Yet another easy track/geography question...

[rasb]

You are driving East .... On your left is a statue of a historic track event, involving two athletes. You are in which Country, which City, and who are the principles, and what was the year and name of the Event? And which Street are you on?

[dukehjsteve]

Re: Yet another easy track/geography question...

You are driving East .... On your left is a statue of a historic track event, involving two athletes. You are in which Country, which City, and who are the principles, and what was the year and name of the Event? And which Street are you on?

This is a total, total SWAG ( supreme wild-assed guess) based purely on "involving two athletes."

Canada
Vancouver
Bannister-Landy
1954
British Empire Games
?

[rasb]

That is one fine SWAG. The street is Hastings, corner of Renfrew, right outside the PNE Grounds. It's a magnificent bronze, capturing very well the moment when Landy looked left, and Bannister went right.
Apparently, this was the first ever live sporting event shown across North American on television. I was only 8 years old, and we didn't have a TV, but Donnie Thomson and family, who lived 2 doors away, did, and I remember the drama of that race as if it was yesterday. And the Jim Peters saga as well.
Very moving stuff for an impressionable kid...

[dukehjsteve]

That is one fine SWAG. The street is Hastings, corner of Renfrew, right outside the PNE Grounds. It's a magnificent bronze, capturing very well the moment when Landy looked left, and Bannister went right.
Apparently, this was the first ever live sporting event shown across North American on television. I was only 8 years old, and we didn't have a TV, but Donnie Thomson and family, who lived 2 doors away, did, and I remember the drama of that race as if it was yesterday. And the Jim Peters saga as well.
Very moving stuff for an impressionable kid...

Wow ! What a cool guess by me ! I had no idea. But the " historic track event by 2 athletes" part lit a light bulb for me somehow. Great info, thank you !

[richxx87]

I was going to say the monument to Tommie Smith and John Carlos at San Jose State University. But I saw a video of the unveiling once and it seems to be in the middle of the campus, not really near any streets.

[Cooter Brown]

How many statues of track athletes are there? That could be an interesting travel itinerary.

Add the Bubka statue in Donetsk (with an incorrect hand grip on the pole) to the list.

[cullman]

Vancouver has two more statues of T&F athletes...unfortunately the city still doesn't have a decent track.

cman

[rasb]

Victoria has a statue of Terry Fox at Mile 0 of the Trans-Canada Highway. The Victoria Marathon, 10K and 8K all go by this point, and many runners glance towards the statue on the way by, and perhaps offer a silent prayer.
Although Fox was not a track athlete of note, anyone that can run half-way across Canada on one leg, while struggling with the final stages of cancer, makes my list.

[wineturtle]

NY has a turtle and a hare at Vannie and Lebow looking at his wristwatch in Central Park @ 90St moved to Tavern for NYC Marathon and a discus thrower on Randalls Is near exit ramp.

[mcgato]

Statue of Johnny Kelley at the start of Heartbreak Hill on the Boston Marathon route in Newton, Mass.

[richxx87]

The Jamaicans put up a nice statue in 2005 of Merlene Ottey at the national stadium in Kingston.



And in Carpi, Italy, they put up this past July a statue of the marathoner Dorando Pietri, who nearly won the 1908 Olympics, but collapsed in the stadium just yards from victory.

[tandfman]

There's a statue of Paavo Nurmi outside of the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... lsinki.jpg

Edited to add URL

[Cooter Brown]

Bubka statue referenced above...

[Bruce Kritzler]

Greta Waitz at Oslo Stadium
Frank Shorter in Boulder (downtown)
Jim Ryun (and others) at Rim Rock Farm, Lawrence, KS

[ed gee]

http://www.taidemuseo.hel.fi/english/ve ... tby=statue

artist Terho Sakki (1930 - 1997)

sculpture Lasse Viren
map Paavo Nurmen kuja, Taka-Töölö
year 1994
images 1
The statues of the two greatly admired Finnish long-distance runners are placed in the immediate vicinity of the Olympic Stadium. One of the statues is the one dedicated to Lasse Viren (1949-), who was the first ever sportsman to win Olympic gold in both the 10,000 metre and the 5,000 metre races in two consecutive Games.