended final 4 lap drive AND out-kick him to boot. It would be unfair to other runners such as Emil Zatopek, who had plenty of guts AND won the big events and set the records, and (unlike Viren) not just at the Olympics, to overvalue Pre's objective results on the world stage.
Tää on paras selostus kautta suomalaisen urheiluselostushistorian. Kiitos Anssi Kukkonen👌
Without a doubt Lasse Viren was the greatest distance runner of the 1970ties. As a German I do apreciate, that Klaus-Peter Hildenbrand won the bronce medal. I personly believe, that he had not to dive in order to do so. It is a pity that Rod Dixon was not rewarded here. He was a very talented and nice athlete.
The fight hildenbrant put up in the last 50meters was awesome and the dive crowned it :)
Magnificent Lasse Viren. His coach instructed him to hit the front with 800 metres to go and not let anyone go past him. The way how he out kicked all those fast finishers was simply magnificent. One of my all time favourite races. Cannot believe it that in a few months it will be 43 years since this epic race.
Munich, 10 000m amazing race...
i guess Im asking the wrong place but does anybody know a way to log back into an Instagram account??
I stupidly lost the account password. I love any assistance you can give me
@Zayn Francis instablaster =)
@Carlos Henry Thanks for your reply. I got to the site through google and Im trying it out atm.
Takes a while so I will get back to you later with my results.
@Carlos Henry It worked and I now got access to my account again. I'm so happy!
Thank you so much, you saved my account!
The greatest 5000m ever. Viren totally controlled the race and thus succeeded in the most successful lesson of speed killing tactics ever by starting the end game at 800m point. At this point in his career he was running over 8000km every year and most of those kilometers he ran in the most punishing of weathers and surfaces. Crazy.
He was training over 180 miles per week at altitude in Kenya for 3 months. Lasse was training 3x day.His racing strategy was 2nd to none!!
For the last 600 metres, every successive 100 metre segment is quicker than the one before. That's serious cojones, to run the kick out of the fast finishers like that. Watching someone make the long run for home like Viren is about the most thrilling thing in athletics. Chapeau to him. Quax, Dixon and Hildebrand are FLYING over that last 300, and still they can't get past him. What a legend.
The greatest 5000m i have ever seen , beautiful form and pace, in under 13 mons is crazyyyy salute to these men 🎉🎉
Katsottiin aikanaan kapakassa tuo juoksu. Olihan jännää: Miehet hakkasi nyrkillä pöytiin, lasit tippuivat pöydiltä, tuolit kaatuivat ja kaikki huusivat. Tarjoilijatkin itkivät ilosta...
Virenin loistavin suoritus. Tähän EI ole mitään lisättävää. Tämä kertoo mistä on parhaat tehty.
🥺🥺👌🏻🇫🇮👟👟💪🏻
Samanlaista juoksua saamme odottaa.
Martti Vainion, Risto "Coloradon susi" Ulmalan jälkeen ollut aika hiljaista, yli 30 vuotta.
