Alberto Salazar
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Alberto Salazar (born August 7 1958) is an American marathon runner of the 1980s. Although he was born in Cuba, Salazar emigrated to the United States with his family. They ultimately moved to Wayland, Massachusetts, where Salazar competed in track and field while in high school. He is best known for his performances in the New York City Marathons in the early 1980s.
From 1980 through 1983, Salazar won three consecutive New York Marathons. And in 1982 he won his first and only Boston Marathon after the famous "Duel in the Sun" with Dick Beardsley. Salazar won the race in an exciting sprint finish and collapsed at the end before being taken to an emergency room and given 6 liters of water intraveneously because he had not drank during the race. This and other marathon performances such as the 1979 U.S. Olympic Trials, where he collapsed at the finish with a temperature of 107 degrees and was read his last rights prematurely, earned him the nickname Alberto "All that is Man" Salazar. After several years of inactivity, in 1994 Salazar won the prestiguous 90 km (53.75 mile) Comrades Marathon. Salazar stated that prozac played a role in motivating him to succeed in professional running again; the actual effect of the drug on his performance remains controversial.
Salazar's competitive decline is attributed to a reported blow-out after the 1982 Boston Marathon, and the famous "Duel in the Sun" with Dick Beardsley, after which his athletic performance gradually declined to the point he could barely jog.