Pat Porter
Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nationality | American | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | (1959-05-31)May 31, 1959 Wadena, Minnesota | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | July 26, 2012(2012-07-26) (aged 53) Sedona, Arizona | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Track, Long-distance running | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event(s) | 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
College team | Adams State | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personal best(s) | 3000m: 7:51.0[1] 5000m: 13:33.91[1] 10,000m: 27:46.80[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
|
Patrick ("Pat") Ralph Porter (May 31, 1959 – July 26, 2012) was an American distance runner. Born in Wadena, Minnesota, he graduated from Adams State in 1982 with a degree in marketing, after which he became one of the most dominant U.S. distance runners of the 1980s. Porter was a two time U.S. Olympian, running the 10000 meters at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games. In 1983 he set the World Record for a road 10K at 27:31.8. He won the silver medal at the 1985 IAAF World Cup in Canberra, Australia, getting nipped at the tape by Ethiopia's Wodajo Bulti by six hundredths of a second.
Running career
Early career
Porter had a personal record of 4:29 in the mile while running for Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado. He was not heavily recruited to run in college. He is a 1982 alumnus Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado, and flourished under the training of coach Joe Vigil.[2] At Adams State, Porter won 6 RMAC championships, and 3 national NAIA championships.
Post collegiate
Porter was best known for his cross country running accomplishments. He won a record eight consecutive USA Cross Country Championships from 1982 to 1989.[3] Porter also represented the United States at the World Cross Country Championships each of these years. His best finish at the World Championships was 4th in 1984, followed by 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th-place finishes throughout his career.
1984
Porter finished 15th in 28:34.59 at the Athletics at the 1984 Summer Olympics - 10000 metres.[4]
1988
Porter did not advance to the Athletics at the 1988 Summer Olympics - 10000 metres final after finishing 11th in 28:45.04[5] in the 1st round, ranking him 23rd in the Olympics that year, but only 20 qualified to the final. His time would have ranked 17th as several runners ran slower in the final, still almost 1:25 (almost a lap and a half) behind the winner.
In 1998 Porter played Finnish distance runner Lasse Virén in Without Limits, a biographical film about American distance legend Steve Prefontaine.[6] He was married to fellow U.S. 1988 Olympic Team member high jumper Trish King.[7]
Honor
Porter was inducted in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame in 1987.[8] Porter was inducted in the RMAC Hall of Fame in July 2012.[9] Only days before his death, on July 20, Porter had been inducted into the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs and was also inducted into the Adams State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000 in Alamosa, Colorado.
Death
On July 26, 2012, at approximately 8:30 a.m., Porter was killed in an airplane crash along with his 15-year-old son Connor and his son's friend, 14-year-old Connor Mantsch. Porter, an avid pilot, on takeoff hit a boundary fence at the south end of the Sedona Airport runway just outside Sedona, Arizona, then went down a steep mesa and burst into flames upon impact at the bottom of the hill. He was 53 years old.[10]
Competition record
Cross country
Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Representing the United States | |||||
1982 | World Cross Country Championships | Rome, Italy | 64th | 12 km | 35:23 |
1983 | World Cross Country Championships | Gateshead, England | 9th | 12 km | 37:12 |
1984 | World Cross Country Championships | New York City, United States | 4th | 11.8 km | 33:34 |
1985 | World Cross Country Championships | Lisbon, Portugal | 12th | 12 km | 34:02 |
1986 | World Cross Country Championships | Neuchatel, Switzerland | 6th | 12 km | 35:48 |
1987 | World Cross Country Championships | Warsaw, Poland | 7th | 12 km | 37:04 |
1988 | World Cross Country Championships | Auckland, New Zealand | 28th | 12 km | 36:26 |
1989 | World Cross Country Championships | Stavanger, Norway | 31st | 12 km | 41:31 |
Track and field
References
- ^ a b c "Pat PORTER - Athlete Profile". IAAF.
- ^ Moore, Kenny. "Running on a Rocky Mountain High" Sports Illustrated. March 17, 1986. accessed on September 8, 2008
- ^ USA Track and Field Statistics, USATF.org accessed on September 8, 2008
- ^ Mens Metres at Sports Reference
- ^ Mens Metres at Sports Reference
- ^ Without Limits at IMDb accessed on September 8, 2008
- ^ Trish King at Sports Reference
- ^ http://www.legacy.usatf.org/News/Two-time-Olympian-Porter-killed-in-tragic-plane-cr.aspx?feed=news
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Pat Porter RMAC Hall of Fame Induction Speech". YouTube.