My humble opinion on this. This is the most heroic, gusty, and brilliant run by Viren. Sisu, yes, helps. But it was a combination of many factors. Viren was slight, lithe, tough-minded. With a slippery and most economical stride (which made Puttemans want to puke), and he tactically ran always close to the inside edge of the track, limiting his distance run compared to others who run in the second and third lanes, especially on turns, so he ran the shortest distance. Next, training. Huge mileage base, based on Lydiard. Massive amounts of running---in winter. Then high altitude training in South America, in the mountains, hill-work. And then little to no racing, over the years, in order to peak, at the right time. And lastly, speed work. Viren said in Montreal that someone would have to run 13:05 to beat him. He knew exactly what his capability was. In this case, with fast 1500 meter runners in the race, he switched tactics. What no one expected. It was a last minute plan by coach. it killed the legs of the kickers. No one---no one---was prepared, no one had done his training. It was the same plan with Pekka Vasala. He did hill training in New Zealand that would have killed anyone else (getting his heart rate above 200 beats per minute). He came prepared to win. Toughest conditioning, plus speed work. That is the Finnish ethos. HARD WORK. Confidence, toughness, intelligence. It takes the fearlessness of a Finn to do this. Yifter appreciated Viren. That is why he was prepared for Viren in Moscow. Pure speed of his kick, to beat Viren. Viren unfortunately was injured, and his training was too late, and did not have enough rest, and not sufficient time to do the proper speed work. Had Viren not been injured, not had surgery, been healthy, rested, and with sufficient speed-work, it would have been a different outcome. Hard luck that year. As for Finns, today? They are too soft, spoiled, and do not have good coaching anymore. As someone has remarked---hard to train on one's own. Definitely. Pride in country is gone. No government backing. Western materialism, morality, emasculation of men, laziness, and effeminacy and cowardice, is why there are no great runners anymore. Boys want to grow up and be millionaire hockey players in the NHL, I guess. Same in cross-country skiing. Save for Ivo Niskanan (and Krista Parmakoski). His win, like Viren's 5000 in Montreal, was "superhuman" (the Norwegians were in awe). Great runners are coming from Africa. Poor nations. They know what it is to struggle. Mind over matter.
If I may add. Jim Ryan--had he not fallen in the heats and made it to the final---would not have been able to beat Vasala in the Munich 1500 meters. Vasala was tough and had 800 speed (he had run 1:44 before the games). Jim Ryan was plagued by psychological troubles (speedy Coe managed to overcome his cowardice and stupidity in competition to win his gold medals), and had left his best racing behind him, as a young man. He had burned out from the heavy and intense training he had done at so young. So time had passed him by. And he was better suited to the softer, looser, cinder tracks of the 1960's, he ran his records on, suited to his lanky loose stride. He never ran well on the harder, rubberized tracks. Snell, too. His 800 meter world record was run on grass, and his gold medals on cinder. Times change and so do runners. Look at the Norwegian, Jacob Ingebrigtsen, now. Astounding for his age.
Again---Vasala had the most perfect form and stride---upright, elegant, pure. A thoroughbred. As was Viren's smooth, slippery stride perfect for distance running. As Boit is an anomaly. The Steve Prefontaine case is unwinnable. His tactic was always to lead and win from the front, which does not work well in Olympics. Overrated, for sure. His best times were simply not good enough.
The wonderful thing about this clip is the fact that even the Finnish commentator himself did not seem to believe his own man could win until about 50m out. The formidable group of former milers he had to outkick makes this one of the best races of all time for suspense.
Finest example of finnish pessimism.
Lasse Viren great olympic champion.These days are great memories and moments in finnish sport history.Thank you Lasse for these wonderful moments.
Simo,brate..slažem se
Lasse jedna u dobrom stanju,bio je prije nekog vremena na TV.
svaka mu čast,to je momak i pol..
Nije navodno vise ne radi,ali ovaj zagonetni covjek je uvijek bio.
lasa viren i tina lilak..super...
Want to know something even more amazing? Viren's schedule:
July 23: 10000m heats- 3rd- 28:14.95
July 26: 10000m final- 1st- 27:40.38
July 28: 5000m heats- 4th- 13:33.39
July 30: 5000m final- 1st- 13:24.76
July 31 (18 hours!): Marathon- 5th- 2:13.10
So he ran over 72,200 meters, or 44.87 miles of olympic competition, more than anybody has ever done before or since. Remarkably he ran in a 2 mile race four days after the marathon and placed 3rd (marathoners usually take 2 weeks off).
That's just nuts, really. But even more nuts was his training schedule: over 8000km a year. And the environment he trained in the Finnish forests in the freezing cold winters was just another crazy aspect. Most of those other runners wouldn't last two hours in those places.
@@triptoyourheart Lasse ran as much as 180 miles / week just like Gerry Lindgren!!
virrrren virrrennnnn . que emocion del comentarista finlandes ...no era para menos, era la cuarta medalla de oro de viren ...y su paso a la eternidad.
