Craig Steven Virgin is an American distance runner. He was born in Belleville, Illinois and grew up near Lebanon, Illinois. While in high school, Virgin won 5 state championships as well as setting the national outdoor high school 2-mile record of 8:40.9. Additionally, Virgin held the Illinois Boys Cross Country all-time state championship record for 47 years, running a 13:50.6 in 1972, a record that stood until November 9, 2019 when Josh Methner of John Hersey High School ran a 13:49.86. Virgin was Track and Field News "High School Athlete of the Year" in 1973.
Running career
While attending the University of Illinois, he won nine Big Ten Conference championships, nine All American awards as well as the 1975NCAA Cross Country championship. He was a three-time Olympic qualifier at 10,000 meters, and the only American male to qualify three times in the event until Galen Rupp. He was a seven-time American record holder in road and track events, including a 27:39.4 in the 10,000 meters in 1979 and a 27:29.16 in 1980 that was the second fastest 10,000 meters in history at the time. Virgin enjoyed success in cross country, road racing, and track. He was the winner of the 1979 Falmouth Road Race in a course record 32:20, was the two-time winner of the 12 km Bay to Breakers race in San Francisco, was a three-time winner of the 10K Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta, and twice ran the fastest American 10 km road efforts with a 28:06 2nd place at the 1981 Crescent City Classic in New Orleans and later a 28:04 win at Peachtree that year. He enjoyed success in the few marathons he ran, his fastest time coming in a 2nd-place finish in the 1981 Boston Marathon. On the track he was a three-time national champion in the 10,000 meters at the U.S. National Track & Field Championships and the winner of the 1980 Olympic Trials 10,000 meters. In cross country he was a nine-time member of the U.S. squad at the World Cross Country Championships. His biggest international accomplishment was being the first American man to win the IAAF World Cross Country Championships; which he did twice, in 1980 and 1981. He retired from competitive racing in 1992. In 2001, he was inducted into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame, and in 2011 inducted into the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame. Also in 2011, he was inducted into the National USA Track & FieldHall of Fame, after being selected in 2010. Virgin deferred his induction for one year so he could be inducted at the USATF General Meeting that was held in St. Louis in 2011. Most recently in 2020, inducted into the . During his professional career he ran for the Saint Louis Track Club. Olympic success eluded Virgin. He was eliminated in the 10,000-metre heats at both the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics and the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. In 1980, ten days before the Olympics began, he ran the second fastest 10,000 meter race in history, but due to the U.S. boycott was not allowed to participate in the games. He did receive one of 461 Congressional Gold Medals created especially for the spurned athletes.
