Craig Virgin still wonders what could have been at 1980 Olympics

Lebanon native Craig Virgin was at the top his game in 1980.

Just 24 years old, he won the first of consecutive World Cross Country Championships, and at the United States Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., set a new meet record of 27 minutes 45.61 seconds in winning the 10,000-meter race.

But there would be no Olympic Games in 1980 for Virgin or any of the hundreds of American athletes, some of whom had trained their entire lives to represent their country.

President Jimmy Carter issued an ultimatum to the Soviet Union: Withdraw your troops from Afghanistan — which they had invaded in December of 1979 — within a month, or the United States would sit out the Moscow Olympics. The Soviets didn’t budge and on March 21, 1980, Carter made the boycott official.

“I was a three-time Olympian 1976, 1980 and 1984 but without question the most heartbreaking was what happened in 1980,” Virgin said “In 1980 and 1981 I was the World Cross Country champion and I was at the top of my game. I had the combination of physical maturity, emotional maturity and European experience. Things just came together and from 1979-83, I was on a roll ...

“When the Soviet Union would not budge, one of the things President Carter would not waver on was the Olympics, and so the United States boycotted the Olympics. The only other thing the president did not waver on was the grain embargo. Well, my dad was a farmer. I guess you could say we took it on both cheeks that year.”

Virgin qualified for the 10,000 meters in the 1984 Games, but having missed his prime, placed ninth in his heat and failed to make the finals.

“From 1979-83, I was was at the top of my game and so not being able to compete against the best in the world when I was at my best was just indescribable,” Virgin said. “The Olympics — unlike the Indianapolis 500, Kentucky Derby and World Series — only happen once every four years. In 1976 I was too young to be a medal contender and by 1984, I was already starting to have some health issues with my knee.

“In 1980, I never had the chance.”

Virgin turned 61 this week and because of his knees, doesn’t run much anymore. But the young boy who grew up on a farm in Lebanon did get to his live his dream.

“I loved to run”

Virgin still lives on the same farm that has been in his family for more than 100 years. He spent four years at the University of Illinois, a year in Eugene and four years in Georgia.

But each time he returned home to his roots.

“Growing up in Lebanon-St. Louis isn’t the best place in the world to be a runner. It’s dreadfully cold in the winter and hot and humid in the summer,” Virgin said. “But I ran because I loved to run.”

At Lebanon High School he ran under coach Hank Feldt where became one of the best in the nation.

Virgin won two IHSA State Cross Country championships. His time on Peoria’s three-mile Detweiller Park Course of 13 minutes 50.6 seconds in 1972 and remains the fastest in state history.

One year earlier, Virgin had become the first runner to crack the 14-minute mark in winning the state championship. Only five runners have gone faster and his time of 13:50.6 is still the best by nearly two full seconds.

Virgin also won a pair of state championships in the two-mile run and added a third in the mile. So dominant were his times as a high school senior in 1973, that Virgin was chosen as the Track and Field News National High School Athlete of the Year

“My junior and senior years in high school, I ran 24 races each year and I won all of them,” he said. “One of the things I’m most proud is that in each of those races except two, I broke the meet record, including my own state record my senior year that I had set as a junior. The hardest course I ran on in high school wasn’t Detweiller Park in Peoria. It was my home course right here in Lebanon — Horner Park.”

Virgin went on to the University of Illinois where he was a nine-time Big 10 Conference champion. He won the NCAA Division I Championship in cross country as a junior and placed third as a senior.

But what made Virgin special was his consistency.

From his sophomore year in high school to the time he graduated from Illinois in 1977, Virgin ran in 100 cross country races and won an amazing 95 times.

“I’m very proud of that because of the consistency and longevity,” Virgin said. “I worked hard and it paid off.”

After college

It was at Illinois where Virgin qualified for his first Olympic team in 1976. He placed second in the Olympic trials in the 10,000 meters behind one of his idols and eventual Olympic Marathon champion Frank Shorter.

Virgin then carried that momentum and continued to build his reputation as one of the premier 10,000 meter runners in the world by winning U.S. championships in 1978 and 1979. He also won the national title in 1982.

But despite hearing grumblings and rumors about the boycott, Virgin pushed toward his goal of being the best in the world. After winning the World Cross Country championship in Paris, Virgin broke the Olympic trials record in the 10,000 meters.

“We had heard rumors about the boycott in January and then again in late February and early March,” Virgin said. “It was devastating but even when I went to the Olympic Trials I was still holding out a 10 percent chance that something would happen and we would go.

“I think it affected athletes two ways: Either you went and competed poorly because you were so devastated that you wouldn’t be competing in the Olympics or you went to the trials and you were great because this was your Olympic Games and you wanted to show you were one of the best in the world.

“My time of 27:45.61 was the the best for 24 years.”

Virgin did receive a medal as did all of the United States Olympians who were honored with by President Carter with a reception at the White House in 1980.

“I felt like ‘You can have the medal; I want a plane ticket to the Olympic Games,’” Virgin said. “President Carter has probably done more good for the betterment of humanity since leaving office than any other president, but someday I would like to have an interview with him and ask him what he was thinking when we boycotted the ‘80 Olympic Games.”

Virgin went on to win his second world cross country championship — the only United States athlete to accomplish the feat — in 1981 in Madrid, Spain. He also placed second in the Boston Marathon later that spring.

Virgin still has those two world championship gold medals. He would give anything for an Olympic gold medal.

“I can say that I was the best in the world in something for those two championships,” Virgin said. “I had success the next couple of years but by the 1984 Games, I was starting to have trouble with my knee. Then I tried to qualify again in 1988, but physically I just couldn’t do it.

“You have to be two things — you have to be good but you also have to be lucky. To qualify for the 10,000 meters in three straight Olympic Games is something only one other American born athlete, Galen Rupp, has been able to accomplish. But to have my best chance at winning an Olympic medal taken away ... it was heartbreaking.”

This story was originally published August 5, 2016 at 6:45 AM with the headline "Craig Virgin still wonders what could have been at 1980 Olympics."