page_title: Billy Mills
section_title: 1964 Olympics
hierarchical_section_title: Billy Mills / Biography / 1964 Olympics
caption_attribution_description: English: Billy Mills winning the 10,000m in the 1964 Olympics: 1stLt William “Billy” Mills, USMCR (No. 722),&#91;1&#93; wove through a field of lapped runners and passed the race favorite, Ron Clarke (No. 12, "1" visible on shirt)&#91;1&#93; of Australia, to win the 10,000 meters race at the 1964 Olympic Games. His victory is described as one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history and he is still the only American to ever win a gold medal in that event. Mohammed Gammoudi (615)&#91;1&#93; won the silver medal.
context_page_description: William Mervin Mills, also known as Tamakoce Te'Hila, is an Oglala Lakota former track and field athlete who won a gold medal in the 10,000 meter run at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. His 1964 victory is considered one of the greatest Olympic upsets because he was a virtual unknown going into the event. He was the first non-European to win the Olympic event and remains the only winner from the Americas. A United States Marine, Billy Mills is a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.
context_section_description: Mills qualified for the 1964 Summer Olympics on the U.S. Track and Field Team in the 10,000 meter and the marathon.  The favorite in 1964 for the 10,000 m was Ron Clarke of Australia, who held the world record.  The runners expected to challenge him were defending champion Pyotr Bolotnikov of the Soviet Union, and Murray Halberg of New Zealand, who had won the 5,000 m in 1960.
  Mills was a largely unknown as a runner. He had finished second to Gerry Lindgren in the U.S. Olympic trials. His time in the heats was a minute slower than Clarke's. Clarke set the tone of the race by using a tactic of surging every other lap. Halfway through the race, only four runners were still with Clarke: Mohammed Gammoudi of Tunisia, Mamo Wolde of Ethiopia, Kokichi Tsuburaya of Japan, and Mills. Tsuburaya, the local favorite, lost contact first, then Wolde. With two laps to go, only two runners were still with Clarke. He had run a world record time of 28:15.6, while neither Gammoudi nor Mills had previously run under 29 minutes.
  Mills and Clarke were running together, with Gammoudi immediately behind, as they entered the final lap. They were lapping other runners, and Clarke was boxed in down the backstretch. He pushed Mills once, then again. Then Gammoudi pushed 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 before won the 10,000 m, nor did any other American come close until Galen Rupp took the silver in the 2012 London Olympics.
  American television viewers were able to hear the surprise and drama as NBC expert analyst Dick Bank screamed "Look at Mills! Look at Mills!" over the more sedate play-by-play announcer Bud Palmer, who seemed to miss what was unfolding. For bringing drama to the coverage, Bank was fired.
  After the race, Mills talked with Clarke and asked if he was straining as hard as he could on the final straight to the finish, to which Clarke replied, "Yes." Mills has stated that he tried to be relaxed during his final kick to the finish line and felt that helped him pass both Gammoudi and Clarke. Both Clarke and Mills ran the marathon after the 10,000 m event. Clarke finished in 9th place, and Mills finished in 14th, in 2:22:55.4, approximately two-and-a-half minutes behind Clarke and about 10 minutes behind winner Abebe Bikila.
caption: Billy Mills breaks the tape in the 10,000 m in the 1964 Olympics.
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