"Jim Ryun was the last American man to win any medal in the 1,500, claiming silver at the 1968 Mexico City Games. For the next few decades, the American distance running program was moribund."
Well, except for Wottle (OK, 800 is not distance, but he was also a darned good miler and XC runner, too) and Shorter's golds in 1972 (with high non-medal places by Moore, Bachelor and Prefontaine), Shorter's silver in 1976, Bill Rodgers (Boston wins, Fukuoka, too?) and Alberto Salazar's marathon dominance (pseudo-world best) in the late '70s and early 80's and Craig Virgin's two world cross-country championships, etc...
and...
"Ryun was on the front page of newspapers when he ran his first sub-four minute mile. Crowds greeted him at the airport when he returned home after out-of-state meets, and there were spontaneous parades and impromptu pep rallies in his high school auditorium...
Webb's reception was considerably more low-key. Two days after his run, his name (Congratulations Alan Webb!) and time appeared on a sign outside his Reston high school."
When Ryun ran 3:59.0 in 1964, he was only the 13th US runner to break 4:00 and the WR was 3:54.1. Two years later Ryun *was* the WR holder. Ryun was a member of the 1964 US Olympic team in the 1500. Webb is # 238 to break 4:00 in the US and the WR is now 3:43. For Webb to be in the same class relative to the open elite, he'd have to be running under 3:50, more than 10s faster than he has to date. Of course, this raises a question regarding when present-day elite runners undergo the development that gets them to that level. Maybe the 3:40-ish guys are no faster at 18 than the 3:50-ish runners of the 1960s.
Bill Bahnfleth
At 12:21 PM 2/14/2001 -0500, you wrote:
If it hasn't already been mentioned, today's Washington Post has an article
on a pretty good high school miler here in the DC area.
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/sports/highschools/A1445-2001Feb13.html
[Although El Gerrouj might disagree with a stat contained in the article.]
Bob Bettwy
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Director - Program Control
Washington Group
SRS Technologies
(703) 351-7266
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