 Shorter in 2002 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Frank Charles Shorter | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality |  United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1947-10-31)October 31, 1947 (age 78) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (178 cm) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 134 lb (61 kg) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Long-distance running | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event(s) | Marathon,10,000 meters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| College team | Yale | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Florida Track Club | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personalbest(s) | 3000 meters: 7:51.4[1] 5000 meters: 13:26.62[1] 10,000 meters: 27:45.91[1] Marathon: 2:10:30[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Frank Charles Shorter (born October 31, 1947) is an American formerlong-distance runner who won the gold medal in themarathon at the1972 Summer Olympics and the silver medal at the1976 Summer Olympics. His Olympic success, along with the achievements of other American runners, is credited with igniting therunning boom in the United States during the 1970s.[2][3][4][5][6]
Frank Shorter was born inMunich,Germany, where his father, physician Samuel S. Shorter, served in theU.S. Army. He grew up inMiddletown, New York, where a street was named in his honor (Frank Shorter Way). Frank Shorter Way was formerly part of the Orange Classic 10K course route, which Shorter won in its inaugural race in 1981.[7] After earning hishigh school diploma from theMount Hermon School inGill, Massachusetts, in 1965, Shorter graduated fromYale University in New Haven, Connecticut, with aBachelor of Arts degree (B.A.) in 1969, and theUniversity of Florida College of Law in Gainesville, Florida, with aJuris Doctor degree (J.D.) in 1974.[8]
In the October 2011 issue ofRunner's World, an article by John Brant detailed the traumatic household life Frank and his siblings suffered at the hands of his extremely abusive father and the buckle end of his belt. With the publication of theRunner's World article, Shorter began to elaborate on stopping similar cycles of violence in more detail and in public.[9]
Shorter first achieved distinction by winning the 1969National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) six mile run title during his senior year at Yale. He won his first U.S. national titles in 1970 in the three mile and six mile events. He also was the U.S. national six mile/10,000 meter champion in 1971, 1974, 1975 and 1977.
After graduating from Yale, Shorter chose to pursue a Doctor of Medicine degree at the University of New Mexico. However, he dropped out after six weeks after classes began to impact his training regime. Soon, he moved to Florida to study for a Juris Doctor degree at theUniversity of Florida in Gainesville because of the excellence of the environment and the opportunity to train withJack Bacheler as members of the Florida Track Club (FTC), founded byJimmy Carnes, then the head coach of theFlorida Gators track and field team.[10] Bacheler was regarded as America's best distance runner, having qualified for the finals of the 5,000-meter race at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.[11] The FTC's core nucleus of Shorter, Bacheler andJeff Galloway qualified for the 1972 Olympics and their success made Gainesville the Mecca of distance running on the East Coast in the early 1970s.[12]
Shorter won the U.S. national cross-country championships four times (1970–1973). He was theU.S. Olympic Trials champion in both the 10,000-meter run and the marathon in both 1972 and 1976. He also won both the 10,000-meter run and the marathon at the 1971Pan American Games. Shorter was a four-time winner of theFukuoka Marathon (1971–1974), generally recognized as the most prestigious marathon in the world at that time and held on a very fast course. His career best of 2:10:30 was set at that race on December 3, 1972. Several months later, on March 18, 1973, Shorter won the eliteLake Biwa Marathon in 2:12:03. He won the prestigious 7-mileFalmouth Road Race onCape Cod in 1975 and 1976 and Atlanta's 10-kilometerPeachtree Road Race in 1977.
Shorter achieved his greatest recognition in themarathon, and he is the only American athlete to win two medals in the Olympic marathon.[13] At theMunich Games—which coincidentally is Shorter's place of birth— he finished fifth in the 10,000-meter final, breaking the American record for the event that he had established in his qualifying heat.[8] A few days later, he won the gold medal in the marathon. This ultimate achievement was marred by an imposter,West German student Norbert Sudhaus,[14] who ran intoOlympic Stadium ahead of Shorter. Shorter was not bothered by the silence from the crowd who had been duped into thinking that he was running for the silver medal. Shorter was confident that he was going to win the gold medal because he knew that no competing runner had passed him.[15] He received theJames E. Sullivan Award afterwards as the top amateur athlete in the United States.[8] At the1976 Summer Olympics inMontreal, Shorter dropped out of the 10,000 meters in order to concentrate exclusively on the marathon, winning the silver medal in the marathon[8] and finishing behind previously unheraldedWaldemar Cierpinski ofEast Germany.[16] Cierpinski was later implicated as a part of the state-sponsored doping program by East German track and field research files uncovered byWerner Franke at theStasi headquarters inLeipzig in the late 1990s. There were suspicions about other East German athletes during the Montreal Olympics, including the East German women's swimming team led byKornelia Ender; the East German women won eleven of the thirteen events.[17]
From 2000 to 2003, Shorter was the chairman of theUnited States Anti-Doping Agency, a body that he helped to establish.[18]
Shorter was featured as a prominent character, played byJeremy Sisto, in the 1998 filmWithout Limits. The film follows the life of Shorter's contemporary, training partner, Olympic teammate and sometime rival,Steve Prefontaine.[19] Shorter was the next to last person to see Prefontaine alive before he died in an automobile accident.
Shorter was inducted into theUnited States Olympic Hall of Fame in 1984, the USANational Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1989,[8] and theNational Distance Running Hall of Fame in 1998.
Previously a long-time resident ofBoulder, Colorado, Shorter co-founded theBolder Boulder in 1979. The annual 10k race is a popular Memorial Day event, which culminates with a tribute to U.S. Armed Forces at Folsom Field at the University of Colorado. A life-size bronze statue of Shorter stands outside the stadium.
In 2021, Shorter and his wife, Michelle Cox, moved toFalmouth, Massachusetts.[20]
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