Cathal Dennehy: Prefontaine still a track icon, half a century on from premature death
‘Pre’, as he was known, was the first star runner ever signed by Nike, which was founded by Bill Bowerman and one of his running alumni, Phil Knight.
LASTING LEGACY: Steve Prefontaine of the USA leads Lasse Viren of Finland and Emiel Puttemans of Belgium during the Men’s 5,000m event at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. Prefontaine paid the price for trying to win gold, crossing the line an agonising fourth. Pic: Tony Duffy/Getty
THE teenager on the cover of Sports Illustrated is fresh-faced, focused, soldiering along a grassy ridge high above a tree-lined river in Oregon.
Fair-haired, with bronzed skin that glistens in the early-summer sunshine, his expression offers a hint of something for which he became renowned: Suffering.
This is exclusive subscriber content. Already a subscriber? Sign in
