Jim 
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Jim Ryun
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In
office
November 27, 1996 – January 3, 2007 |
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Preceded by
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Succeeded by
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Personal details
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Born
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James Ronald Ryun
April 29, 1947 Wichita, Kansas, U.S. |
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Political party
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Spouse(s)
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Anne Ryun
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Residence
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Occupation
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Athlete, sports management executive
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Sports career
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Personal information
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Nationality
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Height
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188 cm (6 ft 2 in)[1]
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Weight
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76 kg (168 lb)
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Country
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Sport
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Event(s)
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College team
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Club
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Club West
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Sports achievements and
titles
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1964 Tokyo
1500 m, 18th (sf) 1968 Mexico City 1500 m,  Silver1972 Munich 1500 m, 55th (h) |
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Personal best(s)
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Outdoors
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Indoor
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Medal record[hide]
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James Ronald "Jim" Ryun (born April 29, 1947) is an American former
politician and Olympic track and field athlete, who at his peak
was widely considered the world's top middle-distance runner. He won a silver
medal in the 1500 m at the 1968 Summer Olympics, and was
the first high school athlete to run a mile in under four minutes. He is the
last American to hold the world record in the mile run. Ryun later served in
the United
States House of Representatives from 1996 to 2007,
representing Kansas'
2nd congressional district for the Republican
Party.
Athletics[edit]
According to Ryun, he began running because
I couldn't do anything else. When you're
cut from the church baseball team, the junior high basketball team, and you
can't make the junior high track and field team ... I'd go to bed at night and
I'd say, "Dear God, if you've got a plan for my life, I'd appreciate it if
you'd show up sooner or later because it's not really going very well." I
found myself trying out for the cross-country team and running two miles even though I'd never run that
distance before. All of a sudden, I made the team, I got a letter jacket, and I started thinking there's
a girlfriend behind the letter jacket. But that's how it all began.[2]
Early years[edit]
In 1964, as a high school junior at Wichita East High
School, Ryun became the first high school athlete to run a mile in
under 4 minutes in the time of 3:59.0, when he took 8th place at the 1964
California Relays, the last under four minutes in a historic mass finish under
4:00. His time of 3:55.3, set winning the 1965 AAU Championship race ahead of
Olympic gold medalist and former WR holder Peter Snell, was a high school
record that stood for 36 years. Ryun ran five sub-four minute miles while in
high school including the only sub-four minute mile run in a high school event,
a 3:58.3, at the 1965 Kansas HS state meet. As a high school senior he was
voted the fourth best miler in the world by Track & Field
News. ESPN.com named him
the best high school athlete of all time, beating out people such as Tiger Woods and LeBron James.[3] He was Track and Field News "High
School Athlete of the Year" in 1965.[4]
Post-high
school[edit]
In 1966, at age nineteen, Ryun set world
records in the mile (3:51.3) and the half-mile (1:44.9). He received numerous
awards, including Sports Illustrated magazine's
"Sportsman of the Year"
award, the James E. Sullivan
Award as the nation's top amateur athlete, the ABC's Wide
World of Sports Athlete of the Year award, and the Track & Field News'
Athlete of the Year award as the world's best track & field athlete.
In 1967, Ryun set a world record in the
indoor half mile (1:48.3) and the outdoor mile from (3:51.1), a record that
stood for almost eight years. That same year he set the world record for the
1,500 meters (3:33.1). In NCAA competition, Ryun was the 1967 NCAA outdoor mile
champion. He was also the NCAA indoor mile champion in 1967, 1968, and 1969.
Ryun still holds the American
junior (19 and under) records at 1,500 m (3:36.1), one mile
(3:51.3), and two miles (8:25.1). His American junior record in the 800 meters
lasted exactly 50 years. In all, he broke the American record for the mile four
times: once as a high school senior (3:55.3 on June 27, 1965), twice as a
college freshman (3:53.7 on June 4, 1966 and 3:51.3 on July 17, 1966), and once
as a college sophomore (3:51.1 on June 23, 1967).
