race walker
Schneider has the bronze
but he doesn’t have a team
By NICK DAWSON
Of the Emerald
There is an athlete at Oregon
who won a bronze medal in an
international competition that not
many people know much about —
and in a sport that even fewer
know anything about at all.
The man is Steve Schneider, an
18-year-old freshman from
Horace Greeley High in Chappa
qua, New York. It was at the 1977
Maccabiah Games in Israel (an
equivalent to an Olympics for
Jewish athletes only) that
Schneider won his third place
medal in the 3,000 meter race
walk.
That’s right, race walk.
‘‘Race walking is one of the
toughest events in track and
field,” said Schneider. And though
some people would argue that
point with him, they undoubtedly
would not convince Schneider
they were right.
But certain problems have
beset Schneider this year, includ
ing health problems (strep throat
and the flu), and more importantly,
a lack of support that he said he
was promised by the track and
field coaching staff, but has yet to
receive.
Schneider visited the campus
during November of his senior
year and had an interview with
head track coach Bill Dellinger.
Though there is no official race
walking event in the NCAA, De
llinger pledged a limited kind of
support.
‘‘He said they would be able to
take some films of me. I also knew
of the Oregon Track Club (OTC)
and I knew it was pretty impres
sive,” said Schneider, who had
hoped for sponsorship by the OTC
for invitational race walks.
But the promises made in
November didn’t come through
when Schneider arrived on cam
pus. “I thought I came to the
wrong school. I didn’t expect
coaching, but I did expect to be
part of the team with sweats and a
uniform.
“It's been a real down year for
me because I was expecting so
much of Dellinger and the track
program,” he said.
But Dellinger said the Oregon
track program is willing to help
Schneider by providing such item
as track gear and a locker, and by
filming Schneider. Dellinger
added because of a manpower
deficiency, Schneider would have
to coach himself because none of
the current coaches has worked
with race walkers before. One
thing that is working against
Schneider, believes Dellinger, is
the fact that there is no NCAA
walking event.
Schneider still is hoping to get
the needed equipment from the
athletic department. He point out
that Bob Rozencrantz, who won
the race Schneider finished third
in at the Maccabiah Games, gets
sweats and locker facilities, be
sides travel money, from
Washington.
Schneider said he had to spend
$40 to travel to Seattle for an invi
tational meet and also had travel
expenses for a trip to Portland.
And though Schneider does
have alternatives to the situation
at Oregon, he has found the area
to be very appealing. “Walking
means a lot to me but there are
some priorities I have to put in
front of that.”
But a question that must be
answered is when, and how, did
Schneider get into race walking.
The lanky Schneider started
race walking, he said, out of
necessity. .
When I was in high school I
started as a lonely hurdler — I was
17th out of 20 on the team. I really
wanted to get my letter my first
year and we had only one other
race walker.” From there, it was
easy to see where Schneider’s
destiny lay.
During his freshman year at
Horace Greeley, Schneider
walked to a 9:46 mile time, which
was by no means impressive. “My
sophomore mile was 7:47 and at
that time the national record was
7:01,” said Schneider. “I figured I
only had about 40 seconds to drop
to be one of the top (junior) wal
kers in the country."
That set the stage for his 7:06
mile and 6:39 national high school
record for the 1,500 meters. "I
dropped 30 seconds in that meet.
That was the really big break
through,” he said.
“It’s fun to be a high school ath
lete. It’s nice to succeed, but I
wanted to make myself known.”
Schneider’s senior year was not
as successful as he had planned.
He had hoped to set the national
high school record in the mile, but
fell two seconds short of that
mark. An attempt at making a
junior team touring Russia fell
through when Schneider got heat
stroke two miles into a six mile
race at the Junior Nationals in
Knoxville. He tried to do all this
even after he discovered his right
leg was shorter than his left by Va
inch, which affected his style.
“It was a pretty depressing
year, except I found out the first
week in June I qualified to be on
the Maccabiah team," Schneider
said.
Which is where the bronze
medal came in.
Because of his Jewish back
ground, Schneider applied for a
spot on the United States’ team to
the Tenth World Maccabiah
Games in Tel Aviv. Since there
was no qualifying meet for the
Maccabiah team, Schneider, a re
latively untested 17-year-old, had
to make the team strictly on what
he could do in meets in the New
York metropolitan area, where the
hotbed of competition was.
Henry Laskau, a four-time gold
medal winner in race walk events
in the Maccabiah Games, saw
Schneider in those New York
races and liked what he saw.
I first came across him about
two years ago,” Laskau said
Tuesday morning. ‘‘When the
games came up, I saw him com
pete in some meets on Long Is
land. I could see that he was really
improving. Judging by that I told
him that he had a really good
chance to make the team.”
When he found out he had
made the team, Schneider was
ecstatic. “It was incredible. I was
really excited I made the team.
Then I started to get nervous.
Here I was, a 17-year-old. Interna
tional competition at 17 — it was
beyond my imagination.”
Schneider had only one month
to train for the Games, spending it
working on longer distances be
cause his high school background
involved what might be consi
dered sprints to walkers—the mile
or 1,500 meter walks.
“He was a very, very enthusias
tic trainer,” said Laskau. “I could
see during the training (during
which Laskau coached
Schneider) that he was improving
greatly every day. I told him that
his potential is good and that he
could make something of him
self.”
The training seemed to do the
trick. As Laskau had figured,
Schneider had potential to place
and he did when, while he was in
fourth place, an Israeli walker was
thrown out of the race for illegal
technique with two laps to go.
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Photo courtesy Steve Schneider
Steve Schneider stands stunned on the victory stand after winning a
third place medal in the 3,000 meter walk in last summer's Maccabiah
Games in Israel.
At that point, Schneider knew
he had third, so he slowed down
his speed and concentrated more
on his own technique. “I was kinda
relieved and excited,” Schneider
recalled.
But the most exciting thing
about the Games was the en
trance ceremonies, believes
Schneider.
“It was the most unbelievable
experience I have ever had in my
life — 60,000 people cheering and
screaming,” he said.
The closing ceremonies fea
tured athletes from countries trad
ing just about anything they had
for something an athlete from
another country had. Schnei
der ended up with a British hat and
South African tee-shirt, among
other things.
“That was just a kick in the butt,
t can't wait to go back,” he said.
Which brings us back to
Schneider’s plans for the present
and the future.
“Right now I don’t know what
I’m training for,” said Schneider.
“I’d like to get in good shape and
be in top condition on some kind of
national caliber. This summer I
plan on going down to the United
States training camp in Squaw
Valley. My goal is to qualify for the
Olympic trials, but I can’t do these
things without help.
“I’m not asking much from De
llinger. What’s it to him to give me
a locker, sweats, uni (form), rain
gear and put me on the OTC?
I came to Oregon because this
was supposed to be the track capi
tal of the world, but I’ve found that
to be a lot of bullshit so far.”
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