A two-time Olympian and four-time U.S. Outdoor 5,000m champion, Bob Kennedy has announced his retirement from competitive racing.
Kennedy, 35, who captured his second U.S. long course cross country title in 2004 in Indianapolis, also won the NCAA cross country crown as a senior at Indiana University in 1992, the same year he won his first U.S. cross country title. The American record holder at 3,000 and 5,000 meters, Kennedy won a team bronze medal at the 2001 World Cross Country Championships.
"I have no regrets," Kennedy told the Indianapolis Star. "Of course, you're always thinking, 'I wish I would have done this, I wish I would have run a little faster.' That mentality is what keeps an elite athlete going anyway."
Kennedy will concentrate on his business ventures and support the candidacy of his wife, Melina Kennedy, who is running for Marion County prosecutor. The Kennedys became parents of twins, Marcus and Sophia, on Jan. 11, 2005.
Kennedy owns The Running Company, which has two stores in the Indianapolis area, and will open a third outlet in suburban Carmel soon.
He also serves as a co-chair of the local organizing committee for the AT&T USA Outdoor Championships that will be held in Indianapolis in June and in 2007.
In 1996, he became the first non-African to run a 5,000 in less than 13 minutes. That same year, he finished sixth at the Atlanta Olympics -- the best by an American at an Olympics since Steve Prefontaine was fourth in 1972.
Source USATF
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