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Birthday: February 3, 1978
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In grade school, your teacher will tell you that the shortest path between two points is a straight line. John Nunn didn't learn that lesson. Nunn first learned to race walk as a kid, but like many fleeting interests, he didn't following through. Instead, Nunn became a very accomplished runner in high school and was offered a race walking scholarship to the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Having no real competitive experience in race walking, he was expected to compete with the best collegiate athletes in America.
After a year of competing for Parkside, Nunn had enjoyed great success and won the US 10K Junior Nationals. However, Nunn would not continue on his collegiate career. Instead in the fall of 1997 he fulfilled one of his religious commandments by pariticpating in a two year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ latter day saints. As soon as his mission ended, Nunn moved to the Philadelphia Area where he trained for the 2000 Olympic Trials. In his first official 20K, Nunn walked a sub 1:30 performance to qualify for the trials. At the trials themselves, the lack of distance base in his training took its toll and Nunn finished a respectable 6th.
A week later he got married and shortly after he joined the Army and the WCAP program. Moving out to southern California to train at the ARCO Olympic Training Center. Nunn's progress has been incredible at times, walking a 1:24:48 in Europe, but then injuries hampered his progress.
2004 started slow, but Nunn has accelerated through the season, improving his time with each major race. Finally, a week after a solid performance at the World Cup, Nunn broke through with a 1:22:31, thus acheiving the A-standard needed to qualify for the Olympic Games.
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 Nunn at the USATF 10km National Championships |
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