On Aug. 17, Malibu runner David Torrence was tired and sore after completing a record performance in the men’s 5,000-meter race at the Summer Olympics. As he walked to the athletes’ section of the Olympic Stadium, he glanced at the stands and was overcome with joy when he saw his mom Bianca Torrence, sister Sylvie Torrence and dad Bill Handley. The Olympian flashed back to all the times the three had aided him on his journey, which proceeded to the 5,000-meter final on Aug. 20.
“There was this moment where I saw how happy and proud they were,” Torrence said. “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.”
The 31-year-old has had such an exceptional 2016 that he is The Malibu Times’ Athlete of the Year.
The professional long distance runner competed in several races in 2016 and had exceptional showings, but his most high-profile performances happened at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Torrence wore the red and white colors of Peru at the marquee athletic event as he competed against the world’s best in the 5,000-meter. He set a national record for Peru in the preliminary round of the race and was the only runner from a South American country to compete in the event’s final.
The professional runner of eight years decided to represent Peru, his mother’s birthplace, in the Olympics after lengthy discussions with the country’s Olympic committee. The Peruvian Olympic committee president approached Torrence soon after the runner
won the silver medal in the 5,000m at the 2015 Pan-American Games.
Before changing national teams, Torrence was the second-ranked U.S. runner in the 1,500-meter and fourth-rated runner in the 5,000-meter.
In Brazil, Torrence ran the 5,000-meter race in 13 minutes and 23.20 seconds, a Peruvian record. He said setting a running record for the Latin American nation en route to qualifying for the 12 1/2-lap race’s final round was a great honor that took a tremendous amount of effort.
“I dug so deep for that,” Torrence said of competing under the torrid Rio sun. “Three laps, four laps into the race I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t know if I can handle this heat.’ I just drew from all my years of working out, and told myself I know I can qualify.”
Torrence said with a lap to go in the 3.12-mile race, he had to pass five other runners to qualify for the 15-person final.
“I put it in another gear and passed those guys,” he said. “I passed the last guy with 80 meters to go, 60 meters to go.”
Torrence said setting a Peruvian record was great, but said the plan heading into the prelim was not to exert too much energy.
“I’m really happy I did that,” he said. “I was like four seconds off the South American record.”
Torrence finished the 5,000-meter final in 15th place with a time of 13:43.12. Mo Farah of Great Britain won the gold in 13:03.30.
The former UC Berkley athlete ran into the hearts of many in his mother’s native country. When he went to Lima in September, he was shocked that people recognized him from the summer games.
“I received a lot of emotional and national support,” said Torrence, who was honored by the Congress of the Republic of Peru. “I was really pleasantly surprised to see that.”
Torrence, sponsored professionally by Hoka One One, closed his 2015-16 running season by winning the shoe company’s Long Island Mile title in late August for the second consecutive year. Torrence won the race with a time of 3:53.91, two seconds slower than the event record he set in 2015, but still another Peruvian record.
“Whenever I run a race, it has a chance to be a Peruvian record if I run the appropriate time,” he said.
Torrence’s will next race at the Boston Indoor Games on Jan. 28. The long-distance specialist will run the 1,500-meter race at the track and field event. He hopes to use the race as a starting point for a successful 2017 that leads to a good showing at the IAAF World Championships in London next August.
When in town, Torrence works outs at Pepperdine University or Malibu Bluffs Park. The training he is doing for the coming year is focused on excelling at the 800-meter and 1,500-meter events.
Torrence said for the coming year, he wants head into every race ready to compete.
“I personally don’t like to go after records,” he said. “I find whenever I focus too much on a time, I end up underperforming. When I go into a race to compete and just try to place as high as I can that gets the best time out of me.”
