Record-setting runner, Olympian and Malibuite David Torrence died earlier this week in Arizona.
The 31-year-old Malibu resident was found dead Monday morning at the bottom of a pool at the Center Court Condominiums in Scottsdale. Torrence was in Arizona training for upcoming races. He was in Malibu with family last weekend.
Detectives found no immediate signs of foul play, but were investigating, according to Scottsdale Police. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office was set determine the cause of death as of press time.
Torrence, the son of Malibu real estate agent and Rotary Club president Bianca Torrence, was in the midst of his first full season running professionally as a representative of Peru and his ninth professional season overall. In December, Torrence was named The Malibu Times’ Athlete of the Year for 2016.
The middle-distance runner claimed fourth-place in the Emsley Carr Mile run at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Birmingham, United Kingdom on Aug. 20. He ran in the first round of the 1,500-meter race at the IAAF World Championships in London on Aug. 10.
Torrence set two Peruvian running records in June. The Malibuite won the Adrian Martinez Classic in Massachusetts, a mile race, in 3 minutes, 53.21 seconds on the first day of the month. Seventeen days later, he ran the 1,500m race in 3:34.67—an eighth-place finish—at the Stockholm Diamond League meet in Sweden.
Torrence, America-born, joined the Peruvian National Team last summer to compete in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The switch from the red, white and blue to the red and white of Peru was possible because Torrence’s mother is a native of the South American country.
Torrence told The Malibu Times that competing in the world’s biggest sports spectacle for his mom’s home country was special.
“I am representing a whole country, a whole people, my family, my heritage,” Torrence said during an interview in June 2016. “I want to make an impact with people. I love the U.S., my American fans, but they have plenty of heroes to look up to. I think it is about a country that does not have the same benefits and heroes to look up to.”
Torrence qualified for the 5,000-meter Olympic final, but four months after the August 2016 event, he said the moment he would always cherish from the Olympics happened after he set a Peruvian record in the run during the qualifying round.
Torrence looked up in the stands of Olympic Stadium and was overcome with joy when he saw his mother, sister Sylvie Torrence and dad Bill Handley.
“There was this moment where I saw how happy and proud they were,” he recalled. “It was just a culmination of all these years of hard work and dedication and suffering and highs and lows. Here I am, making it to the finals of the highest level of the sport. It was really an emotional moment for me. I was almost in tears.”
Torrence’s run towards success on the track began when he finished second at an all-comers track meet at Birmingham High School in Reseda. He was a standout runner at Loyola High School and then Cal-Berkeley.
At Cal, Torrence broke the four-minute mark and the university record in the mile run. He was team captain of the Golden Bears men’s cross country team that went to the 2007 NCAA championships.
Torrence’s pro career featured a bevy of successful notches on his running belt. He won a USA Track & Field indoor 3,000-meter title indoors in 2009. His 2014 time of 2:16.76 in the indoor 1,000-meter is still an American record. That same year, Torrence ran a leg of the world record 4×800-meter team. He won the USA Men’s 5k National Championship title in 2015, was a three-time winner of the USA Road Mile championships and two-time winner of the Long Island Mile, a race organized by Hoka One One, his shoe and apparel sponsor.
Torrence’s personal bests were 1:45.14 in the 800-meter, 3:33.23 in the 1,500-meter, 3:52.01 for the mile and 13:16.53 for 5,000-meter.
In the hours since news of Torrence’s death spread, an outpouring of support for his mother, Bianca, has poured in from the Malibu community. Bianca and other family members were headed to Arizona on Tuesday, with tentative plans for a memorial service to be held in Malibu in September. The Malibu Times will provide more information about the service and how to support the Torrence family as it becomes available.
News of Torrence’s passing led to an outpouring of emotion from his friends, competitors and others in the running world. People remembered him for drive for success, his encouragement and his friendly personality.
Runner Kyle Merber posted a series of thoughts and pictures in on Twitter in response to his friend’s death.
“Today we lost an amazing athlete and an even greater friend,” he tweeted.
Runner Gabriele Grunewald tweeted that she was “absolutely broken” upon hearing about Torrence’s death.
“One of the best humans I’ve ever met,” she wrote, “I will miss him deeply.”
USATF tweeted, “The track world lost a great friend and athlete today. Rest in peace, David.”
Torrence was born Nov. 26, 1985 in Okinawa, Japan. The runner said multiple times despite breaking few running records that never ran with record-making attempts on his mind. He ran to win. Torrence also said he wanted to be a role model and motivate youth with his running.
Torrence’s last post on Instagram, on Aug. 20, was a video of his final race, the fourth-place finish in the U.K.
In a message accompanying the video, Torrence congratulated the races winners and typed, “Not quite what I was looking for, but still always learning and always moving forward. Happy to be consistently mixing it up with the best in the world.”
