The Front Runner

Set in the 1970s against the backdrop of American amateur athletics, the novel follows Harlan Brown, a closeted gay track coach whose life transforms when three gay runners expelled from the University of Oregon arrive at his small college seeking a chance to compete.

Harlan narrates from Prescott College, a progressive experimental school in New York State. In December 1974, college president Joe Prescott tells him three elite runners want to join his team. Their spokesman, distance runner Billy Sive, reveals that all three are gay: Oregon's head coach discovered their sexuality and expelled them to avoid scandal. Billy's father, John Sive, a gay activist lawyer challenging sodomy laws before the Supreme Court, recommended Harlan, implying he knows Harlan's own secret. Shaken but moved by their desperation, Harlan accepts them.

An extended flashback traces Harlan's life. Born in Philadelphia in 1935, he grows up idolizing runners under his strict Marine-veteran father's influence. During a 1952 summer vacation, he develops an unspoken romantic bond with a fellow teenage runner, but they part without acknowledging their feelings. Harlan enlists in the Marines, attends Villanova University, and marries after getting his girlfriend pregnant. In 1962, while coaching at Villanova, he admits he is homosexual and begins secret trips to New York's gay underground. By 1968, as head coach at Penn State, a spurned runner's rumor about Harlan's sexuality forces him to resign. His wife divorces him, takes their two sons, and secures punitive alimony. Harlan moves to New York, becomes a hustler to pay support, and participates in the 1969 Stonewall riots, a watershed in gay activism that transforms his worldview. In 1970, Joe Prescott rescues him with a coaching job where Harlan spends four peaceful years until Billy arrives and stirs feelings of unprecedented depth.

Returning to the present, Harlan assesses his runners: Vince Matti, 22, a spectacular miler with fragile legs; Jacques LaFont, 21, a talented but anxiety-ridden half-miler; and Billy, whose effortless form masks a body exhausted by overtraining. Billy confides his ambition to compete in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Harlan learns that Billy was raised in San Francisco by his father and John's partner Frances, and that Buddhist meditation gives Billy extraordinary concentration, earning him the nickname "Billy the Animal."

Harlan and Billy clash over training, with Billy insisting on dangerously high mileage. Harlan's suppressed desire compounds the tension. In February 1975, the Supreme Court strikes down all sodomy laws in a case partly engineered by John Sive, provoking intense public backlash. The friction boils over during a yoga class: Billy refuses a command, Harlan slaps him, and Billy slaps him back. Vince privately reveals that Billy is in love with Harlan. Stunned, Harlan apologizes to Billy without disclosing what he has learned.

Weeks later, at a New York theater showing a gay film, Harlan finally confesses, reaching for Billy's hands in the dark. Billy, after a flash of fury at months of cruelty, kisses him. They drive back to Prescott and make love the next morning in a clearing surrounded by mountain laurel near campus. The relationship transforms both men: Harlan stops being harsh, and Billy stops fighting the training program. On a reduced regimen, Billy improves rapidly. That summer, the four men tour Europe competing at meets. In Helsinki, Billy breaks 28 minutes in the 10,000 meters for the first time, finishing third behind Finnish champion Armas Sepponan, a village fireman whose devastating finishing kick sparks a rivalry and friendship between them.

Back in the United States, a tabloid reporter at a cross-country race asks Billy if he is gay. Billy confirms it, and Harlan declares that he and Billy are in love. The resulting article triggers hate mail, threats, and institutional retaliation: Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) executive director Melvin Steinbock blacklists all three runners from competition. At the annual convention, Harlan and John confront Steinbock with legal threats and force him to lift the ban. Jacques, psychologically broken by the harassment, quits running. After a brawl at the Millrose Games, a major indoor track meet at Madison Square Garden, the AAU bars Vince on a trumped-up financial violation.

Billy and Harlan's relationship strains under Harlan's jealousy and fear of loss. After their worst fight, they reconcile. Billy agrees to marry Harlan, recognizing how much the formal commitment means to Harlan's sense of security. On May 8, 1976, they hold a private ceremony at Prescott, exchanging gold rings and reading Buddhist and Biblical passages before about 30 friends.

At the Olympic Trials in Los Angeles, rival Bob Dellinger deliberately knocks Billy down during the 10,000 final. Officials initially disqualify Billy, but videotape evidence proves Dellinger caused the foul, and the decision is reversed. Billy wins the 5,000 decisively and makes both Olympic teams. The athletes elect him to carry the American flag at the opening ceremonies. A final obstacle arises when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) questions whether Billy's teaching salary constitutes profiting from fame. Sepponan dramatically declares he will withdraw if Billy is ruled ineligible, and the committee clears Billy.

At the Montreal Olympics, Billy becomes the most popular figure at the Games. In the 10,000 final, he runs a perfect tactical race and wins gold with a world-record 27:28.9. At the medal ceremony, he pulls Sepponan and the third-place finisher onto the top step with him.

The night before the 5,000 final, Billy and Harlan spend a tender evening discussing their future. The next day, Billy takes command of the race, breaks Sepponan in the final lap, and pulls two yards ahead in the final straight. Then his head snaps to the left and he crumples to the track. The team doctor reveals a massive bullet wound. Billy is dead, shot from the stands.

The killer is Richard Mech, a military marksman whose repressed homosexuality drove him to view Billy as requiring divine vengeance. Harlan recognizes with terrible clarity that he and Mech grew from the same roots of American repression. The remaining Olympic events are cancelled, and a massive funeral in New York draws thousands. Harlan scatters Billy's ashes on the Prescott track and in the clearing where they first made love, but he cannot cry or remember Billy alive.

Betsy Heden, who was close to Billy, volunteers to carry his child through artificial insemination using semen Billy stored before the Olympics. In September 1977, she gives birth to a boy christened John William, small and fine-boned like his father. Betsy moves into Harlan's cottage to co-parent. At Thanksgiving, Vince visits and insists on sharing stories about Billy, including how Billy once refused Vince's advances, saying he went to bed only with people he loved. Hearing this, Harlan finally breaks, crying for the first time in his life. Vince holds him through it, and the image of Billy alive slowly replaces the image of his death.

In an epilogue set in February 1978, Harlan, now 42, competes in the AAU masters mile championship at Madison Square Garden. The masters division is an age-group category for older competitive runners. His entire community fills the stands. Boxed in by competitors, Harlan stays patient, then unleashes a devastating kick in the final quarter to win in 4:03. Holding his five-month-old son afterward, he reflects that the child already knows what kind of race he is in: It will take everything he has to stay in front and run free.