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{{short description| SHORT DESCRIPTION = English long-distance runner}}▼
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2014}}
{{Infobox sportsperson
| name = Gordon Pirie
| image = Gordon Pirie 1956.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Pirie in 1956
| birth_name =
| fullname full_name = Douglas Alistair Gordon Pirie
| nationality =
| residence =
| birth_date = 10 February 1931
| birth_place = [[Leeds]], England<ref name=r1/>
| death_date = 7 December 1991 (aged 60)
| death_place = [[Lymington]], England<ref name=r1/>
| height = {{convert|1.88|m|ftin|abbr=on}}
| weight = {{convert|65|kg|lb|abbr=on}}
| country =
| sport = Running
| pb = 5000 m – 13:36.8 (1956)<br>10000 m – 29:15.49 (1960)<ref name=r1/>
| club = South London Harriers, London
| retired =
| olympics =
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| show-medals = yes
| medaltemplates =
{{Medal|Sport| Men's [[athletics (sport)|athletics]]}}
{{Medal|Country | {{GBR2}} }}
{{Medal|Competition|Olympics[[Olympic Games]]}}
{{Medal|Silver| [[1956 Summer Olympics|1956 Melbourne]] | [[Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics - Men's 5000 metres|5,000 metres]]}}
{{Medal|Competition|[[European Championships in Athletics|European Championships]]}}
{{Medal|Bronze| [[1958 European Championships in Athletics|1958 Stockholm]] | [[1958 European Athletics Championships – Men's 5000 metres|5,000 metres]]}}
}}
 
'''Douglas Alistair Gordon Pirie''' (10 February 1931 – 7 December 1991) was aan English [[long-distance runner]]. He was borncompeted in [[Leeds]]the 5000 m and 10,000 m events at the 1952, 1956 and [[West1960 RidingSummer ofOlympics|1960 YorkshireOlympics]] and won a silver medal in the 5000 m in 1956, Englandplacing butfourth wasin brought1952. Born in [[Leeds]], Pirie grew up in [[Coulsdon]], [[Surrey]], and ran for the South London Harriers. He died of [[cholangiocarcinoma]] (bile duct cancer) in [[Lymington]], [[Hampshire]].
 
==Biography==
 
[[File:Gordon Pirie 1953.jpg|thumb|left|Gordon Pirie in Oslo in 1953]]
 
===Early career===
In 1955 Pirie won the [[BBC Sports Personality of the Year]] award. During that year he had beaten [[Emil ZatopekZátopek]] the triple gold medallist in distance running at the 1952 Olympics.<ref name=r1/> Pirie was an exceptional cross-country runner, winning the English Championship three times.
 
Pirie broke five world records in the course of his career, his [[annus mirabilis]] being 1956, when on 19 June in [[Bergen]], Norway, he ran 13:36.8 for 5,000&nbsp;m, beating [[Vladimir Kuts]] (USSR), and knocking 25 seconds from his own personal best. On 22 June in [[Trondheim]], Norway, he equalledbeat the world 3000&nbsp;metres record with 7:55.65, and on 14 September, in [[Malmö]], [[Sweden]], he set a new record with 7:52.7.▼
 
He can be seen in film held by the [[Cinema Museum (London)|Cinema Museum]] in London of the 1952 English Nationals Ref HMO362.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cinema Museum Home Movie Database.xlsx|url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OJqSWnOFAn6RJ24jtwb21Z4Hv5svJjbp/edit?usp=embed_facebook|access-date=2021-12-25|website=Google Docs|language=en-US}}</ref>
▲Pirie broke five world records in the course of his career, his [[annus mirabilis]] being 1956, when on 19 June in [[Bergen]], Norway, he ran 13:36.8 for 5,000&nbsp;m, beating [[Vladimir Kuts]] (USSR), and knocking 25 seconds from his own personal best. On 22 June in [[Trondheim]], Norway, he equalled the world 3000&nbsp;metres record with 7:55.6, and on 14 September, in [[Malmö]], [[Sweden]], he set a new record with 7:52.7.
 
