Meb Keflezighi, Professional Star of the Year

02-21-2005

By Tom Shanahan, San Diego Hall of Champions

Americans love the marathon, especially since that day more than three decades ago when Frank Shorter touched off a running boom with his gold medal at the Munich Olympics in 1972. He would follow that up with a silver medal at the Montreal Olympics in 1976.

But Americans, despite dotting the country with marathons and 10K road races throughout the calendar year, aren’t good at international distance races. Keflezighi’s silver medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens was the first medal by an American male since Shorter.

Keflezighi, the San Diego High alumnus, brought home the medal from Athens with a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes, 29 seconds. The marathon is traditionally the final event staged at the Olympics, and the crowd of 60,000 fans assembled in Panathenaiko Stadium roared for the runners as they rounded the corner on the stadium track. They had traversed the same course used at the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896.

The performance was also a day to celebrate San Diego distance running. Keflezighi has continued to work with Bob Larsen, his coach at UCLA. Larsen got his start in coaching at Monte Vista High and Grossmont College.

Keflezhigi was in third place in the Athens Marathon when the leader runner was tackled by a spectator who ran onto the track. The incident enabled Keflizighi to move up to second, but he proved his Athens performance was no one-time thing when less than three months later, on Nov. 9, he won the New York City Marathon with a time of 2:09:53. It was the best finish by an American male in the prestigious event since 1993.

Keflezhighi was born in Eritrea, a war-torn nation that borders Ethopia. But his family came to San Diego in 1987, and Meb, as he is known, became a U.S. citizen in 1998. After his family relocated in San Diego, Meb and his older brothers were soon making their name known around San Diego in high school track and field.

Meb would eventually win state high school titles in the 1,600 and 3,200 meters in 1994 and earn a scholarship at UCLA. He was an NCAA champion for the Bruins and set an American record in the 10,000 meters in 2001. His first Olympic experience was in Sydney when he placed 12th in the 10,000 meters, a valuable international experience that set the stage for his historic performance in Athens.