Lasse Viren was expected to perform well in the 10,000 metre competition at the 1972 Olympics in Municch. As expected he qualified for the finals. Unfortunately as happens occasionally in competition he found himself sprawled on the track when he was the victim of contact in the finals. However he got up, and not only won the gold in the race, but also set a world record in doing so.
Subsequently, in the same Games, he won the 5,000 metres, during whihc Viren also set the world's record.
Four years later in the 1976 Monetrea; Olympics provided one of the greatest series of performances by a distance runner in a single Olympics.
Viren defended not one but both of his gold medals and also chose to run his first marathon ever - and finished fifth.
Lasse Viren chose to utilise the varied methods and philosophies of many others to develop his training regimen. From the famed Arthur Lydiard, who was Peter Snell's coach, Viren took the concept of high mileage and long aerobic runs, sometimes putting in 150 miles per week.
From Hungarian coach Mihaly Ingloi, Viren chose to utilise wind sprints, alternating 50 metres of hard running with 50 metres of easy for 2 or 3 miles on the track.
Then from distance great Paavo Nurmi, Viren elected to perform continuous runs at a steady pace.
Using American coach Bill Bowerman, Steve Prefontaine's coach and one of the originators of Nike, Viren then selected the option of the hard\easy approach to training by following his incredibly hard workout days with two or three days of easy runs in the forests of Finland.
Just as Lasse Viren chose to learn variety of training methods from the great runners and coaches who had preceded him, every runner since seeking improvements learned the the need to mix a variety of workouts into training in order to develop all facets of performance.
Lasse Virén ended his career after the 1980 Summer Olympics, where he placed fifth in the 10,000 meters. Virén qualified for that final, placing fourth and having clocked a disappointing 28:45 in his heat. Only after Ireland's John Treacy collapsed during his heat, due to heat stroke, was Virén given an automatic place in the final. Otherwise, he would have qualified for the final as a fastest loser.
Viren skipped the 5,000-metre race and chose to compete in the Olympic marathon, where he started quite well, but had to drop out before 30 kilometres.
In the autumn of 1980, he announced his retirement from active competitive running.
Viren began his running career in the United States at Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah and ran on the Varsity Cross-Country team for BYU for one season, before returning home to his native Finland.
A police officer from Myrskylä, Virén debuted on the international scene in 1971, alebit his performances at the 1971 European Championships in Helsinki were overshadowed by fellow Finn Juha Väätäinen - who captured gold medals in both the 5,000 and 10,000 metre. Virén was 7th and 17th respectively.
According to Viren's coach, Rolf Haikkola, he could have placed better in the 1971 European Athletics Championships, if he had done the "emptying exercise" of his system earlier - according to Haikkola.
The "emptying exercise" of top runners means that they push their bodies to a total exhaustion or lack of energy so that their bodies can again receive much energy, and so that they can repeat their top race performances. Shortly after those European Championships, he broke Väätäinen's fresh Finnish record at 5,000 metres.
Buoyed by a brutal training regimen in Thomson's Falls, Kenya, and very impressive results, which included the smashing of the 2-mile world record and wins against Great Britain and Spain in a meet held in Helsinki in the summer of 1972, Lasse Virén entered the Munich Games.
Since his career ended he becaome a well-known figure in Finland, eventually holding a seat in the Finnish Parliament with the National Coalition Party from 1999 until 2007 and from 2010 to 2011.
Virén did not seek re-election in 2011.
Olympic Medals
Munich 1972 10,000 m Gold
Munich 1972 5,000 m Gold
Montreal 1976 10,000 m Gold
Montreal 1976 5,000 m Gold