===Melbourne Olympics 1956===
In the Olympics, held in [[Melbourne]] later that year, Pirie ran against Kuts in the 10,000 metres and despite the tactics of Kuts, an aggressive front runner whose bursts of speed were particularly damaging to a long-striding runner like Pirie, he stayed with him into the last mile when every other competitor had dropped well back. Kuts surrendered the lead for a short while, then made a sprint which Pirie could not match and he dropped back. Kuts said that if Pirie had stayed with him on that last sprint he would have dropped out of the race.<ref>Gordon Pirie, "''Running Wild"'', W.H. Allen, 1961</ref>
 
In the 5,000 metres Pirie took second place behind Kuts. [[Christopher Chataway]], another British runner, had been selected on past performance. He had not competed at top level for more than a year as he was pursuing a media career. With Pirie and [[Derek Ibbotson]], the third British runner, he was tracking Kuts and had moved ahead of them as they went into a bend. The Soviet runner was setting a much faster pace than Chataway had ever run. Chataway suffered an attack of stomach [[cramp]] which caused him to slow down, and as Pirie and Ibbotson came out of the bend they found that Kuts had opened a gap. Pirie and Ibbotson ran round Chataway but Kuts was able to exploit his advantage and won the race with a margin of 11 seconds, the largest ever for this event in Olympic history. For the latter stages of the race Pirie was running what was virtually a front race, as Kuts had broken away, but he was still strong enough to hold off a late challenge by Ibbotson.<ref>{{cite Sports-Reference |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1956/ATH/mens-5000-metres.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417174902/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1956/ATH/mens-5000-metres.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=17 April 2020 |title=Athletics at the 1956 Melbourne Games: Men's 5000 metres |access-date=7 November 2017}}</ref>
 
==Between the Olympics==
After the race, Ibbotson commented that, "You can't have a plan with a bloke like Chataway – he wants to do all the running", obviously feeling that if Chataway had stayed behind him and Pirie, they would have kept in contact with Kuts and may have beaten him, as they both had superior finishing speed.
Pirie competed for England at the [[1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games]] and finished fourth in the 1-mile and 3-mile events.<ref name=r1/>
 
===Rome Olympics 1960===
The 1960 Rome Olympics were held in the height of the summer and Pirie and other leading British contestants asked to go on ahead of the main party, at their own expense, so that they might acclimatise to the heat. They were refused permission, on the grounds that "we travel as a team". Pirie and his fellow 5,000 metres contestants were eliminated in the heats, leaving Pirie's only chance of a gold medal the 10,000 metres held later in the games. Pirie followed the favourite, [[Murray Halberg]] of [[New Zealand]].
 
Halberg had won his major championships by making a tactical burst in the last mile and holding on to the lead – he had won the 5,000 metres at Rome by that tactic and Pirie's plan was to stay with him as he went forward. Halberg was probably suffering from his effort in the earlier race and as the race went on he failed to stay with the leaders. Pirie realised that he and Halberg had lost contact with them.
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For some years, after he had criticised them, sections of the press ran a campaign against Pirie particularly after the Olympics. In a radio interview with [[Eamonn Andrews]] soon after the games, the Australian runner [[Herb Elliott]], referred to Pirie and Ibbotson who, having broken the world record for the mile in 1957, had never regained the same form and was not selected for Rome. Elliott said, "The British Press is the most vicious in the world. Their attitude to people like Pirie and Ibbotson is 'That bloke's on his way down, I'm going to kick him down and keep him there.'" In 1960 Pirie ran a sub-four minute mile in Dublin, clocking 3:59.9.<ref>[http://www.surreyathletics.org.uk/trackfield/rankings/alltime.php?Y=2013&S=2014&O=R&A=SM&E=MILE&T=25 SCAA – All-time T&F Rankings]. Surreyathletics.org.uk (20 February 2014). Retrieved on 10 April 2014.</ref>
 
Pirie won the British [[British Orienteering Championships]] Championships in its first two years, 1967 and 1968.,<ref>[http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/page/british_champions British Champions]. British Orienteering. Retrieved on 10 April 2014.</ref> and won the first edition of the [[Jan Kjellström International Festival of Orienteering|JK Orienteering Festival]]. He also represented UK at the [[1966 World Orienteering Championships]],<ref name=iof-woc1966>{{cite web |url=http://orienteering.org/events/?event_id=6 |title=World Orienteering Championships 1966 |publisher=[[International Orienteering Federation]] |access-date=9 September 2017}}</ref> and again at the [[1968 World Orienteering Championships]].<ref name=iof-woc1968>{{cite web |url=http://orienteering.org/events/?event_id=10 |title=World Orienteering Championships 1968 |publisher=[[International Orienteering Federation]] |access-date=29 March 2018}}</ref>
 
