Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics – Men's 10,000 metres

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Men's 10,000 metres
at the Games of the XVIII Olympiad
BillyMills Crossing Finish Line 1964Olympics.jpg
Billy Mills crossing the finish line
(U.S. Marine Corps photo)
Venue Olympic Stadium
Dates14 October
Competitors29 from 17 nations
Winning time28:24.4 OR
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Billy Mills Flag of the United States.svg  United States
Silver medal icon.svg Mohammed Gammoudi Flag of Tunisia (1959-1999).svg  Tunisia
Bronze medal icon.svg Ron Clarke Flag of Australia.svg  Australia
  1960
1968  
Official Video Video on YouTube TV-icon-2.svg
Official Video Video on YouTube

The men's 10,000 metres was the longest of the seven men's track races in the Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics program in Tokyo. It was held on 14 October. 38 athletes from 23 nations entered, with 6 more not starting the event. The event was held as a single heat. [1] The winning margin was 0.4 seconds.

Results

Final

World record holder Ron Clarke of Australia set the tone of the race. 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. Magee and Tsuburaya, the local favorite, lost contact first, then Wolde. With two laps to go, only two runners were still with 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 Mills had ever run under 29 minutes.

Mills and Clarke were running together with Gammoudi right behind as they entered the final lap. They were lapping other runners and, down the backstretch, Clarke was boxed in. He pushed Mills once, then again. Then Gammoudi pushed his way between them both and surged into the lead as they rounded the final curve. Clarke recovered and began chasing Gammoudi while Mills appeared to be too far back to be in contention. Clarke failed to catch Gammoudi, but Mills pulled out to lane 4 and sprinted past them both. 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 10,000 m, nor has any other American come seriously close; the only Americans to win a medal at the event since Mills are Galen Rupp, who took the silver at the 2012 London Olympics, and Grant Fisher, who won bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

American television viewers were able to hear the surprise and drama as NBC expert analyst Dick Bank [2] screamed, "Look at Mills, look at Mills" over the more sedate play-by-play announcer Bud Palmer, who seemed to miss what was unfolding. [3] For bringing that drama to the coverage, Bank was fired as it was considered improper at the time, although Palmer was noted as being thankful to Bank for noticing the drama. [4] [5]

The top four runners beat the standing Olympic record.

PlaceAthleteNationTime5000
1 Billy Mills Flag of the United States.svg  United States 28:24.4 OR14:04.6
2 Mohammed Gammoudi Flag of Tunisia (1959-1999).svg  Tunisia 28:24.814:07.0
3 Ron Clarke Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 28:25.814:05.0
4 Mamo Wolde Flag of Ethiopia (1897-1974).svg  Ethiopia 28:31.814:06.0
5 Leonid Ivanov Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union 28:53.214:13.0
6 Kōkichi Tsuburaya Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg  Japan 28:59.314:09.0
7 Murray Halberg Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 29:10.814:16.0
8 Tony Cook Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 29:15.814:11.0
9 Gerry Lindgren Flag of the United States.svg  United States 29:20.614:12.0
10 Franc Červan Flag of SFR Yugoslavia.svg  Yugoslavia 29:21.014:16.0
11 Siegfried Herrmann Flag of the German Olympic Team (1960-1968).svg  United Team of Germany 29:27.014:17.0
12 Henri Clerckx Flag of Belgium (civil).svg  Belgium 29:29.614:28.0
13 Jean Fayolle Flag of France.svg  France 29:30.814:27.0
14 Teruo Funai Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg  Japan 29:33.214:27.0
15 Jean Vaillant Flag of France.svg  France 29:33.614:27.0
16 József Sütő Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 29:43.014:36.0
17 Josef Tomas Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg  Czechoslovakia 29:46.414:39.0
18 Ron Hill Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 29:53.014:27.0
19 Pal Benum Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 30:00.814:38.0
20 Siegfried Rothe Flag of the German Olympic Team (1960-1968).svg  United Team of Germany 30:04.614:39.0
21 Michael Bullivant Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 30:12.014:28.0
22 Fergus Murray Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 30:22.414:29.0
23 Barry Magee Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 30:32.014:06.0
24 Ron Larrieu Flag of the United States.svg  United States 30:42.614:37.0
25 Pyotr Bolotnikov Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union 30:52.814:42.0
26 Bruce Kidd Flag of Canada (1957-1965).svg  Canada 30:56.414:43.0
27 Artur Hannemann Flag of the German Olympic Team (1960-1968).svg  United Team of Germany 30:56.615:13.0
28 Watanabe Kazumi Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg  Japan 31:00.615:12.0
29 Ranatunge Karunananda Flag of Ceylon (1951-1972).svg  Ceylon 32:21.216:43.0
Pascal Mfyomi Flag of Tanganyika.svg  Tanzania DNF
Naftali Temu Flag of Kenya.svg  Kenya DNF
János Pintér Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary DNF
Jim Hogan Flag of Ireland (3-2).svg  Ireland DNF
Muharrem Dalkılıç Flag of Turkey.svg  Turkey DNF
Andrei Barabaș Flag of Romania (1952-1965).svg  Romania DNF
Fernando Aguilar Flag of Spain (1945-1977).svg  Spain DNF
Mohamed Hadheb Hannachi Flag of Tunisia (1959-1999).svg  Tunisia DNF
Nikolay Dutov Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union DNF

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References

  1. "Athletics at the 1964 Tokyo Games: Men's 10,000 metres". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  2. Track & Field News • View topic – Look At Archived 2012-02-27 at the Wayback Machine . Trackandfieldnews.com (2010-06-30). Retrieved on 2011-04-18.
  3. 1964 Olympic 10,000m on YouTube (2008-04-09). Retrieved on 2011-04-18.
  4. "TV COLUMN: Bank's call made Mills' upset even more memorable". U-T San Diego.
  5. "Former NBC track analyst Dick Bank dies at 90". ESPN.com. 2020-02-26. Retrieved 2024-08-15.