Gerry Lindgren

Gerry Lindgren

Gerald ("Gerry") Paul Lindgren (born March 9, 1946 in Spokane, Washington) is an American track and field runner who is widely recognized as having been the best high school long distance runner in the United States at the time.

In 1964, in his senior year at Rogers High School, Lindgren ran 5000 meters in 13 minutes and 44 seconds, setting a U.S. high school record for the distance that would remain unbroken for 40 years, until Galen Rupp ran 13:37.91 on July 30, 2004. Among his other records he established that year was his time of 8:40.0 in an indoor 2-mile (3.2 km) race that shattered the previous U.S. national high school mark. Over forty years later this remains the fastest U.S. schoolboy 2-mile (3.2 km) time ever run indoors (and the fourth fastest time indoors or outdoors).

On July 25, 1964, Lindgren outran two seasoned Russian runners, Leonid Ivanov and Anatoly Dutov to win the 10,000 meter event in the US-USSR Track Meet in Los Angeles.

In the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, he finished ninth in the 10,000 meters behind gold medalist Billy Mills after having sprained an ankle during training. Lindgren had previously beaten Mills in the Olympic Trials that year. Mills later said that a healthy Lindgren would have won gold. Four years later, Lindgren tried to make the 1968 Olympic team but finished 5th in the 10,000 meters and 4th in the 5,000 meters in the Olympic Trials at Echo Summit, just missing the team at both distances.

Lindgren also competed against Mills in the 1965 AAU Nationals meet, where they raced the 6-mile (9.7 km). Mills won with a diving lean, while both were timed in 27:11.6, a new World Record shared by Mills and Lindgren.

Lindgren was coached by Tracy Walters. In his training, he averaged 240 miles per week for one year, including running a 380 mile week.

Lindgren attended Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, where he majored in political science and minored in Russian language. While at Washington State, Lindgren won 11 NCAA Championships. (His only loss at an NCAA championship was to Jim Ryun in the 1968 indoor 2-mile (3.2 km) race.) He was one of only two people to ever defeat Steve Prefontaine in an NCAA Championship. (Lindgren won the 1969 NCAA Cross Country Championship in which 1968 NCAA champion Mike Ryan finished second and Prefontaine third.) He competed sporadically after graduating from college but without any notable success. Since 1980, when he curiously left a note in his home kitchen saying 'get a divorce, sell the business' and abandoned his wife and children (with whom he continues to have no contact), Lindgren has lived in Honolulu, Hawaii. He continues to run regularly, active in the Hawaii running community. He coached the University of Hawaii's women's track and field team 2005-2007.