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National Geographic : 1964 Oct
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Have Improved Since the First Modern Games in 1896 © NATIONALGEOGRAPHICSOCIETY athletic director, and recipient last year of a Presidential Medal of Freedom for inspiring "generations of athletes with high ideals of achievement and sportsmanship." "It's mostly up here-psychological," said Kiphuth, tapping his head. "Until the crawl stroke was introduced for speed swimming, free style, the idea of beating 60 seconds for 100 meters seemed just as remote as the 4 minute mile in foot racing. Look what hap pened to mile running after England's Roger Bannister first cracked the 4-minute barrier in 1954-and just barely, at 3:59.4. The flood gates opened, all over the world, because it broke the mental barrier, too. "There have been miles in which the first eight finishers were under four minutes, in cluding runners whose previous performances indicated no such capacity. Does that mean all these boys are faster runners than the great Paavo Nurmi, whose best was 4:10.4, a world record in 1923? Of course not!" Nurmi was the great Finnish runner of the 1920's, the "Golden Age of Sports." He was ranked with such demigods as Babe Ruth, Bobby Jones, Bill Tilden, Red Grange, Jack Dempsey, and Gene Tunney. To his country men he was an idol, spurring them to Olym pic heights not known before or since. Doughty little Finland, with a population 503
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