PRESS RELEASE: U.S. Forest Service
Pacific Southwest Region
Eldorado National Forest (ENF)
Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU)
PLACERVILLE, Calif., Oct. 4, 2024 – Fifty-six years after leaving the world of track and field spellbound, Echo Summit is receiving the World Athletics Heritage Award Plaque in recognition of the mountain pass’s unique place in the sport’s history.
Echo Summit served as the high-altitude training center and site of the U.S. Olympic Men’s Track and Field Trials in the summer of 1968. Four world records were shattered during the Olympic Trials – another was broken in a pre-trials meet – on the 400-meter track carved out of the Eldorado National Forest high above Lake Tahoe.
The El Dorado National Forest, in cooperation with Adventure Mountain and Visit Lake Tahoe, celebrated the Heritage Plaque honor during an Oct. 2, 2024, ceremony at the Adventure Mountain Lodge on Echo Summit.
Several 1968 Olympians were in attendance on Wednesday, including John Carlos, Bill Toomey, Norm Tate and Ron Whitney.
Carlos broke the world record in the 200-meters at the Echo Summit trials but is known worldwide for his protest on the Olympic medal stand with U.S. teammate Tommie Smith in Mexico City. Toomey, an Incline Village resident, won the Olympic decathlon in 1968 after recording history’s second-highest point total at Echo Summit trials. Toomey would later set the decathlon world record in 1969.
Acting Forest Supervisor, Amy Reid, stated, “It was an honor for the Eldorado National Forest to help host the dedication of the World Athletics Heritage Award to once again recognize the historic events that took place at Echo Summit in 1968.” Reid continued, “The most rewarding part of the day was seeing the athletes, and others, reunite and listening to them reminisce.”
World Athletics, the international governing body for track and field, initiated the Heritage Program in 2019. The Heritage Plaque is a location-based recognition, awarded for “an outstanding contribution to the worldwide history and development of track and field athletics and out of stadia athletics disciplines such as cross country, mountain, road, trail and ultra-running, and race walking.”
Echo Summit is one of only two sites in the western United States to have received the Heritage Award.
“There has never been an athletics meeting before or since like the 1968 U.S. Trials at Echo Summit,” said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, a two-time Olympic champion in the 1,500-meter run and the lead organizer of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
“As historic events go, the story of Echo Summit is extraordinary and compelling,” Coe said. “A unique competition in a landmark setting like nowhere else.”
The Echo Summit track facility was approved for construction by the USDA Forest Service to help the U.S. men acclimate to the 7,280-foot altitude of Mexico City, site of the 1968 Summer Olympics. The United States Olympic Committee selected Echo Summit because its elevation (7,382 feet) was nearly identical to Mexico City’s.
In agreeing to let a track be installed at Echo Summit, The Forest Service insisted that the environmental impact be minimized. The result was a wonder.
Hundreds of pine trees rose from the infield. Runners disappeared from sight on the curves and backstretch. Javelins came flying out of the trees. There wasn’t much room for spectator seating, but fans improvised, scaling the ski hill and climbing on top of granite boulders for the best view.
Vince Matthews broke the world record in the 400-meter run in a pre-trials competition on the pinkish-red all-weather track. In the trials – the final U.S. men’s selection meet for Mexico City – records were broken by Carlos (200-meters), Lee Evans (400-meters); Geoff Vanderstock (400-meter hurdles); and Bob Seagren (pole vault).
The U.S. men won 12 gold medals in Mexico City and is considered one of the greatest Olympic track teams in history.
“(Jim) Hines, Smith, Carlos, Evans, (Willie) Davenport, (Dick) Fosbury, Seagren, (Randy) Matson, (Al) Oerter and Toomey are but a few of the legendary U.S. team which emerged from the depths of the Eldorado National Forest in September of 1968 to shine in the Mexico City Olympics,” Coe said.
History also remembers the 1968 U.S. Olympic men’s team for its commitment to civil rights during one of the most tumultuous years in American history. The Vietnam War and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy cast a dark cloud over the landscape in 1968. Smith, Evans and Carlos led the Olympic Project for Human Rights, threatening to boycott the Mexico City Games to protest racial inequality.
The Echo Summit track was disassembled and moved down U.S. Highway 50 to South Lake Tahoe, where it served the community for 25 years.
A “Return to the Summit” event was held in 2014 to commemorate the site’s recognition as a California Historical Landmark. The Heritage Plaque serves as a nice complement since it’s an international award.
Adventure Mountain is on the south side of U.S. Highway 50, 10 miles west of South Lake Tahoe and 50 miles east of Placerville. The entrance is marked by a sign for the Adventure Mountain snow play area.
