Yeah ... he doesn't sound very lucky to me.

Call me cynical but it can't last.
His body will break down - look what happened to David Bedford (anybody else remember him?)

and just wait until he's 12 or 13 and discovers girls!
See if he still wants to run then.

Geoff

David Bedford

Great Britain

DATE OF BIRTH
Friday, 30th December 1949

PLACE OF BIRTH
London

EVENT(S):
5000m, 10000m

CHAMPIONSHIP PERFORMANCES:
AAAs 10000m. Champion 1970-74.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: 10000m W.R. in 1973

Dave Bedford was Britain's most colourful athlete of the 1970s, always "good copy" and never short of an opinion or two. However, in spite of setting one World Record (at 10000m.) and three British Records over three different distances, his career never included a medal at any major track championship. Enforced retirement in his mid-20s restricted him to just one each of the major championships. Victory in the 1969 International Junior Cross Country Championship confirmed his talent as an exceptional middle distance runner which was underlined the following year at the Southern (English) Cross Country Championships. Having won the junior race he took a twenty minute breather and then promptly raced away from the field in the senior race. That same year, 1970, he won the first of his five consecutive AAA's 10, 000m. titles. 1971 began with victory in the International Cross Country Championships in Spain and saw him record his first British record when he lowered the 3000m. steeplechase time to 8min. 28.6sec. However, at the European Championships he finished a disappointing 6th in the 10000m. Another British record came his way the following year when he set a 5, 000m. time of 13min. 17.21sec. winning both that AAA's title and the 10000m. title. But the 1972 Munich Olympics were a let down, he finished 12th in the 10000m. and 6th in the 5000m. even though he looked like a medal hope during the heats. The following year, however, saw his greatest moment - a 10000m. World Record of 27min. 30.80sec. set on British soil at the Crystal Palace during the AAA's Championships where he carved nearly eight seconds off Lasse Viren's record. Bedford's final major Championship was the Commonwealth 10000m. (4th) in Jamaica in 1974. (George Herringshaw)

I think that is a horrible story - Child abuse outright.
It is one thing when an adult goes to extremes - but a child can suffer obviously -physically as well as mentally.
This "coach" buys a kid (3 years old) - tells him to run and forgets about him for 5 hours??!!
I worried if my kids at that age were out of my sight for 5 minutes.
This is tragic .

There is a little girl in germany, who wins a lot of 10k races. Against male competition and really fast guys. Don't remember the link, but she was damn fast.
She has not been sold, though.
Starting such training regimens at the age of three is weird, isn't it? Lance started out with 14 and kicked a$$, still a difference of 9 years. He is still growing and training muscles in young years leads to deformation with growing bones.
He might suffer a lot when he grows older... makes me feel sad.

A footnote to the Dave Bedford story:
David was at Borough Road College with a schoolchum of mine while I was at U of Southampton. He ran at Borough Road track every morning rain or shine. Paul watched him from his dorm room window as DB ran 20 consecutive laps one day, a routine for Dave, and every lap his foot hit the finish line bang on 60secs!
20 consecutive laps of 60 secs, in the rain, by himself.

He was forced into retirement as Nick noted above - because his knee cartilage was worn out, that''s the bearing cartilage between the two leg bones - worn out before he was 25. He just did a lifetime of running in 15 years and there was nothing left.
David Black beat Bedford in the big meets, training on a third of the mileage, because he trained "scientifically" - Intervals, fartleks, - the "new stuff" that the Finns had known about since Paavo Nurmi.

Now, don't say you don't know who Nurmi is!

Geoff