Hicham El Guerrouj: The Most Talented, Most Focused, and Best Trained Athlete of All-Time?

I take you through the incredible story of Hicham El Guerrouj, the Moroccan middle-distance legend who was virtually unbeatable for nearly four years, only to face heartbreaking defeats at the Atlanta Olympics.

I walk through the agony of those losses, the silver medal at 1500 meters, and the mental and physical toll of carrying the expectations of millions while chasing perfection. We get into how he used that disappointment to fuel one of the most remarkable comebacks in track history, leading up to the 2004 Athens Olympics where he finally won the gold—and not just in the 1500, but also the 5,000 meters, a feat not accomplished in 80 years.

I break down the races, the strategies, and the legendary final laps where El Guerrouj “floored the gas pedal” and ran splits that would have qualified in an Olympic 800 meters. I also reflect on what his story taught me about dealing with setbacks, staying focused, and turning misfortune into motivation, drawing parallels to challenges we all face in our own training and lives.

Along the way, we touch on the evolution of running technology, the rise of super spikes, and why El Guerrouj’s records still stand as some of the most impressive in the sport.

TIMESTAMPS:

This video of El Guerrouj shows the most genetically gifted, most disciplined and best trained athlete of all sport. [01:06]

The insights about discipline focus, dealing with adversity and creating a lifestyle of total dedication to peak performance can be tremendously inspiring and life changing. [04:14]

How do you set a world record that holds for 27 years? [09:00]

Genetically gifted athletes have the ‘gift’ but they need the old school focus, total dedication and monastic lifestyle. [13:24]

The mile run is 79% contribution from the aerobic system and the rest is anaerobic. [18:14]

In the modern more digital world, we get to know the athletes better.
El Guerrouj lead a more monastic life when training. [20:08]

El Guerrouj has amazing genetic gifts. He was of very light body weight. [23:08]

The proper running form is landing over your midfoot with a balanced center of gravity. [24:09]

Research has shown that there’s a direct correlation with an adequate or good or great VO2 max with longevity. [27:30]

It helps to be tall like Usain Bolt. Increased ankle bending during a moment allows him to utilize the spring-ilike mechanism of the calves for increased power as he pushes off. [32:49]

What’s the best form for you? It’s figuring out what works for you and your own natural athleticism and your own physical particulars, your level of flexibility in your trunk, your shoulders, everything goes into the equation. [37:39]

Do you know why all the track and field races are run in counterclockwise manner? It’s because the natural human bio rhythms have a counterclockwise nature to them. [39:39]

Genes do not determine your destiny. [41:30]

El Guerrouj ‘s competitive intensity and focus make his champion mindset. [45:59]

Highschooler Alan Webb had the chance to run against El Guerrouj. Webb broke the record. [50:34]

El Guerrouj’s career has had some disappointments and setbacks. [54:13]

Try to release the attachment of your self-esteem to the outcome. Let go of the “Why me?” mentality. [01:15:01]

What about the shoes? How do they make a difference? [[01:27:30]

Quote from El Guerrouj:
“The values of life are work, patience, defeat, learning from defeat, perseverance and regularity, and all that I learned with sport and above all from my Olympic journey.” [01:31:44]

LINKS:

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TRANSCRIPT:

Brad (00:00:00):
Welcome to the B.rad podcast – where we explore ways to pursue peak performance with passion throughout life. I’m Brad Kearns, NY Times bestselling author, world #1 ranked masters age 60-plus high jumper, and former #3 world-ranked professional triathlete. You’ll learn how to stay fit, strong and powerful as you age; transform your diet to lose body fat and increase energy; sort through hype and misinformation to make simple, sustainable lifestyle changes; and broaden your perspective beyond a fit body to experience healthy relationships, nonstop personal growth, and ultimately a happy, healthy, long life. Let’s explore beyond shortcuts, hacks, and crushing competition to laugh, have fun, appreciate the journey, and not take ourselves too seriously. It’s time to B.rad!

Brad (00:00:51):
The most genetically gifted, most disciplined and best trained athlete of all time in any sport. Yes, he is the complete package to the extent of which we may never see again his name.

Brad (00:01:06):
In this video I’m going to celebrate the greatest middle distance runner of all time, who perhaps is the most genetically gifted, most disciplined and best trained athlete of all time in any sport. Yes, he is the complete package to the extent of which we may never see again. His name is Hicham El Guerroj of the great nation of Morocco, and we’re gonna cover his amazing career and world records that still hold today 27 years later, even in the age of super spikes and track and field where every other distance record has been taken down. No one has approached El G’s times of three minutes, 26.00 seconds in the 1500 meters and 3:43 0.1 for the mile. 3 43. Remember when breaking the four minute mile was the ultimate human achievement, Roger Banister back in 1954? That’s training pace for an athlete at the level of Elgar Rouge. Elgar Rouge is widely regarded as the greatest middle distance runner in history and he still holds six of the 10 fastest times ever run in the 1500 meters, as well as seven of the 15 fastest times ever run in the mile.

Brad (00:02:24):
He and Jakob Ingebrigsten of Norway, the contemporary middle distance great, are the only men in history to have broken both 3 :27 in the fifteen hundred and three forty four for the mile. El Guerroj is the only man in history to have broken 3:27 in the 1500 meters more than once, and he’s done so five times. He won a gold medal in the 1500 in the World championships of track and field in 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2003. These are the championships that are held every other year around the Olympics, which are held every four years, and he won World Athlete of the Year, World Track and Field Athlete of the Year three times. That’s across all the disciplines, amongst all the athletes. But his story is not just championships and world records. We’re also gonna cover his very dramatic and tragic setbacks on the biggest stage, which is the Olympic Games.

Brad (00:03:21):
And oh, these are rough. You’re gonna have a rough time watching this and it brings me to tears every time that the the level of disappointment and setbacks that this great athlete suffered and his resilience and strength are so inspiring. That’s what I want to highlight him on this video. I mean, the disappointments would break most every athlete, but instead they served as motivation for El Guerroj to stay focused, continue on his path of training at the highest level that has ever been seen in middle distance running and rise to the highest level of world sport going out on top, ending his career at a high level rivaled by anyone. You can talk about Michael Jordan winning his three-peat and then retiring, or Michael Phelps winning all the gold medals and swimming. So if you’re a runner, I think this video is gonna inspire you like nothing you’ve seen before.

Brad (00:04:14):
If you’re not familiar with the career of El Guerroj, which was a different era, he retired in around 2005. So you might have missed him, especially if you’re a young runner and even if you’re not a runner, if you’re an athlete in another sport, or even if you’re not an athlete, the insights about discipline focus, dealing with adversity and creating a lifestyle of total dedication to peak performance can be tremendously inspiring and life changing. So here we go. I’m gonna start you off with a video of El Guerroj breaking the world record in the mile in 1999. A record that still stands here he is in Rome, Italy. Let’s watch, let’s get to know the greatest of all time

YouTube (00:05:00):
Winner of this mile race. There is also a $50,000 prize for anyone who establishes a world record. You just saw Kevin Sullivan of Canada in the yellow. He was jostled at the start line and the former Canadian 1500 meter champion is now running second last as the pack moves through the turn. He wears competitor number 65. Sullivan and Graham Hood staged a great battle in the Canadian championships over 1500 meters, and Sullivan indicated at the time that he did not plan to run in the Pan-American Games, but instead race in Europe in preparation for the World championships in Seville, Spain. Couple of pacesetters out there leading the way for El Guerroj

YouTube (00:05:52):
El Guerroj in third, the second of those pacemakers, Tanui of Kenya, the Olympic champion at 800 meters, a couple of Olympic games ago, pushing the pace four 40 yards, 55.07 just about on world record pace. It’s very important that these pacemakers not go out too fast. Equally, it’s important that they don’t slow the field down and they’re moving beautifully and this high class field already dropping back from the leading four, two of which are pacemakers, El Guerroj the world record holder in 1500 meters, which he set on this track a year ago, is now trying to take away Noureddine Morceli’s mile record.

YouTube (00:06:32):
And Jeff, it’s interesting you point out that on this very track, Hicham El Guerroj set the record for 1500 meters. When he ran that very fast time, he became the first man to average under 55 seconds per lap for the 1500 meters. And he is running a very consistent mile thus far.

YouTube (00:06:54):
Yes, the pace is good. 880 yards, 1:51 0.58. That’s good pace for a new world record. It’s now very, very important that they do not lose pace on this third crucial lap. This is the lap which most people let down in slightly to get ready for the final 400 meters. They must not do this if they want to take away Noureddine Morceli’s world record

YouTube (00:07:21):
One of the pacesetters Robert Kebet dropping out, leaving it up to Tanui lead the way for Hicham El Guerroj And it’s interesting that staying with the Hicham El Guerroj is the 20-year-old from Kenya, Noah Ngeny. He is staying right with Hicham El Guerroj

YouTube (00:07:40):
And with excellent credentials. Ngeny has the three fastest 1500 meter times in the world in 1999. So this young 20-year-old is not out of his class. Ngeny has done an outstanding job of pacemaking and brings him to the bell. They’ve gotta work very hard on his final lap, but it is possible. Guerroj now leading Neen behind

YouTube (00:08:02):
Nui has dropped out. He did his job as did Robert Kibet, the two pacesetters, and now it is El Guerrouj going down the back straight, but he is unable to shake Noah Ngeny.