Ryun participated in the 1964, 1968,
and 1972 Summer Olympics.
At age 17 years, 137 days in 1964, he remains the youngest American male track
athlete to ever qualify for the Olympics.[5] In 1968, he won the silver
medal in the 1,500 meters in Mexico City, losing to Kip Keino from Kenya, whose remarkable
race remained the Olympic 1,500-meter record for 16 years. Before the race,
Ryun had thought that a time of 3:39 would be good enough to win in the high
altitude of Mexico City. He ended up running faster than that with a 3:37.8,
but Keino's 3:34.9 was too tough to beat at that altitude. Keino moved into the
first position with two laps to go (800 meters) at world record pace. Ryun
continued to move up during the last two laps from eighth to second but was
never closer than about 30 yards from Keino.[6] Years later, in 1981, he told
Tex Maule in an interview for The Runner magazine, "We
had thought that 3:39 would win and I ran under that. I considered it like
winning a gold medal; I had done my very best and I still believe I would have
won at sea level." Ryun was attacked by some writers who believed he had
let his nation down. "Some even said I had let down the whole world. I
didn't get any credit for running my best and no one seemed to realize that Keino
had performed brilliantly." In the 1972 Munich, Germany, Games, he was tripped and
fell down during a 1,500-meter qualifying heat. Although the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) acknowledged that a foul had occurred,
U.S. appeals to have Ryun reinstated in the competition were denied by the IOC.[7][8]
Ryun's 1,500-meter world record, run in the
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum during the United States vs. British Commonwealth
meet in July 1967, was one of Ryun's greatest running performances. Track
and Field News reported that "after 220 yards of dawdling, a
record seemed out of the question." However, after 440 yards, which Ryun,
in third, passed in 60.9 seconds, Kip Keino took the lead and ran the next lap
in 56 seconds (the fastest second lap ever run at the time). Ryun, just behind,
passed the 880-yard mark in 1:57.0. At 1,320 yards the two were side by side in
2:55.0. Ryun pulled away to finish in 3:33.1, a record that stood for seven
years. With last 440 yards of 53.9, a last 880 yards of 1:51.3, and the final
1320 yards in 2:47.4, Cordner Nelson of Track and Field
News called it "the mightiest finishing drive ever seen,"
and said of Ryun's performance, "This was most certainly his greatest
race."[9]
Ryun's final season as an amateur was in
1972, and included the third-best mile of his career (at the time, the third
fastest in history: a 3:52.8 at Toronto, Canada on July 29): a 5,000-meter
career best (13:38.2 at Bakersfield, CA on May 20), and a win in the 1,500
meters at the U.S. Olympic Trials. He left amateur athletics after 1972 and for
the next two years ran professionally on the International
Track Association circuit.
World records[edit]
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Distance
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Time
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Date
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City
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880 yards
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1:44.9
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June 10, 1966
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Terre Haute, IN
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880 yards (indoor)
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1:48.3
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1967
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1,500 meters
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3:33.1
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July 8, 1967
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Los Angeles, CA
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One Mile
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3:51.3
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July 17, 1966
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Berkeley, CA
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One Mile
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3:51.1
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June 23, 1967
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Bakersfield, CA
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One Mile (indoor)
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3:56.4
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February 19, 1971
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San Diego, CA
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Notes:
·
Because
880 yards is longer than 800 meters, the 1:44.9 was converted into an estimated
en-route-time at 800 meters of 1:44.3, which equaled the existing 800 meters
world record, but was not ratified as a record in that event. The 880 yards
mark remained the world and American record until broken by Rick Wohlhuter's 1.44.6 in 1973.
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The 3:33.1
1,500 meters mark remained the world record for six years until broken by
Tanzania's Filbert Bayi's
3:32.2 in 1974.
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The
3:51.1-mile mark remained the world record for eight years until broken
by Bayi's 3:51.0 in
1975.
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