Viren joutuu viimeisellä 200 metrillä ahtaammalle kuin kolmessa aikaisemmassa olympiajuoksussaan yhteensä. Hildenbrand pääsee melkein tunkemaan iholle, joten pitääkseen strategisesti tärkeän sisäradan hallussaan Viren iskee viimeisen kirivaihteen silmään. Vauhtia ei pysty enää lisäämään, nyt on maksimit pytyssä. Quax lähtee polkemaan kevyellä jalalla ja aikoo ratkaista pelin loppusuoralla, jonka alussa Anssi Kukkonen selostamossa ei vieläkään usko Myrskylän miehen voittoon ("Onko hänen kirinsä sittenkään tarpeeksi voimakas?"). 60 metriä ennen maalia peli on vielä auki: Viren painaa nasta laudassa, mutta Quax ei ota tippuakseen, joskaan ei saa senttiäkään enää kiinni.
Kaikkien aikojen kovin taktiikkajuoksu.
Viren maalissa kävelee rennosti, "kävin tuossa päivälenkillä".
Vielä olisi ollut värkeissä varaa.
At Lassen Vire's after run, "I went there for a day training run".
There would still be capacity until the end, if only for that.
Lasse's best performance and a run ever. Lasse Viren the Flying Finn. A great memories in 70's, thanks for sharing!
That 👌🏼
Joka kerta kun tämän katson niin se tuntuu lähes yhtä jännittävältä kuin silloin 1976 kun pikkupoikana näitä tapahtumia töllöstä seurattiin. Kiitos Lasse! Tämä Montrealin 5000 metriä oli kyllä sellainen paukku että alta pois.
Like many others, the greatest race I ever saw. "Here come the big New Zealanders" said David Coleman, or something similar. Viren did the hard yards in training and had consummate will to win. Very tragic the American athlete had lost his life. We cannot know how he may have performed. The stats would suggest outside the medals. Some of the comments on her are delusional and almost disrespectful of Viren's legacy, and indeed Prefontaine's own. Bizarre.
Lasse had a runner's body, long legs and no back.
Yes, just like Bill Rodgers with long legs / 38in inseam and a tiny upper body /chasis and small hips. Barely touching the ground!
POetry in motion like Seb Coe who also had 38in inseam at 5ft 9in and 114lb!! They seem to float over the ground with their feet barely touching the ground!! Their legs / heart = Engine
I think the ironic thing about this race is that it was the opposite of the 1972 5000-meter race. In Munich he had to worry about the frontrunners (Pre and Bedford). In Montreal he had to worry about the kickers. So what did he do? Exactly what Pre failed to do in '72 because of a poor race plan by Bowerman: Viren wore out the kickers by forcing the pace early. I mean Viren was a supreme tactician. He could read a race early on and control the outcome.
Exactly.
The greatest race I have ever seen, of course Viren's other Olympic wins were great, but this one he was up against tough opponents.
The race is well known by kiwis (our runners finished 2nd and 3rd). Viren will go into the olympic pantheon as one of the all time greats.
@@Tehui1974 To be precise, Rod Dixon took 4th place in this race, but had already received bronze in Munich '72 in 1500 meters. Which was won by another Finn of course: Pekka Vasala.
@tyisimys67 All good.
I can't imagine how Pre could have beaten Viren. Watching this race over and over and over makes me wonder how anybody could have beaten Viren on this day. Very much comparable to Bekele's recent 5000m victory in Berlin (which even Brendan Foster compared that race to this one).
Enough with the Pre-would-have-won already. For a start, it's nonsensical; no-one can ever know, so it's unprovable either way. The only facts are that Viren held off a bunch of quicker finishers, trained exclusively for the Olympics, was tough as old boots and tactically very smart too. This was his fourth Olympic title. That's seriously impressive; double the amount of a legend like Seb Coe. Viren is a worthy champion, one of the all-time greats. End of.
Pre was not good enough to win.
This is the truth.
Totally agree. It is tragic the American athlete died, but some of the comments on here are delusional.
Cleverest runner in olympic history!