YouTube (00:08:13):
So great to see an attempt on a record also being a race between two men. So often the world record challenger is out alone having dropped the two pacemakers, but in this case, we have a real race on our hands. Ngeny not giving way at all. This 20-year-old with the three fastest times in the world this year, not in any way humiliated by this great Moroccan runner and sticks close to him coming off the turn with a hundred meters to go. He is still there.

YouTube (00:08:37):
Ngeny trying to move in on Hicham El Guerroj. He’s closing. Watch the time the world record 3:44 3 9. They raced to the finish line. Hicham El Guerroj was going, hang on, he’s got a world record 3:43 2 as matter of fact, El Guerroj and Ngeny.

Brad (00:09:00):
So how do you set a world record that holds for 27 years? You have great pacers. The Pacers did their job. They have to run at an extremely precise split time per lap, otherwise there’s no chance of world record, right? If you go out a little bit too fast or a little bit too slow, all the world records in distance running, middle distance running are achieved by running a very precise accurate pace. You’ll be amazed if you look up 5K split times of the world record and the marathon. They’re coming in within seconds of each other, every little chunk of the marathon. And in the mile, of course the four laps, you wanna ideally even split those four laps as you saw from some of the announcer split times, and that’s how you bust the world record. It also helps that a young Kenyon 20-year-old flash in the pan named Noah Ngeny.

Brad (00:09:48):
He had an amazing career winning gold medals being right there with El Guerroj as the second fastest of all time in the 1500 and the mile. But his career didn’t last very long at all. So, some guy chasing you when you’re trying to bust the world record helps a lot, of course great weather, great conditions in Rome, and that’s what’s on the board still here. As I make this video in 2025. As I mentioned at the outset, how can one athlete be considered the most genetically gifted, most disciplined and best trained? Instead, what we see are examples of quote, genetically gifted athletes that may be wavering in their work ethic or fall short of their potential for a variety of reasons. We see tons of these stories of the scrappers who have so much grit and dedication and they never give up. Maybe they don’t have the genetic gifts.

Brad (00:10:40):
That’s the linebacker in the NFL who’s only 5′ 11″, but he worked harder than everyone else in the weight room. So you have people that have some of those attributes, but it’s tough to have all three. Especially we see a lot of great athletes who have the gifts, they work hard. They make it to the top, and then they lose their edge, you might say, and they fall into the distractions of money and fame and maybe perhaps, uh, having injuries or misfortunes caused by bad luck or caused by a flawed approach to training where they kind of squander their genetic gifts without having that dedication and that focus that it takes to remain on top for a long time. So to set world records in middle distance events, the most hotly competitive events in all of sports because it’s so easy to have access to running a race, right?

Brad (00:11:31):
The fastest man in the world, they call the a hundred meter runner Usain Bolt. Everyone in the world has an opportunity to compete in a sprint distance and probably did it some point in their lifetime, such that we definitely have discovered the world’s fastest man when we watch the Olympic track and field. And in middle distance, of course, here’s the track, there’s tracks all over the planet. Whoever can run the fastest, it’s the most open forum for competition. Unlike compare and contrast to say Tom Brady’s the greatest NFL quarterback of all time, that’s fantastic and congratulations to him. But look, there’s only 32 teams in the NFL, so there’s only about 70 professional quarterbacks in the whole world, <laugh>. So it’s quite a bit different than looking at the a hundred meter sprint and saying, okay, we’re gonna choose the fastest man on the planet or the fastest runner of the mile and, boy, to set world records that hold for a generation.

Brad (00:12:25):
That’s when we’re talking about something special that has each of those afore mentioned attributes. I said maybe the likes of which we’ll never see again. And that’s because today it’s virtually impossible for an athlete to be as focused on training compared to someone like El Guerroj. We’re gonna detail his monastic lifestyle he was called because here we are in the digital age, these athletes have more presence and recognition and more ability to communicate and be seen behind the scenes than ever before. They’re wealthy celebrity brands and cultural icons everywhere they go, they’re being watched and potentially distracted from that total focus on their training, especially arduous grueling training regimens like the endurance athletes have. And it kind of can easily bring you to a level of a lot of distraction, a lot of energy out that’s not directly applicable to becoming a better athlete.

Brad (00:13:24):
It’s so much so that today we kind of celebrate these occasions of binge focus that we hear about where an athlete does dedicate themselves. Noah Lyles went off social media for six weeks before the Olympics, so he could really focus good for him, but like in context, it’s something that should be expected, right? Oh, you remember LeBron James many years ago, LeBron went on the ketogenic diet in the off season and lost 20 pounds of excess fat. So he’s quicker and jumps higher than ever. Yeah, I’d expect that from a professional athlete too, to tighten up their diet. Oh, Jerry Rice, the great San Francisco 49 er who had that 22 year career in the NFL, I believe, and he was so celebrated for in the off season. Jerry Rice doesn’t goof around. He runs these punishing hell-sprints and he brings his teammates and they’re on their hands and knees all summer long getting ready for training camp.

Brad (00:14:16):
Yeah, you’re getting paid all summer long too, so congratulations. But it’s kind of funny to compare, contrast the athletes of one era prior to this explosion of digital age and how dedicated they were in comparison. So I’m calling El Guerroj perhaps the ultimate old school athlete and maybe the last true old school dedicated focused athlete ever. There was a great feature story in a year 2000 edition of Sports Illustrated by Steve Russian, and he said in the introduction to the article quote, we went out in search of the last unspoiled athlete on Earth end quote. And this was back in the year 2000. So the first section I’m gonna talk about his attributes in little chunks here in the video, and the first chunk I want to talk about is this old school total focus, total dedication, monastic lifestyle. So here’s this guy in the prime of his career, LG, as we nickname him, one of the richest citizens in the nation of Morocco and perhaps the most famous, or at least the second most famous person in Morocco besides the king.

Brad (00:15:26):
And during his career, instead of cavorting about and celebrating his wealth and fame, he spent 11 months per year living in Spartan training dormitories with his teammates. So there’s 30 million people in Morocco, LG is right there at the top. Maybe they have some soccer stars and a few other people who are at the highest level of celebrity recognition in relative terms, this guy is more famous than Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods in a setting in United States of America. But he’s living in a dormitory for 11 months, a year. About half the year was spent in the Moroccan national athletic training center in the city Rabat, and then many more months at a remote high altitude training camp in the Atlas Mountains town of Ifrane. And here’s a quote from the Sports Illustrated article about the training center in Rabat. Quote, running shoes air out on every window sill.

Brad (00:16:22):
Although El Guerrojs two rooms are warmly decorated, they contain few possessions, a stereo, a TV perpetually tuned to the music video fun channel. And that ubiquitous Moroccan status symbol, an intricate rug. His remaining toys would fit in the cup holder of the average NBA rookies Lincoln Navigator. In Rabat. He only ventures beyond the walls of his training complex on Sunday afternoons, but not always. El Guerroj says for two weeks, he says, with some sadness, my parents were staying 300 meters from here and I didn’t visit them. End quote. And up in Ifrane the article talks about how quote, even a wandering shepherd recognizes him. So Elgar Rouge can’t so much as sit unbothered in a cafe. Okay? So we’re gonna forward 20 years later, I’m having dinner in a Moroccan restaurant in Sacramento, and the owner’s very nice. He comes over and checks on us, how’s your food?

Brad (00:17:21):
We’re sitting on those low seats, the the low dining table and the cushion seats. And I say, the food’s fantastic. And I say, Hey, by the way, do you know El Guerroj? And he goes, of course I know El Guerroj. So this is 20 years after he retired a random Moroccan American. Of course I know El Guerroj. What a silly question. Anyway, back to the Sports Illustrated article, Craig Masback, former Great American miler and went on to be an executive and an agent in track and field. He says, quote, it doesn’t surprise me that a person who has run a 3:43 mile is living a somewhat monastic existence because of what it takes in terms of aerobic conditioning and sprint conditioning. The mile is at the meeting point of the marathon in the sprints, and it requires extraordinary discipline at this level. The discipline required is super extraordinary. End quote.

Brad (00:18:14):
Yeah, if you’re not familiar with middle distance running, uh, the sprinters, I mean, those guys work hard too. You can watch them on YouTube. Now, those punishing workouts, a lot of ’em are training in the hot sun of Jamaica and Florida and their hands are on their knees or they collapse after their last set, but their training sessions are, let’s say a couple hours and then they’re going off and living a somewhat more normal daily existence. Even the marathon runners, they’re out there putting in 120, 130 miles a week, but it’s hard to match or top an athlete who has to have that blistering speed to run a 3:43 mile. And also that extreme endurance required to maintain a fast pace for four laps. Interestingly, from exercise physiology research, the mile run is 79% contribution from the aerobic system and the rest is anaerobic.

Brad (00:19:09):
So that is a, a large anaerobic component. Anaerobic meaning the brief explosive powerful sprint type physiology. But 79% aerobic system means that these milers, and of course you watch on the video, these guys are skinny endurance freaks. They don’t have that large muscle mass and that vision of explosiveness like you see with the 102 hundred meter sprinters who are almost entirely anaerobic. So it is that hybrid athlete as they talk about today in a manner that the training is just absolutely mind blowing. They are generally running well in excess of 100 miles a week as a miler. So a lot of that is the low intensity jogging you would call it, although they’re running pretty fast when they’re jogging, they’re running six minute miles when they’re jogging. And that grueling punishing interval work where they’re practicing running quarters in 55 seconds, which is near the record pace that you saw on the El Guerrouj video.

