A Profile in Courage

Lynn Jennings

A Profile in Courage

One of the most accomplished women’s long-distance runners in US history, Lynn Jennings’ accolades are phenomenal. Some of her top records and championships (shown right). 

Her coach at Princeton, Peter Farrell, said, “She had a phenomenal depth to her and an inner drive and toughness that were unparalleled.” But there is so much more about Lynn Jennings’ story than just race times and medals earned.

Lynn’s story would not be complete without mention of John Babington, her former coach. According to a February 2023 Boston Globe article by Bob Hohler, it was not until years later, as an adult, that Lynn focused on holding Babington accountable for his actions – “for sexually molest- ing her and others during his coaching career at Liberty AC, Harvard, Wellesley, and in the Olympics.” It is an event that shaped and affected her. As Lynn said, “I read a quote from T.S. Eliot that I think is true. ‘Things don’t go away. They become you. There is no end, but addition.’”

Her running story began at The Bromfield School in Harvard, Massa- chusetts. There was no girls cross-country, so she ran on the boys’ team, an experience that shaped her as a runner and competitor. As Lynn explains, “I was desperate to never finish last so I would keep my eyes up and ahead and would find some hapless boy to run down over the last part of the race so I wouldn’t finish last. I became adept at forcing myself to focus and to will myself to run down as many boys as I could. Over time, this became my go-to strategy as an adult runner.”

According to the Boston Globe article, Babington, coach of Liberty in the 1970s and ‘80s, entered her life when he noticed Lynn at a state high school track championship and encouraged her to join Liberty. His sexual abuse started when Lynn was just 15 years old. While the abuse continued, Lynn became a rising teenage track star. “At 17, she was the undisputed best high school girls’ middle-distance runner in America, having posted a 4:39 mile,” capturing several national titles. Before she matriculated to Princeton University, the coaching relationship came to an end when Lynn defied Babington and unofficially ran the 1978 Boston Marathon against his recommendations.

At Princeton, Lynn ran well but not up to her full potential. “The weight and darkness of the secret I carried was a burden I could not over- come,” Jennings said. As Lynn describes, “For five years after I graduated from high school, I experienced the nadir of my running career. I struggled at Princeton University and, in fact, retired three different times. I was a runner in irons, and I had totally lost my way. In the summer of 1984, I watched Joan Benoit win her marathon gold medal. I clearly recall think- ing, why is Joan winning a gold medal at the Olympics? I had routinely de- feated Joan as a high schooler but now I was overweight, discouraged, lost, and had no plan. I was as far from the Olympics as I could get. ‘Life begins all over again in the fall’ is what Jordan Baker said in The Great Gatsby. So, it did for me. I resurrected my running career in the autumn of 1984.” That fall, Lynn moved to New Hampshire and rented a tiny cabin. “I was poor, had no real plan and no coach. I trained myself back into shape.”

According to the Globe, two years out of Princeton, mostly coaching herself, Lynn turned pro, first running for Nike, then its elite club, Athlet- ics West, which was the first professional company-sponsored club in the

U.S. As Lynn described in a blog called The Naturalist Notebook, “I was 25 and I was on my way.” In 1988, Lynn earned her first Olympic berth and finished 6th in the 10K at the Seoul Olympic Games. She knew she could do better and set her sights on an Olympic medal in Barcelona 1992. But to achieve that, Lynn knew she needed a world-class coach. She asked Babington to be her coach again. She protected herself by compart- mentalization and rationalization. “I literally remember thinking, if you do this, you are making a deal with the devil,” she said. “But I also remember thinking, I’m 29 now, fully in command of myself. I will have total control.” With Babington again her coach, Lynn excelled. In the four years leading up to 1992 Lynn had won the world cross-country

championship three times, set the world indoor 5K record, the world road 8K record, and the US road 10K record. “In her greatest achievement, Lynn won bronze at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, setting a US record at 10K on the track and becoming the first American, male or female, to medal at the distance since 1964.”

In 1996 Lynn qualified for her third Olympic team and competed in the 5K in Atlanta where she finished 9th. In one of her final races, the 1999 Boston Marathon, she finished 9th in 2:38.37. At that point, she was done and retired. She walked away from running and from Babington. In Naturalist Notebook, Lynn was asked to describe her Olympic experience and owning a tangible object like an Olympic medal. Lynn said, “The medal is a talisman and the concreteness of it has become less relevant to me. It represents an incredibly long self-appointed journey. It was a trip with failures and disappointments and self-doubts, satisfactions, and soaring successes. I was on that trip for a long time and then it was over.”

In retirement, Lynn leads a private life away from the spotlight. Ac- cording to the Globe, she moved to Portland, Oregon, far from New En- gland and Babington but was still burdened by misplaced shame. In 2017, Lynn read a New York Times article written by Diana Nyad, another elite athlete who suffered abuse at the hands of a coach. Lynn resolved to hold John Babington accountable. The SafeSport Authorization Act of 2017 was signed into law amid outrage over USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar sexually abusing scores of young athletes. Lynn reported Babington in 2019 to SafeSport and worked with them to uncover more violations and concealment. While Babington avoided criminal prosecution due to the statute of limitations, Lynn has exacted some measure of justice as he has lost his place and legacy in the running world. Babington’s actions have been exposed. “I am unburdened now in ways I have never been since I was 15 years old,” Jennings said. “Telling what happened has freed me.”

Lynn remains an avid naturalist and continues to enjoy moving her body through time and space. She is a daily trail runner, a cyclist, and a competitive sculler. In 2011 at age 51 she set a women’s 50+ record at the Head of the Charles Regatta, then in 2022 completed a 47-day cross coun- try cycling journey from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine, traveling 3,784-miles by bike.

Liberty Athletic Club couldn’t be more proud to call Lynn Jennings an alum.