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Lead Stories: Thursday, November 20, 2008

A comparison of performances by American marathoners: 1980 vs. 2005

Posted April 21st, 2007 at 3:29 PM by Jim Fortner

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Jim Fortner is a weekly, guest contributor to TheFinalSprint.com. Make sure to also check out his own personal running and advice site: “Jim2’s Running Page”.

marathon-training.gifIn 1999 I posted two essays titled “The Decline of American Marathoners” & “Why Have They Declined?” on Runner’s World and Merv Competitive forums, which I subsequently updated in 2001.

They generated extensive discussions concerning the deterioration in performance of American marathoners throughout the 1990’s, as compared to the 1970-80’s.

The decline at the elite level was well documented by official records. Not only were U.S. elites no longer competitive on the international racing scene, but they could not even match the performances of their predecessors a decade or two earlier.
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