World Famous Athletes Athletic Directory

Pat Porter   United States   
31  May  1959

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10000 metres All-Time Rankings   (with Pat Porter)


Pat Porter (born  in Wadena, Minnesota) is a former American distance runner. With an unremarkable personal best of 4:29 in the mile in high school, Porter was not heavily recruited to run in college. He flourished, training under the legendary Joe Vigil at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado.After graduating from Adams State in 1982 with a degree in marketing, Porter became one of the most dominant U.S distance runners of the 1980s. Porter was a two time U.S. Olympian, running the 10K at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games. However, he is best known for winning a record eight consecutive USA Cross Country Championships from 1982 to 1989.

Pat also represented the United States at the World Cross Country Championships each of these years. His best finish at the World Championships of Cross Country was 4th in 1984, followed by 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th place finishes throughout his career.

In 1983 he had set the World Record for the road 10K at 27:31.8. In 1985 he won the silver medal at the World Cup of Athletics in Canberra, Australia, getting nipped at the tape by Ethiopia's Wodajo Bulti by 6/100 of a second. In 1998 Pat Porter played Finnish distance runner Lasse Viren in “Without Limits” a biographical film about American distance legend Steve Prefontaine. He is married to fellow US Olympic Team member High Jumper Trish Porter(nee King).