[Quack Attack]

Grooming to go for gold


This year’s Olympics won’t be last for Salazar prodigy Rupp



By Kerry Eggers
The Portland Tribune, Jul 24, 2008, Updated 19.5 hours ago

L.E. BASKOW / TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO

Galen Rupp will be 22 when he joins the world’s best 10K runners at the XXIX Olympics in Beijing. He could participate in two more Olympics after that, says mentor and coach Alberto Salazar. Rupp, a senior at Oregon, prepped at Central Catholic. If Alberto Salazar hadn’t come into his life, Galen Rupp figures he probably would just be finishing up a soccer career at a small college somewhere in the Northwest.

Instead, the Central Catholic grad and University of Oregon senior is in the final stages of preparing to represent the United States at the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing next month in track and field. On Aug. 17, Rupp will toe the starting line at National Olympic Stadium in Beijing for the 10,000-meter final. He’ll be going up against the great Ethiopians and Kenyans who own all the world’s top marks in the event this year, along with fellow American Abdi Abdirahman, who beat Rupp in the U.S. Olympic Trials a few weeks ago in Eugene.

Rupp won’t worry about going for the gold, or even for a medal. Last year in the World Championships at Osaka, Rupp – then 21 – finished 11th in the 10,000. “I want to improve on that,” Rupp says. “I’d like to get in the top 10 and to stay up with Abdi. That’s basically my plan.”
Dozens of African runners own better 2008 times than Rupp’s 27:43.11 best at Hayward Field in April. No matter, at least to Salazar, who is grooming Rupp for big things with the future in mind.

“Galen is so young,” says Salazar, the former American record-holder at 5,000 and 10,000 and Rupp’s coach for the past eight years. “Anything in the top 10 at Beijing would be a great accomplishment. The average age of the competitors will be 27 or 28. There’s no reason why Galen won’t be in at least a couple of more Olympic Games, why he can’t be winning the trials when he’s 30. There is so much time ahead of him.

“There will be guys in (the Olympic 10K field) who, on their best day, can beat him by a minute. Those guys are just flat-out better than him now. In another four years, he’ll be closer. Another four years after that, he’ll be even closer. We keep that long-term approach. If you don’t, you’re going to get discouraged.”

Rupp has total faith in Salazar. And why not? Salazar has been right about just about everything since coaxing a budding young soccer star onto the track eight years ago. The Olympics were only a faraway dream in those days. Now they are a reality.

On a postcard-perfect morning last week, Rupp endures a typically difficult workout at Ronaldo Field on the Nike campus with a host of other runners in Salazar’s stable, including Olympians Kara Goucher and Amy Begley.
Run 1,000 meters hard, jog 1,000 meters. Do it again – 15 times. Most of the time, Rupp runs alone, with Salazar calling out his times. The 6-foot, 135-pound Rupp flies easily around the grass field – at least, he makes it look easy. But he is breathing hard when the workout is done.

“It’s a long workout,” he says, as he catches his breath. “It’s not so hard in the beginning, but doing so many – by the end, you’re spent.”
Salazar, who celebrates his 50th birthday on Aug. 7, is in some ways a father figure to Rupp; in other ways, more like an older brother.
Rupp didn’t know much at all about Salazar on that fateful day when Galen’s mother, Jamie, made the 14-year-old introduce himself to Salazar at the Central Catholic fall sports barbecue the summer of 2000. He knew very little about Salazar’s American records or marathon victories at New York and Boston.

Mentor is also a friend

“One of the reasons Alberto and I have such a good relationship, we just know each other as equals,” Rupp says. “It’s never been about (Salazar’s fame). A lot of people try to make it out as me working with a big star. We’re such good friends on the most basic level, that has helped our relationship.”

If that sounds a tad precious, it’s not Rupp’s intention. Any ego is well-hidden in this young track giant whose name has been placed alongside those of Steve Prefontaine, Bill McChesney and other distance-running greats in the annals of Oregon track and field.

