'Friends forever' Juantorena and Newhouse were once 400m foes

Alberto Juantorena and Fred Newhouse met at the practice track in Montreal before the 1976 Olympic Games began.

“He came over, we started talking and we’ve been friends ever since,” Newhouse said.

Forty-six years after their unforgettable duel in the Olympic 400m, the Cuban and the American found time to catch up and reminisce at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22. Newhouse is the video review assistant to the referee while Juantorena is a World Athletics Council Member.

“How are you, my friend?” Juantorena greeted Newhouse. 

The last time they saw each other was in 2019 when Newhouse traveled to Cuba to take part in a documentary about Juantorena called “Running for the Revolution.” Produced with support from World Athletics Heritage, the film was released last year.

“He is so popular and everybody knows him,” Newhouse said. “He is a huge hero. Young kids who weren’t even born in the time when he ran recognise him. He’s just a really, really good person. He hugs and kisses babies.”

As they strolled through a Cuban park, Juantorena introduced Newhouse to passers-by. “He always did it in Spanish, so I really don’t know what he said,” Newhouse said, “but he had a smile on his face.”

When many of the older people heard his name, Newhouse said, “They knew me. They remembered. And he would constantly say, ‘You’d be surprised how many people know you in Cuba.’ And I was.”

Juantorena, known as “El Caballo” (“The Horse”), said he introduced Newhouse as his hero. “He’s my hero because he gave me a hard time at that Olympic Games, a very hard time.”

They went into Montreal as favorites in the 400m. Juantorena was also entered in the 800m, where he had only one season of experience. No athlete had completed that double in an official Olympic Games, although Paul Pilgrim achieved the feat in the 1906 Intercalated Games.

Juantorena won the 800m in a world-record time of 1:43.50, knocking an impressive two tenths of a second off the previous record.

Without even a day of rest, he went straight into the 400m where his strategy was to conserve energy in the three rounds before the final. The US team’s game plan was to wear him out.

“We knew that Alberto was our toughest competitor even though none of us had ever run against him before,” said Newhouse. “He ran the Eastern European circuit and we ran the US and Western European circuit, so the only time we had an opportunity to run against each other would be at the Pan American Games.”

Juantorena won at the 1975 Pan American Games. Olympians Newhouse, Herman Frazier and Maxie Parks were not on that US team, but Newhouse said, “We knew the guys that he beat, so we knew about him. He was not a surprise to us. Our strategy was whenever one of us drew him in the rounds, we had to really run him hard to take everything out of him that we could before the finals.”

However, the first US runner to face Juantorena was Parks in the semifinals. “Maxie was labouring and beginning to perhaps feel an injury that he had, so he didn’t run Alberto hard,” Newhouse said. “He didn’t push him. I’m not sure whether that would have made any difference or not.”

Juantorena had it so easy in the semis that he looked around seven times before crossing the finish line in 45.10. Newhouse won the other semi with a time of 44.89.

In the final, Newhouse and US coach LeRoy Walker agreed that he should take the race out, as he normally liked to do, and make Juantorena run hard the first part of the race. 

“And I ran exactly the pace that Coach Walker designed for me, so I had a great race,” Newhouse said. “It was the best race of my life; it was the best time of my life in an open 400. It just wasn’t good enough.”

Juantorena said he and his coach were determined to stick to their own plan. “He runs very fast the first 100 and I stay in the back, waiting and waiting,” Juantorena said.

Newhouse said Juantorena drew abreast of him about 60 metres from the finish line. He thought he could hold him off “because I thought he really had to run to catch me,” Newhouse said. “And he did.”

“I beat him in the last two metres,” Juantorena said with a grin. “Because the length of my stride was 2.70m.”

Juantorena crossed the finish line in 44.26, the fastest time ever at sea level, breaking the US streak of five straight victories in the event. Newhouse came in at 44.40, while Frazier took the bronze in 44.95.

“It was very competitive,” Juantorena said.

The Olympic double made him a legend. The shoes Juantorena wore, which he subsequently spray-painted gold, are on display in the MOWA (Museum of World Athletics) exhibit near Hayward Field. No one has matched him since, but Juantorena thinks it is only a matter of time. “Why not?” he said. 

Yet no one knows as well as he does how difficult it is to race both the 400m and the 800m at the elite level. “It’s too hard,” Juantorena said, noting that in Montreal, “I have three races in the 800, four in the 400 and then the relay.”

He lost three kilos. 

Newhouse went on to win his own 1976 gold medal on the 4x400 relay, running the third leg with teammates Herman Frazier, Benny Brown and Parks. 

Juantorena ran the anchor leg for Cuba, which placed seventh. “We had Maxie so far out in front,” Newhouse said, “there’s no way he’s going to catch that.”

Newhouse and Juantorena never raced each other again. Who would win today?

“Oh, I would,” Newhouse said, “no doubt about it. For years I’ve been trying to get him to do it again.”

Who does his former rival think would win?

“Him,” said Juantorena without hesitation.

They both laughed.

Newhouse, 73, and Juantorena, 71, have gotten together several times since 1976 and have visited each other’s homes. Newhouse is retired from the oil industry and is now a rancher outside Houston. He has been the running referee for meets such as the NCAA Championships, US nationals and Olympic Trials. Juantorena too has dedicated his life to the sport as an administrator. He's served on the World Athletics Council since 1987.

The former foes have even teamed up for the good of the sport.

When Newhouse was a vice president of USA Track & Field, he lobbied for Juantorena to become a vice president on the World Athletics (then IAAF) Council. Juantorena won.

“Despite the political differences, we are friends because sports is like that,” Juantorena said. “We are friends forever.”

Karen Rosen for World Athletics