{"id":637,"date":"2011-12-22T16:15:59","date_gmt":"2011-12-23T00:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=637"},"modified":"2011-12-22T16:16:49","modified_gmt":"2011-12-23T00:16:49","slug":"lee-evans-to-have-brain-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=637","title":{"rendered":"Lee Evans to Have Brain Surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Scanning the internet I just came across the news<\/a> that Olympic gold medalist Lee Evans is set to undergo surgery on a tumor in the pituitary gland area of his brain. While it doesn\u2019t seem to be getting much play this is big news for the world of track and field \u2013 at least for those of us old enough to remember cinder tracks and hand timing.<\/p>\n

Evans was a member of the San Jose State track team and the Santa Clara Valley Youth Village Track Club \u2013 the precursor to clubs such as the Santa Monica Track Club (featuring Carl Lewis); H.S.I. (featuring Maurice Greene) and the Racers Track Club (featuring Usain Bolt). The SCVYV was one of the first clubs to feature a stable of super sprinters that included Bill Gaines, John Carlos, Ronnie Ray Smith, Tommie Smith and Lee Evans \u2013 better known to fans as \u201cSpeed City\u201d.<\/p>\n

While many remember the \u201968 Mexico City Olympics for the \u201cBlack Power\u201d salute of Smith and Carlos on the 200 meter victory stand, the Games was also the gateway into the modern era of sprinting. Held on an \u201cartificial\u201d track, instead of cinder for the first time in the Olympics, sprinters and hurdlers turned in superlative times, and Evans had a hand in two WR setting performances that held up for TWENTY years!<\/p>\n

First he circled the track in his signature 400 meters in 43.86 seconds \u2013 obliterating the 44 second barrier. That WR held up until Butch Reynolds finally lowered the mark in 1987! To this day, forty three years later, only nine men have broken the 44 second barrier and Evans still stands as #7 All Time. He ended the meet by running a 43.9 anchor leg on the U.S. 4×4 that finished in 2:56.16 \u2013 dropping the then WR by a whopping 3.5 seconds! That mark wasn\u2019t approached until a Reynolds anchored squad tied the mark at the 1988 Games, and it was not until 1992 that the record finally fell \u2013 to an all-star Olympic squad that included Michael Johnson, Quincy Watts, and Steve Lewis, all Olympic 400 meter gold medalists!<\/p>\n

After his retirement from competition, Evans went to Africa to lend his knowledge and expertise to those less fortunate on the continent \u2013 showing that he was not just a tremendous competitor, but also a great humanitarian.<\/p>\n

For those growing up around track in the \u201860\u2019s, 70\u2019s and into the late 80\u2019s Evans was an icon and the gold standard for the 400 meters. His marks were legendary on the order of Bob Beamon\u2019s 29 foot long jump. Evans\u2019 name evoked images of something surreal, on the order of Usain Bolt\u2019s Beijing runs. For us \u201cold timers\u201d Evans in still a legend and an icon, and I\u2019m sure the thoughts and prayers of many go out him. Too often we forget those that came before until after their passing. Evans is still a young man at 63 years old, and I wish him success in his surgery and a full recovery. I want this to be praise for a great life and career that he will be able to read and enjoy. Our prayers are with you Lee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scanning the internet I just came across the news that Olympic gold medalist Lee Evans is set to undergo surgery on a tumor in the pituitary gland area of his brain. While it doesn\u2019t seem to be getting much play this is big news for the world of track and field \u2013 at least for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[31,8],"class_list":["post-637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-evans","tag-olympics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa3DCY-ah","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=637"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":639,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions\/639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}