Lasse Virén Tripped Halfway Through the Munich 10,000 Meters and Won Anyway

Lasse Virén was a 23-year-old village policeman from Myrskylä in southern Finland when he lined up for the 10,000-meter final at the Munich Olympics on September 3, 1972. He hadn't won anything significant in international athletics. The favorites were Britain's David Bedford, who held the world record, and Belgium's Emiel Puttemans.

The race went out fast. On the twelfth lap of twenty-five, Virén caught his foot on Mohamed Gammoudi of Tunisia at full pace, fell sideways onto the track, and rolled over twice. Gammoudi went down with him. The pack passed both of them. Virén got back to his feet about twenty meters off the leaders, watched the field draw away, and started reeling them in with about ten laps to go. He caught Bedford. He caught Puttemans, who was trying to break clear. Over the last two laps, with the bell ringing, Virén pushed past everyone, accelerated through the final 400 meters in 56.4 seconds, and crossed the line in 27:38.35 — a world record. The fall, in retrospect, had probably saved him from over-pacing.

Five days later he won the 5,000 meters as well. Four years later in Montreal he won both 5,000 and 10,000 again — only the fourth athlete in Olympic history to take both distance events at one Games, and the first to do it at two Games in a row. The press in Finland called the run Virénin spurtti, "Virén's spurt," and the moment of the fall is still in Finnish memory the way Bannister's mile is in Britain. He was elected to the Finnish parliament in 1999.