“I owe everything to Alberto,” Rupp says. “Without him, I probably wouldn’t be doing this. … the doors he has opened for me and allowed me to pursue, it’s been awesome." Rupp was with Salazar when he suffered a heart attack last summer on the Nike campus and helped summon medical help. Rupp drove Salazar to Eugene on the day the Olympic Trials began this June, three days after Salazar spent time in the hospital with dehydration and high blood pressure. Salazar says he is now feeling fine and running four miles a day, but his health is on the mind of his star runner – to a point.

“It’s something I always think about, especially when you can tell he gets tired sometimes,” Rupp says. “With the medication, he’s sometimes not his usual self. It’s something I look out for. But at the same time, you can’t let it consume your life, worrying about it. As soon as he was out (of the hospital), he was already back to normal, doing stuff, getting on with his life.
“Being around him and seeing how much he loves life and really enjoys the little things, that’s what I think about when I think of Alberto. You know (the health issue) is there, and you acknowledge it, but I enjoy every second of time I’m able to spend with him.”

Winger takes off on track

On the day they met, Rupp was firmly entrenched in youth soccer. One of the area’s best young wingers, he played year-round and, in fact, didn’t give it up right away after his introduction to Salazar.
As Jamie Mitchell, Rupp’s mother had been a state mile champion and twice state cross country titlist at La Salle High and had gone on to run for Oregon State. Jamie had coached Galen’s All Saints School track team while he was in fourth and fifth grades.

“I could tell he had a natural talent for running, but it wasn’t something he had much interest in,” she says. Salazar was head cross country coach and assistant track coach when Rupp enrolled at Central Catholic as a freshman in 2000. Rupp had set a Catholic Youth Organization record in the 1,500 as an eighth-grader, but soccer was his love, and he made the Rams’ varsity team as a freshman and was named to the state’s Olympic development team.

At the same time, Rupp participated in a couple of cross country workouts and, in short order, wound up being Central’s No. 1 runner as a freshman.
“He ran a couple of meets but didn’t win them, and got sick and didn’t run well at the district meet,” Salazar recalls. “I remember thinking, ‘Maybe he’s not going to want to run now.’ ”

After soccer season was over, Salazar convinced Rupp to spend a month focusing on training for the National Junior Olympics cross country meet at Reno. Rupp finished second, “with limited background, going against the best age-group kids in the country who were running full-time,” Salazar says. “If I had to pick one moment where I realized I had a lot of potential as a runner, that was it,” Rupp says.
Rupp stayed with soccer but also ran track that spring. And it was then that, after a discussion with parents Jamie and Greg, he decided to give up soccer. “I couldn’t do both sports and be great,” Galen says. “You have to devote so much time nowadays to be really good at any sport. I had to make a decision which way I wanted to go.” His parents weren’t sure, though, until that August, when soccer camp was about to start.

“I asked Galen if he was planning on going, and he casually told me, ‘I’m not playing soccer. I’m running now,’ ” Jamie says. “I was like, ‘Oh, OK.’ ”
Rupp knew the decision tickled his mother. “Deep down, she always wanted me to run track, but she never pressured me into doing it,” he says. “Mom and Dad left it completely in my hands. But I could tell she was real excited when I decided to make the switch.”

“It was fun and exciting to watch him do both sports, but it was crazy, too,” she says. “We had sporting events three or four nights a week almost all year. Part of me was relieved. We just couldn’t keep up that schedule. But it was a big decision for us, and we missed all of our soccer friends.” Rupp quickly became one of the state’s best distance runners, then its best. “I can distinctly remember my sophomore year, really believing it was only a matter of time before I got to this big level,” Rupp says. “Alberto was always dead-on, predicting within a couple of seconds of what I would do. I gained a lot of trust and believed wholeheartedly in what he was telling me.”