Brad (00:20:08):
Super extraordinary discipline indeed. And El Guerrouj talks about his life, his monastic life, 11 months a year in the training centers. I’m happy with my life here. He says, seated in his dorm, picking out a breakfast of bread and boiled eggs. Athletics, that’s what they call track and field around the world. People in America athletics,. Similar, most people call soccer football in the world. So we call it track and field. The world calls it athletics. Athletics are supported by everyone in Morocco, and that is the source of my motivation, having a whole country behind me, end quote. And we are gonna get deeper into that mindset in a moment. Recall me talking about the compare and contrast to the modern athlete who’s so distracted, always got their mobile device in hand, always engaging with their followers, <laugh>. And um, today it’s actually great because you get to know the athletes so much more.

Brad (00:21:03):
There’s a great feature on YouTube called Workout Wednesday, put out by the Flow track channel, and they travel around the country, mostly America, and they go and watch and film the athletes, the great athletes doing their workouts. So you can actually see how they’re preparing for the great championship competitions that you can excitedly watch on TV. I love it, but there wasn’t a lot of that going on back in the turn of the century, uh, with El Guerrouj So here’s a funny passage to compare to the digital age of today to alleviate the loneliness of the middle distance runner. El Guerrouj has occasionally ventured into cyberspace. Remember this article is written in the year 2000. So we had the, I believe, dial up internet at that time, even in Morocco, okay? Oh, if you didn’t know what that sound effect was, you’re probably younger than 30 years old. That used to be the sound made by the computer when you had to dial on a telephone line to connect to the internet. Let me try that again.

Brad (00:22:07):
Hello, welcome to AOL or whatever. Okay, and little flash from the past for you older viewers. Back to the quote from the article. A computer savvy friend recently toured several chat rooms with the runner at his side and actually sent El Guerrouj s email address out over the internet. Of course, he received dozens of quick dispatches from his countrymen, nearly all of which read indignant. We know that you’re not the real El Guerrouj <laugh>. Oh boy, okay, talking about that focus. Here’s another great tidbit from the article with El Guerrouj talking about his vehicle, a Honda CRV. It only had 359 kilometers on the odometer. That’s 222 miles El Guerrouj explains, I only drive this car to and from Ifrane. That’s the high altitude training center. I am focused only on Sydney. That’s the upcoming 2000 Sydney Olympics that he’s referring to. My car is only focused on Sydney end quote. Okay? I think he got a picture from the rich language of Steve Russian and the imagery of being at that training camp in Rabat

Brad (00:23:08):
Now we’ll go to the next section that I’d like to discuss, which are his amazing genetic gifts. And I talked about that requirement for the Myer to be actually a pretty extreme endurance machine, 79% contribution of the aerobic system, even higher when you’re talking about the 5,000 meters, which is 3.1 miles, that is also considered a middle distance competition. So the endurance runner needs a light, powerful and very fast frame. El Guerrouj stood five foot nine and 126 pounds. So he was a featherweight. If you saw these athletes in real life, you’ll be shocked. Even today you see ’em on tv, TV ads, 20 pounds, right? They say that about the actors and everything. So these guys are very, very slight of frame, small, light, fast, powerful humans.

Brad (00:24:09):
The reason why a light body weight is so important is that running speed is dictated. Here’s our quick physics lessons for the day. It’s dictated by vertical force production per stride divided by body weight. So how much force can you generate directly into the ground? That’s why proper running form is landing over your midfoot with a balanced center of gravity so that you’re generating force directly into the ground. You’re actually not trying to run forward and impart force in front of you. That’s a common misconception, and that’s what you see with crappy running form. So it’s all about staying tall and generating force into the ground, which will spring you forward. And the amount of force that you produce per stride is what dictates the length of your running stride. Wait, Brad, if you’re talking about putting force vertically into the ground, wouldn’t you just jump up and spring to the moon if you’re trying to do so?

Brad (00:25:11):
No, because what you’re fighting is gravity. That’s why runners don’t spring straight up into the air 15 feet when they’re running. Instead they spring forward. For example, Usain Bolt in his a hundred meter races had a stride length of eight feet and Eluid Kipchoge, running the marathon world record time of one hour, 59 minutes. His stride length for the marathon, I believe it was a little over four feet, which is pretty amazing to have a four-foot stride for 26 miles average competent marathoner has a stride length of three feet. And the slow joggers, of course, their stride length is only a couple feet because they’re not generating much vertical force into the ground. So of course a big strong bodybuilder. And you can see funny videos on YouTube of bodybuilder challenges sprinter in a short 60 meter sprint. Uh, they can impart a lot of force into the ground because of their musculature and their power.

Brad (00:26:06):
But if you weigh 247 pounds and you’re trying to run a fast, even a hundred meters, even 40 meters, you’re gonna be slower than a competent sprinter. Whereby you see the sprinters, of course, are extremely low body fat, super ripped, a lot of them carry some significant musculature, but they’re generally fairly lightweight in general terms. Trayvon Bromell, one of the great American sprinters, I believe stands like 5′ 9,” 150 pounds. Noah Lyles the 200 meter world champion, one of the greatest sprinters of modern era. I believe he’s like 5 ’11”, 165. Everything’s pretty slight. So the athletes across all the track and field events are very, very lean, very ripped, and not carrying a lot of extra weight because of that critical component of vertical force production per stride divided by body weight. El Guerrouj’s physique was even more adapted for running and it was celebrated with this epic quote from Craig Mosback, the miler American that we heard about from before. He says, to some extent we’re talking about a machine and the media really took this and ran with it, but I’m going to, uh, give it some proper perspective shortly. El Guerrouj has the cardiovascular system of a man, 6′ 6″. He has the legs of a man, 6′ 2″and the upper body of a man who’s 5’t2″<laugh>.

Brad (00:27:30):
So that’s about right for a middle distance runner. That’s about ideal or super freak ideal. You also hear about this laboratory value called VO2 max volume of oxygen consumption that your body can consume when performing at near maximum intensity as a function of body weight again. So VO2 max is measured in milliliters per kilogram of body weight per minute, how much oxygen you can process in your body per minute divided by your body weight in kilograms. And now it’s become a popular biohacking term and an exercise strategy to try to elevate your VO2 max or concentrate on your VO2 max because the longevity research has shown that there’s a direct correlation with an adequate or good or great VO2 max with longevity. And if you have a poor VO2 max, meaning that your body cannot process very much oxygen when you’re trying to exercise at high intensity, you are in deep shit.

Brad (00:28:34):
I have an entire show about this whereby if you actually fall below a VO2 max of 18 milliliters per kilogram per minute, it is pretty much your death sentence. You’re gonna die. And that’s what we see from people who are old and feeble and can’t get outta bed. They basically can’t process enough oxygen per kilogram per minute to stay alive. The extreme example, and if you’re talking about a general unfit citizen with a lot of excess body weight, you’re gonna have a very poor VO2 max calculation as evidenced by becoming extremely winded, climbing up a single flight of stairs. So you don’t need to go into the laboratory to test this. You can climb upstairs and see how you do. And if one staircase is a big effort for you, boy that is as good or better than any blood test, any doctor exam, to indicate that you have very poor longevity prospects.

Brad (00:29:32):
So the idea of becoming better at consuming oxygen at high intensity per minute, it just means getting fitter and there’s no big magic to doing a quote VO2 max workout, especially designed VO2 max workout. You hear a lot about the four by four by four as the best workout, meaning four minutes of going as fast as you can for those four minutes, resting for four minutes, doing it four times, all that stuff’s fine and dandy, uh, but VO two max is kind of overrated. And the general takeaway, this is the summary of my hour-long show on the same subject if you want to hear more. But the general takeaway is get your VO2 max into adequate standard by getting in shape any way you like. There’s a whole bunch of ways to get fitter and get better at climbing stairs.

Brad (00:30:18):
It might be joining the adult basketball league if that’s your thing and you’ve been missing out going to the gym, lifting weights, all this stuff will improve your oxygen consumption per minute. But when you’re talking about elite athletes who go into the laboratory and get tested, they invariably have elite VO2 max values. But once you get above, let’s say a score of 70 milliliters per kilogram per minute, you’re in the elite category and then the variation is not much of a big deal. You can get these glamorous media accounts of the outlying elite endurance athletes who have record VO2 max scores. The Norwegian cyclist, Oscars Senson was a 97. The contemporary Jonas Vingegaard who’s up there at the top of the Tour de France and the top cyclist in the world. He was reported to have a VO two max of 97.

Brad (00:31:08):
The great Norwegian skier, Bjorn Daily was a 96, the great Norwegian triathlete, Christian Blumenfeld 93. He also had an absolute oxygen consumption of 7.7 liters per minute, which was superior. Greg Laman, the great US cyclist was 92. Look, that’s great. But El Guerrpouj’s VO two max was reported at 80, which is also a very elite level VO2 max. But interestingly, when I would tested myself in 1987 at age 21 at Dr. Cetti’s prominent laboratory in Southern California, my VO two max was 80.2, which was one of the highest scores ever seen. But I didn’t break the World Mile record that held for 27 years. So a little bit overrated when you’re talking about VO2 max. Oh, and did you catch how many Norwegians I mentioned had among the highest VO2 max scores ever recorded. So in a country of five and a half million people, that’s slightly larger than the borders of the city of Los Angeles with around 4 million people, eh, could be a little suspect, you know what I mean?

