Frank Shorter

No one missed the irony when Shorter returned to Munich in 1972, a profligate son representing another country, to win the gold in the Olympic marathon. In the latter half of the race, Shorter shot to the front of the pack and finished two minutes ahead of his nearest competitor. At that time, he was only the third American ever to win the marathon. In 1976, Shorter won a silver medal at the Montreal Olympics. In a further irony, he was beaten by Waldemar Cierpinski of East Germany.

Shorter went on to rack up more successes. He was a five-time national 10,000-meter champion throughout the '70s, a four-time national champion in cross country, and a four-time winner of the Fukuoka Marathon in Japan. He won the Pan American Games Marathon and 10,000-meter race in 1971, and he was the 1972 Sullivan Award Winner as the Outstanding American Amateur Athlete.

Today, Shorter wears several different hats. He's a lawyer with a degree from the University of Florida, President of Frank Shorter Sports, a sportswear company, and has been a commentator for the Olympics since 1988. He is the father of seven, and he's featured in the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and the U.S. Distance Running Hall of Fame. Shorter is also a particularly millen-nial athlete, continually reinventing himself as he ages. "You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming," he said at his induction into the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1998. Not bad advice from a Yalie who always knew how to go the distance.

—Larry Switzky

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