I have seen videos about "great comebacks" here on RU-vid that did not include this race by Virén - epic fail, they had done no research at all! Setting a world record after taking a fall in the race!? It doesn't get much more heroic than that.
Winner of four gold medals at the 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics relied on brutal training regimen in Thomson's Falls, Kenya training (and not doping) "emptying exercise", that allow him to win 4 gold medals
Why is everyone saying 'Cheater', that's an animal that runs quickly. The word id 'Cheat' and there is no proof, Carl Lewis was also supposed to be one.
Well, if you do want to split hairs: to cheat is the infinitive of the verb 'cheat'. Cheater is a noun. (A cheetah is an African feline.) English is obviously not your first language so you are forgiven.
Timewise, he probably lost only about 3 seconds. But he expended quite a bit of extra energy pulling himself off the ground and accelerating again to reach pace. So I'd guess he probably could have run at least 5 seconds faster, or around 27:33.
@@J_a_s_o_n Of course. He was trying to win a gold medal, not set a WR. And he still had to run the heats and final of the 5,000, so he no doubt wanted to conserve his energy. But I have little doubt that he was capable of running at least that fast. The 13:16 5,000 WR that he ran just days after these Olympics is the equivalent of around 27:32 for 10,000.
The 1972 olympics had some wonderful sporting moments - but it was still overshadowed by the terrorist attack - and it’s what people, who were around at that time, remember. 😢
I have long femurs and am a cyclist. People shout at me when they drive by me about my seat height as i do not "look" the part with the trend of barely bringing your thigs up at all. My thighs are nearly parallel with the ground. A light downward slope at the top of the stroke. My legs at the bottom of the stroke are nearly fully extended as they should be. Some like to see a fully locked out leg at the 5 o clock position with the heel on the pedal. No me. I am fine with my position and had it for nerly 40 years now. The same position. No knee pain. And i can ride all day and do huge tours all over europe on my bike with no isses. People do not want to see that some people are shaped differently. Phelps and Mark Spitz were both odd shaped and they wont medals. Just work with what you have and stop tryign to look like others or ride the way they do.
And fierce competor/warrior..the complete class act of a human athlete..with no American EGO to hold him down a big difference at the end of the work day. Power to you FINLAND HONOR..
@@georgegorgeous9173 Incidents of doping happen in sports 👎 But here it was not. Rather the runner despite falling, won the race setting World record. An example of unyielding tenacity ✌👍
Viren will always have the suspicion of blood doping (taking blood, then re-injecting it a few days later after your body has replaced the loss) hanging over him, as he could never win a race between Olympics, but was unbeatable in them. Brendon Foster has always thought he was beaten illegitimately. If he had dominated middle distance running over the period of those two Olympics then there would have been fewer questions asked, but he didn't at all.
Where has Foster stated something like that? Viren was injuried for much of 1974 and 1975. In 1972 and 1976 he was in excellent condition for the entire season and not just the Olympics. Can blood doping explain that?
Oh, you noticed that, huh? He must have been really hurt. He didn't move at all, totally caught off guard , apparently. Hopefully, it was nothing too serious. Check it Out! Ciao!!!
@@renaissanceman165 He (Mohammed Gammoudi) did get up, but too late; it was hopeless. He recovered to get the silver (behind Viren) in the 5000m, though.
It's something of a public secret that Finnish runners at the time used blood transfusions to boost their red cell counts. It wasn't banned yet but not very sporting as it was done in secret.
Doping might have helped in in a long bike race, but in the 10k he needed speed , especially the last 800 meters. Increase in blood volume would have slowed him too much. He did believe in altitude training.
It was not doping as in using drugs etc to enhance his performances. He apparently did training at high altitudes which refines the cells in the blood. They took a pint of his blood regularly and stored it. Just before the Olympics began he had a complete blood transfusion where they pumped his body full of the enhanced blood giving him a boost other athletes did not have. Although not officially cheating it was not in the spirit of the Olympics. His times during Olympics were substantially better than his times in lead up races demonstrating the huge advantage this blood cleansing gave him.
