Ryan Shay by Kirby Lee/WireImage.com
ESPN newsmagazine E:60 offers a heartrending tribute to distance runner Ryan Shay tonight (April 29, 7 pm/ET). Shay collapsed and died on Nov. 3, less than six miles into the U.S. Olympic team trials in the marathon in New York’s Central Park.
Shay, who was just 28, was an NCAA track champion at Notre Dame and won five national titles in road racing, including the 2003 marathon championship. He was an intense competitor known for his fitness and dedication to training, making his death as astonishing as it was tragic. The New York City medical examiner’s office reported in March that he died as the result of an irregular heartbeat related to an enlarged and scarred heart.
In the E:60 piece, Shay’s widow, Alicia, says she saw him at the four-and-a-half-mile mark and that “he was just relaxed, he had a look of calmness and comfort on his face.... He just kinda had his eyes fixed straight forward.” Shay’s father, Joe, wonders if his son knew something was wrong and kept it to himself. “I hope he didn’t gamble with his life,” he says.
Alicia Shay, herself an elite distance runner who ranked fifth in the United States last year in the 10,000-meter run, continues to train for a berth on the Olympic team. She will run the 10,000 at the U.S. track and field trials on June 27 in Eugene, Oregon, in what is sure to be an emotional evening. “I’m tired,” she tells ESPN's Lisa Salters, choking up. “I’m exhausted from just trying to move on.”
Other E:60 segments tonight include an update on troubled former boxer Mike Tyson and a report on the cloning of racehorses.
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