May 4 Birthdays

1949

Pekka Johannes Päivärinta, Finland, distance runner. Päivärinta was the first world cross-country champion, taking the title at the first IAAF championship in that sport in Waregem, Belgium in 1973. Päivärinta also represented his country at the Olympics in 1972 (8th in the Steeplechase) and 1976 (13th in the 5,000m). In 1975 he set a world record in the 25,000m of 1:14:16.8.

August 3 Birthdays

1950
Waldemar Cierpinski, East Germany, long-distance runner. Cierpinski moved up from the 3,000m steeplechase to the marathon in 1974, and in the 1976 (Montreal) Olympic marathon he took the gold medal, running a career-best and Olympic record of 2:09:55. Four years later Cierpinski repeated, winning the 1980 (Moscow) Olympic marathon in a time of 2:11:03. Cierpinski was also a bronze medalist at the 1983 (Helsinki) World Championships marathon (2:10:37).

August 2 Birthdays

1955

Craig Steven Virgin, United States, distance runner. As a high school runner in Illinois, Craig Virgin broke Steve Prefontaine's national record for the high school two mile, setting a new record of 8:40.9. He went on to qualify for three U.S. Olympic teams in the 10,000 meters and finish second at the 1981 Boston Marathon (2:10:26), but his greatest successes were as a cross-country runner. He won the NCAA cross-country championship in 1975 and won the World Cross Country Championships in 1980 (Paris) and 1981 (Madrid). He remains the only American to ever win a world cross-country title.

July 7 Birthdays

1933
Murray Halberg, New Zealand, middle-distance runner. Halberg represented his native New Zealand in the mile at the 1954 (Vancouver) Commonwealth Games and in the 1,500m at the 1956 (Melbourne) Olympic Games. In 1958 he became the first New Zealand athlete to break 4:00 in the mile, and won the gold medal in the (Cardiff) Commonwealth Games three mile. Halberg was the gold medalist in the 1960 (Rome) Olympic Games 5,000m and also finished fifth in the 10,000m at the Games. He successfully defended his Commonwealth Games three-mile title in 1962 (Perth), and ended his athletic career with a seventh-place finish in the 1964 (Tokyo) Olympic Games 10,000m. Halberg's years in athletics are chronicled in his biography, A Clean Pair of Heels.

June 30 Birthdays

1938

Billy Mills, United States, long-distance runner. Mills won the 1964 (Tokyo) Olympic Games 10,000m in an Olympic-record time of 28:24.4. He was the first American to ever win an Olympic gold medal in the 10,000m. He also ran the marathon at the 1964 Olympic Games, finishing 14th in 2:22:55.4. Mills' athletic career has been dramatized in the 1984 film Running Brave.

June 29 Birthdays

1958
Rosa Mota, Portuguese long-distance runner. Rosa Mota was the Olympic marathon champion at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, becoming the first Portuguese woman to medal at the Olympics.

June 28 Birthdays

1962
Anişoara Cuşmir-Stanciu, Romania, long jumper. Anişoara Cuşmir-Stanciu won the silver medal in the women's long jump at the 1983 (Helsinki) World Championships in athletics, finishing behind Heike Drechsler of the German Democratic Republic. During the same year Cuşmir set two world records in the women's long jump of 7.21m and 7.43m. In 1984 Cuşmir won the event at the (Los Angeles) Olympic Games, leaping 6.96m to capture the gold medal.