Brad (00:32:12):
Anyway, lots of hype around VO2 max Elite athletes have elite level VO two max over 70. Once you get your VO2 max up around 50 or above. And of course we’re talking age graded. So, a senior citizen who has a VO2 max of 40 is outstanding. A young person with a VO2 max of 50 is outstanding. An elite athlete with a VO2 max of 70 is outstanding. Once you get it over that basic competency and have a good score, then it’s really important to pursue other aspects of fitness like your muscular strength and so forth, rather than obsess about VO2 max.

Brad (00:32:49):
Let’s go to the next El Guerrouj attribute. So, the lungs of a guy 6′ 6″on a guy 5’9″ are some pretty good hype and good soundbites for the media and you will see superior genetics amongst the world record holders in the various sports. But it’s important not to overhype this stuff to the extent of potentially even denigrating and not respecting the performance sufficiently. This happened a lot with the sprinter Usain Bolt because he was 6’5″. So the casual viewer watching the eight lanes of the Olympic final and one guy is striding ahead of everyone and breaking the world record and he happens to be way taller than everyone. Uh, you make the an informed conclusion that, oh look, he has longer strides than everyone and therefore he has an advantage. And of course that can be, uh, literally accurate that he has longer strides. He has more vertical force production per stride for his 6’5″ frame added onto that variable such that he can break world records. But there’s also short guys right next to him who are hundreds of a second behind Johan Blake is the number two sprinter in history, Usain’s teammate that was chasing him to a lot of those world records.

Brad (00:34:06):
Much, much shorter. So what’s overlooked a lot with Usain Bolt’s exploits and celebration of his performances was that he was also revealed to have one of the best techniques, one of the most precise and technically excellent techniques of any sprinter ever. There’s a great video ranking the top 10 sprinters by the best technique of all time. And I believe Bolt got in there for ranking number three. His countryman Asafa Powell was celebrated as having the best technique ever. Asafa got his ass kicked every time in the championship events by Usain. So it helps to be tall indeed, but it’s a disadvantage coming out of box and accelerating up to speed because shorter limbs, shorter levers will help you accelerate quicker once you’re up to speed watch out because a 6’5″guy who gets rolling with excellent technique and amazing vertical force production per stride bolt was found in research laboratory to impart five times his body weight into the ground per stride. So he’s over 200 pound athlete, so he’s generating 1000 pounds of vertical force production into the ground with each stride. That’s why his stride springs forward eight feet. For most of us, that would be considered a long jump, but it’s Usain Bolt’s normal stride

YouTube (00:35:27):
Actually allows for increased ankle bending. Now, increased ankle bending during this moment allows him to utilize the spring-like mechanism of his calves for increased power as he pushes off. Ability to do so requires good ankle mobility, which many people lack nowadays. As his back leg prepares for push off, you can see how extended his hips are. This allows for increased engagement of the hip muscles, which is one of the main power generators during running. This also causes increased tension to occur at the hip flexors, which acts like an elastic band, as it helps swing the leg forward as soon as the foot leaves the ground. The elite runners I’ve mentioned before, like Eluid Kipchoge have this lean if you calculate the ankle of his body from his foot. In this viewpoint, he presents with a lean of 21 degrees, which is more than most of the other elite runners I’ve analyzed before.

YouTube (00:36:21):
This lean forward allows for improved forward momentum as well as increased utilization of the hip muscles and ligaments, which improves foot turnover and power generation from the legs compared to the long distance runners I’ve already analyzed though he does present with more shoulder movement. One of the reasons why maybe due to that with increased speed usually comes increased force generation from the legs. The increased rotation of the arms may due to, may be due to a result of the increased rotational force coming from the legs. If the rotational force from the legs is not counteracted properly, the body kind of goes outta whack and decreases force generation toward the desired direction. Now, looking here at the upper body in this view, we can see rhythmic movement of the trunk. We can also see that he does present with some asymmetry. He presents with more trunk rotation to the left as well as a lean toward the left side. But some of this may be due to the nature of the track as he’s running counterclockwise. Anyway, the trunk movement you see is more rotation than forward and backward movement. I mentioned before that you wanna stabilize the trunk, but you don’t want it too stiff. This rotational movement allows retention in the core to help stabilize the pelvis against the rotational forces acting upon it from the leg movement. This is similar to what I mentioned about the arms.

Brad (00:37:39):
El Guerrouj also had beautiful running form, but what’s interesting when you look at some of the clips from this video analyzing his running form was that he had a significantly more rocking of the upper body than some other athletes who kind of run ramrod straight with beautiful really stable torso. And were oftentimes making these, uh, uninformed insights or recommendations to uh, try to quiet some of that upper body movement and look more technically perfect. But this is a really good lesson watching, El Guerrouj to realize that our bodies each have those individual particulars and our tendencies and we make them work for us when we figure it out and try to understand what feels most comfortable for us rather than this obsession with technique. The science of the technique and coaching and video analysis, of course is super, super important. But even in the most technical sports like golf, as my good friend and noted teacher Christopher Smith talks about a lot.

Brad (00:38:42):
It’s not all about being a robot and mirroring the swing of some other great golfer. It’s figuring out what works for you and your own natural athleticism and your own physical particulars, your level of flexibility in your trunk, your shoulders, everything goes into the equation. And for runners, El Guerrouj figured out this is what makes him feel most comfortable when he is knocking off 55 second 400 meter splits, breaking the world record. So you cannot see this as a flaw if it is exhibited by the world record holder. That is my plug here for finding some natural technique attributes rather than being obsessed with technical perfection. Oh, and what’s hilarious about identifying the asymmetry in El Guerrouj’s running stride is that it is calibrated toward counterclockwise running, which is the way that you run around a track. It’s figuring out what works for you and your own natural I have learned an interesting tidbit recently.

Brad (00:39:39):
Do you know why all the track and field races are run in counterclockwise manner? It’s because the natural human bio rhythms have a counterclockwise nature to them. Our circadian rhythm and the electromagnetic fields of the earth have these counterclockwise attributes. That wasn’t spoken very well, but I watched the whole video about it and that was a reason why they switched track and field racing to counterclockwise perhaps a century ago, is to recognize that is more natural human inclination to run in a counterclockwise manner if forced to choose between clockwise and counterclockwise, right? It’s also nice to run straight, but not when we’re in a track and field stadium. So the asymmetry, we can calm down a little bit when we’re talking about these things. They’re not necessarily bad. Also Usain Bolt had severe scoliosis of the spine. You can see it visibly when you watch him on a video walking around after the race, you can see that curvature of the spine.

Brad (00:40:40):
This made ground contact time with one of his legs more than the other. Uh, and we don’t want high ground contact time when we’re sprinting. So this could be perceived as a flaw, but it was simply the asymmetry of his body causing that it didn’t interfere with him running the fastest a hundred meters, 200 meters of all time. So you got your 5’9″ guy with 6’6″ lungs, 6’2″ in seam and you have to go race against him and he’s also living that monastic lifestyle. So we’re checking off some of these boxes. I should also mention the interesting compare and contrast to, uh, Michael Phelps interesting article where Michael Phelps was 6’4″ He had a wingspan of 6′ 7″ so very long arms, but his inseam and his pants were 30 inches, which is the same as El Guerrouj.

Brad (00:41:30):
So El Guerrouj at five nine could swap blue jeans with Michael Phelps if he forgot his for the opening ceremony of the Olympics, the 6’4″ guy. And when I saw the article, I’m like, that’s my end scene, 30 inches, 5’11” guy. So I’m kind of splitting the difference. Oh, I don’t have those extreme freak genetic gifts for swimming or track and field. Uh, but at this point for you young athletes watching or parents of young athletes watching, I don’t want you to get too hung up on genetics. Here’s a great article from Kaizen Academy, quote, genes do not determine your destiny. Hey, that’s what we wrote in 2009, Primal Blueprint as the centerpiece premise of living a primal lifestyle. Genes determine your areas of opportunity as physician Gaber Mate notes. Genes can predispose, but they don’t predetermine. The areas where you are genetically predisposed to success are the areas where your habits are more likely to be satisfying.

Brad (00:42:30):
The key is to direct your effort toward areas that both excite you and match your natural skills to align with your ambition and your ability. I love how that’s characterized and what they mean is like it’s okay to be a short guy and become obsessed with basketball and love it so much. And yes, you’re probably gonna play point guard and no, you might not make it to the NBA if you only grow to five eight or five nine or whatever, but it’s still okay and you can excel at a very, very high level without worrying about whether you have the lung capacity of a 6’6″ person when you’re a five foot nine middle distance runner. Look at me. I have a lifelong background in endurance sports that is very obvious that that’s where my genetic gifts lie. My 80.2 VO2 max helped me tremendously when I was trying to train and compete at the highest level of global triathlon.

Brad (00:43:28):
But today I’m obsessed with the high jump and the 400 meters, which I have arguably very poor genetics for those events because that’s a completely different type of athlete, especially a high jumper. If you watch the Olympic final male and females, you see a bunch of very, very tall humans who are very skinny. There’s no in-between people like me and my 30 inch inseam because it’s a huge advantage to have your waist higher off the ground because your waist is the thing that you need to get over the bar. And then as skinny as you can be, uh, the great modern high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim was 6′ 3″ 154 pounds. And that is gonna give you a big advantage over a guy who’s 5’11” a 164 pounds, not to mention 60 years old trying to jump over a much, much lower bar. But I don’t care about any of that.