The 1998 edition of ''[[Guinness World Records|The Guinness Book of Records]]'' lists Gordon Pirie under the "Greatest Mileage" entry, stating that he had run a total distance of {{convert|347,600|km|mi|abbr=on}} in 40 years to 1981.<ref>[http://www.runnersweb.com/running/pirie_book.html Running Fast and Injury Free-Gordon Pirie Book by John Gilbody]. Runnersweb.com. Retrieved on 10 April 2014.</ref>
 
== ''Running Fast and Injury Free'' ==
In his book ''Running Fast and Injury Free''<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.williamsichel.co.uk/documents/Running_Fast_and_Injury_Free.pdf | title = Running Fast and Injury Free | accessdate access-date= 10 November 2010 | last = Pirie | first = Gordon | first2= John S. |last2=Gilbody | date=1996–2002 |url-status=dead 1996–2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110124045734/http://www.williamsichel.co.uk/documents/Running_Fast_and_Injury_Free.pdf |archive-date=24 January 2011 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> Pirie advocatesadvocated running with initially making ground contact with the midfoot (as opposed to the usual style of long steps with landing on heels), 3–5 steps per second to reduce fatigue, damage to feet, and wasting of energy on vertical movement of body. He also describes his collaboration with [[Adolf Dassler]] on designing running shoes with stronger toes (instead of the usual design with stronger heels) for better durability with his advocated running style.
 
==References==
{{reflistReflist|refs=
<ref name=r1>[http{{cite Sports-Reference |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/pi/gordon-pirie-1.html |title=Gordon Pirie]. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090206022657/http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/pi/gordon-pirie-1.html |archive-date=6 February 2009 }}</ref>
}}
 
==External links==
{{Commons category|Gordon Pirie}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060714221152/http://www.gordonpirie.com/ Gordon Pirie Resource Centre]
* http://www.scribd.com/doc/13695/Gordon-Piries-Running-Fast-and-Injury-Free▼
* http[https://www.scribd.com/doc/1822813695/Gordon-Piries-Running-Fast-and-Injury-Free-ultimate-edition-240307 Gordon Pirie's "Running Fast and Injury Free" | PDF | Running | Track And Field]
* [httphttps://www.scribd.com/doc/1369518228/Gordon-Piries-Running-Fast-and-Injury-Free-ultimate-edition-240307 Gordon Pirie's 'Running Fast and Injury Free'' - Ultimate Edition 240307 | PDF]
▲* http[https://www.scribd.com/doc/13695/Gordon-Piries-Running-Fast-and-Injury-Free ''Running Fast and Injury Free'']
 
{{S-start}}
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{{BBC Sports Personality of the Year winners}}
 
{{authority control}}
{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] -->
 
| NAME = Pirie, Gordon
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
▲| SHORT DESCRIPTION = English long-distance runner
| DATE OF BIRTH = 10 February 1931
| PLACE OF BIRTH = [[Leeds]], [[West Riding of Yorkshire]], England
| DATE OF DEATH = 7 December 1991
| PLACE OF DEATH = [[Lymington]], [[Hampshire]], England
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pirie, Gordon}}
[[Category:1931 births]]
[[Category:1991 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Lymington]]
[[Category:SportspeopleAthletes from Leeds]]
[[Category:English male long-distance runners]]
[[Category:British male long-distance runners]]
[[Category:MaleOlympic long-distanceathletes runnersfor Great Britain]]
[[Category:British male athletes]]
[[Category:English sportsmen]]▼
[[Category:Olympic athletes of Great Britain]]
[[Category:Olympic silver medallists for Great Britain]]
[[Category:Olympic medalists in athletics (track and field)]]▼
[[Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1952 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1956 Summer Olympics]]
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[[Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games]]
[[Category:European Athletics Championships medalists]]
[[Category:Former worldWorld record holderssetters in athletics (track and field)]]
[[Category:BBC Sports Personality of the Year winners]]
[[Category:English people of Scottish descent]]
[[Category:Alumni of St. Mary's University, College (Twickenham)]]
[[Category:Medalists at the 1956 Summer Olympics]]
▲[[Category:Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field)]]
[[Category:Deaths from cholangiocarcinoma]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in England]]
▲[[Category:20th-century English sportsmen]]
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