I saw this article on Joe Vigil. It certainly warmed my heart. I am privileged to have Joe as a mentor and and a friend. He is an amazing individual, a role model for all teachers and coaches.

‘Dean of distance’ discusses Olympics

By Mike Touzeau, Special to the Green Valley News

Published: Saturday, November 29, 2008 5:13 PM MST

Though he was impressed — as the rest of the world was —
with the pageantry, what legendary distance coach Joe Vigil recalls most from
his 40th year of service to his country in the Olympic games is the Chinese
people and the changing face of the sport he has loved all his life.

“I’ve been to a lot of Olympics,” said Colorado’s Coach of the Millennium and
member of 11 halls of fame, “but nothing compares to what they did in China.”

Speaking from his Green Valley home between training seminars in San Diego and
Las Vegas, Vigil, who has coached and mentored coaches at every Olympics since
1968, was disappointed that his men’s distance runners were shut out on medals
and didn’t come close to their best times, but still found something positive,
as he characteristically does.

“We probably did better than we ever have, actually, because of the number of
men who made the finals.”

The U.S. track and field team took 23 medals.

Happy with the ninth, 10th, and 22nd showings in the marathon, Vigil
nevertheless expressed concern that runners in the other distance categories
are now typically peaking at other competitions, evidenced by the fact that
they travel directly from the Olympic trials to the European circuit, then to
the Grand Prix after the Games — both venues affording them the opportunity for
more money to be made.

He brought out the results for each of his men’s distance
competitors, noting the slower times in the Games, compared to their Trials’ times
and personal bests.

“I know they have to make a living,” he said, “but they get to the point where
they finally make it [by qualifying for the Olympics], so you’d think they’d
want to do the best possible job in the Games.”

Although the marathoners trained for the Olympics only, the reality with
world-class track athletes these days is they have agents and others who guide
them to where the money is — an ever-increasing “bottom line” approach in
modern sports highlighted by college recruits, for example, leaving programs
for the NBA as sophomores and juniors.

“You have someone there to sort of spoon-feed them,” Vigil said, explaining his
role as a communicator, getting their “heads right,” keeping them healthy and
positive, and getting them to their training and competitive venues.

“You’d have three or four people overlooking one guy.”

Father figure

With his years of experience, wisdom, and a wealth of knowledge, the young
Olympians always find a confidant in Coach Vigil, someone they can rely on and
trust, sort of a father figure on a pressure-packed world stage.

Even with the countless awards he’s been given and a 29-year career that
includes 19 national collegiate titles, 425 All-Americans, 87 individual
national champions, coach of the year 14 times, and 49 senior championships
with Team Running USA, Vigil is most proud of his 95 percent graduation rate as
a college coach and his role over the years as a teacher and mentor to young
athletes and their coaches — a man who gives more to their lives than
instruction and expertise.

“You’d be surprised that many of these great athletes have personal problems,
too, just like everybody else,” he said.

With a doctorate in exercise physiology, Vigil, 77, who has coached at the
World University Games, Pan American Games, and World Cross Country
Championships, is still sought after as an expert in preparing athletes for
competition. Though he’s seen it all before, he continues to be impressed just
by the huge responsibility undertaken in getting hundreds of American athletes
ready to participate in track and field halfway around the world.

“People don’t realize what a job it is for the USOC to organize all these
people.”

Roughly 1,200 U.S. athletes coaches, medical personnel, and administrators —
which includes 685 athletes, 136 in track and field — were first put through an
“ambassadors’ program” in San Jose, Calif., prior to flying over, an attempt to
orient them to the culture in China, emphasizing respect and understanding.

There are 15,000 housed at the Olympic Village, with a cafeteria feeding 5,000
at a time, 24 hours a day.

After setting up a three-week camp for initial training in Dalian about an hour
from the city, they were able to rent Beijing Normal University to make it
easier for athletes to get track time.

Just trying to get to practice in Dalian, one of China’s “smaller cities” at
3.5 million, he said, could be a chore, fighting traffic and having to wait on
the Chinese penchant for providing constant security.

“They wouldn’t let us do anything without security staff with us,” he said,
noting that it often made it difficult for multiple runners to work in
different places at the same time.

In Beijing, the military occupied an entire floor of the main stadium so as to
make it easy for them to get out and control any “situation” that might arise
at any venue.

Buildings were all new with beautifully landscape roads and parks, a pristine
city “prepared” for the eyes of the rest of the world.

“They wanted to show the world that they could do this,” Vigil remarked.

Wife Caroline, whom he credits for support essential for his success, traveled
with his daughter to Beijing and was likewise impressed with the beauty and
sheer numbers of people, all very friendly and helpful, especially the busy young
working professionals everywhere that included many from other countries.

“The Chinese cheered for everyone,” she said, pointing out what she thought was
relatively unbiased and positive reporting along with beautiful photography.

“The Games was a historic climax of three decades of China opening to the
world,” wrote the China Daily, Aug. 25. “Beijing’s Olympic makeover is a
wonderful example for other Chinese cities to follow.”

Though the modern subways were always crowded, she said, people conversed with
enthusiasm and were always polite and respectful, and she could sense the pride
of the people in their blended capitalistic and socialistic society.

The overriding theme was to show it off, Caroline agreed, adding that people
still travel and interact with friends and relatives in Tibet.

“It’s the government, not the people,” she said of the controversial Tibetan
situation.

The 2008 Games are now just another memory added to one of the most storied
careers in coaching. Vigil is already off and running to speaking engagements
and seminars, still anxious to bring innovations in training and preparation
for coaches and athletes all over the globe who seek his guidance.

“I continue to learn,” he said. “And what do teachers do? They teach.”

Mike Touzeau is a freelance writer for the Green Valley News.