Herb Elliott
From Free net encyclopedia
| Image:Olympic-rings.png | ||
| Men's Athletics | ||
| Gold | 1960 | 1500m |
Herbert James ("Herb") Elliott (February 25, 1938) was an Australian athlete, one of the world's greatest middle distance runners. He only ever lost one race over 1500 metres or the mile and during his career he broke the four-minute mile on 17 occasions.
Elliott, a native of Perth, Western Australia, set a new world record for the mile on August 6 1958 (3.54,5) at Morton Stadium in Dublin and broke the 1500 metres world record the same year.
At the 1958 Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales, he won gold in the 880 yards and the mile. Two years later, at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Elliott won the gold medal in the 1500 metres, setting a new world record as well (3.35,6).
Elliott retired from athletics in May 1961. He was once the CEO of Puma North America. Presently involved in the AOC.
He was one of the bearers of the Olympic Torch at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and entered the stadium for the final segment before the lighting of the Olympic Flame.
| Olympic medalists in athletics (men) | Olympic Champions in Men's 1500 m |
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Teddy Flack | Charles Bennett | Jim Lightbody (twice) | Mel Sheppard | Arnold Jackson | Albert Hill | Paavo Nurmi | Harry Larva | Luigi Beccali | Jack Lovelock | Henry Eriksson | Josy Barthel | Ron Delany | Herb Elliott | Peter Snell | Kip Keino | Pekka Vasala | John Walker | Sebastian Coe (twice) | Peter Rono | Fermín Cacho | Noureddine Morceli | Noah Ngeny | Hicham El Guerrouj |