Fast Teenagers in Grown-Up Time

With tactical cunning and a brilliant burst of speed, 18-year-old Jim Ryun beat the great Peter Snell in a U.S. record 3:55.3 Mile

By Gwilym S. Brown, Sports Illustrated

In San Diego one day last week an 18-year-old boy and a former football linebacker sat down to map out the strategy the boy...

Snell’s Tortured Race to a Record Mile

Although he was, in his own words, 'desperate and struggling,' New Zealand's three-gold-medal Olympian beat his own mark and completely routed the world's second and third best Milers

By Sports Illustrated

"The first half Mile was, I felt, too fast," said Peter Snell, "but I was carried along...

A Kansas Boy with a Man-Size Task

This week in Los Angeles, 135 athletes will be competing for 60 positions on the U.S. Olympic track & field team. Some of them—such as Dyrol Burleson, Bob Schul and Henry Carr—have already clinched a spot on the team, provided they are still in good shape, by virtue of their victories in the...

Running Is Such Sweet Torture

Loyola's Tom O'Hara can clock a Mile in less than 4 minutes, and for hours without a halt. Hardly anybody is able to catch up with him—until he stops. Then his rampaging doubts do.

By John Underwood, Sports Illustrated

A Mile runner does not run a Mile, he bombards it with logic. He plots it,...