Deseret News | Eyestone thrilled with Olympic gig

Eyestone thrilled with Olympic gig

By Doug Robinson
Deseret News

Published: Thursday, June 12, 2008 12:08 a.m. MDT

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Doug Robinson

When Ed Eyestone, the BYU track coach, magazine columnist, color analyst and running aficionado, received a phone call from NBC executive Sam Flood last fall, the first question he was asked was, "What are your plans for the summer?"

Eyestone knew immediately this was good news, and it was. Flood asked Eyestone if he could make room in his schedule for the Beijing Olympics to serve as the color analyst for NBC's Olympic track and field coverage.

In the field of sports broadcasting, it doesn't get any better than this. Of all the ex-Olympic distance runners out there from the past couple of decades — and they are countless — Eyestone got the call.

"It was a thrill," says Eyestone. "What an honor."

Eyestone will handle the color work for the men's and women's races in the 1,500 meters, 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters and marathon, plus the men's steeplechase, including prelims, semifinals and finals. Not that there's any pressure, but he will be speaking to millions of people (NBC's 17-day coverage of 2004 Athens Games drew 200 million viewers) while having producers talking in his earpiece.

"Yeah, thanks for bringing that up," Eyestone quips.

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Maybe nobody knows running inside and out more than Eyestone. After winning state track and cross country championships at Bonneville High and national championships at BYU, he became the country's top road racer and made the Olympic marathon team in 1988 and 1992. He appeared ready to claim a berth on the '96 Olympic team in the 10,000-meter run at the Olympic trials in Atlanta, but, running in second place with less than two laps to go, he crumbled in the heat and humidity and never even finished the race.

"I'd still be out there if they hadn't come and gotten me," says Eyestone with his usual wry humor. "NBC went to a commercial while I was in second place and it looked like I was such a sure thing that my neighbor called my wife and said, 'He made it!' By the time they got back from the commercial, I was out of it."

Eyestone says his professional career ended in 1996, "but I didn't know it until 1998," he says. He actually ran his final professional race in 1999 at the age of 38.

"I had been running professionally for 15 years, I was in my late 30s, and I still hadn't had a real job," says Eyestone. "I loved the sport and knew I wanted to stay in it."

For a day job, he became the distance coach at BYU. He would have been satisfied with doing nothing more than that. "Coaching is what I enjoy most," he says, "Seeing the success of my athletes has been more rewarding than any success I have had, because as an athlete it's more selfish."

Eyestone's humor, intelligence, knowledge and gift for conversation and commentary made him a natural for other things. In 1999, he began writing a monthly column for Runner's World Magazine. With his background as a runner and coach, and armed with a degree in exercise physiology, he was certainly qualified for the job.