Distance run
Madeline Manning-Mims: The 1968 Olympic 800-meter champion, Manning-Mims set three world indoor records in that event. She earned a silver medal with the U.S. 4 x 400-meter relay team in 1972, competed in the 1976 Montreal Games and won the U.S. Olympic Trials in the boycott year of 1980. She also won 10 national indoor and outdoor championships, the 1975 Pan-American champion and the 400-meter title at the World University Games in 1966.
A gospel singer, Manning-Mims recorded seven albums through 1996. Manning-Mims has been involved in ministering to prison inmates and formed the Friends Fellowship prison ministry. She is also a motivational speaker. She founded the U.S. Council for Sports Chaplaincy and served as chaplain at the 1988 through 2004 Games. She resides with her family in Tulsa, Ok.
Steve Ovett: Ovett won the 1980 Olympic gold in the 800 and earned a bronze for Great Britain in the 1500. He was the 1500-meter champion in the first IAAF World Cup in Athletics in 1977 and held world records in the mile and the 1500.
Living in Australia, Ovett has led a low-key retirement from athletics, generally surfacing only to do television work for broadcasters in Australia as well as the BBC and CBC.
Sebastian Coe: Best known for his duels with the above-mentioned Steve Ovett, Coe is the only male repeat 1500-meter winner in Olympic history, earned golds in 1980-84. He took the silver in the 800 in both years. Coe held world records for the 800, the mile and the 1500. He was the UPI International Athlete of the Year in 1979 and 1981.
A Conservative Member of Parliament from 1992-97, the now Lord Coe became a British peer in 2000. He led London’s successful bid to play host to the 2012 Summer Olympics and is now the chairman of the London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games. Coe also serves as an IAAF vice president and was the first chairman of the independent watchdog for FIFA, the world organizing body for football (soccer, in the U.S.).
Jim Ryun: A nationally-acclaimed runner while still in high school, Ryun was the first high school runner to break four minutes in the mile (3:55.3). He went on to set six world records, holding the world mile record for nine years. He won the Sullivan Award as the top U.S. amateur athlete in 1967 and earned an Olympic silver medal in the 1500 in 1968. Ryun won five NCAA championships at Kansas plus three national AAU titles in the mile.
Ryun is still running – for Congress, in Kansas’ Second District. Ryun represented the district as a Republican for five terms before losing to Democrat Nancy Boyda in 2006. Ryun is attempting to regain his seat. Ryun is also the president of a public relations firm, Jim Ryun Sports, Inc., and has worked to help hearing impaired children. Jim and Anne Ryun live in Lawrence, Kansas. They have four adult children and six grandchildren.
Lasse Viren: The Finnish distance runner saved his best performances for the Olympics, where he won gold medals in both the 5,000- and 10,000-meters in 1972 and ’76. He also finished fifth in the 1976 Olympic marathon and briefly held the world record in the 10,000.
Another ex-runner-turned-politician, Viren served in the Finnish Parliament from 1999-2007 as a member of the National Coalition Party. Viren and his wife live in Myrskala, a small town northeast of Helsinki. His recent public appearances included serving as the starter of the inaugural BUPA London 10,000-meter race.
Frank Shorter: The 1972 Olympic marathon champion, Shorter also won the Sullivan Award as the nation’s top amateur athlete that year. He earned a silver in the 1976 Olympic marathon and won the NCAA six-mile title in 1969, and both the 10,000 and the marathon at the 1971 Pan- American Games. Shorter won 24 U.S. championships.
The first chairman of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, Shorter is a motivational speaker, promotes races throughout the U.S. and served as a color commentator for NBC during the Olympic Games of 1988 – 2000. He owns Frank Shorter Sports, an athletic supply company.
Joan Samuelson: Samuelson, then known as Joan Benoit, won the first Olympic women’s marathon in 1984. She held the world marathon record and won U.S. championships in 1981 (in the 10,000 meters) and 1984 (marathon). She won the 1979 and 1983 Boston marathons and earned the Sullivan Award as the nation's finest amateur athlete in 1985.
A motivational speaker, appearing often at races and running clinics, Samuelson has authored two books, “Running Tide” and “Joan Samuelson’s Running for Women.” To date she hasn’t completely retired. She finished the 2008 U.S. Olympic marathon trial in 2:49.08, an American record for the women’s 50-54-year-old age group. The Samuelsons reside in Freeport, Maine.
Pole vault
Sergey Bubka: Bubka won nine world championships (six outdoor, three indoor) plus the 1988 Olympic gold medal. He holds both the outdoor (6.14 meters) and indoor (6.15 meters) world pole vault records.
The native Ukrainian is currently a businessman as well as an IAAF council vice president, an executive board member of the IOC and the president of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine. He was a member of the Ukrainian Parliament from 2002-06. He supports numerous charitable causes, including UNESCO and the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, among others.
Bob Seagren: Seagren won the gold medal at the 1968 Olympics then settled for silver in the controversial 1972 Olympic pole vault competition. Seagren set or broke the world record four times. He won four NCAA championships at USC, plus six National AAU titles and the 1967 Pan- American Games title.
Seagren is the CEO of International City Racing, which plans and runs distance races and other health and fitness events. His acting career included a role in the sitcom/soap parody “Soap,” as Dennis Phillips, a gay football player who has a relationship with Jodie Dallas, played by Billy Crystal.
