Alberto Salazar won the New York City Marathon three times in a row from 1980 to 1982, setting a world record in 1981. He has set six American and two world records, at distances ranging from 5000 metres to the marathon distance of 42 kilometres. In 1994, he became the first American to win South Africa’s 90-kilometre Comrades Marathon. Nike researchers plan to publish a paper featuring some of Salazar’s results next year.
No native-born American has won a major international marathon since the early 1980s. Why have things got so bad?
Americans are becoming less fit. Fewer talented runners…