Brad (00:44:18):
I don’t care about my genetic score. I am just out there working hard. And what’s cool is that through the process of attrition, the other gifts that I possess are the devotion and passion for practicing. And so I’m still able to compete at age 60 and was so proud and excited after I turned 60 and jumped into the new high jump division to get the number one world ranking in the high jump, jumping that bar of 5’1″ which as a matter of fact is better than my high school personal best of 5’0″. So I’m a better high jumper now at age 60 than I was when I was a teenager. And when I was a teenager, my genetic gifts and my competency was so low that I couldn’t even make the team. I was not even allowed to participate in the meets in high school, even though I loved to high jump back then even because I wasn’t good enough.

Brad (00:45:10):
We had guys at our high school, competing in California state meet. We had a guy at 6’8″ and another guy at 6′ 6″ in the same high school, another guy at 6’3″, another guy at 6’1″. I couldn’t even practice the high jump because the bar was too high. So I’d actually finished my middle distance training workouts, running those circles around the track until we’re on our hands and knees exhausted. And then I’d head over to the high jump pit with excitement and practice with the girls at the end of practice. So whatever genetic attributes you possess right now, and unless you’re dead set on making the Olympics, yes, most of the gymnasts stand under 5’2″ inches tall and all those things you see the extreme genetic examples, but for the most part it does not matter as much as we commonly chatter about and obsess about.

Brad (00:45:59):
So we covered his monastic lifestyle, we covered his genetic gifts, and now we’re going to get into that key category of that competitive intensity and focus and that champion’s mindset. And we’re definitely gonna accept that LG had the awesome genetics, but it wasn’t such a difference maker as we want to think. Here’s the case in point mentioned in the Sports Illustrator article. El Guerrouj had a brother who was 21 years old and at the time he was mentioned in the article as the 12th best 1500 meter runner in the country of Morocco. And El Guerrouj ‘s coach remarked it’s difficult because at the same age Hicham was number one in the world end quote. And the people close to Hicham know the real truth about what made him the greatest champion beyond his lung capacity and his long legs. And his skinny body. He had a physiologist named Hakeem Omar.

Brad (00:46:58):
He was asked about El Guerrouj’s unique gifts. And in his French Moroccan accent, he responded in one word, DISCIPLINE . El Guerrouj”s teammate Zara Aziz, who was the silver medalist in the women’s 5,000 meters in the 1999 World Championships. She said, quote, but he is more than that, more than just discipline. In French. She says she he is very serious about his training. El Guerrouj’s, coach Abel Cada says quote Hicham is very strong in his mind. I could not know when he was 14 years old that he would become world champion, but he became a professional. He goes on holiday for one month every year, the other 11 months, they are spent focusing on his dream end quote. So we have that competitive intensity that dogged will to win. But I think we also over celebrate and over obsess about these attributes to the extent that they’re glorified when they really shouldn’t be.

Brad (00:47:59):
And what I really wanna focus on when talking about the El Guerrouj’s, anecdotes is his even temperament, his healthy perspective and his ability to recover from disappointment as opposed to just that killer instinct and wanting to crush his competition because we really, uh, twist this the wrong way so often really bugs me. Uh, we worship these competitors who are, uh, showing that killer instinct, but oftentimes they are actually unbalanced humans and they oftentimes leave a lot of trouble in their wake. We could be talking about Tiger Woods and all his foibles off the golf course, or we could be talking about the stories of Kobe alienating his teammates because he was disappointed that they didn’t have his level of competitive intensity. I mean, here’s the Lakers. I’m a lifelong Laker fan. They threepeat in the early two thousands and then the two superstars of the team.

Brad (00:48:53):
Kobe and Shaq can’t get along. Shaq leaves town and we have the potential for the greatest dynasty ever because they certainly could have gone on to win three more titles in a row. But instead, due to the clash of the egos and all the nonsense off the court, we bust up a dynasty. Doesn’t make sense to me. I think it should be criticized more than celebrated. Same with Michael Jordan. And you watch the great documentary, the Last Dance and see how obsessed Jordan was with winning no matter what if it was checkers or playing golf or winning the NBA title. But he also alienated and caused disturbance with his teammates who maybe weren’t as confident and focused and driven as he was. And he was able to wear those teammates down, caused that unnatural and unnecessary tension on the team, which people thought, well, that’s why they won.

Brad (00:49:42):
’cause they got in fights and practice sometime and it tuned him up and made him tougher competitively. I’m gonna throw away that a lot of that stuff is nonsense. Let’s go back to El Guerrouj and we’ll talk about some of his setbacks shortly that really tested his character more than just being someone who really wanted to win and really wanted to train hard A teammate Aziz says El Guerrouj is helpful to everyone and everyone loves him and it’s not because he’s a champion. Other athletes become famous and then they become unfriendly. We see it all the time when Hicham became a world champion. We told him We love you, don’t ever change. And he hasn’t. Coach Cada adds to this quote. If he changed now, it wouldn’t go down well with the group. He’s very famous in the streets here you will see. But what he maintains around the people is a good in French, the word is com comportment how he comports himself.

Brad (00:50:34):
He’s not too uppity, he’s humble and he has most amazing sportsmanship. I wanna show you this clip from a race in Eugene, Oregon called the Pre Fontine Classic 2001. They have this tradition every year, it’s called the Bowerman Mile. This invitational mile where they bring in the greatest mile runners from all over the world. The top, top talent and part of the tradition is they invite the number one high school runner in the United States to compete against the pros. Really for the first time, probably for the young kid, compete against the pros in the Bowerman mile. And in this meet in 2001, they had the American High School sensation. Alan Webb, still the fastest high schooler of all time in America by far. And this is the race in which he breaks the high school record. Of course, we have the great champion, the greatest in the world, El Guerrouj racing. But look how El Guerrouj shares the spotlight with this high schooler from America. Alan Webb.

YouTube (00:51:34):
You cannot let Hicham El Guerrouj get this far ahead of you. And look at this. Alan Webb is making a push. It is the magic of Hayward Field or the adrenaline or the combination thereof. But Alan Webb is putting on a show, he may steal it. He from El Guerrouj coming away with this one, he from El Guerrouj from Moroccan will cross the finish line, unofficially 3:49, 9 3. And for Alan Webb, has he done it? It, it looks to me like Webb may have gone under 3:55. 3:55 3 is what we’re looking at for Jim Ryan’s high school record. He’s gone well under four minutes. Hicham El Guerrouj runs under three 50 outdoors, the first ever on American soil under 3:50. We’re waiting for an official time and now they’re saying maybe 3 53. Is that possible for Alan Webb? He was awfully close to El Guerrouj. He was only, he was fourth in the race.

YouTube (00:52:26):
Fourth place is 3 50, 3 40 Webb, 3 53 40. He has done annihilate record. Unbelievable. You know, there’s so many people that said the kid could not do it. It’s too early in his career, but you put him with the king. He’s some El Guerrouj who runs a great race at 3:49 92 and the two will share a victory lap. How appropriate is that Dwight? Unbelievable. A record that has not been approached for 36 years. No high school miler has gone under four minutes in 34 years. And Alan Webb comes out here. There’s your winner, HIcham El Guerrouj fastest ever in America at 3:49 0.92. We talked to him yesterday about the possibility of doing that. A big smile came across his face and he said, it is certainly something I’d like to do.

Brad (00:53:14):
I mean, think about that. Here is the world’s greatest flying across the planet with the crowd cheering for him. And he has the occasion or the sense to grab Alan Webb’s arm and raise it knowing the significance. Even though <laugh>, when El Guerrouj was that age, he was racing in the world competition. But he knew and he sensed that it was a big deal to the Americans that this high school kid broke the record. It Is just beautiful. And I think this character revealing insight that you see after the pre-classic and the insight from his teammates and coaches about his comportment becomes important. When we discuss the absolutely mind-blowing setbacks and disappointments that El Guerrouj suffered in his career, even as he went on to become the greatest of all time. So we’ve checked those boxes, his competitive intensity and focus, and now we’re gonna get into his career timeline.

Brad (00:54:13):
So fasten your seatbelt. There are some ups and downs that are like no other athlete, I promise. He first appeared on the international stage in what they call junior competition. So this is big time global competitions for athletes under age 20. And you see the budding superstars invariably running in the world Junior Championships. And he was the number two man on the Moroccan cross country team at the World Junior Cross Country Championships. This is early nineties now. His first international result of note came at age 18 when he came in third in the 5,000 meters of the 1992 World Junior Track and Field Championships. Interestingly, he came behind the legend, highly Haile Gebrselassieof Ethiopia, who went on to become the greatest long distance runner of his generation. And many consider him, uh, still the greatest or one of the greatest of all time.

