Craig Virgin, OLY

That’s why so many of the top athletes don’t stay in the Olympic village until after their competition! Sad but true… it’s not just privacy, but an attempt to stay healthy until their event. Risk mgt that I totally understand now! The general public isn’t really aware of it!

So instead of a bad rabbit meat… the real culprit was a viral stomach infection! That is one of the risks when you bring 14,000 athletes in from around the world and they can bring different viral bugs with them. Nobody talks about that risk in the Olympic Village.

Then it all came down to a last lap sprint and I simply didn’t have the strength to catch the leaders. I finished just 2 places out of qualifying for the final. I thought I had food poisoning, but when I got back to my Olympic Village dorm I found that 3-5 other guys had it too!

I started my race with the cards that I was dealt, but hung in there despite the critical loss of fluids & rest in the last 24 hours. I actually was in position to qualify for the final 2/3 of the way thru the race but then the leader slowed down & the entire pack closed back up.

They did so because there was 14 of us back at the Olympic Village apartment & we slept on bunkbeds! Well, I had rabbit that night at the restaurant. Then I woke up in the middle of the night with severe G.I. distress and was in & out of the bathroom for the rest of the night.

Hi Mike! If we are talking about my semifinal 10,000 m at Montreal in July 1976… I was Nike’s 2nd ever Olympian and they invited me to leave the Olympic Village and come out to where their Olympic hdqtrs was at a modest lake resort to have a good dinner & sleep in my own room.

Thanks, Mike. I found that the 3rd US team was the hardest to make because I was not 100% healthy and that really increases an already high degree of difficulty in making an Olympic Team! That is why 3-4 team berths is so rare! Longevity is hard to come by in the 10,000 m event.

Thanks, Dan. I was down at the World Cross CountryChamps in Tallahassee and was interviewed at the pre-race press conference by several running sites. That quote was totally spontaneous by me… but I stand by it! I had several interviews that wkend and musta gotten warmed up?!?

Good luck to Halle. She is ending a great senior season of NCAA Cross Country!

Look forward to seeing as many of you there as can attend. Historic as it will be the very first sport championship in the new expended 18 team Big Ten Conference! And at a location near and dear to my heart. Many of my CC teammates will also be there… proud to say! Go Illini!

Thank you and I wonder where Seko is today and what he is doing? I sincerely hope he is happy, healthy and wealthy!

Thank you for remembering, Mike. Ironic that Paris Olympics 10,000 meter track event final is today as well! Go Illini!

I will always be proud of and take deep satisfaction in how the entire 10,000 m field competed so hard that day. We showed the world that we woulda had something to say had we been allowed to compete at Moscow one month later! Many athletes that week did something similar.

In 1980 there were only two ways to react to the looming boycott. Either give up & perform half ass at the Trials… or raise the bar & treat the Trial’s as our own Olympic Games?!? Herb Lindsay dueled with me & my victory resulted in a meet record 27:46 that stood for 24 years!

No athlete that competed in the US Olympic T & F Trials last month could ever imagine finishing top 3 to make the American team… and NOT being able to go to the Olympic Games!?!? Yet, that is what we faced at Eugene back in June 1980! It was very bittersweet!

Thanks Geric! The book took 7+ years to research & write… a collaborative effort with my talented sports writer and book author! Describes how our sport critically evolved during the 70’s & 80’s. If anyone wants the book they can order it on my website craigvirgin.com.

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