SALT LAKE CITY -- Former Olympic runner Paul Cummings drowned when his canoe overturned while he was fishing in a reservoir. He was 48.

Cummings was with a friend 120 feet from shore when their canoe tipped in choppy, 68-degree water Monday.

The friend, Jay Woods, was able to swim to shore but Cummings didn't make it. His body was recovered Monday night from 62 feet of water.

"It was a bit windy, the water was choppy and the canoe tipped over," Wasatch County sheriff's Lt. John Rogers said Tuesday. "They both ended up in the water, and the canoe blew away from them. Neither of them had a life jacket on."

Cummings was "as physically fit as they come," Rogers said. "He still runs about 15 miles a day. But the water was 68 degrees, so it is fairly cold for a thin guy with no body fat."

In his prime, when free of the allergies and asthma that periodically plagued him, Cummings was outstanding.

He competed in the 10,000-meter race at the 1984 Los Angeles Games but did not qualify for the final. That same year he set the world best in the half-marathon.

He was the NCAA mile champion for BYU in 1974 with a personal best of 3:56:40. He was the U.S. half-marathon champion in 1987. He also held the American 15-kilometer record for six years after finishing at 42:42 in 1983.

Cummings, of Spanish Fork, was an industrial inspector and was the head of a running camp in Park City.

It was the third drowning at Strawberry Reservoir this year, Rogers said.