Brad (00:55:09):
So you see these kids racing around the track in 1992, headed toward absolute legacy greatness. El Guerrouj rose to international prominence in the mid 1990s with near record times in the 1500 meters. In the mile. Man, what an acceleration from a teenager. And then at age 20, he finished second in the 1500 meters at the 1995 World Championships in Sweden, in the The World Championships, not the, not the young guys. He lost to his future nemesis from neighboring country Algeria, the world record holder at the time, the great Noureddine Morceli in 1996, after setting a new personal best in 1500 meters in Sweden, 3 29. He was considered one of the favorites for the Olympic gold in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. So we have this guy who’s on the top of the heap, one of the greatest ever Noureddine Morceli from Algeria. He’s busting all the world records. He’s heading in, in the prime of his career to Atlanta to get another crowning achievement going for that gold medal. And here comes the kid from down the street Morocco to Algeria, north Africa. It’s time for the Olympic Showdown. So we have the favorite and we have the upstart. 21-year-old now El Guerroujs and here is a very exciting race. We’re gonna cut in and see what happens in the 1996 Olympic Games, 1500 meter final in Atlanta

YouTube (00:56:38):
And Cacho the fast finisher, he won the Olympic title of the SLO race in Barcelona for the last lap of 51. Morceli now is under pressure. El Guerrouj, is right there. And there he goes, is under Morceli. A father he take on, but he refuses with 400 to go and El Guerrouj is gone. He’s down. The bell is ringing. It’s for the last lap, but nothing else. Morceli strikes for gold and it’s there for taking now Morceli World record held there three times. The world champion becomes the Olympic champion. Cacho loses his title, the take sva. Kim Carre is in third place.

YouTube (00:57:25):
He looks to the outside, he sees El Guerrouj. He throws an arm out because he feels, and then I thought Cacho did extremely well. Bayle ended up on the grass and the whole field was suddenly splintered apart. Ine mostly had a chance. He took that chance. And there we just see the fall again and look at the acrobats and look at the annex that went on. But look at him, El Guerrouj, he got up and he continued and really quite Honestly, that would’ve been a fascinating last laugh with all three of them in contention.

Brad (00:57:53):
Oh, man, it’s, it’s, it’s so tough to watch because, you know, you don’t want that to happen. I don’t care if you’re a big fan of Algeria or United States or Morocco. You just don’t want that to happen. When you’re watching the greatest in the world, duke it out. You just feel that heartbreak, that sense of unfairness. And indeed, El Guerrouj was crying and disconsolate underneath the stands in Atlanta. Then, I guess we had early cell phones happening at this time. I think I remember that right around late nineties when the cell phones came in because the athlete is crying and disconsolate underneath the stands, and he gets a cell phone call from who? The King, King Hassan ii. And King Hassan tells him, quote, Elgar Rush, do not cry. You are a champion in the eyes of the Moroccan people. End quote, El Guerrouj is asked about the phone call later after the call by his majesty, it was another El Guerrouj who was born.

Brad (00:58:54):
There is no similarity to the El Guerrouj before this call and the El Guerrouj right now. And oh my gosh, I, I, I remember that quote. It was so touching. Remember I talked about how he was driven and motivated by the 30 million people of Morocco behind him. The King got him off the mat, wiped those tears away, and boy, he had to get up, refocus and get going to redeem himself. I remember another great quote from El Guerrouj about that incident, and what he said was, quote, El Guerrouj will be back one must never forget El Guerrouj. That was so beautiful that my big track fan and longtime coworker, Jeff Iron Montgomery, we said that to each other for some reason on a daily basis when we worked together at Champion Nutrition because it was just so, it was intense, it was powerful. And nowadays the athletes really overuse this third person discussion.

Brad (00:59:48):
Like, the what team I, what Team Ochocinco signs with is what’s gonna be best for Ochocinco? You know, all that kind of thing where they refer to themselves in the third person with a, a sense of arrogance and it doesn’t come off that well, even though it’s still happening all the time. Uh, that’s a good question. Brad Kerns will have to think about that. You know, you know what I mean? Uh, but I think it was so, uh, heartfelt and authentic coming from El Guerrouj. One must never forget El Guerrouj okay, that is what I would call a scary, scary, dangerous athlete who suffers that level of devastating setback, cries it out, gets up off the mat and gets back to business. And what happens after his fall and tragedy in Atlanta? He goes on a fricking tear like no other athlete we have ever seen in middle distance running.

Brad (01:00:44):
One month after the Atlanta Games at the Grand Prix final in Milan, El Guerrouj became the first runner to defeat Morceli over 1500 meters in four years. So Morceli on top, a four-year-win streak. Hey, little man that fell down at the final lap. Let’s see what’s going on in Milan. Yeah, kicking some ass after the Olympics, then El Guerrouj became the only middle distance runner to win four consecutive world championship titles. As I described earlier, 97 99 01 and 03. No one has even come close to that record. Really, the world is at the same level, or actually arguably at a higher level than the Olympic Games in terms of the quality of competition, just because we have to represent so many countries in the Olympics. And the worlds is all about these very stringent qualifying standards. It’s a very, very prestigious title in track and field world.

Brad (01:01:38):
Even though there’s less public mainstream attention than the Olympics, four world titles in a row, he also busted those world records as we learned during this time gap between Atlanta and Sydney. So 1998 in Rome, he runs the 3 26 00, still holding today 1500 meters. He runs the mile in three. 3 43 is the first time in over 40 years that two men bettered the world record in the mile in the same race. Remember El Guerrouj’s buddy King Hassan, the second who gave him the phone call after Atlanta to cheer him up? Well, he, and of course, the rest of the nation were watching El Guerrouj break that mile, world record live from Rome. The king was watching from his royal palace where he was actually battling a terminal illness at the time. After the race, the King turns to his bodyguard and says, El Guerrouj, that is the French word for erase.

Brad (01:02:31):
As in erase from the record books, obviously this is a huge deal ’cause we’re talking about these political and athletic rivals having to do with Algeria and Morocco. 16 days after El Guerroujbroke the world record, the king died. As the legend goes, he was a contented man. So in total, after Atlanta, El Guerrouj went undefeated for 43 races, four years, just like Morceli leading up to the Sydney Games. It’s one of the greatest athletic winning streaks of all time. Of course, track and field historians will know about Edwin Moses, the great 400 meter hurdler. I believe his record was 107 races in a row that he won over 400 meter hurdles, which is sensational. But when you’re in those shorter races where you have your own lane, it’s all about you and you executing and winning. But when you’re talking about middle distances, when you’re going up from 400 to 800, 1500, 5,000, 10,000, that’s when you have the tactics.

Brad (01:03:29):
That’s when you have the possibility of getting boxed in. That’s when you have the possibility of getting tripped at the bell lap and falling flat on your face. So that 43 race win streak is really something special where he had to execute not only his fitness and his, uh, uh, ability at the time being ready for peak performance, but also navigate all the potential pitfalls of middle distance racing. So it’s time for the 2000 Sydney Olympics redemption opportunity for El Guerrouj in the 1500 meters, and he’s riding a 43 race win streak. Let’s see what happens. Australia

YouTube (01:04:07):
To see the man’s 1500 meters and he shall El Guerrouj of Morocco has waited for this moment ever since Atlanta, when he fell in the final lap with a lap to go during the Olympic 1500, he received a call from the King of Morocco encouraging him. This is the field that faces El Guerrouj, who has been nearly unbeatable since that night in Atlanta. He had to fend off a runner to his outside with his forearm there for a moment. And now his Moroccan teammate, uh, Baba, comes up to take the lead. So he has managed to arrange that this has the same look as a European race where he has a pacesetter setting a fast pace for him. So Yosef Baba has sacrificed his chances, no doubt, to help the hero of Morocco Hicham El Guerrouj, just like it. Last year’s World Championship, the tactics that paid off for them there two Moroccan, and then two Kenyas. Then there’s the rest of the field, 54 by the first four meters. That’s

Brad (01:05:16):
Okay. So what weirdness is going on here with the guy from Morocco in the front? What’s happened is the team tactics of basically sacrificing a runner to improve the chances for El Guerrouj to win. Not that he really needed it. He’s won 43 races in a row, and it turns out this guy screwed things up. So this teammate who was fit enough to make it to the Olympic final, one of the best 1500 meter runners in the world, but he was not a medal threat. So apparently maybe it was King Hassan before he died, told El Guerrouj’s teammate to take the race out hard. The goal here is to make it what’s quote unquote an honest race. In other words, a fast race rather than a tactical affair where you often see in championship meets, like you saw from that video in Atlanta, the giant pack still bunched up with one lap to go, people getting tangled, El Guerrouj’s falling flat on his face. That didn’t happen when we saw the videos of the world records, right, where the athletes were strung out like crazy from the very beginning because the speed was so fast, you always see single file when the speed is going fast. And so they wanted this to happen in the Olympic final. So there would be no funny business or nobody sneaking up on El Guerrouj at the end because the pace had been so slow. But what this guy did was he kind of screwed it up. Let’s see what happens.

YouTube (01:06:39):
Baba continues to lead El Guerrouj He let the pace lag, that was six seconds, that was a 62nd laugh. So now we see the greatness, the El Guerrouj, he’s gonna have to lead to ensure that he’s gonna have to lead the last 600 meters of the race. The two canyons look relaxed just following him. I had a strange suspicion, I could be wrong, but I thought earlier in the year, the Kenyas were holding something back in the earlier races. Why waste and upset if it’s not the Olympics?

