Dave Sime: Olympic Legend

Dave Sime (L) and Bobby Morrow (R)

Biography:
Dave Sime was the Silver Medalist in the 100 meters in the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics. Born and raised outside of New York City, he was a star at every sport he tried (he even won a speed skating competition) and was recruited to play football by many schools including Notre Dame and Army (where Vince Lombardi personally recruited him).  He ended up attending Duke on a baseball scholarship, and while at the university he ran track for the first time in his life and immediately started setting world records.

He had some bad luck involving the Olympics in that he missed the 1956 Games through injury, lost the 100 meter gold medal by a fraction of a second in 1960, and had the 4x100 relay gold (which he anchored in world record time) taken away due to an illegal handoff earlier in the race. Nevertheless, he had an incredible career including winning the silver medal, setting numerous world records and at one time being considered the fastest man in the world, being named Duke's athlete of the century, and becoming a leading and innovative eye surgeon. And today his grandsons are continuing his athletic legacy as elite college football players.

Conversation:
Total run time: 28:44

0:01 - Introduction and background on Dave
5:43 - Dave joins in and recaps his career
16:19 - the 1956 and 1960 Olympics
19:07 - the CIA plot to help a Russian athlete defect
22:36 - Dave's family and their athletic achievements
27:32 - Epilogue

And listen to hear Dave's thoughts on Vince Lombardi, Jesse Owens, and Armin Hary (the 1960 Olympic 100 meter gold medal winner).



The embedded player works best in Google Chrome.  You can also download the mp3 by clicking here, and the podcast is available in iTunes.

Additional Links:

• The 1960 100 meter final.  Dave is in lane 1 on top and Armin Hary is in lane 6 at the bottom.  Did Armin jump the gun?
• A recent ESPN profile of Stanford's Christian McCaffrey, Dave's grandson and a leading Heisman contender.  Dave is mentioned at the 2:23 mark of the video.
• The controversial ending to the Duke/Miami football game that Dave mentions at the 25:32 mark of the podcast.  Dave's grandson Max plays for Duke, and Dave wasn't too happy with the refs in this one.
• The race in Big Springs, TX, between Dave and Bobby Morrow that Dave mentions at the 26:13 mark of the podcast.