Wishing a Happy 82nd Birthday to Billy Mills! He won the 10,000m Gold at the 1964 Olympics, becoming the only person from the Western hemisphere to win the Olympic gold in this event. This was one of the greatest Olympic upsets, since Mills was virtually unknown coming into the race.
World record holder Ron Clarke set the tone of the race at the Tokyo Games. His tactic of surging every other lap appeared to be working. Halfway through the race, only five runners were still with Clarke: Mohammed Gammoudi of Tunisia, Mamo Wolde of Ethiopia, Barry Magee of New Zealand, Kokichi Tsuburaya of Japan, and Billy Mills of the United States. With two laps to go, only two runners were still with Ron Clarke. On paper, it seemed to be Clarke's race. He had run a world record time of 28:15.6 while neither Gammoudi nor Billy Mills had ever run under 29 minutes.
Coming towards the final stretch of the race, it was time to make a move. Mills pulled out to lane 4 and sprinted past both Clarke and Gammoudi. His winning time of 28:24.4 was almost 50 seconds faster than he had run before and set a new Olympic record for the event. No American had ever before won the 10,000m, nor has any other American come seriously close until Galen Rupp took the silver at the 2012 London Olympics.
It’s also crazy to note; his 5,000m split time was 14:04.6. In the Olympic 5,000’s race; a time of 14:04 would have placed 10th overall in the finals (which also would have been right behind Ron Clarke who ran 13:58.0).
It was also worthy noting, this was an American sweep of the distance events as Bob Schul won 5,000m and now Billy Mills taking the 10,000m. Gerry Lindgren also competed in the Olympic 10,000 placing 9th overall with a time of 29:20.6, as well as, Ron Larrieu in 30:42.6.
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