Veteran Track Star Inspires Hurdlers in Livermore

Growing up in Hungary, Les Besser, now 79, was a promising prospect in the nation’s government-sponsored track & field program. He set the national record in the U-16 age group for hurdles, and later went on to win two Hungarian Junior Championships. He was also a member of the national team participating in the 400m hurdles. Due to the country’s revolution of 1956, he fled to Canada, where if he’d been a citizen, he would’ve attempted to qualify for the 1960 Rome Olympics.

Missed opportunities would’ve seemingly been thorns in Les’ side, but instead he focused his life on starting a family and training athletes who showed the same grit and will that he did on the tracks in Budapest. For years he coached hurdlers and sprinters at Mountain View High School, in Mountain View, Calif., before retiring and moving to Stoneridge Creek retirement community in Pleasanton.

Although more than six decades have gone by since his own time in the spotlight, Les still has the passion to play a part in shaping tomorrow’s track stars. And thanks to the staff at Granada High in Livermore, every day he gets to help more than a dozen high school hurdlers reach their potential, improve their physical condition, gain self-confidence, and make close friends through his focus on teaching the fundamentals and practicing sportsmanship in winning and losing.