Stopped by a certain website to say howdy to my friends before Rio gets going and everybody is excitedly reminiscing about the winner of the first Women’s Olympic Marathon. LA. 84. Read the following and you will see my appreciation of Mrs. Samuelson is beyond measure. That gold medal was won before she got there. Here’s the backstory written back in the day. – JDW 
We have always had heroes. My dad remembers the Babe, Joltin’ Joe and Ben Hogan. There was Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Bob Cousy when I was a kid. Today there’s Dr. J, Carl Lewis and John McEnroe. There is also Joan Benoit.
Have you ever seen such courage? Not since Willis Reed dragged a leg behind him in the 1969 NBA playoffs. Not since that Japanese gymnast dismounted with a broken leg in the 1976 Olympics. Well… Benoit’s 2:31:04 win at Olympia looked that brave.
It takes talent to be fast. It takes guts to be a winner. The Finns have a word, sisu, which means, roughly, a combination of pride, determination and guts. The Americans have a similar word – Benoit.
The measure of greatness is not how well you do when things are easy, but how well you do when the going gets tough. Joan Benoit doesn’t thrive on adversity, because she is not a fool. The Maine Coaster feeds on achievement, because she has ability. She is who she is and that is an Olympian in the truest sense. She only wants to find her limits.
Joan Benoit may have approached the limits of frustration in the weeks before the Marathon Trials. She had made a comeback from double Achilles surgery to run a breakthrough 2:22:43 World Record in 1983. But that was on her timetable. This time The Athletics Congress is setting the schedule. Benoit had to run 26.2M faster than all but two other women in the United States and she had to do it on May 12, 1984.
Have you ever seen such courage? Not since Willis Reed dragged a leg behind him in the 1969 NBA playoffs. Not since that Japanese gymnast dismounted with a broken leg in the 1976 Olympics. Well… Benoit’s 2:31:04 win at Olympia looked that brave.
It takes talent to be fast. It takes guts to be a winner. The Finns have a word, sisu, which means, roughly, a combination of pride, determination and guts. The Americans have a similar word – Benoit.
The measure of greatness is not how well you do when things are easy, but how well you do when the going gets tough. Joan Benoit doesn’t thrive on adversity, because she is not a fool. The Maine Coaster feeds on achievement, because she has ability. She is who she is and that is an Olympian in the truest sense. She only wants to find her limits.
Joan Benoit may have approached the limits of frustration in the weeks before the Marathon Trials. She had made a comeback from double Achilles surgery to run a breakthrough 2:22:43 World Record in 1983. But that was on her timetable. This time The Athletics Congress is setting the schedule. Benoit had to run 26.2M faster than all but two other women in the United States and she had to do it on May 12, 1984.
It was March 16 when Benoit began to worry. During about the 14th mile of a scheduled 20-miler, the well-oiled machine developed a mechanical malady. Her right knee evidenced a “catch,” sticking so that Benoit was unable to go through the complete running motion. A mile later the knee completely shut down. “It was the first time in my life I ever walked out of a training run,” she remembers, still rather incredulous.
It was not the last time. She took the next day off, then ran 10M, finishing with a sore knee. Understandably concerned, Benoit called Dr. Robert Leach, the surgeon who had done such exemplary work on her Achilles. Leach administered a cortisone injection and Benoit took another day off. Still feeling some pain, she nonetheless managed ten good days of training. Then, after a track workout at Harvard (“One of the best of my life,” she recalls) Benoit rested for three minutes, and began to jog down. She couldn’t.
“I knew by that point that this was not a runner’s normal complaint.” A run the next day became a walk and another drive to the doctor’s. Leach injected the knee with more cortisone. Benoit didn’t run for five days. Then a three-mile run left her in pain and frustrated.