Yfter.
The most amazing race ever !
I think nobody disagree.
I really admire Steve Prefontaine's will in distance running. I don't know his complete lifestory, but in my opinion he gave his life for running. Can't imagine how he felt after finishing 5 000m in Munchen 1972. That defeat must have felt so bitter for him. And must say that I feel so sorry for his early death in 1975. He really tried to make for the Olympic Games in Montreal 1976, but destiny did change everything. Well...for the end..just hoping there will be new runners for US and Finland :)
I think Lasse Viren was that time a superman. He did what he liked.
Nobody could beat him that time.
Unbelievable!! Lasse Viren was the greatest!! GOAT~~~~
superman Viren.They all had a go at trying to get past him and none of them could.he led for the whole of the last 1000m and ran them into the ground.best mens 5000m ever.
I met him too in 1973 in Helsinki in Pukeva. I was the abot eight years old and Viren promoted his new book Kullatut Sekunnit. My father asked then how about the secon time for gold medals ? Lasse answered that there are so many tuff runners, I don´t know.
But this was the result.
Fantastic! 🇪🇪 Estonian flag in tribune! Soviet occupation time!
This was Viren's last but the most thrilling olympic gold medal run
ONE OF MY IDOLS
Viren's coach apparently told him "hit the front with 400 to go and don't let anyone past". Shit he was AMAZING!!!
Well he took the lead 1 km before finish and with the attitude "none shall pass""!
i was in the stadium to see this ! very exciting
lasse pasaran miles de corredores marroquies kenianos, etiopes, pero siempre seras el maximo de todos los tiempos 4 medallas de oro
mun idoli ja arvostama herra
Race for the ages...the flying Finn 👍
One of the best and one of the most miraclous races ever ! Lasse wanted to win and others just looked about his movements.
Lasse Viren refused to lose! He trained harder and raced even smarter than everyone else!! Viren was a winner just like Rocky Marciano!! Both of these athletes were tougher than everyone else!!
lasse on legenda....
As for all the Pre debate on this thread, let's just say that we'll never know, but the fact that Viren had won three Olympic golds before this race suggests he knew his way round an Olympic final. Like Armstrong in the Tour, this was his turf. This was what he lived for. Very, very hard to beat a guy who thinks like that and trains exclusively for it.
The 1973 race with Harald Norpoth showed where Pre stood relative to the world elite, pushing Norpoth to his lifetime best (he had to "bleed for it") but hardly emerging as a dominant force internationally. The 5K WR was down to 13:13 in 1972 with Pre still working hard at 13:22. His 10K record under the conditions it was run may have been worth a sub 27:40 time when the WR was at 27:30.8. Indisputably a great competitor, arguably the greatest American, but no more can be reasonably claimed.
When Prefontaine was competing in Europe 1972-74, he lost almost all the races. There was always someone who was better. Norpoth won him, Puttemans, Foster, Dixon, even norwegian Knut Kvalheim. That means he just could´n´t win if there was world class runners against him.
2 funny(?) points: 1) Finnish runner Lasse Orimus ran faster in his heat than Viren in the final but was narrowly eliminated, 2) our commentators don't bother to mention in any way that Russian runner's mishap at 1:10 :D
Nostaa aina spirittiä. Kyllä, kaikkien aikojen 5000 m olympialaisissa. Anssi Kukkonen hehkuttaa..
The truth is also that the American records of the era were significantly inferior to the World Records at 5K and 10K. Pre was barely a factor internationally while totally dominant in the U.S. Pre never threatened a world record, and made little real impact on the world scene against the very top. It is not clear how much additional maturity would have changed that. I agree with prporter1 in his assessment of Pre's chances at Montreal in yet another tactical race.
