Craig Masback

Craig Alford Masback (born 31 March 1955) is a retired American middle-distance runner who specialized in the mile and 1500 meters, recording 30 sub-four-minute miles, including a best of 3:52.02, winning the U.S. Indoor Championships at the mile distance in 1980, establishing an American record at 2000 meters in 1982, and representing the United States 10 times in international competition between 1976 and 1985.

After retiring as an athlete, he pursued careers in sports marketing, law, and print and TV journalism.

He has covered five Olympic Games for NBC Sports as a color commentator in track and field.

He graduated from White Plains Senior High School in 1973.

He attended Princeton University, where he was co-captain of the track and field team and competed on the cross country team.

In high school, Masback was the New York State Indoor Champion at 600 yards (1973) and won the Eastern States and Golden West Invitational track and field meets at 880 yards (1973).

At Princeton, he was the anchor leg on a Two-Mile Relay that won the NCAA Indoor Championships (1975) and finished second in the NCAA Distance Medley Relay indoors (1976).

He was a Magna Cum Laude graduate of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs in 1977 and received Princeton's Harold Willis Dodds Prize, which recognizes the senior who best embodies “qualities of clear thinking, moral courage, a patient and judicious regard for the opinions of others, and a thoroughgoing devotion to the welfare of the university and to the life of the mind.” He also received the William Winston Roper Trophy, awarded to the Princeton “man of high scholastic rank and outstanding qualities of sportsmanship and general proficiency in athletics.” He was awarded an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and attended Trinity College, Oxford University from 1977 to 1979 on a Henry Griffth Keasbey Memorial Scholarship.

At Oxford, he pursued a graduate degree (M.Litt.) in Politics, but did not receive a degree.

He finished sixth in the NCAA Indoor Championships in the mile run (1977).

He was a two-time IC4A Champion and an eight-time Heptagonal (and Ivy League) Champion at various distances (including relays).

He launched a professional running career while at Oxford, improving his personal best mile time from 4:01.8 (1977) to 3:52.02, which when he ran it on July 17, 1979, in Oslo's Bislet Stadium established him as the sixth fastest miler in history.

It was one of his 30 sub-four-minute miles.

His first sub-four-minute mile was run at the Iffley Road track in Oxford, England, where he was the second man to break four minutes.

Twenty-four years earlier, on the same track, Roger Bannister's legendary run shattered the four-minute barrier for the first time in history.

Masback became U.S. Indoor champion in the mile run in 1980.[3] He finished third twice in the 1500 meters at the English Championships, the AAA Championships, in 1978 and 1981.

His best 1500 meter time was 3:35.28, recorded in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1982.

Masback was a co-founder (with John Smith and Henry Hines) of the Association of Track & Field Athletes (1980), an athlete's union for professional track athletes dedicated toward bringing about “open” era of track and field competition (“Track Athletes Spur Union Activity in Bid for Rights,” NYTimes, July 1, 1980, B14).

Masback has been a sports commentator covering track and field, marathon, and triathlon events for NBC, CBS, ESPN, ABC, PBS, TBS, and BET since 1981, including contributing to numerous Emmy Award-winning events.

Masback covered middle and long-distance races for NBC at the Rio Olympics, his fifth Olympic Games for NBC (Barcelona, Atlanta, Beijing, London) and continues to commentate for NBC and NBCSN covering high-profile events, including the World Track & Field Championships, Olympic Trials, USA Championships, Boston Marathon, and others.

Masback worked as the assistant to the curator of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Museum & Library from 1982 to 1984 in Lausanne, Switzerland.

USA Track and Field

He won a bronze medal at the 1985 Pacific Conference Games.

He also competed at the 1985 IAAF World Cup as a member of a U.S. team that captured the team title.

Masback was also involved in later efforts to unionize track and field athletes, including in 1985.

While competing as a professional athlete, Masback began writing for newspapers and magazines.

He published 12 opinion pieces and profiles in the New York Times, as well as articles for the Miami Herald, Sports Illustrated, The Runner Magazine, Ms. Magazine, and Runner’s World Magazine.

Masback worked as Director of Marketing & Sales for O’Neil Productions from 1986 to 1987.

He was a co-founder, with Charlie Graves, of Inclyne Sports & Television, a sports event, sports marketing, and sports television production company with offices in New York and California.

Inclyne produced numerous events and network television shows including the Foot Locker Slam Fest and the Jeep Tri-Prix for ESPN, NBC Sports, and ABC Sports.

In 1994, he earned a J.D. degree from the Yale Law School, where he was a recipient of a Ford Foundation International grant and was an editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Upon graduation from law school in 1994, Masback became an associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale) in Washington, D.C., where he practiced primarily communications and sports law for firm clients such as USWest, CapCities/ABC, and the Dallas Cowboys and represented individual athletes in disciplinary matters before the NFL and Olympic sports governing bodies.

He published articles concerning regulatory law and the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

International Olympic Committee

From 1995 to 1997 he wrote a weekly online column for Runner’s World entitled “Bell Lap.” A partial list of articles includes:

He later became a noted sports official, serving as the CEO of USA Track & Field from 1997 to 2008, where he tripled revenues, quadrupled sponsor revenue, and helped implement programs that substantially increased funds to and services for elite athletes.

He is currently the Nike, Inc. Vice President of Sports Marketing for Greater China, Japan, & Global Business Affairs.

Masback was brought up in White Plains, New York.

That same year Masback established an American record of 5:00.11 in the 2000 meters in Bordeaux, France.

Masback represented the United States 10 times in international competition in indoor and outdoor track and field.