Olympic Marathon Trials Flashback: Shorter Starts It All – The Trials Standard, a publication of the Houston Marathon Committee, takes a look back at 1972

EUGENE, Ore. – In Track Town USA, Frank Shorter and Kenny Moore intentionally tied in 2:15:58 as co-champions, the first and only tie in U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon history. Their time was also an Olympic Trials record. This second U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon edition was also the first time a qualifying marathon time standard (2 hours, 30 minutes) was used for the Olympic Trials.

At the 1972 Munich Olympics in Germany, Shorter, 24, a Yale grad, won the marathon in 2:12:20, the first U.S. gold medal in the marathon in 64 years since Johnny Hayes in 1908. Shorter's landmark victory is often credited as starting the First Running Boom. His teammates, Moore and Jack Bacheler, finished 4th (2:15:40) and 9th (2:17:39) respectively, and the trio produced the best U.S. team performance all-time at the Olympic Marathon.

Shorter returned to the Olympic Games in 1976, and in Montreal, he won the silver medal in the marathon to become the first and only American to earn multiple Olympic Marathon medals.

Fun Facts

At the 1980 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon in Buffalo, New York, an Olympic Trials record 56 men broke 2:20:00, the most U.S. men sub-2:20 from the same race, and since, only the 1983 Boston Marathon has produced more U.S. men under 2:20 at the same race (76) in the same year.

Sadly and unfortunately, 1980 was also the first time (and only time to-date) that the U.S. Olympic marathon team did not compete because of the U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics.

See more about the 2012 Olympic Trials Marathon in Houston, Texas at www.Houston2012.com