The Front Runner Audiobook By Brendan O'Meara cover art

The Front Runner

The Life of Steve Prefontaine

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The Front Runner

By: Brendan O'Meara
Narrated by: Roger Wayne
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"Sports journalism at its finest, a book so well-researched that everyone who thinks they know Pre is in for a big surprise.” Christopher McDougall, bestselling author of Born to Run

On the 50th anniversary of American Track and Field icon Steve Prefontaine’s tragic death comes an essential reappraisal of his life and legacy, a powerful work of narrative history exploring the forces and psychology that made Prefontaine great and separating the man from the myths.

In the fifty years since his tragic death in a car crash, Steve Prefontaine has towered over American distance running. One of the most recognizable and charismatic figures to ever run competitively in the United States, Prefontaine has endured as a source of inspiration and fascination—a talent who presaged the American running boom of the late 1970s and helped put Nike on the map as the brand’s first celebrity-athlete face.

Now on the anniversary of his untimely death, author Brendan O’Meara, host of the Creative Nonfiction podcast, offers a fresh, definitive retelling of Prefontaine’s life, revisiting one of the most enigmatic figures in American sports with a twenty-first-century lens. Through over a hundred and fifty original interviews with family, friends, teammates, and competitors, this long-overdue reappraisal of Prefontaine—the first such exhaustive treatment in almost thirty years—provides never-before-told stories about the unique talent, innovative mental strength, and personal struggles that shaped Prefontaine on and off the track. Bringing new depth to an athlete long eclipsed by his brash, aggressive running style and the heartbreak of his death at twenty-four, O’Meara finds the man inside the myth, scrutinizing a legacy that has shaped American sports culture for decades.

What emerges is a singular portrait of a distinctly American talent, a story written in the pines and firs of the Pacific Northwest back when running was more blue-collar love than corporate pursuit—the story of a runner whose short life casts a long, fast shadow.

©2025 Brendan O'Meara (P)2025 HarperCollins Publishers
Americas Running & Jogging Sports State & Local United States Funny Heartfelt
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Being an athlete myself and looking up to this guy for years this book should be more about Steve then I had known about before.

Great book

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So many books and movies have compressed or sanitized Steve’s life in a way that takes away from what made him great. The Front Runner paints a picture of a complex person and runner whose impact has extended far beyond simple results. For any running fan I could not recommend this book enough!

All the color I’ve always wanted

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Very interesting and insightful book on Steve Prefontaine. I was interested in what drove Steve's relentless pursuits. I was not disappointed, as the author revealed childhood influences that shaped his personality. Thank you for writing such a well-researched and insightful book!

Best book on Steve Prefontaine that I have read!

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