- ^ "Olympic runner killed when plane crashes in Sedona - FOX 10 News - Phoenix, AZ | KSAZ-TV". Archived from the original on 2012-07-30. Retrieved 2012-07-27.
External links
- Pat Porter at IMDb
- Pat Porter at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
- v
- t
- e
New York Athletic Club
- 1876–79: Not held
NAAAA
- 1880: James Gifford
- 1881: W. C. Davies
- 1882–83: Tom Delaney
- 1884: Geo. Stonebridge
- 1885: Peter Skillman
- 1886–87: Edward Carter
- 1888Note 1: Thomas Conneff
Amateur Athletic Union
- 1888–91Note 1: Thomas Conneff
- 1892–93: William Day
- 1894: Charles Bean
- 1899: Alex Grant
- 1900: Arthur Newton
- 1901: Frank Kanahy
- 1902: Alex Grant
- 1903: Not held
- 1904: John Joyce
- 1905: Frank Verner
- 1906: Wm. Nelson
- 1907: John Daly
- 1908: Fred Bellars
- 1909: Harry McLean
- 1910: William Kramer
- 1911: George Bonhag
- 1912: Hannes Kolehmainen (FIN) * Harry Smith
- 1913: Hannes Kolehmainen (FIN) * Joie Ray
- 1914: Ville Kyrönen (FIN) * H. E. Weeks
- 1915: Hannes Kolehmainen (FIN) * Oliver Millard
- 1916: Joie Ray
- 1917–19: Charles Pores
- 1920OT: Not held
- 1921–23: Earle Johnson
- 1924: Ilmar Prim
- 1925: George Lermond
- 1926: Phillip Osif
- 1927: Willie Ritola (FIN) * Russell Payne
- 1928OT: Joie Ray
- 1929-31: Lou Gregory
- 1932OT: Tom Ottey
- 1933: Lou Gregory
- 1934: Eino Pentti
- 1935: Tom Ottey
- 1936: Don Lash
- 1937–38: Eino Pentti
- 1939: Lou Gregory
- 1940: Don Lash
- 1941: Lou Gregory
- 1942: Joe McCluskey
- 1943: Lou Gregory
- 1944: Norm Bright
- 1945: Ted Vogel
- 1946–48: Edward O'Toole
- 1949: Fred Wilt
- 1950: Horace Ashenfelter
- 1951–54: Curt Stone
- 1955: Dick Hart
- 1956: Max Truex
- 1957: Doug Kyle
- 1958: John Macy
- 1959:
- 1960: Al Lawrence (AUS) * Max Truex
- 1961: John Gutknecht
- 1962: Bruce Kidd (CAN) * Peter McArdle
- 1963–64: Peter McArdle
- 1965: Billy Mills
- 1966: Tracy Smith
- 1967: Van Nelson
- 1968: Tracy Smith
- 1969–70: Jack Bacheler
- 1971: Frank Shorter
- 1972: Greg Fredericks
- 1973: Gordon Minty (GBR) * Ted Castaneda
- 1974–75: Frank Shorter
- 1976: Ed Leddy
- 1977: Frank Shorter
- 1978–79: Craig Virgin
- 1980: Rodolfo Gómez
- Garry Bjorklund
The Athletics Congress
- 1981: Alberto Salazar
- 1982: Craig Virgin
- 1983: Alberto Salazar
- 1984: Jon Sinclair
- 1985: Bruce Bickford
- 1986–87: Gerard Donakowski
- 1988: Steve Taylor
- 1989: Pat Porter
- 1990: Steve Plasencia
- 1991: Shannon Butler
- 1992OT: Todd Williams
USA Track & Field
- 1993: Todd Williams
- 1994: Tom Ansberry
- 1995–96: Todd Williams
- 1997: Michael Mykytok
- 1998: Dan Browne
- 1999: Alan Culpepper
- 2000OT: Meb Keflezighi
- 2001: Abdi Abdirahman
- 2002: Meb Keflezighi
- 2003: Alan Culpepper
- 2004: Meb Keflezighi
- 2005: Abdi Abdirahman
- 2006: Jorge Torres
- 2007–08: Abdi Abdirahman
- 2009–16: Galen Rupp
- 2017: Hassan Mead
- 2018–19: Lopez Lomong
- 20212020 OT: Woody Kincaid
- 2022: Galen Rupp
- 2023: Woody Kincaid
- Note 1: In 1888 both the NAAAA and the AAU held championships
- OT: The 1920, 1928, 1932, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 championships incorporated the Olympic Trials, otherwise held as a discrete event.
- 2020 OT: The 2020 Olympic Trials were delayed and held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Distance: Until 1924 the event was 5 miles; from 1925–27 and from 1929–31 it was over 6 miles.