David Oliver: Some thoughts on an athlete retiring

David Oliver is retiring, per NBC Olympic sports. It was in the twitter world today, so it must be true.

Retiring is such a personal thing for an elite athlete. But, in the rarefied world of the 110m hurdles, David Oliver has been around for a heck of a long time. He has an Olympic medal, a World Championship title, indoor and outdoors, plus four US outdoor titles.

David Oliver has moments of great highs and lows in our sport. He has lived life well, reminding the media that, when he first ran 13.2, he was working in a footwear store. Being an elite hurdler for over a decade is a huge tribute to David’s drive and athleticism.

In 2011, the Shoe Addicts, our video partners, did this video focus on David Oliver, to promote David and his running at the 2011 Nike Pre Classic. Check it out, because it captures our friend and great athlete: https://www.runblogrun.com/2011/05/shoeaddicts-present-david-oliver-110m-hurdles-note-by-larry-eder.html

David Oliver is a class act, a fine athlete, and most of all, a great role model.

We will miss him.

The secret to all victory lies in the organization of the non obvious -Marcus Aurelius Another great fall training day powered by @rivalus

A post shared by David Oliver (@doliversub13) on Nov 15, 2016 at 8:36am PST

Author

Larry Eder

Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys.

Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."

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