Steve Profontaine's Last Run
American runner Steve Prefontaine died almost 50 years ago in a freak car accident in the driveway of a friend's home in Oregon. During his short and spectacular career he set records at every distance from 2,000 meters to 10,000 meters. He participated in the 1972 Olympic Games and and was training for the 1976 games when he died. A handsome and charasmatic man, he along with a few others was responsible for the running boom that began in the 1970s and continues to this day. As the poets attest, there is something especially poignant about an athlete dying young. This 2015 article from Grantland by writer Mary Pilon is some of the finest sports writing of the last decade.