Mark Plaatjes

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Medal record
Mark Plaatjes
Men's athletics
Competitor for the  United States
World Championships
Gold	1993 Stuttgart	Marathon

Mark Plaatjes (born June 2, 1961 in Johannesburg) was the marathon champion at the 1993 World Championships in Athletics in Stuttgart.

Born in South Africa under apartheid, Plaatjes won two national titles at the marathon and two at cross country[1]. He ran a personal best marathon of 2:08:58 in 1985 in Port Elizabeth, but was unable to compete outside South Africa, barred from the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games due to the international boycott of South Africa. He sought political asylum in the United States in 1988, saying "I didn't want my daughter to grow up in a country where she felt inferior."[2]

In 1991 Plaatjes won the Los Angeles Marathon in 2:10:29.[3]

In 1993, Plaatjes finished 6th in the Boston Marathon, qualifying for the U.S. team at the World Championships.[4] On July 24, 1993, Plaatjes became a citizen of the U.S., just three weeks before the World Championships. Stuttgart was to be the greatest success of his career. The race had been led by Lucketz Swartbooi from Namibia for a very long time. At 40 km, Swartbooi still looked like the likely winner. But the Namibian slowed down in the very final stages and was overtaken by Plaatjes three minutes before he reached the finish line, in a time of 2:13:57.[5] Plaatjes became the first American to win a gold medal in a long-distance event at World Championships, and as of 2006, still the only one.

Plaatjes has made his home in Boulder, Colorado, where he has a hand in several local businesses and coaches a local running club.

[edit] Video Interview

• Flotrack.com Interviews of Mark Plaatjes

World Champions in Men's Marathon
1983: Robert de Castella | 1987: Douglas Wakiihuri | 1991: Hiromi Taniguchi | 1993: Mark Plaatjes | 1995: Martín Fiz | 1997: Abel Antón | 1999: Abel Antón | 2001: Gezahegne Abera | 2003: Jaouad Gharib | 2005: Jaouad Gharib | 2007: Luke Kibet