Marathon · 2000s–2010s
Meb Keflezighi
Won Boston at 38, with the names of the victims written on his bib.
Boston 2014
A year after the bombings, he won, the first American man to do so since 1983. He had written the names of the victims on his bib. He went from the front early and held it, which at 38 against that field was not the percentage play.
The long career
Olympic marathon silver in Athens in 2004, a New York win in 2009, and a fourth place at the 2012 Olympics at 37. He kept qualifying for teams long after the cohort he came up with had stopped.
Where he started
He arrived in the United States as a child refugee from Eritrea, via Italy, and learned to run in a school PE class. He has been explicit that the running was never separable from that.
The pain management
His late-career races were run on a body that had been broken repeatedly, including a pelvic fracture that was supposed to end things. What he is a case study in is telling the difference between damage and discomfort, over and over, correctly.
Know the difference between hurt and harm. Getting that call right for years is what a long career is made of.
All 26 case studies. Profiles are factual and drawn from the public record. Where a performance carries an asterisk, this app says so rather than leaving it out.