David Torrence

David Torrence was born in Japan, but raised in Southern California, where he began to run track competitively in high school. A middle-distance specialist, he entered UC Berkeley in 2003 and, one year later, was the junior national champion in the 1500 metre event. He graduated with an ethnic studies degree in 2008 and subsequently trained for the United States Olympic team. In 2009 he won the 3,000 metre competition at the national indoor championships, as well his first of three consecutive road mile championships, which were his only national senior titles.

Torrence missed qualifying for the 2012 Summer Olympics but, over the next four years, he garnered a handful of notable achievements. In 2014 he took silver in the 4×1500 metres relay at the World Championships (alongside Leo Manzano and non-Olympians Patrick Casey and Will Leer) and helped set an indoor world record in the 4×800 metres relay. He also set an American record in the indoor 1000 metres and, the following year, took silver in the 5000 m at the 2015 Pan American Games.

In the lead-up to the 2016 Summer Olympics, Torrence switched his nationality, based on his mother’s citizenship, and began competing for Peru. He was selected to represent this country in the 5000 metres in Rio, where he qualified for the final with a national record-setting time of 13:23.20. There he finished 15th and last among the finishers. He continued to compete through 2017, setting Peruvian records in the 1500 metre and mile events and competing in that year’s World Championships in Athletics, but in August 2017 was found dead in a swimming pool in Arizona, where he had been training. This gave him the unfortunate distinction of being the first competitor from the 2016 Summer Games to die.

Personal Best: 5000 – 13:16.53 (2012).