America still in awe of late, great, track rebel Prefontaine

Pre’s Rock during day four of the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Pre’s Rock is a memorial to US distance runner and Oregon native, Steve ‘Pre’ Prefontaine, who died at the location in 1997. Picture: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

In the tree-covered hills above Eugene, a 20-minute walk from Hayward Field, there’s a stone slab by the side of the road that remembers an athlete whose influence can be found everywhere you turn at these World Athletics Championships.

Pre’s rock, the site where US distance runner Steve Prefontaine crashed his car and lost his life on 30 May, 1975, is more than just a tick-the-box memorial. It’s a shrine to the James Dean of distance-running – a hard-racing, hard-drinking rock star of the sport who died at the age of 24, and whose charisma and courage granted him god-like status in this little corner of the United States.