The summer after his senior season, Rupp set American high school records at 3,000 and 5,000 meters. He also brought down the state 3,000 mark set by Prefontaine three decades earlier. “That was the big one for me,” Rupp says.

At Oregon, Rupp was twice the NCAA runner-up at 10,000 meters and set the national junior record at 28:15.52 as a freshman. He was runner-up in leading Oregon to the 2007 NCAA cross country championship. With the blessing of UO coach Vin Lananna, Rupp has continued training under Salazar, who lives in Portland and is a senior executive at Nike while running the company’s Oregon Project for distance runners.

Parents supply perspective

Salazar will take credit only for helping Rupp find a running style ideally suited for long-term success and health.
“Galen has tremendous talent and was very successful from the beginning,” Salazar says. “There are a lot of kids, though, who have talent but fall through the cracks. There might be 100 other Galen Rupps out there – just as talented but not fortunate enough to, at age 14, start doing things correctly.” Salazar most admires Rupp’s work ethic. “As good as Galen’s biomechanics are, to some extent, you don’t just have it – you have to work at it,” Salazar says.

“It’s like a guy with a great swing in baseball. Even Ken Griffey had to work constantly on his swing. Running will inherently make you tight and accentuate any flaws you have. So eventually, your biomechanics will get worse unless you’re constantly working on flexibility and coordination.
“That’s something Galen has done religiously since he was 14. He works hard on every little thing. I have other great athletes who work very hard. But without a doubt, in terms of sacrificing everything, of working diligently at everything, Galen has done the best job of anybody I’ve coached. He is a perfectionist.”

Salazar points to another factor in Rupp’s success – his parents.
Jamie Rupp is nurse manager of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Legacy Emanuel Children’s Hospital. Greg – who was not a runner – is a respiratory therapist at Emanuel. They met there and have been working to help premature babies begin their lives for 26 years. “In their lives, tragic, heartbreaking circumstances occur on a daily basis,” Salazar says. “Greg once told me a story about parents who had to make the decision to take their child off of life support. When you hear stuff like that, a foot injury is pretty insignificant.

“That sort of family background is the greatest asset for Galen – being able to deal with the pressure and demands and the kind of scrutiny he is under. He’s a kid who has the most pressure put on him from the outside, yet it really doesn’t affect him in the least. It’s why he has been able to run really well when it counts, and why he bounces back from bad races. It’s like he realizes it’s not that big a deal.” “My parents give me so much perspective about life in general,” Rupp says. “What they have to go through – life and death situations, dealing with small babies – is real pressure. You make a mistake, that could be it. So (in running), it’s never a big deal if I lose. “Another big thing with my parents — I’ve always known I was loved. Whether I succeeded or failed, it never mattered. Having that in the back of my head, you never look at (track) too seriously. I’ve had so many other parts of my life that are important, that running is something I do for fun.”

On the other hand, Rupp likes to push himself when met with a challenge.
“Galen thrives under that situation,” his mother says. “He has always been someone who loves healthy competition. There’s a difference between that and competition that kind of eats away at you. “He seems to get more joy out of competing with somebody who can really challenge him. It’s no fun if you’re so much better than everybody. When he was little, it wouldn’t be nearly as fun to play basketball with his brother if he could totally blow him away. He would always spot him 98 points and say, ‘We’re playing to 100.’ “

Rupp’s pursuit of excellence extends to the classroom. He was a near-4.0 student at Central Catholic, with one B in four years. He has had just one B, too, at Oregon, where he is a little over a year away from gaining a degree in marketing. “We’ve always stressed you have to do your best,” Jamie Rupp says. “It doesn’t matter if you bring home C’s or A’s, what matters is you do your best.”

Salazar talks about Rupp’s humility and levelheadedness. That’s a reflection of his upbringing, too. “I don’t want to minimize how proud we are of his accomplishments,” Jamie Rupp says, “but at the end of the day, just because you can run faster than anybody doesn’t make you a better person. We’re extraordinarily proud of Galen, but what is more important to us is what kind of a person he is and how he handles the success he has. That’s what makes his parents proud.”

