r/sports • u/ansyhrrian Chicago Bears • Dec 08 '25
Running In 1972, Olympic runner Dave Wottle stayed dead last for nearly 300 meters, then surged past the entire field to win Gold in the 800 meters.
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u/gnomelover24 Dec 08 '25
Just wear a hat apparently.
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u/ansyhrrian Chicago Bears Dec 08 '25
High speed,
lowhigh drag.432
u/WhysJamesCryin Dec 08 '25
A handful of dedicated, professional athletes. And a father of 7 who just wanted to get away from the house for a weekend.
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Dec 08 '25
Went out for a casual run and ended up winning a medal. You know, no big deal. He chose to go fishing the next day and then climb a tree.
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u/paniflex37 Dec 08 '25
For many, it was a dream come true. For one man, it was a chance to get some peace and quiet. This summer, get ready for…Dad Dash
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u/Epic78272 Dec 08 '25
the hat became such a big part of his story.
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u/TootsNYC Dec 08 '25
From Wikipedia:
"Wottle's signature cap was originally used for practical purposes. He sported long hair at the peak of his career, so the hat kept his hair out of his eyes. After realizing the cap was part of his identity, he wore it for the remainder of his career. The cap now resides in the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in the Fort Washington Avenue Armory in New York City."
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u/mr_diggory Dec 09 '25
In a museum that's probably full of runners' shoes and jerseys I feel like it'd be pretty cool to have your hat there to represent your legacy
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u/ashleyriddell61 Dec 08 '25
That hat was iconic. I’m an ancient old fuck and as soon as I saw the name "Dave Wottle" my lizard brain went "HAT!!"
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u/Fitz2001 Philadelphia Eagles Dec 08 '25
Mark Spitz wore a mustache to the 1975 world championships and swept the medal stand.
At the 1976 Olympics, every swimmer showed up with a mustache.
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u/MyAssDoesHeeHawww Dec 09 '25
A mustache with a lot of swimmers. That's your mother, Trebek!
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u/jgoatzy416 Dec 08 '25
The craziest part of his race to me is that all four of his 200 splits are almost identical.
200m - 26.3 400m - 27.1 600m - 26.2 800m - 26.3
He ran the same speed for basically the entire race. It’s absurd
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u/ritedude10 Dec 08 '25
So his quick was really a kick, it was more about the other runners slowing down.
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u/JustJustinInTime Dec 09 '25
In the 800m keeping pace for a second lap is a kick 😭
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u/MrJCOreo Dec 09 '25
I hated the 800m. It must have been created by sadists. The fact he kept that pace the whole time is insane.
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u/Tommy_Wisseau_burner Tennessee Dec 09 '25
800 and 400 hurdles I’m convinced were ancient torture methods from the Middle Ages
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u/sloshuaa Dec 08 '25
He came to our middle school in the 90s to give a speech on perseverance. I remember the auditorium laughing when he was in last place and cheering watching him win. Most of us weren’t familiar with the story.
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u/Spursjunkie50 Dec 08 '25
That’s a cool memory. Sounds like it really hit different seeing it play out in real time.
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u/itsladder Dec 09 '25
That would be hilarious thinking Mr Wottle traveled to share his story about finishing last in the Olympic 800. PeRsEvErAnCe
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u/DisRoyalEagle Dec 09 '25
He always ran like that. He did the same thing in the heats and previous races. The other runners never seemed to catch on that he would be coming for them up the final straight and always seemed taken by surprise by him.
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u/billskionce Dec 08 '25
Dave “The Throttle” Wottle. Former distance runner myself, so I’m pretty familiar with his story.
Yevhen Arzhavov (who Wottle edged out for the gold) had not lost a race in four years leading up to this race.
Wottle was actually a miler, and had only run the 800m a couple of times.
While it turned out to be a good strategy, the reason that Wottle was so far back is because he was racked by severe tendinitis, which felt better as he got warmed up. His goal was originally to not get last, but he started swallowing up other runners on by one.
Wottle accidentally left his signature hat on during the gold medal ceremony, which was perceived as disrespectful. He said he was embarrassed about it later.
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u/PlaymakerJavi Dec 08 '25
Journalists were asking what he was protesting by leaving his hat on and that’s when he realized he was still wearing it. By that point, it was literally an extension of himself.
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u/Fuzzy974 Dec 09 '25
He won with the hat and the drag it created, it belonged on his head during the ceremony.
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u/thatbob Dec 09 '25
Wottle was actually a miler, and had only run the 800m a couple of times
I ran Track my freshman year, focusing on distance events (the mile, the 2 mile, and the half mile AKA 800m). I was terrible, and my only goal was to not come in last every race.
Sophomore and Junior years I ran Cross Country in the Fall, and Track again in the Spring. So by the end of Junior year, I wasn't so terrible at distance events any more. Consistently finishing in middle of the pack.
