My friend Coach Dean Hebert knows more about running than just about anyone that I know. I mean not only technically, but he knows his people – the history and so forth. About two weeks ago he wrote a comment in response to a story about the Marion Jones steroid case that asked the question in part:

“For quite awhile now, I have had no athlete heroes. I go back to Steve Prefontaine to be my last…Is it just a sign of the times?”

I was troubled when I read this.

Of course, it’s easy to see how you could form this viewpoint. After watching the steroid scandals in running, baseball, cycling and Ironman triathlon over the past few years, you would be correct to assume that something has gone really wrong with sport. And in fact, in many ways, it has. I recall last July the shock that some of my friends and readers had to yet more scandals in the Tour de France. One of them told me that he simply “was done” with cycling. He was just too tired of all the bad news.

Professional sports today is faced with the fundamental collision between the virtue of pure athletic competition and the financial pressures placed on athletes to win. Athletes don’t get the sponsorships if they don’t win and, the problematic argument that can be made, is that some of them will do whatever they can to win.

And this is not just about hitting it rich either – although in some cases that may be the case – but when an athlete is riding that line between being good and truly great, winning may be a matter of staying in the game at all. It costs money to train, and travel, and eat, and get to places like Kona Hawaii on the weekend of the World Championships. All of those dollars add-up. And then there’s the fact that athletes that want to win probably can’t hold down a job at the same time. It’s easy to see how someone might be led astray to “try anything” to stay in it.

But all of this is not the real question at hand. The question is “where have all the heroes gone?” Did they disappear or are they just clouded behind all the bad news we’re hearing from the world of sports? Is Steve Prefontaine really the last great performer that we can all truly point to and say: “he was a hero!”

I’d have to say the answer to that is “no.” There have been some pretty remarkable athletes over the last generation since Steve Prefontaine’s time.

From the world of running, I think about the amazing performance of Joan Benoit Samuelson, winning the goal medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in the first ever women’s marathon. Or more recently, Paula Radcliffe’s absolute shattering of the women’s world marathon record, a couple of times. She has run four of the five fastest times in the history of the women’s marathon.

And I think of the amazing performances of Haile Gebreselassie over the course of his career, as he’s set almost 25 world marks and shows no sign of slowing down. He certainly ranks among the pantheon of sports heroes in my book. When he crossed the line in the Berlin Marathon this month, I would have stood and cheered – except that it was 3:00 in the morning and I didn’t want to wake everyone up. But then there was a reason that I was watching the marathon so late at night: I wanted to be a part of his dream-quest of breaking the marathon world record.

Outside of running, the heroes that come to my mind come from the world of triathlon, and still maybe surprisingly, cycling. When Greg LeMond won the Tour de France in 1986, I went out and bought one of those crazy aero helmets to look just like him. I had a poster of him on my bedroom wall too. And when Dave Scott and Mark Allen and Paula Newby-Fraser dominated the world of Ironman triathlon, they made me want to be a triathlete. And when the cocky Texan named Lance Armstrong kept winning the Tour de France, I didn’t miss a day of the coverage.

Maybe we’ve become so jaded by all of the bad stories swirling around sports that we have to put a foot-note next to everyone’s name that reads: “we’ll have to wait and see if they cheated too.” You might call me a glass-is-half-full type, but I just don’t think that way. These athletes are heroes, because of the way they made me feel when they accomplished something great. When they crossed the line, I stood up and cheered. I couldn’t wait to talk to someone about what they had done: that’s what made them athlete heroes in my book.

And there are other heroes too. Perhaps the modern day heroes are the innumerable participants that struggle to finish their own marathons and ultras and Ironmans, without the need for sponsorships or money or celebrity. The people that forego sleep, miss nights out with their friends, and stop drinking voluntarily for nothing more than a finisher’s medal; they may be the true heroes of our generation. Perhaps the glitz and glam of the top of the sport is just a side-show distraction from the true heroics that are going on all around us: the battles that you, my readers, face every day to stay in the game.

I’ve convinced myself. The heroes haven’t left us; we’re just looking for them in the wrong places. I’m surrounded by people that are trying their hardest to make their dreams come true and they make me want to stand up and cheer too. Some of them have famous names, but there are lots more of you out there who don’t.

We all dream of winning, achieving, or doing something special on the field of battle in sports. And whether you’re the fastest athlete in the world, or the slowest, as you athletes dream, we all get to dream along with you. And that’s where the real heroics come in. I’m standing up and cheering for all of you right now.

I’d love to hear what you think. Please feel free to comment.

Coach Joe English, Portland Oregon USA

Running Wild is a free column from runners and triathletes from running coach Joe English. Check out our archives of training and motivation articles!

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