Bob Schul obit

Bob Schul, America’s Only Olympic 5,000m Champion, Dies at 86

Schul used a big kick to win gold on a wet track in Tokyo in 1964

 

He was not on the list.

Bob Schul, the only American to win the Olympic 5,000-meter gold medal, died on Sunday in an assisted living facility in Middletown, Ohio. Schul’s daughter Robin Thurber, who confirmed his death to LetsRun.com, said he had battled dementia in his final years. He was 86 years old.

Schul’s most famous running accomplishment was his victory in the Tokyo Olympic 5,000-meter final in October 1964. Trained by the legendary Hungarian coach Mihály Iglói, Schul entered the race among the favorites but was only fifth with 300 meters to go as France’s Michel Jazy, the 1960 Olympic 1500m silver medalist, opened up a five-meter lead on the back straight. But Schul then opened his stride and ripped the final 300 in 38.7 — an impressive split even by today’s standards and a truly remarkable split on a rain-soaked cinder track in 1960s spikes. Schul passed a dying Jazy with 70 meters to run and won going away in 13:48.8, nearly a second up on silver medalist Harald Norpoth of Germany (13:49.6). Schul’s American teammate Bill Dellinger got the bronze in 13:49.8.

The race marked the first American medals in the event in 32 years, and another 52 would pass until Paul Chelimo won the US’s next Olympic 5,000 medal in 2016. Schul remains the only American, male or female, to win Olympic gold in the 5,000.

Born and raised on a farm in West Milton, Ohio, on the outskirts of Dayton, Schul ran collegiately at Miami University of Ohio both before and after a stint in the US Air Force. Schul was posted at Oxnard Air Force Base in California in the early 1960s as part of a group of Air Force athletes training for the 1960 Olympics in Rome, where his commanding officer, 1956 Olympian Max Truex, introduced him to Iglói. Schul would spend the next few years as part of Iglói’s famous training group in Southern California that also featured 1500m world record holder László Tábori, Jim Grelle (American record in the mile), and Jim Beatty (first person to break 4:00 indoors). Schul would move back to Ohio in 1963 but Iglói’s principles would stick with him for the rest of his life.

1964 was the year that would come to define Schul’s career. In June, he ran the fastest time in the world that year, 13:38.0, to break the American record for 5,000 meters in Compton, then won the Olympic Trials in New York in July. He tuned up for the Olympics by winning the 5,000 at the USA-USSR track meet at the Los Angeles Coliseum and setting a world record of 8:26.4 for two miles at a meet held at Pierce College in California on August 30.

The men’s 5,000 at the Olympics in Tokyo was one of the greatest distance fields of the 1960s. The heavyweights included Jazy, the 3,000-meter world record holder who would break the mile world record a year later; Ron Clarke of Australia, the 10,000-meter world record holder who would break the 5,000 world record a year later; and Kipchoge Keino of Kenya, who would go on to set the 5,000 world record in 1965 in addition to winning Olympic golds in the 1500 (1968) and steeplechase (1972).

Yet on a rainy day in the Japanese capital, Schul topped them all in front of a crowd of 50,000 that included his own parents, farmers who had never before left Ohio, let alone the United States.