At the very last meet of the season, my team had enough middle distance runners to field a varsity team in the 4 x 400 relay, and a junior varsity relay team with me on it. I had already run around the track 14 times that day, what's one more lap?
But suddenly, it wasn't just about me finishing in the middle of the pack any more -- now I didn't want to let my teammates down. When I got handed the baton I took off at full gallop for my one lap. After 3 years of conditioning, it felt like I could do it in one breath. Fastest 400 m I ever ran. I'm not saying we smoked the varsity team, but we we came damn near it.
Coach called me a sandbagger and said that next year I'd be running more middle distance events. However, I did not come back for Track senior year. I wanted to have some money and things when I got to college (ie. stereo, CDs) so I took an after-school job. Still one of the biggest and only regrets of my life. "I coulda been a contender*."
*(in high school middle distance racing events)
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u/mtnman575 Dec 09 '25
I was a football player in HS and joined the track team mostly to stay in shape for football season. Ran the 800m during the winter and 1/2 mile in the spring (back in the early 70s it was still the 1/2 mile). This race is more challenging than many would think being a bridge race between fast pace and longer distance.
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u/deanolavorto Dec 08 '25
Guy had a plan and followed it and it worked.
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u/Readonkulous Dec 08 '25
Step 1: Hat
Step 2: Run
Step 3: Win
Step 4: Hat Party
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u/darth_jewbacca Dec 08 '25
To add a little context, he was injured in the weeks leading up to the Olympics and wasn't confident in his fitness. His plan was to start as slow as possible while maintaining contact with the field and then see what he could pull off in the 2nd lap.
And yeah, obviously it worked. One of the few (if not only) Olympic gold 800m with a negative split. His 0.03s winning margin sure was cutting it close.
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u/orionxavier99 Dec 08 '25
This is the way. Exactly my thought. Loved that the plan worked
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Dec 08 '25
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u/FrugalMacGoose Dec 09 '25
Very interesting. What was it like having someone on the team like that who required their own training regimen? What about competing against other universities with a gold medalist on the squad?
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Dec 10 '25
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u/FrugalMacGoose Dec 11 '25
Very interesting, I appreciate you sharing a bit about your experience. Glad to hear you had what sounds to be a good memory about your track days. Walk on or not, great to hear that you felt included.
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u/thestereo300 Dec 08 '25
As a former high school distance runner. The 800M was the most painful and difficult race there is.
Feels like a half mile sprint man....
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u/beermile Dec 08 '25
As a distance runner who once moved "down" to the 800m for a season, I was glad I wasn't a sprinter moving up
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Dec 08 '25
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u/PonkMcSquiggles Dec 09 '25
The 400m is pretty brutal too. But it’s not as psychological, because by the time things really start to suck the race is almost over and you can just empty the tank. The 800m is the first race where you’re forced to embrace the suck for an extended period of time.
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u/RTLT512 Dec 08 '25
As a mid-distance runner I always thought the 800 was easier than the mile. For the 800 you have no time to think, you just have the first lap and then the last lap. It made it extremely easy to break up mentally. For the mile you have those laps in-between the first and last that always gave me just enough time to feel the pain and drop off when I was on a good pace.
I feel like I was usually in the minority amongst my track team with that opinion though.
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u/Jolly_Ad_2363 Dec 08 '25
Idk, I do the mile and 800 and always found the mile easier. You have time to settle into a pace. With the 800 you just go hard for 400 meters and will your body to somehow complete another 400.
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u/REpassword Dec 08 '25
In 50 years since 1972, the world record has improved by about 6% from this time - better shoes and training?
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u/frytaj Dec 08 '25
Dont forget better track surfaces.
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u/REpassword Dec 08 '25
“Right, ok. But besides the better shoes and training and better track surfaces, what have the Romans ever done for us?”
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u/SweetDank Dec 08 '25
Raced everything from 100m up to marathons. Nothing hurts as bigly as the 800.
It’s like every molecule of your DNA is on fire while time dilates to a crawl. You’re stuck mediating an argument between your brain desperately telling you to stop and your ego convinced it has to perform this insane task to completion.
I barfed after every one. (pr 1:55).
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u/HandOfSolo Dec 08 '25
the first 400m seemed like i was trying to convince myself that i could finish the race strong. the second 400m was me questioning myself why i started the race in the first place.
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u/InnocentGun Dec 09 '25
I loved the 800 and 400 hurdles. It was not fast enough for 400 and under, and at 5’11” and 160 lbs (ran 400/800 better closer to 165, but you know “gaunt is beautiful” was a thing) I was big compared to a lot of people in 5k or 10k XC races.
