by Elliott Denman
ROOKS RUNS INSPIRED STEEPLE,
BEATS THE LONG ODDS,
BUT ASHENFELTER STILL ALONE
By ELLIOTT DENMAN
Horace Ashenfelter was surely looking down in approval.
The only American runner ever to win the Olympic 3000-meter steeplechase
Gold Medal said his goodbyes at age 94 on January 6, 2018, in West Orange,
New Jersey.
But his legacy continues…on and on and on.
Knowing the man – and all the incredible things he represented – I can tell you for sure that he was leading the cheering section “up there as Kenneth Rooks made his amazing charge down the backstretch of the eighth lap, around the turn and its water jump, and then down the Stade De France homestretch, thus coming within a whisker or two of joining the organization
that can’t possibly be more exclusive.
That’s the USA 3000 Steeple Champions Club, and “Ash” is still its charter – and 72 years later – only member,
But barely.
Rooks’ gutsy, long-shot, forget-the-formcharts closing run – which eventually got him the silver medal back only of Morocco’s repeat champion Soufiane El Bakkali, will resound everywhere from College Place, Washington, his hometown, to Provo, Utah, where he mastered the distance running game at Brigham Young University….to Glen Ridge, NJ, where “Ash” long resided after his own college days at Penn State.
That Wednesday night steeple race – eventually won by El Bakkali in 8:06.05 over Rooks’s 8:06.41 and Abraham Kibiwot’s 8:06.47 for Kenya – constituted one of the most dramatic moments of these Games of the XXXIII Olympiad and would have been one of the upsets of the ages.
Of course/of course, Cole Hocker’s run for the gold in the 1500 meters a day earlier was brilliant-just-brilliant. But Hocker, long shot as he was, had at least been in the medal conversation (with Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Jeff Kerr ).
Likely, though no one in the wide-wide world beyond College Place and Provo had listed Rooks better than a thousand-to-one shot.
Which brings me back to a stroll down memory lane.
Ashenfelter, too, faced long odds, when he stepped to the line at
Helsinki Olympic Stadium, July 25, 1952. But not as long as those on Rooks, Aug. 7, 2024.
Ashenfelter came to Helsinki fit and ready. An Army Air Force pilot vet, by then an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, he’d won major USA races from the mile up to the 10K, and was a top star on the indoor track circuit that regularly packed an array of major arenas for the footracing dramas of the day.
But Vladimir Kazantsev, a KGB employee racing for the Soviet Union, may not have known all that.
“Kaz,” 29 too, checked in as the world-record-holder at 8:48.6 but left as the stunned silver medalist. Ashenfelter’s inspired spurt over the final water jump carried him to an Olympic and world-record 8:45.4 triumph.
Remember that this was at the height of the Cold War and newspaper headline writers leaped to this golden opportunity.
Most remembered was this one, the tabloid New York Daily News’ banner backpage head: “FBI Man Runs Down KGB Agent.”
But the world kept on spinning and “Ash” never really got the golden adulation he deserved. He made another Olympic team but didn’t reach the final at Melbourne 1956
Modesty wasn’t – but should have been – this man’s middle name.
For one thing, “Ash” forever reminded that he really wasn’t the only American to win Oly steeple gold.
“Don’t ever forget James Lighbody,” he’d tell you.
Lightbody had won the steeple at the 1904 Games, when the distance was 2,590 meters.
And he wasn’t the only American to medal in the Oly 3000 steeple either.
There was John Eisele, bronze 1908, then Patrick Flynn, silver 1920.
Fordham’s Joe McCluskey earned a bronze at the 1932 LA Games which should have been a silver; he was second at eight laps but a distracted lap counting official sent the field on an extra circuit of the Coliseum track.
Then came George Young, silver 1968; Brian Diemer, bronze 1984, and Evan Jager, silver 2016.
And then….Rooks.
He’d been a big-time high school runner in Washington, a 4:11 schoolboy miler. BYU and coach Ed Eyestone came calling and off he went to Utah.
By 2023 – after a two-year Mormon mission to Uganda – he was both NCAA and USATF national steeple champion, putting him on the USA Worlds team, where he placed 10th at Budapest.
BYU predecessor, three-time Olympian and Pan-Am champion Henry Marsh was another inspiration.
Turning pro – at age 24 – in January 2024, Hooks could focus on Paris. His 8:21.92 Trials win sent him off to France and his date with destiny.
Oh, that Oly final was drama-packed,
By midway, Rooks was moving up from the back of the pack and – amazing to
many – grabbing the lead past the bell.
Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma tripped and fell at the final water jump, adding to the drama.
El Bakkali found running room in the crowd and raced to the gold. But Rooks fought off Kibiwot for the silver.
He’d done as planned – “I just wanted to be within striking distance to close well at the end,” he said.
Some analyses:
BYU coach Ed Eyestone: “It was the gutsiest performance of the Games so far.”
Two-time Olympic steepler Anthony Famiglietti: “It was exciting to see an American take the initiative again and push beyond life’s barriers. What an incredible steeple.”
Former Stockton U. coach Bill Preston: “What a great race, Rooks never panicked regardless of what was happening in front of him.”
Anonymous viewer: “In a game of chess, it pays to have Rooks.”
Time, of course, forever marches on. Consider this stat: Ashenfelter’s gold medal/world record 8:45.4 would have left him half a lap back in the Paris final. Thirty-five runners completed the three prelims here. “Ash” would have ranked 34th.
The only American ever to win the Oly 3000 steeplchase is honored each Thanksgiving Day morning in his hometown of Glen Ridge, NJ. A cast of several thousand annually turns out for the Ashenfelter 8K Race – the “A8K” – an event organized and directed with special dedication by Mr. Dan Murphy.
So here’s a suggestion: “Hi, Dan. How about inviting Kenneth Rooks to Glen Ridge next Thanksgiving morning? “
Traditionally, the Ashenfetler family is out in force for these festivities, and they’d be more than happy to give Kenneth Rooks their every best wish for future success.
Finally, this memo to the new silver medalist: “Ken, seize this moment. Young fella, celebrate your achievement. Then tell yourself it’s not too early to start the countdown to 2028. The L.A. Games await.”
