Coaching and Care of Athletes

CHAPTER XVIII THE MILE AND 1500 METRES RIGHT from the beginning of organized athletics in Great Britain the miie race has been regarded as the blue ribband of the track events. In the United States of America, on the other hand, pride of place was given for many years to the premier sprint champions. America, indeed, for upward of a quarter of a century stood out head and shoulders above the other competing nations in most events at the Olympic Games, and yet, despite the individual successes at I500 metres· of Lightbody and Sheppard, has for far too long lacked the wealth of distance runners that first Great Britain and more recently Finland have produced. The list of Olympic I 500 metres champions is significant in the foregoing_connection. The I500 metres (I640·42 yds.), which is I I9·58 yds. short of a mile, has been won foll,r times by Great Britain, twice by America, twice by Finland, and once each by Italy and New Zealand respectively. ' The curious circumstance is that neither Abel Kiviat, John Paul ]ones, Norman S. Taber, Bill Bonthron, nor even the great Glenn Cunningham, all of whom have held, the world's record at I500 metres or I mile, could win an Olympic I500 metres title for America. The earlier failure of America to produce good distance– running talent is not because the average American has ever lacked either endurance or courage, but rather because his natur– ally highly strung nervous system favours quick action in contests which postulate the possession of a high potential ofnervous energy. American athletes, however, have mastered such formerly alien events as the javelin and discus, simply because these events are included regularly in the Olympic programme. They have since I920 brought the same concentration to distance running. The result has been the production of such outstanding runners as Bonthron, Cunningham, and R. Hill, who was beaten in the 5000 metres (5468·07 yds., or 3 miles I88 yds.) by Lauri Lehtinen, of Finland, at the Olympic Games held at Los Angeles in 1932. In short, American athletes have grown willing to face the sacri- 238