In the summer of 1980, the United States led a boycott of the Moscow Olympics to protest the USSR invasion of Afghanistan. In return, the Soviet Union and other eastern bloc nations boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. In response, cable broadcasting magnate Ted Turner established the Goodwill Games to bring the world’s athletes together outside the Olympic structure. The first Goodwill Games were held in Moscow in 1986; the second took place in Seattle in 1990. I did not attend. Do not know why not. Impecunity seems likely.
MORA SURPRISE WINNER is the headline in a highlighted box to an “On The Road” column in The Bible of the Sport, Track & Field News. This piece does not appear in my award-winning, not-bestselling When Running Was Young & So Were We. Copies of first printing still available on Amazon. Think I have found six-seven additional articles my esteemed book researcher missed. Hell, I don’t remember writing them, so he remains esteemed.
Do my own research at present. Latest source is https://www.ebay.com/str/runningmagazinesbooksmemorabilia. AKA Neal’s Running Store. I was T&FN‘s Road Racing editor for nearly a dozen years. Long ago. Aided by his comely assistant, Amber Garrison, Neal allowed me to peruse many issues of the era. Which is not the worst way for a TAFNUT to while away some time.
Found this on page 54 of the October 1990 edition. So, I ordered me a copy.
Mora Surprise Winner
For fans of road racing, the highlight of the Goodwill Games – second only to Larry King’s final signoff – was Dave Mora’s upset victory in the marathon. It was like watching a walk-on win a NCAA title.
Mora, whose only previous effort at the distance was a 2:15:36 for 10th at the ’89 Columbus Marathon, was mistakenly left off the U.S. team. When the cloud of confusion cleared, the 26-year-old Bowling Green graduate was allowed to race as an “invited guest.”
Thus, he was given the chance to become the first American man to win any type of marathon medal at a world-wide meet since Frank Shorter’s silver in the 1976 Olympics.
He took it.
“I have to admit I wasn’t really totally surprised,” Mora says about a PR victory that surprised many others. It wasn’t unthinkable to me.”
Now coached by Sam Bell at Indiana, where’s he’s a graduate student in environmental science, the 5-8/132 Mora prepared for Goodwill like a 10K runner. Training with speedsters Terry Brahm and Bob Kennedy, he ran “a lot of intervals,” averaging 70-85 miles weekly. “I did do one 100M week, with one 20-miler, just for confidence.”
Confidence he wanted. A self-described strong hill runner, Mora has never run the kind of times he thinks he’s capable of. He’s disappointed particularly in a 3:47 PR in the 1500m. And the memory of a 104th-place finish for Bowling Green in the 1987 NCAA cross-country championships. “I really bombed.”
Mora is looking toward a marathon berth on the ’92 Olympic team, but first, he says, “Basically, my goal now is to run Columbus this year and qualify for the World Championships.”
Goodwill provided the means to such goals: he earned over $15,000 with the win. “Having a little financial stability allows me the opportunity to relax,” Mora explains. “I don’t have to race just to earn money to live on week to week.”
Dave Mora needs the rest. His biggest win was his toughest. “To this day, I wondered what might have happened if I was caught in the final miles?” he wonders. “I’m glad I didn’t have to final out. I would have surely been on a stretcher.”
PR or ER, as the saying goes.
Page 54 of the “On The Road” section of the October 1990 edition of Track & Field News opens with an unbylined race report. So, I might have been there.
Mora Surprises Name Runners
Seattle, July 21 – Thomas Robert Naali blistered the first mile of the Goodwill Games marathon in 4:40. The Tanzanian went for it big-time, but the pack, including little-known Dave Mora (see box), didn’t let him take the line out too far.
“I knew I couldn’t push it until 15M,” explained Mora of the heat and humidity. “At 16M, I saw Naali turn around. He was a little nervous. By 20, he was looking really worried. I couldn’t tell if he was fading or waiting for me, so I went by really hard. When I got away, I backed off a lot.
“The rest of the race became like a bad workout, like one of those nightmare practices that never ends.”
But this nightmare was a dream come true as Mora struck Gold with a personal best of 2:14:50.
$15,000 in 1990 is equivalent to approximately $38,460.94 today in purchasing power, experiencing a cumulative price increase of 156.41% over the decades, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A surprise winner should be able to get by on that, don’t you think?