George Packer

Last night I attended an outstanding presentation by George Packer, staff writer for the New Yorker. The topic was: Is America In Decline? It was quite a wide-ranging discussion in a Q&A format. I went for two reasons 1) The topic appealed to me 2) I wanted to see George after 36 years. I knew George when he was 14 years old. Kenny Kring, a decathlete I had coached and trained with at Stanford lived with the Packer family. The summer after I got my masters George used to come out to the track with us when we trained. We taught him to hurdle. At the same time I was working on my first book (Actually a booklet) Hurdling and Steeplechasing for Runners World. I needed a young athlete to demo the “sticks and bricks” teaching progression so George was the model. It sure was great to see him. I am a big fan of his writing. After all he has accomplished it was neat that he remembered that summer when I went up to him after the presentation. If you get a chance check out his writing, it is thought provoking and informative.