MUN IDOLI JA EHKÄ SE HIENOIN
I think we can all make a strong case for Viren being the greatest Olympic runner in history. Though you may mention Nurmi, let us not forget that five of his nine gold medals were won in events that are now defunct; as for Emil Zapotek... well, first of all you have to qualify for the Olympic Marathon, so your first Marathon can't come in the Olympic games, and second his winning time was 10 minutes slower than Viren's fifth place finish. Viren and his double double: unparalleled
Just a typical Finnish guy here...and wondering, why we don't have anymore distance runners like Väätäinen, Vire'n, Vainio or Maaninka in Finland...needing that information for own practising...or becoming for a coach in distance running. My age is 33 years...Finnish "Sisu" will give us a lot of strenght, but it's very lonely to do it by yourself...help needed :)
Maailman sen aikaiset huippumailerit , Viren päihitti pitkällä kirillä , ol sit upee juoksu Myrskylän miehel.
Loistavaa Lasse loistavaa!
@dan32113
Perhaps his secret, if there was one, was that his coach, Rolf Haikkola, put him through a training regime that was, for the time, extraordinarily rigorous.
Viren prepared for the Olympics in a way that no one had before him; he was ruthlessly disciplined. Today he is widely considered to be a founder of modern athletics, the prime exponent of peak performance. which can be the deciding factor.
This!
Thank you very much!
@BrianBaldino1 Lasse Viren ran 13:19 in the 1972 Finnish Olympic trials and 13:16.4 three days after the Olympics in bad weather; Foster ran 13:14 in the commonwealth games; Quax and Dixon ran 13:13-13:16, the former later setting the world record, and Prefontaine was beaten by a good two seconds in the Munich Olympics (just in the last 100m)... tell me again how Prefontaine would win this?
With Pre's running technique and tactics? Not a change. Viren was more talented runner, trained more and better, had way superior running technique and was a master tactician. Unbeatable until he broke his ankle in '78 and that ruined his technique.
The best 5000 meters ever!
Ít was amazing. We were wathing it in nearly dead of night. The gentleman Brendan Foster
said: Viren is amazing !
But bad loosers said very negatively.
It´s Finnish Sisu like Foster said
Excellent points. People overlook that while Pre was almost unbeatable on American soil, on the international circuit his record was far more spotty. I think he raced too much, while Viren was much more selective and careful about how he trained and when he raced. I think Pre very likely could've medaled in '76, but I don't think he had a chance to beat Viren, who was one of the smartest, most efficient races, with one of the most devastating kicks in pro running.
Pre' was the one for whom, if not our guy, I think the whole of Finland would had gladly given that gold. Or to Brendan Foster, who was an absolute gentleman but had already received kind of consolation with euro championship in Rome '74 by a superior performance.
Pre might have had a chance to be in top five in this race. But not more than that.
Munich was then a learning lesson for Pre as he didn't run his race. You could see he was holding back a little during the race where he could have distanced himself from the others very easy. But he didn't dam it !!!! He ran Bowerman's race instead of his customary style and lost the Gold medal. He could have had 50 meters on the whole pack with 400 meters to if he ran his race. He defenatley would have had Gold in Montreal. What a race that would have been eh??? We got robbed. Pre # 1
Very unlikely. Viren all the way as he was just way more talented runner on all levels. Sorry
Please,look at that last lap!!!!
not in the Olympic Games... no one could beat Viren in the Olympic Games... he trained exclusivelly for them... in 1980, Viren was 31 and was dragging a thigh injury that cost him a medal in the 10,000 meters... Lindsay beat Viren after the Finn returned from his high-altitude training in Bogota and it is reported his muscles became too swollen
I ran with Steve at a track clinic here in N.J. in June of 1973 and he is the only athlete I ever met, ran with and got his autograph of his caliber. I grew up here in Jersey running and hanging out with Tom Fleming New Jersey's greatest marathoner of the 70's and 80's. Tom and Steve were good friends and I have a treasured picture of them together. Tom also trained hard with the Finns before his Boston Marathon heyday 73' 74' 75' and I have a picture of Tom with Viren from their 1973 days
Estonian Republic (occupied by Soviet Union) flag along Finnish flag. Seen clearly 2:40 Political statement.
Yes, and Enn Sellik was running.