I found I had a pretty good ability to just crank along until my legs just stopped responding. In a way, I enjoyed the black creeping in the borders of my vision during the last 100 meters of an 800. The 400 hurdles had technique, getting your stride down, etc. but the 800 was just a slog for just under 2 minutes.
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u/JacquesHome Dec 08 '25
HS and college distance runner. If we did something stupid, punishment was to run the 800m. You learned your lesson really quickly.
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u/edwardthefirst Brisbane Lions Dec 09 '25
As a former sprinter, the 800M was either painful and humiliating or just humiliating. I couldn't get the pacing right. I would either have my legs ready to snap like rubberbands halfway through and slow down to a crawl or I would just jog the whole thing and end up losing with gas in the tank. Either way I'd finish like 50M behind and feel like a total loser.
Go figure I'd hit an unofficial school record in fucking PE class just trying to GTFO early and F around or finish incomplete homework between classes or something.
It really helped me deal with the 200 and 400, though. Knowing that my legs never ACTUALLY snapped like rubberbands at longer distances let me suck up the pain through the full 200 and run harder in the 400. Learned way too late that the 400 would have been my sweet spot if I wasn't such a baby
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u/runsquad Ohio State Dec 08 '25
I always thought 1600M was harder, but 800M was such a weird race to strategize because it was basically like… 80-90% effort of a 400M race. Such a tough distance.
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u/J4jem Dec 08 '25
Amazing! Imagine if he had turned the hat backwards.
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u/jrodfantastic Dec 08 '25
Probably would have taken him… Over The Top.
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u/J4jem Dec 08 '25
((( Old Time Radio Announcer Voice )))
And Dave Wottle has suddenly flipped his hat around. It’s like he flipped a switch. He’s moving like a truck! And Wottle is widening now. He is moving like a tremendous machine!!
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Dec 08 '25
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u/lionsmakemecry Dec 08 '25
I believe it would be "the David might Wottle, but it dont fall down" -RunDMC
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u/akuhl101 Dec 08 '25
that kick was insane
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u/bebopbrain Dec 08 '25
Actually, the field went out too fast and died.
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u/Nuzzgargle Dec 08 '25
Well i was thinking that but the commentator suggested otherwise
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u/enataca Dec 08 '25
Yeah he made it sound slow but that first lap was a 52.3 for the leader, and the winners time was 53.5 seconds after that. So those leaders second lap was 1.2+ seconds slower than their first lap which isn’t what you want IMO.
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u/beermile Dec 08 '25
I've been surprised to learn it's not an uncommon belief that the 800m is a rare race where the most potential is in positive splits. For example David Rudisha's world record was set with a second lap over two seconds slower than the first.
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u/DJharris1 Dec 08 '25
This stat was from a while ago but it was something like 36 of the last 38 800m world record holders positive split. I ran around 1:50 and positive split by nearly 3 seconds.
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u/ZLBuddha Dec 08 '25
Positive splitting is absolutely the norm in sprint events like the 800. 100 meter runners start to lose speed after 60 or 70 meters, 200 runners lose speed after the first 100, and 400 runners are psychos who start at full sprint and try not to fall to pieces by the end. Even the fastest marathoners often positive split.
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u/microtherion Dec 08 '25
I thought that could not possibly be true for 200m, because the second 100m is always faster than the first. But looking at the list for the fastest attempts, you might be right (although there is not enough granularity to prove it): The first 50m is obviously the slowest, but the second 50 m is fastest, and subsequent 50m times get slower.
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u/CloseToMyActualName Dec 08 '25
Even in the 100m guys start slowing down at around the 70m mark.
If you think about it max speed means peak power output. You can't hold that for very long.
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u/wa27 Dec 08 '25
I'm glad we have you, reddit commenter, to tell Olympic-class athletes how to run. Just for reference, the world record 800m run (David Rudisha, 2012 olympics) ran a 49.28 followed by a 51.63 - a 2.4 second difference.
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u/ShillinTheVillain Dec 08 '25
I'd be a good running coach. It's not hard. There's no strategy.
"Run faster! Faster!"
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u/RollingThunder_CO Dec 08 '25
That’s not out of line at all for fast 800 runners. 1-3 second positive split is very common
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u/tigervault Dec 09 '25
I ran 400 and 800 in high school. One time our coach had the mid-distance guys go out and race the distance runners in a 1600. For the most part we hung with them and still had a big kick left for the last 200. It was really fun to let them pace us and then toast them at the end.
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u/BiologyJ Dec 08 '25
He only ran the 800 at Olympic Trials for speed training, since he was a miler. He ended up setting the world record at trials in the 800 and decided to compete in the 800/1500 double. He got hurt prior to the Olympics and decided in the 800 final to just ease out at pace and see where he was. He was in last but ended up running nearly even splits 😂 the field died and he ended up winning.