Brad (01:07:11):
So he takes out the Olympic final at a pace of 54 seconds for the first hundred meters, that is way too fast. That’s underneath world record pace. This is not a time to set world records. These guys had to qualify through the rounds and so forth. So 54 too fast. And then because it’s so fast, even for him is he slows things down in the second lap to a time of 60 seconds, which is way too slow. So way too fast at first, then way too slow. What happens, especially for the athletes, uh, further back in the pack is they get to catch up, reform the pack, and completely negate any desire to orchestrate an honest race. Now it’s just a mess. Everyone has caught their breath regrouped, and now we have to, well, at this point, El Guerrouj has to continue to try to make it an honest race.

Brad (01:08:07):
So he’s sort of obligated to lead. And when you’re obligated to lead so far away from the finish line, the people who are following have a potential psychological as well as a physical advantage because they’re able to draft and you save a little bit of air resistance in running, of course in cycling, it’s everything in the Tour de France, the drafting, the air resistance, predicates the entire strategy of the sport. And in running, there’s a little bit of a influence, but it’s still a significant influence. In other words, it’s easier to run right behind someone rather than lead physically and psychologically, of course. Okay, here we go to the finish. Let’s see what happens.

YouTube (01:08:48):
He El Guerrouj still in front, no yen of Kenya. Bernard of Kenya Yen is looking up on the screen to see if anybody’s behind him. Does he have to move out to the second lane now or can he wait? He’s decided he can wait. It’s gonna happen in the final straightaway. They’re end of the final turn. He’s shall he’s been nearly unbeatable at 1500. But can he hold on to win here at the Olympics? He’s getting a challenge now from Ngyen. Gerus still has the lead nien up to challenge you, but can’t get by Now. He pulls a does El Guerrouj have enough? He does not. Ngyen goes by and no Kenya wins the gold el Another disappointment gets the silver and leg. Kelly. LeBron.

YouTube (01:09:38):
Well, El Guerrouj was forced by a couple of things to lead from way out. Uh, being in lane one was a little bit of a problem, but he got his pacesetter out there. The first lap was perfect, the second lap was terrible. Then El Guerrouj had to take the lead with more than 600 yards to go and the canyons just sat and waited, waited. We could only beat him if we surprised him at the end. If we go too soon, he’ll beat us. They were learning all summer how to race against him when he was chasing world records and reinforcing how good he was by winning all the races with a pacesetter. And they just set him up Olympic record time for noone yet

Brad (01:10:26):
What happens is he got beaten by a fantastic athlete, a better man on the day. And I love this passage from the writer Duncan McKay, that was published in The Guardian trying to make sense of this quote, trying to erase the hurt of a last lap fall that ruined his chance to win the 1500 meters in Atlanta in 96. The world record holder from Morocco was ambushed this time by the Kenyan Noah Ngney over the final few meters as the scoreboard flashed Nene’s winning time of 3 32, breaking Sebastian COoes Olympic record, One yet sat on the track in stunned silence, drawing his knees up toward his chest, huh? A silver medal was little consolation after being beaten by a quarter of a second for minutes afterward, all you could hear was the loud sobbing, tortured breath of a man who had just relived a nightmare.

Brad (01:11:20):
Hicham El Guerrouj, who for nearly four years was virtually unbeatable, had chosen the Olympic Games to suffer a defeat from which he may never recover. While the Kenyan set off on a lap of honor, El Guerrouj walked with his head down through a gauntlet of reporters, too embarrassed to approach him. He took his seat on a bench and doubled over the pain, escaping his slender frame in powerful shivers for 10 minutes as first the Moroccan team doctor. And then his coach, Abel Cada did their best to console him. He wept all the while camera shutters, word and clicked. It was not the photograph he had expected to be taken for four years. He has been carrying a picture of himself after the Atlanta defeat when he clipped the heels of eventual winner Morceli and slumped down in disbelief the Atlanta race in 1996 had seeped deep into his psyche as we learned, shouldering the burden of 30 million people he finished in last place, quote.

Brad (01:12:21):
It was the end of the world. Every day I think of what happened, the memories have made me strong like Steel El Guerrouj, has used those memories to drive him on, churning out the miles along Morocco’s red dusted roads. He had pushed himself to exhaustion, lived like a monk, sacrificed the pleasures of the flesh for his one moment. And he remembers before the Olympics, I am like a soldier ready for battle. When he had wavered, he looked at that photo from Atlanta, 96, he awakened to it every morning, whether in his spartan dormitory at the Moroccan National Training Center in Rabat or in the sitting room of a more spacious villain nearby, which I guess he didn’t spend much time in, or he in the Olympic Village in Sydney. He had planned to return from Stadium Australia, take down that photo and replace it with one crossing the finish line triumphant.

Brad (01:13:11):
Now he’ll have to wait until 2004 for that chance, and it may be too late for a man who will be almost 30 by the time the Athens Olympic Games comes around. Oh. Oh, oh. I mean any athlete, you gotta feel me here. Like, uh, total domination in every race, 43 races in a row. Setting records that are lasting for one generation, maybe two. I think sometimes back to my career when I was disappointed and had setbacks. And I’d ask the question, why me? Why me? Why did I have to have a flat tire at this important race in Australia and get knocked outta contention? Why did I have to have this other a misfortune where I became overtrained and exhausted and couldn’t race at my best for a long time? Blew another champ possibility for, uh, uh, peak performance.

Brad (01:14:08):
And when I asked that, I asked myself that, uh, once in a while in daily life, why does this happen? Why does that happen? Why does this misfortune, why me? And when I think about that now, I think about El Guerrouj,. If he who operates at a level far beyond what most of us can dream about, a level of dedication and wanting something so bad that we can’t even relate. If he can come back and not get wallowed in self-pity and have, why me ruin his day if he can do it, all of us deserve to take that inspiration to get up from misfortune or get up and smile again. Put back on your running shoes and go out and put in some miles on the red dusted roads of Morocco. Oh, I mean, you have only a couple choices here as El Guerrouj, What’s an athlete gonna do?

Brad (01:15:01):
My suggestion, it could be a good time to kind of tone down that obsessive pursuit of perfection, try to release the attachment of your self-esteem to the outcome, maybe attend some Buddhist meditation classes and become a more balanced spiritual person. I know I had those thoughts running through my mind when I was so dedicated and so competitive in my triathlon career. And then I’d suffer from misfortune and I still had to fly home from Australia and try to make a, make the best of it, have a good time, feel happy for my training partners who excelled when I didn’t. And all those things that I had to work on and make myself get up out of that why me state and do something about it. But again, when those suggestions come into play, these are the exact opposite of what society demands of our most celebrated athletes.

Brad (01:15:53):
Uh, I talked about Kobe, Michael, Jordan, tiger Woods. We don’t care about them attending a meditation retreat and having spiritual insights and epiphanies that, uh, were just little tiny creatures on the big, uh, spinning orb of the planet. Ho ho cameo from my spinning globe. Yeah, no, no, no. We want them to crush the competition and we wanna scream for them in the stands and in Morocco. Oh my gosh. Imagine 30 million people, uh, counting on you, tuning in their TVs from Sydney to watch the great El Guerrouj bring glory to the country. And once again, he gets smoked. Oh my goodness. I mean that’s uh, that’s pressure, that’s expectation. It’s not easy to attach your self-esteem to the outcome. But what did El Guerrouj do as we go on the final segment of his career timeline, the road to Athens 2004 Olympics? He floored the gas pedal man.

Brad (01:16:45):
He won those world titles that I gave you, the the spoiler in 2001 and 2003. He almost broke that sensational world record in the 1500. He ran 3 26 12 in Brussels in 2001. I didn’t realize that he won three consecutive Golden league prizes for track and field. So he was the best on the whole series of races throughout the year. 2001, 2002, 2003, he was the only middle distance athlete to produce the winning streak necessary to be entitled to a share of the Golden League jackpot, which was 50 kilograms of gold. Gold. That’s over a million dollars worth of gold. So if you can win all your races, you’re competing against the athletes in all the events you get to get, grab a share of that gold. He’s the only athlete to have won the Golden League title, three years in a row in 2003.

Brad (01:17:35):
Now we’re a year before the Atlanta Games. He jumped up to the 5,000 meters. Remember he was competing in that as a junior, but he pretty much focused on 1500 mile during his professional career. So he went back up to the 5,000 hello 5,000 setting a fantastic personal best of 12 minutes, 50 seconds for tailing a move up to the higher distance at championship meets in the 2003 World Championships after winning gold in the 1500. He also took second in the world championships at 5,000 meters. Who did he lose to? Wait for it. That’s right. Eluid Kipchoge the greatest marathon runner of all times. So amazingly the two athletes, the greatest miler middle point in their career, Kipchoge of course left track and field and went to dedicated marathon racing for many years after his start in the early two thousands at 5,000 and 10,000 meters.

Brad (01:18:34):
But they battled it out at the 2003 World Championships. And that brings us to the 2004 Athens Olympics after a relatively poor start to the 2004 season. Oh no. Oh no. The greatest of all time doesn’t have relatively poor starts to the season. Come on. He won 43 races in a row. Anyway, El Guerrouj put up some slow times and actually finished eighth place in a 1500 meter race in Rome. The place where he sets his world records, El Guerrouj signed up for Athens Olympics in both the 1500 and the 5,000 meters only 20 days before the Olympic final. At the final tune-up race, Olympic bronze medalist Bernard Legatt, he was representing Kenya at the timing later represented American competition, beat El Guerrouj running the fastest of 1500 meters of 3 27. Just nipped him at the line in Zurich on August 6th. So as we head into the August 24th Olympic final in Sydney here we have another Kenyan coming on and Prime for an upset. Ha. A little bit of pressure on El Guerrouj. Let’s see what happened at the August 24th. Olympic games. 1500 meter finals

YouTube (01:20:32):
I think globally. It’s fair to say that this is the most anticipated track race here.