Justifiably concerned with MT-Day looming closer on her calendar, Benoit flew to Athletics West headquarters in Eugene, Oregon, home of Coach Bob Sevene. It is also, not coincidentally, where noted orthopedic surgeon Stan James lives. Dr. James advised an additional five days of rest and heavy doses of Butazolidin. It was April 17. “He said it was too late to do surgery,” Benoit explains, “but when I first tried to run again, I had to walk after three miles. The leg would just lock up.”
It was too late NOT to operate. James inserted an arthroscope into the knee and, after a delicate but thorough inspection, still didn’t find much. “The pain was so darn deep,” said Benoit. “It was almost impossible to treat.” It was difficult to locate, but when James got there, he snipped the plica band. It was April 25; there were just 17 days until the Trials.
On April 26 Benoit was on a hand bicycle maintaining her cardiovascular fitness. The day after that, she was swimming. April 30 and Benoit ran 55 minutes without pain. The knee was tender, but the leg worked. Joanie was a runner again.
That Benoit is a competitor probably explains why she went out again that same day for 60 minutes, some of them at 10mph speed. On May 2nd, ten days before the Trials, she ran an hour and 48 minutes. The knee was fine, but Benoit was injured again.
“I overcompensated with my left leg, and that caused a strain in the hamstring,” said Benoit. “Why did I run so much, so soon? Well, I like to go into a race feeling strong, feeling charged up.”
On May 5, exactly a week before the event, the Number One seed could not run. Every sort of treatment was tried. Benoit did it all, including soaking in a bathtub of ice water – complete with cubes. Anything was worth a try.
Enter Jack Scott, you know the one. With the Electro-Acuscope, you probably don’t know that one. It is a non-medical healing machine which supposedly supplies a low-level electrical stimulus to the body. The current produced is similar to that which naturally occurs in healthy tissue. Benoit spent a lot of time, I mean a lot, up to nine hours daily, with the machine. One way or another, she was going to be charged up.
May 8: Benoit, feeling better by the minute and wondering if she could run hard for 2 1/2 hours, covered 17 miles at a reasonable tempo. She didn’t know if she could win a marathon but she was now confident she could start one.
“After that run, I knew I could go the distance. I didn’t know if I could compete against a pack at 20M,” Benoit said, as she remembered the emotional roller coaster she rode in the days before the Trials. “This was the worst possible way for me to go into a marathon.” It may well have been a blessing in disguise.
May 12: nowhere near top form, Benoit found herself far in front at 20M, nowhere near a pack. Injured or not, she is still the Miss America of road racing. She is on her way to Los Angeles and that marathon will be different.
May 18: a week after her Trials’ victory, Benoit was back home and still concerned. “The knee feels great, but the hamstring problem is lingering on,” she said. “I’m doing a little running, but next week will be another easy week, before I start training hard again.”
Benoit will train hard, but undoubtedly smarter. That one week of 130 miles will not be repeated. “I’m still pretty beat up from the marathon, but I’m really raring to go,” she enthused. “Usually at this time of the year I’m burned out. But, because of the injuries and days off, I’m ready.”
Ready but not prepared. The preparation begins now, at home, away from the media, away from the controversy. She remains perturbed at the news coverage of her victory at Olympia, which seemed to focus on the easy story – Jack Scott and the Acuscope.
“I don’t doubt that the machine was responsible for some improvement, but I’m not convinced that any other therapy wouldn’t have helped,” Benoit said. “Remember, if Stan James had not performed the surgery, nothing would have worked. We tried a number of therapies. Rich Phaigh’s massages were instrumental. Dr. Steven Roy was a big help. It was not one miracle machine.”
It was a miraculous performance by a well-coached, highly dedicated, most intelligent athlete. The Joan Benoit story is not about doctors or drugs or massages , alternative exercises or hot packs or ice baths, not even electro-faith healing. No, this is a tale of strength and courage and talent and desire and discipline. It is a tale with the conclusion yet to be written.
Of course, the rest -as they say – is her story. Not just atop the victory stand. The first victory stand. Thank you, JB. – JDW