Tom Gage, masters hammer great, faces heart surgery
Masters thrower and former USATF Masters T&F chair George Mathews writes: “I would ask all our friends to pray for a successful operation this Thursday for Olympian Tom Gage at The Mayo Clinic.Tom is having open heart surgery to repair an aneurysm in his ascending aorta. Early prognosis is that Tom should be up and running as good as or better than ever in six months.” Tom, who is about 65 now, is a former world masters champion in the hammer and weight pentathlon who still holds several world and American age-group records. Glenn Thompson conducted this great interview with Tom nearly 10 years ago. We wish him a complete and speedy recovery.
7 Responses
All of us in the Masters Throws community echo the sentiments expressed by Ken in wishing Tom Gage a full and complete recovery. As a cardiac patient myself, I know that recovery is aided greatly by a positive attitude. I hope Tom realizes that he has many friends and well-wishers around the world that want nothing more than to see him healthy and as good as new post-surgery. Good luck, and may God bless one of our Masters legends in his return to health.
Tom is probably watching technique films in his hospital bed. This surgery is just a minor blip. He will be back soon amazing us with his athletic prowess and good humor.
A year or so ago Tom showed up at a favorite meet of his and was less than enthusiastic because he hadn’t had much time to train for it. Knowing that his chances for a good score were pretty slim, he completed the Weight Pentathlon while performing all five events LEFT HANDED. “It makes it interesting and is good for your understanding of technique”, he said. I think he scored somewhere in the 3000-3500 point range that day.
Tom Gage, out of Cornell University and a veteran of the 1972 Olympic Games (and a former Penn Relays winner in the shot), is a “hoss” in more ways than one. The only day on which I would have a shot at beating Tom in the bench press would be Friday, June 13, the day after surgery. Even then he might find a way to handle me.
You go ahead, Tom, and show us how quickly people can come back from this major surgery. Hope to see some results from you for the December (2008) or January (2009) meets.
My favorite memory of Tom
was my freshman year at
Cornell (He was a Senior)
He ran a sub 11 sec. 100
yd dash in the “fat man”
race. What an athlete!
Speedy recovery, Tom
Charlie Roll
Tom – We missed you at the Cat Sping “Grunt” today.
I spoke with Tom this morning. He is recovering well and looking forward to training and competing next year. He will be back!
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