Jim Ryun Finally at Peace With Himself

In a mystical sort of way, Jim Ryun sees the low point of his career as the turning point of his life.

In was in 1972 at the Summer Olympic Games in Munich, West Germany. Ryun, a silver medalist in the 1968 Games, was the favorite in the first heat of the 1,500 meters. Five years earlier, he had been, arguably, the best miler in the world. But in 1972 he was completing a comeback from a state of semi-retirement by making the U.S. team.

Ryun began the race well, and with about 500 yards to go was in good position to win it. Suddenly, he collided with Billy Fordjour of Ghana and tumbled, hitting his head on the metal guardrail. He lay unconscious on the track for several seconds before resuming the race. It was too late. His day, his Olympic dream, was over.

In the tunnel after the race, Ryun watched the replay and saw he was clearly fouled. He pleaded his case to a member of the International Olympic Committee. The only conclusion drawn was that Ryun could come back in four years and try again.

“I was bitter, and I wanted to grab him by the tie,” Ryun recalled last week while addressing a banquet for the Greenwich Avenue Mile, which he will participate in Sunday. “But just prior to that I became a Christian, and God gave me grace not to do it.”

Ryun encountered the same official at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. The urge came again, but Ryun restrained himself.

“One day I was on my knees praying, just after the heat in 1972,” Ryun said. “The Lord spoke to me and I realized that I had to forget that man and get on with my life. In Los Angeles, I could have reached out and touched him (the official) and certainly could have easily done to him what I wanted to do years earlier. I no longer felt that need.”

That was the new Jim Ryun, the Jim Ryun who had a gleam in his eyes when he spoke to the gathering for the Greenwich Avenue Mile. It was, however, a different Ryun from the man who was on top of the middle distance world in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was the man Ryun prefers to be now, at age 42.

“At that time, I was very serious,” Ryun said. “I still like to run and do well, but I was very intent back then at getting to the top. In 1972 I became a Christian and began to relax.”

Ryun jumped to the top of his sport in a hurry. At 17, he became the first high schooler to break the four-minute barrier in the mile when he ran a time of 3:59 as a junior in Wichita, Kan.

By the time he was 20 years old and a sophomore at the University of Kansas, he had run 3:51 twice and set two world records, with the latter standing for nine years. He had also set a world record of 1:44.9 at 880 yards the previous year.

Perhaps Ryun’s most famous performance came in June of 1967 on a baked clay track in Bakersfield, Calif. It was in the mile at the Amateur Athletic Union’s national Track and Field Championships. Ryun, then a sophomore at Kansas, already owned the world record of 3:51.3. It was no secret he was going for it again that night.

With no rabbit to set the pace, Ryun jumped in front of the large field. It was just him against the clock. That night, Ryun won. He finished in what was then an astounding time of 3:51.1 for a world record.

Ryun went on to set the world record of 3:33.1 at 1,500 meters later than year and won a silver medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.

Ryun still lives in his native Kansas, residing in Lawrence with his wife, Anne, and four children. He travels extensively thoroughout the country, giving motivational speeches to church and civic groups. He still runs 50 to 70 miles per week and also participates in about 20 to 25 races a year.

“That’s when I’m not in an airplane, because I sure have logged a lot of frequent flier miles,” Ryun joked. “As far as racing is concerned, I mainly run in street miles and some 5 and 10k races. When I come to a race, the people running it like to have me there, but they still want to see me do well. I think I am able to do that.”

And that brings him to the Greenwich Avenue Mile, a grueling uphill run.

Ryun first found out about the event while talking to race director Mickey Yardis. Because he enjoyed a similar mile in San Francisco last year, he decided to come to Greenwich. World indoor mile record holder Eamonn Coghlan of Ireland, who lives in nearby Rye Brook, N.Y., will also participate.

“The question I always ask is, what intrigues runners?” Ryun said. “All running is is putting one foot in front of the other. To me a mile straight uphill is intriguing. I enjoyed running in the California Street Mile last fall, so here I am.”