Eyeing Olympic excitement

Rupp thinks the experience in Osaka last year will prove beneficial, and he’s not at all worried about pressure of performing in Beijing.
“The Olympic Trials are so much more pressure than the Olympics,” he says. “You’re expected to make the top three, and if you do, then you go on to Beijing. You can really only lose that spot.
“You’re working for eight years and you have one day to get it done. If you’re not on that day, you don’t get to go, and you have to wait another four years. That’s what makes the Olympics so special.”

Rupp’s celebrity status increased with his second-place finish at the Olympic Trials, though he says life hasn’t changed “all that much.”
He adds: “A lot of people come up and say congratulations. When I was in Eugene after the race … I couldn’t take more than a couple of steps without somebody coming up and saying, ‘Good job,’ or ‘We’re rooting for you,’ or asking for an autograph. It’s been real fun, though. I’ve enjoyed it.” Some have asked why he always runs with the Breathe Right strip across the bridge of his nose.

“I have really bad allergies,” he says. “It opens my airways up a lot. A lot of people think it’s a fashion statement, but it’s strictly functional.”
In the garage of the Portland house he shares with friends, a hyperbolic chamber is set up to help him acclimate to what he will face in Beijing. A humidifier is set at about 80 degrees and 90 percent humidity, and he runs for about 30 minutes a day on a treadmill in addition to his workouts with Salazar.

Rupp says he is looking forward to everything about the Olympics. He’ll room with Andrew Wheating, the deer-like UO sophomore who came out of nowhere in one year to make the U.S. team at 800 meters.
“I’ve never been to China,” Rupp says. “The culture is so different, it’ll be fun to experience. Just being a part of the whole Olympics … the Olympic village … meeting other Olympians … going to other events … it’s going to be really cool.”

Salazar predicts the Olympic 10K winner will run 27:15. Rupp’s PR is 27:33.48, and in the heat and humidity, he won’t approach that. He ran 28:40 at Osaka last year. “If Galen can run 27:50 to 28 minutes, that should put him in the top 10,” Salazar says. Rupp leaves for Beijing on Aug. 5 – his birthday. He’ll march in the opening ceremonies with his teammates and competitors from throughout the world. On Aug. 17, he’ll run in the biggest race of his life. For now.

kerryeggers@portlandtribune.com

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by Quack Attack

Salazar predicts the Olympic 10K winner will run 27:15. Rupp’s PR is 27:33.48, and in the heat and humidity, he won’t approach that. He ran 28:40 at Osaka last year. “If Galen can run 27:50 to 28 minutes, that should put him in the top 10,” Salazar says. Rupp leaves for Beijing on Aug. 5 – his birthday. He’ll march in the opening ceremonies with his teammates and competitors from throughout the world. On Aug. 17, he’ll run in the biggest race of his life. For now.

kerryeggers@portlandtribune.com

I really doubt the winner will go 27.15...not in the smog of Beijing......I think it will be a slower tactical race decided in the final 800 meters...the winner will probably cover the final 2 laps in about 1.51...that's my take...

[Quack Attack]

I am excited for the first time in years to watch the summer olympics. I use to run the 400 and 800 meters in track and usually my favorite events. Running the 10k is a long long race and takes such stamina. Sounds like you know your Track and Field Gotham and am guessing you are excited about the 2008 olympics? Anybody else excited?

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by Quack Attack

I am excited for the first time in years to watch the summer olympics. I use to run the 400 and 800 meters in track and usually my favorite events. Running the 10k is a long long race and takes such stamina. Sounds like you know your Track and Field Gotham and am guessing you are excited about the 2008 olympics? Anybody else excited?

Yeah, love Track and Field...always hate it when the butcher the coverage of some of the longer events on TV just because the US doesn't normally do well...hoping at least Lagat does well