YouTube (01:20:38):
So will

YouTube (01:20:38):
He be successful and then arguably the best ever or will he be the best never to win the 1500?

Brad (01:20:46):
And here comes one of the greatest celebrations you’ll ever see in sports.

YouTube (01:20:52):
One more lap to go in the final of the 1500. It’s what we dreamed about the Moroccan and the Kenyan. And wind it up. He does. He’s just off the rail, isn’t he? Just off the Plin 300 out Legget sits, Hesco third and the nest of Biz and Silver’s running on behind them. El Guerrouj leads by a meter, Leggett’s close Hesco. And then silver Kenny hang on. Legget to attack. Does Hicham have one last kick? Can he go from champion to legend or has lat got him or could silver kick both of them? El Guerrouj’s tackle Lat goes up and takes the lead. Gerus can’t white hold him. Lats in front, but he’s coming back. The champ El Guerrouj is coming back. He is a legend how sweet it is. He goes from the greatest ever to the best of all time.

Brad (01:22:02):
I also think this is one of the great moments of sportsmanship in Olympic history. You can see, you can see the reaction so clearly from the other athletes that they know this guy is the greatest of all time. This is the guy they’ve been chase have gained so much inspiration from the younger athletes worship the guy probably as they were coming up and dreaming of competing on the international stage. And they’re so happy for him. They’re so beyond the normal happiness of an opponent who you just recently wanted to kick his ass and now you’re beyond happy for him. How do you win the Olympic gold? How about smoking that final 800 meters in an unbelievable unprecedented time? The screen said 53.2 for his second to last lap and the stadium announcer right after the race. You can hear him saying 51.9 for his final lap.

Brad (01:22:53):
So he ran approximately 1 45 to 1 46 for his final 800 meters of a 1500 meter race. That is a time that is good for making the Olympic final in 800 meters. So forget the warmup of almost a half a mile. He’s smoking the final two laps. This is known as a squeeze, and a squeeze is how you win the Olympic gold, squeezing the life out of the other competitors with a long sustained increase in speed and daring anyone to try and keep up. This is what a decade of living like a monk for 11 months a year in the training center and putting in all those miles and all those intervals where you can step on the gas pedal halfway through a vase and close in Olympic caliber time. And what a choke by the announcer. Sorry Marty, you’re a great announcer, but how far off can you get with his little comment?

Brad (01:23:54):
The Ukrainian has the fastest final 100 meters. We better watch out for the Ukrainian. Uh, no, not when you’re running 53 and then throwing, coming back with another 52. That’s what you get from 15 years of elite training. Goodbye Ukrainian with a fast final finish. But of course you know what Marty was talking about ’cause you see it in other races all the time where if dudes are allowed to hang around in a pace that is not high, high world record, elite caliber, strange things can happen in the final 100 meters. It seems like that’s what championship racing has been all about lately. We just saw the world championships from Tokyo and some amazing surprise upset winners. The Frenchman Jimmy Greer winning the 10,000 meters over all the favorites with this savage finishing kick at the finish line. But he’s not the next guy that’s gonna break the world record when you’re going all out and seeing who’s the, the fittest and best trained that’s clearly El Guerrouj. So he needed that honest race and he needed to put the squeeze down on everyone. The best man won that race for sure. And what a fantastic Hollywood ending because as a matter of fact, El Guerrouj retired soon after the Olympics. That was his final international competition. Oh wait, it’s not over yet. Remember I mentioned he entered the 5,000 meters as well. So let’s go back to Olympic coverage and see what happens four days later in Athens, 5,000 meter finals, 2004 Olympic games,

YouTube (01:25:23):
One lap to go the long run for home. This will be a famous last lap. Whatever happens, El Guerrouj is in seventh place. El Guerrouj has running room now Kenenisa Bekele Beyechay sits on Kipchoge, El Guerrouj, of ethiopia, Gbra Mariam goes past Kipchoge rouges and and has a chance I reckon.

Brad (01:26:01):
So this is another epic showdown because Kenenisa Bekele Beyecha of Ethiopia went on to become the greatest long distance runner of his era and arguably one of the greatest ever. He’s certainly done some extraordinary things now that make him off the charts. I mean, in his peak on the track, he busted all the world records, 5,000, 10,000 multiple Olympic World Championship golds and he kept going, moving into the marathon as a lot of athletes do at the tail end of the career. They leave the track, they go to the longer races, but he continued and continued and at age 41 ran a 2 0 4 marathon, one of the fastest in the world. He still going strong at age 43 with a quote at my age, it’s still possible to run a faster time if I don’t get injuries and train. Well, I think I can run 2 0 1 again, which is, you know, the one of the greatest times ever. My energy is good and I’m feeling strong in training. End quote from Kenenisa Bekele Beyechay 43-year-old machine. So let’s see what happens with El Guerrouj battling the great Bekele of Ethiopia.

YouTube (01:27:03):
Bekeles a meter in front. He’s so strong we know what he did in might do Sum goes gonna do a in 1924 greatest 1500 meter runner ever. Nearly the greatest middle distance distance runner you’ve ever seen

Brad (01:27:30):
With this historic victory, El Guerrouj became the first man in 80 years to win both the 1500 and the 5,000 meters at the same Olympics previously achieved only by the great flying Fin Pavo NermI in 1924, having fulfilled his sporting ambitions and due to injuries from years of high intensity training. El Guerrouj never competed again internationally after the Athens Olympics. Almost three decades later. Here as I make this video, the two big records still stand, but the athletes are getting close. Jakob Ingebrigsten and Ya Ne Goose hit 3 43 for the mile at the pre-class in 2023 and Jakob ran a 3 26 0.7 in the 1500 meters. So of course, records are made to be broken and the progression of sporting and training. But I should also comment at this point, and many track and field experts concur that the invention of the super spikes, the carbon plated advanced material, advanced foam technology that now allows for greater efficiency and energy return while running, deliver a decided advantage to running economy, such that the times really, uh, have an asterisk when compared to the spikes of the previous era.

Brad (01:28:45):
This is especially true running on the roads with the super shoes, but experts contend that the carbon plated super spikes can deliver a one to 2% improvement in running economy, which can lead to perhaps a three second advantage when racing the mile at world class speeds. So that’s just another plug for Elgar Rouge being once in a generation, once in a lifetime athlete, uh, what happens with the super spikes, I talk about the energy return. Uh, so you have a more efficient stride with that carbon plate. So you get a bit of improvement in stride length and you can go do a calculation, ask chat GPT. If your stride lengthens one inch over the course of a mile, how much faster is that? It starts to add up. Forget about a marathon, it’s several minutes improvement in a marathon from wearing the super shoes. And it also, uh, because of the pre contoured position of the spike, it’s called toe spring, it preloads the foot into that explosive position for takeoff.

Brad (01:29:50):
There’s less foot strain, foot fatigue. That’s why you don’t wanna train in these types of shoes all the time because it will weaken your feet. Your foot has to do less work to still run fast. But when it’s time to race, the super spikes provide a decided advantage. So considering the tech improvements, whew, here’s what Ray Flynn thinks. He’s an Irishman who was one of the world’s greatest milers, uh, back in my day. Now he’s a top track and field agent. He says, quote, 100 years from now, he’s talking, uh, back in El Guerroujs time. So 20 years ago, 100 years from now, the mile record will be two or three seconds lower than it is today. No more Elgar Rouge agreed back then, two or three seconds, maxi he says in French and then in English maximum. He also said in the same conversation that he believed he was the guy that was gonna lower the record two seconds down to 3 41 that very summer.

Brad (01:30:45):
But alas, 3 43 holds very, very strong. I’m gonna predict that Yako will be the guy who breaks the record because he is another generational athlete that has that tremendous focus, that drive that competitive intensity, living that beautiful, highly dedicated lifestyle. And he also has that evolved competitive disposition where he too can handle defeat and setbacks and has that nice, uh, not just a hardcore win or die mentality, but a more nuanced mentality where he can be a top competitor. He loves to race. He showed up at World Championships even after having an injury the whole year. He didn’t perform at his best, but he gets tremendous credit for just showing up and competing. Hey, maybe that’s another video someday to highlight the great career of Jakob Ingebrigsten. But I wanna close this with a beautiful quote from El Guerrouj that sums up everything that he’s been through, and we’ll leave you with tremendous inspiration for living it in your own life.

Brad (01:31:44):
This is his reflecting on his career quote, the values of life are work, patience, defeat, learning from defeat, perseverance and regularity, and all that I learned with sport and above all from my Olympic journey. End quote. Thank you so much for watching and celebrating the great career of El Guerrouj with me, one must never forget El Guerroiuj.

Brad (01:32:12):
Thank you so much for listening to the B.rad Podcast. We appreciate all feedback and suggestions. Email, podcast@bradventures.com and visit brad kearns.com to download five free eBooks and learn some great long cuts to a longer life. How to optimize testosterone naturally, become a dark chocolate connoisseur and transition to a barefoot and minimalist shoe lifestyle.

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