But in my opinion I think Pre was quite close those World Records in the 70's. For example Viren did the World Records in 5K and 10K in 1972 (13.16.4 and 27.38,4) Pre's personal records are from 1974 (13.21,87 and 27.43,6) So, I think he was not so far behind. Nowadays Finnish runners can barely go under 30min in 10K and barely under 14min in 5K...so, a lot of work to do here. Galen Rupp is doing great job for the US!
1976 world records were 13.13.0(Emiel Puttemans) and 27.30.8(Dave Bedford).
HUIKEA ÄIJÄ...
A dream finish
What an epic race... hard to tell which is more epic: the 10000m in Munich or the Montreal 5000m.
I remember watching this in a summer night 1976. EVERYONE was careful what Viren is doing. Every other runners were afraid what he is doing. But it was beyond
ever to Finnish People understand. We believed that Lasse Viren will win if the speed is about a new world record.
But it was not and Viren smiled to the milers in his very strange tactic. I think it is called in Finnish SISU. It means something when your power is over your real power but when you believe in it, it works !
I remember watching all Viren champions. The only beyond belief was Montreal 5000. If you watch that last lap very carefully, there was a wall beyond Viren. They came with a very a large speed but failed. I speak with experience.
This is for everyone. In 10K and 5K distance running in Olympic games through out the history Finland is still the best if you count the medals. Our nation's last Olympic medal in 5K or 10K is from 1980, when Kaarlo Maaninka did great runs. But just count the medals. How it's possible that our small nation has the greatest number of medals in Olympic Games in distance running?
Ylivoimaisesti jännittävin Virenin olympiajuoksuista. Edelleen , lähes 46 vuoden jälkeen, kun katson tätä viimeistä kierrosta, pelkään, että uusiseelantilaiset
mailerit vetävät loppukirissä pidemmän korren. Mutta ei !!!! Muistan tämän juoksun, kuin eilisen päivän.
A lesson how to beat mailers in 5000 meters.
@MrLepa91 minä muistan tämän juoksun, kun se oli ihan livenä. Yöllä katsottiin, kaikki huusivat, että Viren ei pärjää kirissä mailereille. Nytkin, kun katson, loppusuora menee vieläkin yli ymmärrykseni.
love the way hilderbant dives to get the bronze,thanks for this,viren won the 10000 meters too if im correct,some portuguese was 2nd and foster 3rd,
Hey, I respect Klaus Peter he's a great athlete but diving is not a component of running, sorry I dont like diving and the Olympic committee should disqualify anyone who dives at the finish. Rod Dixon deserved that bronze medal
Kerta toisensa jälkeen tämä kertoo siitä kuinka ylivoimainen Viren oli.
iremember that at that time iwas 16 years old... he was a horse in two legs
@62liimis Yeah, he looks hardly out of breath, even though he has 30 kilometers in his legs and he's just conquered the most competitive 5000m race in Olympic history. On paper he shouldn't have even finished the marathon (his first marathon!), let alone place in the top ten, but like you said: Viren is the man.
Remember that during 1975-76 Viren ran over 8000km every year in the most punishing environments imaginable. No wonder he was hard to beat.
No, that's Viren several decades later, being shown his victories.
mun idoli
All time 5k list: Montreal-76 Ok, Helsinki-52 Ok, Helsinki -65 World Games(Jazy, Keino, Clarke...)
"Nyt juostaan jo tosi lujaa" - selostaja taas mukana :D
Mikä tuossa nyt oli väärin?
You can’t beat ‘Reindeer milk’….
Yes you are right. What ever foreigners say about Lasse Viren.
Please put here a better race seen ever.
I´d like to see it !
been watching kiwi version,quax and dixon,they did not believe viren did this again... and that was their mistake...everyone thought tht viren got no sprint in end,and he didnt,but he run all others sprint with his patented 600m sprint...and he kept that same speed... and once done,he mentallied others,cmon,twice olympic champ...
Very well said. I hope they'll listen now :)))
@YiftertheShifter1
Thanks! But I doubt it. As Strother Martin says in Cool Hand Luke: 'what we got here is a failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach.'
