‘Dean of distance’ discusses Olympics

Though he was impressed — as the rest of the world was — with the pageantry, what legendary distance coach Joe Vigil recalls most from his 40th year of service to his country in the Olympic games is the Chinese people and the changing face of the sport he has loved all his life.

“I’ve been to a lot of Olympics,” said Colorado’s Coach of the Millennium and member of 11 halls of fame, “but nothing compares to what they did in China.”

Speaking from his Green Valley home between training seminars in San Diego and Las Vegas, Vigil, who has coached and mentored coaches at every Olympics since 1968, was disappointed that his men’s distance runners were shut out on medals and didn’t come close to their best times, but still found something positive, as he characteristically does.

“We probably did better than we ever have, actually, because of the number of men who made the finals.”

The U.S. track and field team took 23 medals.

Happy with the ninth, 10th, and 22nd showings in the marathon, Vigil nevertheless expressed concern that runners in the other distance categories are now typically peaking at other competitions, evidenced by the fact that they travel directly from the Olympic trials to the European circuit, then to the Grand Prix after the Games — both venues affording them the opportunity for more money to be made.

He brought out the results for each of his men’s distance competitors, noting the slower times in the Games, compared to their Trials’ times and personal bests.

“I know they have to make a living,” he said, “but they get to the point where they finally make it [by qualifying for the Olympics], so you’d think they’d want to do the best possible job in the Games.”

Although the marathoners trained for the Olympics only, the reality with world-class track athletes these days is they have agents and others who guide them to where the money is — an ever-increasing “bottom line” approach in modern sports highlighted by college recruits, for example, leaving programs for the NBA as sophomores and juniors.

“You have someone there to sort of spoon-feed them,” Vigil said, explaining his role as a communicator, getting their “heads right,” keeping them healthy and positive, and getting them to their training and competitive venues.

“You’d have three or four people overlooking one guy.”

Father figure

With his years of experience, wisdom, and a wealth of knowledge, the young Olympians always find a confidant in Coach Vigil, someone they can rely on and trust, sort of a father figure on a pressure-packed world stage.

Even with the countless awards he’s been given and a 29-year career that includes 19 national collegiate titles, 425 All-Americans, 87 individual national champions, coach of the year 14 times, and 49 senior championships with Team Running USA, Vigil is most proud of his 95 percent graduation rate as a college coach and his role over the years as a teacher and mentor to young athletes and their coaches — a man who gives more to their lives than instruction and expertise.

“You’d be surprised that many of these great athletes have personal problems, too, just like everybody else,” he said.

With a doctorate in exercise physiology, Vigil, 77, who has coached at the World University Games, Pan American Games, and World Cross Country Championships, is still sought after as an expert in preparing athletes for competition. Though he’s seen it all before, he continues to be impressed just by the huge responsibility undertaken in getting hundreds of American athletes ready to participate in track and field halfway around the world.

“People don’t realize what a job it is for the USOC to organize all these people.”

Roughly 1,200 U.S. athletes coaches, medical personnel, and administrators — which includes 685 athletes, 136 in track and field — were first put through an “ambassadors’ program” in San Jose, Calif., prior to flying over, an attempt to orient them to the culture in China, emphasizing respect and understanding.

There are 15,000 housed at the Olympic Village, with a cafeteria feeding 5,000 at a time, 24 hours a day.

After setting up a three-week camp for initial training in Dalian about an hour from the city, they were able to rent Beijing Normal University to make it easier for athletes to get track time.

Just trying to get to practice in Dalian, one of China’s “smaller cities” at 3.5 million, he said, could be a chore, fighting traffic and having to wait on the Chinese penchant for providing constant security.

“They wouldn’t let us do anything without security staff with us,” he said, noting that it often made it difficult for multiple runners to work in different places at the same time.

In Beijing, the military occupied an entire floor of the main stadium so as to make it easy for them to get out and control any “situation” that might arise at any venue.

Buildings were all new with beautifully landscape roads and parks, a pristine city “prepared” for the eyes of the rest of the world.

“They wanted to show the world that they could do this,” Vigil remarked.

Wife Caroline, whom he credits for support essential for his success, traveled with his daughter to Beijing and was likewise impressed with the beauty and sheer numbers of people, all very friendly and helpful, especially the busy young working professionals everywhere that included many from other countries.

“The Chinese cheered for everyone,” she said, pointing out what she thought was relatively unbiased and positive reporting along with beautiful photography.

“The Games was a historic climax of three decades of China opening to the world,” wrote the China Daily, Aug. 25. “Beijing’s Olympic makeover is a wonderful example for other Chinese cities to follow.”

Though the modern subways were always crowded, she said, people conversed with enthusiasm and were always polite and respectful, and she could sense the pride of the people in their blended capitalistic and socialistic society.

The overriding theme was to show it off, Caroline agreed, adding that people still travel and interact with friends and relatives in Tibet.

“It’s the government, not the people,” she said of the controversial Tibetan situation.

The 2008 Games are now just another memory added to one of the most storied careers in coaching. Vigil is already off and running to speaking engagements and seminars, still anxious to bring innovations in training and preparation for coaches and athletes all over the globe who seek his guidance.

“I continue to learn,” he said. “And what do teachers do? They teach.”

Mike Touzeau is a freelance writer for the Green Valley News.