Fansided

The greatest Olympic athlete from every U.S. state

By Adam Strangis

16th October 1964: Alfred A Oerter, American winner of the Gold Medal in the Tokyo Olympics 1964 for Discus throwing. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
16th October 1964: Alfred A Oerter, American winner of the Gold Medal in the Tokyo Olympics 1964 for Discus throwing. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
11 of 49
Next
BOSTON – APRIL 17: Olympian Billy Mills waves to the crowd after introduced by Thomas S. Grilk, executive director BAA, during the Official Boston Marathon Pre-Race Dinner at City Hall Plaza in Boston on April 17, 2016. (Photo by Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
BOSTON – APRIL 17: Olympian Billy Mills waves to the crowd after introduced by Thomas S. Grilk, executive director BAA, during the Official Boston Marathon Pre-Race Dinner at City Hall Plaza in Boston on April 17, 2016. (Photo by Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) /

South Dakota: Billy Mills

Sport: 10,000-meter race

Olympics: Tokyo 1964

Billy Mills is the author of one of the bigger upsets in Olympic history that not many people know about. He was basically unknown when he pulled off a gold medal finish in 1964 and remains to this day the only American to achieve the gold in the 10,000-meter race.

Born a member of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Tribe, Mills was an orphan by the age of 12. He had a difficult childhood and used both cross country sports and boxing to focus on other things. Mills eventually gave up boxing to focus on cross country full-time and that decision paid off in the form of a scholarship to the University of Kansas. Mills himself was a three-time NCAA All-American cross-country runner and the Kansas outdoor track team won national championships in 1959 and 1960. After graduating from Kansas, Mills enlisted as a United States Marine and achieved the rank of First Lieutenant. He was an active Marine when he qualified for the 1964 Olympics. Mills entered the 1964 event as an afterthought but was able to overcome every other runner to win a gold medal, setting a personal best by a whopping 50 seconds and an Olympic record for the 10,000-meter event.

His post-Olympic career has seen Mills co-found the group called Running Strong for the American Indian Youth which aims to help Native Americans make sure they have their basic needs met. He has also been the recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal, which was given to him by former President Barack Obama in 2012.

Honorable Mention: Randy Lewis, wrestling in Los Angeles 1984

Home/Olympics