Not unprecedented to see someone fall and get back up in a long race like that (10km/6.2 miles). IIRC he fell closer to the start of the race than the mid-point so not a problem to get up and work his way back up to the main pack at the front. There was an African gal in a world class 3K steeplechase race in Europe that did it not too long ago (last season?).
I can't believe you can put this up as a great sporting moment when he was taking blood transfusions to boost his performance! It's sad there are so many Olympics stories tarnished like this.....Gatlin, Vinokourov. It's no longer a sporting spectacle ☹️
Viren was a doper and even ran with plaster after his blood transfusions but then again it was the doping era which his teammate openly admitted to it. Blood doping was fully legal in those days
The rumors about Viren’s blood doping won’t go away. And if he had been disqualified from the 1972 5,000 meter race, then the very deserving Emiel Puttemans of Belgium would have been awarded gold and Steve Prefontaine would have gotten bronze.
This was all the talk in Oregon at the time. Viren came to Oregon to run a year later and everybody beat him. My freshman teammate at Oregon State beat him. We all figured the victories were due to blood doping.
@@stephenbird5472 It was not doping but blood enhancement. He trained in high altitude and when his blood filled with extra oxygen as a result they took a pint of blood. This was done regularly until they had enough enhanced blood and just before the Olympics they gave him a full blood transfusion filling his body with this enhanced blood. Although no outside substances were added and therefore legal it was not in the spirit of the Olympics as back then all competitors were strictly amateurs.
Doped or not I would be really surprised if he would be the only one who got that advance on that race that's why most finns dont see him as doper and I dont think most of his race fellows either. Because they know that everypody on the top were eating that same porridge. Maybe I see things throught bluewhite glasses but the achievment to win 4 gold medals in the olympics is still the greatest goal that finnish track athlete has ever done besides the rumours about doping.
Get your eyes examined as the runner behind him barely touched him and not before Lasse was already falling. It was Lasse contacting the feet of the runner in front of him that caused Lasse to fall. The runner behind him simply lifted his hand up to try to prevent himself having Lasse fall on him. In fact if you watch closely you will see Lasse touch the back of the runner in front of him just as he was falling well before the runner behind Lasse contacted Lasse. It was a simple accident that often occurs in bunched up middle distance events.
Viren practiced blood doping, and the Olympics Channel is celebrating him? Even if they hadn't outlawed it yet, everyone knew it gave you an unfair advantage because your body would be much quicker to recover than people who weren't doping.
@@shivahuggins1276 Everybody was NOT doing it. I remember the furor when it was found out, and the other athletes had not been doing it. And why do you talk about disallowing football matches? You're "nonsense"; I ever said anything about disallowing it, just that it seems strange to celebrate something that absolutely DID give him an advantage.
Where does " giving yourself a bit of an advantage " end ,and downright cheating begin ?Because blood doping was not then outlawed I still think it was cheating ! !
Come on! Virén blood doped! Also, watch closely: he first shoved the runner in front of him. Then the nr 1410 behind him shoved Viren, probably to say: “Hey, don’t shove the runners, dear doper.”
@@brankojovanovic4764 Not so much allowed but simply not illegal as none had officially done it before Viren. Everyone thought he was a doper as his performance improved so much during Olympics compared to his times when not competing in Major events.
@@PaulVinonaama Yes, I forgot to finish my comment by saying it was never proved that Viren blood doped. There were plenty of rumors and accusations over the years, and it was even once reported that Finnish teammates admitted they did blood doping. Add to this the somewhat suspicious fact that other Finnish runners had standout Olympic performances, and never before or after replicated them, it just fuels the belief that Viren blood doped. I'd like to think he was clean and was just a great runner who knew how to peak perfectly for the big races.
@@rodjohnson2632 Kaarlo Maaninka did admit to what is called blood doping in Moscow 1980, and his achievements were indeed exceptional for him there (silver in 10000m, bronze in 5000m). But Viren was in excellent condition for most of the 1972 season, making world records before (2 miles) and after (5000m). He did not emerge from nowhere and disappear.
No he wasn't stripped of any medals, why do you say that? As far as I understand, even if the blood doping accusation is true, which he denies, it wasn't against any rules.