OMA IDOLI
Great race! Well done defence by Viren:)
Супер!!!
Pre never set a WR in any distance. Instead, Viren set a WR in 10000m in the Munich Olympics and in 5000m some days after. Pre's PB in 5000m before Munich was 13.22 and Viren's was 13.19. Please get your facts right.
this race would've been 20 times more epic if pre ran in it....Viren Vs Pre..one of the greatest rivalries that never reached its potential...
Pre was far too slow. That's why he never won anything outside USA. He was too young and naive at Munich in 72 and his poor tactics cost him a medal. By 75 his times hadn't improved but others had. He would have been swamped in Montreal. The only way he might have made the final would have been cause the Africans boycotted the 76 Games. This is from a guy who admired Pre's tenacity and front running against weaker US competitors. I was in the stadium in 76 and watched this race. The 5000m Heats were quite fast and Pre probably wouldn't even have made the final.
@jussik61 He was pretty fast though! He had a few olympic records at the time, no?
Please: look at that perfect moment of tactic. Viren beat faster, younger, ...runners! Bre WAS good, Quax was talented and Dixon was Runner with big R. But Viren is legend.
Did you know that Quax,Dixon and several other runners from the race tabled an official complaint about Viren with a very pointed suspicion of his "blood doping".It got nowhere because at the time it was not illegal, just immoral.This was after the 5 or ten thousand meters not sure which.
@@djangorheinhardt except Viren never blood-doped. Some Finnish skiers did but later it has also been analysed that Viren's runs months before the Olympics show clearly that his running times show no signs of blood-doping "peaking".
Tämä juoksu ei unohdu
Huh. Aina se menee tunteisiin. Nuo juoksuvuodet on historiaa ja vastaavia suomalaisten tekeminä tuskin nähdään,vaikka kuinka toivoisi
LEGENDAARISTA
I honestly wish I could believe that another year of work would have brought Pre to the fore in 1976. But what I see at Montreal is an even tougher version of the Munich race that would have been no better for Pre unless he really could have taken it out early at WR tempo all the way in. Even at 10K he would have had to deal with Viren in top form, in total control of the race but without anyone to push him to another WR (and not spotting the field 40+m after a fall as in 1972).
No chance. Pre was not good enough.
No, they probably could've run faster than 3:01 for the final 1200m, but the ever increasing pace from the final laps all the way to the final straight must have caused their legs to tie up in the final 50-75 meters (you saw Hildenbrant literally have to dive in order to take that bronze medal).
But otherwise you're right: they all probably underestimated Viren and were glad to sit on his shoulder, forgetting that he had great turnover in the final 100 meters.
I think the statistic was that his last 1500 meters in this race would have earned him fourth place at this games' 1500 meter final...
@classicsteve720 It really doesn't matter. I'm certainly the 5k and 10k world records would have dropped a few years sooner, It may not have been Pre's name in front but anyone willing stayed with him until the bell has shot to also go under. Of course if he set the pace fast enough no one would stay with him.
@heresjohnnnyy1 History proves them wrong; Viren: 23, Bekele; 22-23, Gebreselassie: 24-25, El Guerrouj: 23-24, Seb Coe; 24, Cram; 24, Aouita; 25, etc. For the marathon runners peak in the late twenties/ earliy thirties. I know certain people Pre's age or younger who've shown far more promise in winning an Olympic race (including American(s)), yet they didn't succeed.
So there is was, Pre was stuck just over 13:20 counting actual 5k and 3M results up to his death. Ian Stewart summed it up well before Munich, that there were several, including himself, who could match his intended final 4 lap drive AND out-kick him to boot. It would be unfair to other runners such as Emil Zatopek, who had plenty of guts AND won the big events and set the records, and (unlike Viren) not just at the Olympics, to overvalue Pre's objective results on the world stage.
mun idoleita juantorena. hildebrand.viren ja borzov
wow really makes you wounder how that race would have turned out if pre was there. i think he would have won!!!