Steve Scott (athlete) - International Running Career

International Running Career

When Sebastian Coe set a mile record of 3:48.95 in Oslo on July 17, 1979, Scott finished second with a time of 3:51.11. Because records at the time were rounded up to the nearest tenth of a second, Scott missed tying Jim Ryun's American mile record of 3:51.1 by 1/100th of a second. However, in 1981, the IAAF started to recognize records in running events longer than 400 meters to the hundredth of a second, meaning that Scott's 3:51.11 had tied Ryun's record, depending on how the times were interpreted.

Scott won the 1,500 m at the 1980 U.S. Olympic Trials, but did not compete at the Moscow Olympic Games due to the U.S. boycott. His greatest success at an Olympic or World championship came at the inaugural World Athletics Championships in Helsinki, Finland in 1983, when he won a silver medal behind Steve Cram. At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and the 1988 Games in Seoul, he placed 10th and 5th in the 1,500 m respectively.

Perhaps his greatest legacy was setting three American mile records. While there was uncertainty whether his 3:51.11 was at least equal to the American mile record or not, his first undisputed American record came when he ran third in another Oslo race on July 11, 1981 with a time of 3:49.68, becoming the first American to break 3:50 in the event and the fifth ever to do so. South African Sydney Maree, who was in the process of gaining his American citizenship, ran 3:48.83 on September 9, 1981, though this time was not generally seen as being an American record.

The following year Scott broke the American mile record twice, both times again at Oslo. First, he won a race on June 26, 1982 in 3:48.53, becoming history's third-fastest miler behind Coe and Steve Ovett, then 11 days later he ran 3:47.69, the second-fastest mile in history. That time would stand as the American record for a quarter century until Alan Webb ran 3:46.91 in 2007.

In training, Scott ran several miles every morning followed by an intense track workout in the evening. On the weekend, he ran as far as 20 miles. He routinely exceeded 100 miles per week. This running volume was twice that of today's young milers, which may explain why Scott's U.S. mile record lasted so long.

Scott loved to race—indoors, outdoors, on the roads, and in cross country—sometimes as many as 50 competitions a year. This included three top ten finishes in the U.S. National Cross Country Championships (7th in 1979, 4th in 1980, and 6th in 1981) as well as three victories in the Carlsbad 5,000 road race from 1986 to 1988. His times at Carlsbad in 1986 (13:32) and 1988 (13:30) were World Best times for a road 5K. Among his fellow middle distance runners, he was known as one of track & field’s fiercest competitors. During the decade that followed his first sub-4-minute mile, Scott lived out of a suitcase. He traveled the world and competed year-round in the United States, Canada, Jamaica, Germany, Sweden, Norway, England, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Ireland, Greece, Australia and New Zealand.

In the closing stages of a career that saw Scott race at the highest levels for nearly two decades, his attempt to run a sub-4:00 mile at age-40 in 1994 was derailed by a battle with testicular cancer. He was cured and since retiring from competition he has built one of the most successful NAIA collegiate programs in the country as Head Track and Cross Country Coach at Cal State San Marcos. At San Marcos he has lead the women's team to 3 National Titles from 2009-2011, and in 2011 the men's team placed 2nd. He later received an OBE for his services to sport. In 2002, he was inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame. Scott has two sons, Corey and Shawn, and a daughter Megan. He and his wife JoAnn live in Carlsbad, California.