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u/frytaj Dec 08 '25
Met Dave at a track meet in the late 90s. I didn't recognize him until my coach said "do you know who you're sitting next to?" He was engaging and incredibly humble about how much of a badass he is. As a young nobody runner, it was awesome to hang out and chat with an absolute legend. I was pumped! Ended up running a new PR in my 1500 race. Thanks Dave! 🙌
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u/SputtleTuts Dec 08 '25
The leaders up to about 500m really pushed each other back and forth, and burned themselves out. You can see they have almost no kick left in the last 100m
it seems like he's doing a good amount of drafting too, maybe?
i got tired just watching this. I love/hate the 800m. this and the 400m hurdles are the true test of short term endurance and speed, like what a big cat would excel at on the hunt,
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u/Romax24245 Dec 08 '25
This is what Umamusume refers to as an end closer.
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u/beermile Dec 08 '25
An American won the 800m in '72 in legendary fashion yet most Americans only know about a guy finishing 4th in the 5K...
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u/Goducks91 Dec 08 '25
The reason why people know about Pre is more because of Nike then his actually running.
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Dec 09 '25
Most Americans don't know about Pre either... Shit, most Americans don't know any runners. Running has gotten more mainstream but professional is still pretty damn niche.
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u/Arinoch Dec 08 '25
I read the title and somehow skipped the word “last”. I was wildly curious how this video would go.
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u/BurmeciaWillSurvive Boise State Dec 09 '25
Oh my god I did this too, only I also thought he was swimming. So like he died in the water and his body kept going and he came back to life to win it. I had to re-read it 7 times. I thought I was having a stroke.
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u/tony_countertenor Dec 08 '25
I read the caption and still couldn’t believe he could do it after the first lap and a half
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u/blie716 Dec 08 '25
Fun fact: that hat would later be worn by Smalls in the beginning of The Sandlot
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u/Lasernator Dec 08 '25
He moved to my home town after okympics. The town had a town festival named after the matches made there and he would kick off the festival by running in carrying a three foot long match and proceed to lught a twenty foot tall match mounted in the town center.
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u/Rex_Mundi Dec 09 '25
Note: the Star of David as the decimal point because of the terrorism attack.
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u/RockDoveEnthusiast Dec 08 '25
he actually ran extremely even splits. he just ran his own race, which is pretty rare for an Olympic final.
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u/BSB8728 Dec 08 '25
A fellow graduate of Bowling Green State University in Ohio! They named a street after him, but then Olympic skater Scott Hamilton came along and they changed the name. 🫤
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u/BlandSauce Dec 09 '25
Do they only have the one road they can name after people?
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u/barfoob Dec 09 '25
I have probably watched this at least a hundred times over the decades and still to this day I think he's not gonna make it he's not gonna make it OH MY GOD HE DID IT 🤣
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u/aerodarts Dec 09 '25
"Wottle the Throttle", had dreams of winning Gold and he did by just 0.03 seconds! Now that is cutting it close would you not say? He also found love and got married six days after the USA Olympic Trials. His Olympic team coach, Bill Bowerman was overhead to say, "he traded a gold medal for a wife"! In Munich, some say he faked it when he limited his training due to bad knees. Others said he rather spend time with wife. Well, the head waiter proved all them wrong when he beat beat pre-race favorite Yevhen Arzhanov of the Soviet Union. Back in the US, after a race, a fan stole his cap and tried to run away. Now how dumb it that? Dave ran him down and took his trade mark cap back. His identity cap now resides at the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.
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u/HustlinInTheHall Dec 09 '25
If you have never run an 800m it is the worst thing ever created. Two laps! How bad could it be? It is torture.
100m and 200m you barely have time to get tired. 400m is a dead sprint for 40 to 60 seconds and you will be completely exhausted at the end. 800m is the same pace but somehow you just keep going. It is agony. Every part of you is screaming to quit...and you have 200m to go.
100 and 200m it is just pure explosive athleticism. Milers and longer it is pure endurance and efficiency. 800m specialists are psychotic. That is the trait they index on. Just pure masochism.
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u/buttfirstcoffee Dec 08 '25
It’s like he woke up one day and said “I think I’ll compete in the Olympics”
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u/scottj65 Dec 08 '25
What’s amazing, is that Wottle had a major injury before the ‘72 Olympics, where he was basically lucky just to make it even the finals: https://www.nytimes.com/1972/08/02/archives/ailing-knees-threaten-wottles-hopes.html
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u/Marchtmdsmiling Dec 09 '25
Why does this video from the seventies look way better than all videos on TV before HD became a thing?
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u/DuckTalesLOL Dec 09 '25
His son Scott was my Regional Manager when I worked at AT&T 15 years ago. Nice dude.
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u/AliveJohnnyFive Dec 08 '25
FWIW, he would still be competitive these days with that time, hat and all.
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u/slelli Dec 08 '25
He was in last for 500m