Lorraine Moller Inducted into New Zealand Hall of Fame

New Zealand's Lorraine Moller, who for a time called Minneapolis home, was inducted into the New Zealand Hall of Fame this week. Moller, who won the bronze medal at age 37 in the 1992 Olympic marathon in Barcelona, occasionally gets back to the Twin Cities to give a talk, but spends most of her time at home in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and now seven-year-old daughter.

She, along with Nobby Hashizume, formed the Lydiard Foundation in an effort to continue to spread the message of the late coach Arthur Lydiard, who she believes to have been the most influential coach of her time. Proper coaching, she told The Press of New Zealand, is vital to athletes. Mentors and coaches help guide the athlete down the proper path, she said. Athletes today are barraged with a lot of information, much of it damaging.

The key, she emphasized is being able to cut through all that and have a belief in yourself and your abilities. Athletes today are told that "everyone else is on drugs and that somehow we (who don't take drugs) are at a disadvantage," she said. "If I had bought into any of that, I would never have got what I got. People were saying the same thing 15 years ago."

Moller, like her former husband, the late Ron Daws, did things her way. As was Daws, Moller is generous with her time and knowledge. When I moved to the Twin Cities in 1972 Daws and Steve Hoag were kind enough to take a young runner under their wings. They shared information, ran together with me in workouts, and selflessly shared what they knew about the sport. The concept wasn't that we were competitors fighting over places in meets, but rather that we could learn from one another and make each other better.

Through the Lydiard Foundation, Moller aims to carry on that tradition. For the rest of what she has to say, the Press article can be linked to by clicking here. Another article and video done by New Zealand television can be read and viewed here.