Chapter 10 Summary and Analysis

By January 1975, Pre had permanently decided to pursue the Olympics as an amateur and suffer poverty for two more years rather than turn pro. That same month, he was invited to the Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas as part of a comprehensive test of elite athletes. Like everything else in his life, Pre treated it as a very serious competition. In the most important test, the VO2 max test which measures the maximum volume of oxygen that can be dispatched to the muscles during exercise, Pre scored an 84 plus, a score that only one or two athletes in the world could match.

Going from the Dallas tests right into the 1975 indoor season, Pre was battling a sinus condition and recurrent sciatica as he entered the Los Angeles Times Indoor meet. He placed fifth, the worst placement in his career since...