1. Billy Mills's 1964 victory is considered one of the greatest Olympic upsets because he was a virtual unknown going into the event.
21 Facts About Billy Mills
1. 2.
Billy Mills was the first non-European to win the Olympic event and remains the only winner from the Americas.
3.
William Mervin Billy Mills was born in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, and was raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for Oglala Lakota people.
4.
Billy Mills took up running while attending the Haskell Institute, which is known as Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas where he won the 1956 KSHSAA Class B State Championship in Cross Country.
5.
Billy Mills was both a boxer and a runner in his youth, but he gave up boxing to focus on running.
6.
Billy Mills attended the University of Kansas on an athletic scholarship and was a three-time NCAA All-America cross-country runner.
7.
Billy Mills was a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve when he competed in the 1964 Olympics.
8.
Billy Mills had finished second to Gerry Lindgren in the US Olympic trials.
9.
Billy Mills's time in the heats was a minute slower than Clarke's.
10.
Billy Mills had run a world record time of 28:15.6, while neither Gammoudi nor Mills had previously run under 29 minutes.
11.
Clarke recovered and began chasing Gammoudi while Billy Mills appeared to be too far back to be in contention.
12.
Clarke failed to catch Gammoudi, but Billy Mills pulled out to lane 4 and sprinted past them both.
13.
Billy Mills's 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.
14.
Billy Mills has stated that he tried to be relaxed during his final kick to the finish line and felt that helped him pass both Gammoudi and Clarke.
15.
Clarke finished in 9th place, and Billy Mills finished in 14th, in 2:22:55.4, approximately two-and-a-half minutes behind Clarke, six-and-a-half minutes behind bronze medalist Tsuburaya and about 10 minutes behind winner Abebe Bikila.
16.
Billy Mills later set US records for 10,000 m and the three-mile run, and had a 5,000 m best of 13:41.4.
17.
Billy Mills is the co-founder of the nonprofit Running Strong for American Indian Youth with Eugene Krizek.
18.
Billy Mills himself is Type 2 diabetic and helps people with diabetes learn how to maintain a healthy lifestyle and improve their lives.
19.
Billy Mills co-wrote a book with Nicholas Sparks, Wokini: A Lakota Journey to Happiness and Self-Understanding and wrote another, Lessons of a Lakota, made speaking tours, and sponsored some events.
20.
Billy Mills is the subject of the 1983 movie Running Brave, in which he is portrayed by Robby Benson.
21.
Billy Mills is one of several athletes featured on the August 18,2016, On Being episode "Running as a Spiritual Practice".