A Race in Varieggo
by Steve McGill
For this month’s great race, we’re taking it all the way back to 1986 – the year Renaldo Nehemiah returned to the 110m hurdling battles after four and a half years away from the sport – years spent playing professional football for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League. Since I wrote another article for this issue about the book I’m writing on Nehemiah, it felt appropriate to focus on Nehemiah for this month’s great race.
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Ironically, the race itself wasn’t really all that great, but what makes it stand out is its historical significance, and the backstory that led up to it. Let’s talk about that:
Nehemiah’s decision to quit track in 1982 – despite the fact that he was the world record holder in the 110’s and was arguably the most well-known and adored track athlete in the world – was rooted in the US boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, which destroyed his opportunity to earn an Olympic gold medal. In 1980, Nehemiah was undisputedly the best high hurdler in the world, and, barring some sort of natural disaster, would’ve won Olympic gold in Moscow. Supporting this claim is the fact that he ran faster at the Liberty Bell Classic (the meet held in Philadelphia for athletes of boycotting countries) than Olympic gold medalist Thomas Munkelt of Germany ran at the Games. Also, Nehemiah had defeated Munkelt in the World Cup the previous year.
Having graduated from college in 1981, Nehemiah found himself seeking employment, and track was strictly an amateur sport at the time. So when Dwight Clark (wide receiver for the 49ers) approached Nehemiah during a Superstars Competition (a back-in-the-day made-for-TV sports challenge featuring athletes from many different sports) with the idea of playing professional football, Nehemiah, who had played in high school and been recruited by major colleges for football, went ahead and made the leap.
By doing so, he sacrificed his amateur status. The rule was, if you were a professional athlete in another sport, you forfeit your amateur status in track. Long story short (and this will all be discussed in detail in the book), Nehemiah sought reinstatement throughout the time he played professional football. Hoping to do both sports, he stayed in shape for track during the football off-season.
The IAAF – track’s international governing body – agreed that playing professional football would in no way aid him in his track career, voted to reinstate him. Despite that vote, the president of the IAAF, Primo Nebiolo, emphatically stated that Nehemiah would not be reinstated. Finally, in 1986, after years of litigation, the IAAF sent Nehemiah a letter stating that if he dropped his lawsuit they would reinstate him.
So, the race in Varieggo in July of 1986 was Nehemiah’s first race back. Ironically, it took place in Nebiolo’s hometown. And to Nehemiah’s extreme annoyance, Nebiolo praised Nehemiah effusively in the press conference prior to the meet, hugging him and stating how good it was to have him back.
Going into the race, Nehemiah didn’t know what to expect of himself. He had stayed in shape, but he had put on a lot of weight for football (about 22 pounds). His body wasn’t as elastic as it had been prior to his football days. So when he went out and won, in a very respectable time of 13.48, he felt quite gratified, and felt confident that he was on his way to getting back to his old form and reclaiming his spot on top of the hurdle hill.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be. The race in Varieggo ended up being his last one in 1986, as he suffered an achilles injury in that race. Though he continued to compete through 1992, he never ran sub-13 again, and he never earned the number one world ranking again. Though he did have his moments when he showed glimpses of his past glory, he remained a step behind guys like his old nemesis Greg Foster, and new kid on the block Roger Kingdom.
In the video below, which is all in Spanish, the race in Varieggo appears at the very beginning (in slow motion), and again at the very end. Nehemiah is in the middle of the track wearing the white singlet with the blue PUMA insignia. Also in the video is pretty good footage (including a slo mo replay) of Nehemiah’s 12.93 world record race from 1981.
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