Galen

That was exciting, maybe a little surprising, and certainly historic — the first Olympic medal in the men's 10,000 meters for an American since Billy Mills won the gold 48 years ago.

Galen Rupp, inspiration.

That, too, is exciting for the 26-year-old Rupp, who grew up in Oregon, trains in Portland and, like the rest of his generation of American distance runners, wondered if he ever would be able to penetrate the dominance in distance events by East African runners.

"If I could be an inspiration to others, that would be the greatest compliment ever," Rupp said Sunday afternoon, the day after his stirring silver, relaxing at Nike's makeshift London headquarters with his training partner, Mo Farah of Great Britain, who won the gold, and the man who coaches them both, former marathon great Alberto Salazar.

"I remember being in high school and looking at what some of the African guys would do in major championships, and I'd just be in awe," Rupp said. "Where American distance running was at, you didn't really have anyone where you could say, 'This guy was up there, too. If he could do it, it's possible.'

"If you're looking at and seeing guys finish a minute behind the winners, you're thinking, 'Wow, is this even possible for someone to do that?' "

Yes, it is, Rupp proved Saturday night.

"Way back when I was in high school, Alberto said, 'You're going to be able to do that someday,' " Rupp said. "I'm not sure I quite believed it myself at the time. We just chipped away at it and Alberto always had that long-term approach keep cutting that gap down, getting faster and faster, closer and closer to them, and you're going to see that it is possible.

"I hope I get the chance to show people that with a lot of discipline and hard work, you can get there. It's not easy by any means. That's the one thing about distance running — you can't really take shortcuts. You have to run a lot of miles, and you have to do a lot of really fast stuff. It is not easy. But it is possible."

Both Salazar and Farah said Rupp, who also could contend for a medal in the 5,000 meters, has a chance to be transformational, inspirational figure.