Frederick Loren Wilt (December 14, 1920 – September 5, 1994) was an American runner and

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

agent. He competed in the 10,000 m at the 1948 and 1952 Olympics and finished 11th and 21st, respectively. Wilt held eight AAU titles, ranging from the indoor mile in 1951 to cross country in 1949 and 1952–53. He won the James E. Sullivan Award as best American amateur athlete in 1950. He was inducted into the

National Track and Field Hall of Fame National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

in 1981.

Publications

Wilt's book ''Run Run Run'' was published in 1964 by ''Track & Field News''. It contained chapters written by Wilt, notable coaches, including New Zealand's

Arthur Lydiard Arthur Leslie Lydiard (6 July 1917 – 11 December 2004) was a New Zealand runner and athletics coach. He has been lauded as one of the outstanding athletics coaches of all time and is credited with popularising the sport of running and makin ...

, and Soviet gold medalist

Vladimir Kuts Volodymyr Petrovych Kuts (, , 7 February 1927 – 16 August 1975) was a Soviet long-distance runner. He won the 5000 and 10000 m races at the 1956 Olympics, setting Olympic records in both events. Biography Kuts was born in Oleksyne, Ukrainia ...

, and went through six printings over the next ten years. In 1975, Wilt coined the term

plyometrics Plyometrics, also known as jump training or plyos, are exercises in which muscles exert maximum force in short intervals of time, with the goal of increasing power (speed-strength). This training focuses on learning to move from a muscle exten ...

while observing Soviet athletes warming up. He reached out to Dr.

Michael Yessis Michael Yessis (June 16, 1932 – September 15, 2023) was an American sports performance trainer who translated and adapted sports training methodology from the former Soviet Union. Biography Michael Yessis earned a Ph.D. from the University of ...

, who had previously introduced this concept to the United States through Russian translation of Verkhoshansky's work. This inspired their later collaboration, to get this information out to U.S. coaches, and the book ''Soviet Theory, Technique and Training for Running and Hurdling''. Wilt wrote and compiled multiple other books on track and field.Google Books
co-authored by Fred Wilt After retirement from FBI he worked as head coach for the Cross Country and Track and Field Women's team at

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

References

External links

* 1920 births 1994 deaths American male long-distance runners Federal Bureau of Investigation agents James E. Sullivan Award recipients Athletes (track and field) at the 1948 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1952 Summer Olympics Purdue Boilermakers track and field coaches Indiana Hoosiers men's track and field athletes Olympic track and field athletes for the United States Track and field athletes from Indiana NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners 20th-century American sportsmen {{US-longdistance-athletics-bio-stub