Henry Dinwoodey Marsh (born March 15, 1954) is a retired runner from the United States, who made four U.S. Olympic teams[4] and represented his native country in the men's 3,000 meter Steeplechase in three Summer Olympics, from 1976 through 1988.
Biography
Junior high school
Marsh's athletic career started in Richardson, Texas at Northwood Junior High School, where he started as a quarterback for an unsuccessful football team. He had more success with the track and field team that next spring.[5]
High School
Marsh moved to Hawai'i, in both years at Punahou High School, he was the state champ in the mile with a personal best of 4:18:6 and was the co-captain his senior year. He was inducted into the Punahou Hall of Fame in 1990.[6]
College
Marsh went to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. After his freshman year, he took 2 years off, in Brazil, when he came back he qualified for the NCAAs with 8:55. Then he broke the BYU record when he ran 8:27 at the NCAAs and subsequently qualified for the 1976 Olympic trials.[3] At the NCAAs he was 2nd in 1976 and 3rd in 1977 and 1978.[2] He was an All-American five times.[7][6][8] In 1978, he also won the national title.[9]
Marsh had the second longest lasting (most enduring) running record in BYU history.[8][10] (The most enduring running record belongs to Ralph Mann, who set a record in the 400-meter dash in 1970 and has yet to be broken.)[11] Marsh's BYU record of 8:21.60, set in 1977, in the 3,000-meter steeplechase lasted 46 years,[12][5] before Kenneth Rooks broke the steeplechase record with a time of 8:17.62[10] on May 8th, 2023.[13]
Marsh qualified for the 1980 US Olympic team but was unable to compete due to the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott. He did however receive one of 461 Congressional Gold Medals created especially for the spurned athletes.[14]Track & Field News ranked him the number one steeplechaser in the world for 1981, 1982, and 1985. Moreover, he was world ranked (i.e., top 10) in this event for 12 consecutive years, 1977-1988. Marsh broke the American Record for the steeplechase on four occasions: 8:21.55 (July 5, 1977), 8:15.68 (June 28, 1980), 8:12.37 (August 17, 1983), and 8:09.17 (August 28, 1985); the last mark lasted almost 21 years until Daniel Lincoln ran 8:08.82 in Rome on July 14, 2006.[15][16]
1984 Los Angeles Olympics
During the 1984 Olympic Games, Marsh entered the event with a #2 world ranking. On race day for the 3,000 meter steeplechase finals, Marsh finished fourth (losing out on the bronze medal to teammate Brian Diemer by only 0.19 seconds), then collapsed to the track and was carried out of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on a gurney.
1988 Seoul Olympics
Marsh won with 8:34:74 in his last 3,000 meter steeplechase race in the United States for the Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, coming from behind, passing Kregg Einspahr at the final hurdle for the win, before heading to Seoul, South Korea for the Olympics.[17] He placed 6th with 8:14:39 in the 3,000-Meter steeplechase at the 1988 Summer Olympics, then he retired from racing.[2] This was his fourth Olympic Games and he was ranked in the top 10 in the world for 12 years, much of the time at number one, but never earned an Olympic medal.[18]
Pan American Games
At Pan American Games, Marsh won a gold medal in 1979 and a silver medal in 1987.[19]
Marsh was the American champion in the steeplechase nine times (1978, 1979, 1981–1987) and in 1983 received the Glenn Cunningham Award as the best distance runner in America.[20][21] He has been considered as one of the best steeplechase runners in American history.[9] In the 1970s and 1980s, he was the greatest steeplechase runner in the United States of America.[2] In 1998, he became an Honoree (was inducted) into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame.[22] In 2001, he was inducted into the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame.[23]
Accomplishing life-long goal/dream
Marsh was only two months old when Roger Bannister became the first person to run a mile, in less than four minutes, doing it in 3:59.4. A feat that scientists tried to prove that it could not be done; that is why it was so important to Marsh to run a sub-4-minute mile. Marsh had stopped running mile races and focused on the 3,000-meter steeplechase at BYU; this is why it was so late in his running/racing career that he finally set out to do this elite feat.[24] In 1985, at the age of 31, near the end of his racing career, he joined the sub-4 minute group of milers with a 3:59.31 run at Bern, Switzerland on August 16, becoming the oldest person to run his first sub-four minute mile.[6]
Marsh was known for starting races in back with the pack and come-from-behind fantastic finishes.[3] When Kenneth Rooks (a fellow BYU Cougar and 3,000-meter steeplechaser), fell on the 8th of July, 2023, in Eugene, Oregon, he told himself to go into "Henry Marsh mode". Rooks also said that he was surprised how well he was able to execute his "Marsh Strategy" as he ran personal best 8.16.78 and won the race.[27]
Post-racing career
After graduating with a law degree, Marsh worked for a prominent Salt Lake City law firm, for 3.5 years before deciding that he didn't want to practice law anymore.[1]
Philanthropy
Marsh was a guest speaker at the "Gorge-Us Getaway", along with national director of BSA public affairs, Julian Dyke, and Orrin Hatch, United States Senator, to 5,000 Boy Scouts, to promote Utah National Parks.[28] He has also given free nutrition and fitness seminars together with the director of the Human Performance Research Center at Brigham Young University, Dr. A. Garth Fisher.[29]
^Caroccioli, Tom; Caroccioli, Jerry (2008). Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. Highland Park, IL: New Chapter Press. pp. 243–253. ISBN978-0942257403.
