Frank Shorter: What’s Behind Our Olympic Gold Medalist

The latest Class Colloquium featured Frank Shorter and a new format: His track teammate and fellow Morse man, Dr. Ken Davis, interviewed Frank at some length.

As if those questions weren’t enough, Q&A from the 100 people registered for the event filled the last 15-20 minutes of the hour.

It was a surprisingly intimate and deep discussion of an amazing life (so far!).   Frank talked about:

• • his difficult childhood/abusive father … and his escape into sports like swimming and running;
  • his time at Yale and what he took away from that;
  • dropping out of medical school to train full time;
  • trailblazing strategies for training and running the Marathon;

• winning the gold medal in ’72 and seeing the famous terrorist from the balcony on which he slept;
• losing only to the East German runner (who later was found to have doped/cheated) in ’76;
• using his subsequent law school training to figure out how amateur athletes could accept endorsements or other payments from their sport without being banned from amateur athletic events owing to becoming “professional” athletes;
• writing to President Clinton and General Barry McCaffrey, his “drug czar” about doping in sports — leading to his briefing the General and others, which then led to Congressional testimony and the creation of the US Anti-Doping Agency;
• as Chairman of USADA, overseeing its becoming the gold standard of anti-doping regulation and enforcement not only in the US, but worldwide:

The Q&A covered a broad range of questions, from not being drafted, the role of transgender athletes, inverted T-waves (whatever that is), to how to exercise and stay healthy, especially orthopedically, in our 70s. It’s worth a listen!