Eagle Spirit – Billy Mills Olympic Success Story

Billy Mills wins the Olympic Gold medal in the 10,000 meters track race as a virtual unknown!

"Running saved my life." said Billy Mills as we sat and talked.  What I was most stricken by was how many lives Billy and his gracious wife are now saving and making better.  Please consider supporting their foundation Running Strong.  He has taken his passion and spirit he once focused on running and now dedicates his whole life to giving back and making a positive difference.

He grew up in a time where he was derided, spit upon and called names I can't repeat here.  Our country has done horrific things  in the past to our native Americans.  I won't go into the details here, but no human being should be treated that way.  We talked for over an hour on US history, the evils of prejudice, gross atrocities and more.  Billy is half native American and wants more than anything for us all to come together as a country and make the US a paradise for ALL citizens.  In fact, his Lakota name, Tamakoce Te'Hila, loosely means "loves his country" or "respects the earth."  Unity through diversity.  I hope the whole world reads this.  It's so important for us all to grow to support and love each other.

Billy's mom died when he was very young, and his dad died when he was only 12.  This would break anyone's heart and spirit.  He was then raised by his grandmother with his 11 siblings.  When he was 8 years old, his dad told him he had "broken wings" [a broken soul] and that in order to heal it would take a passion and finding a dream.  He was determined to find that dream.

If you want, you can read Billy's detailed story, records and statistics in Wikipedia or the official Olympic site.  There's also wonderful movies about his life.  I'm here to tell you the story of how he healed his wings and learned to take passion plus talent and turn it into magic.

He started athletically as a boxer and ran for conditioning.  He found out that he was a better runner than boxer, so gave up boxing.  In junior college he was already a star runner, and he began to dream.  He wrote down that he would get a gold medal in the 5K, 10K or marathon.  He wrote down the goal of winning a gold medal in the Olympics many times.  He shared his success principles "choose what you speak, make positive decisions and actions and stay the course.

He attended the University of Kansas on an athletic scholarship and was a three-time NCAA All-America cross-country runner.  In 1960 he won the individual title at the Big Eight cross-country championship.  He graduated with a degree in physical education and went on to join the US Marines.  His running feats were incredible and he had even bigger dreams.  Leading up to the 1964 Tokyo Olympic games, his personal best in the 10K was two full minutes behind Ron Clarke's world record time.  That was 5 seconds per 400 meter lap of the track.  It was unheard of for anyone to make up that kind of difference.  This also meant that Billy was virtually unknown going into the games.

On top of that tremendous hurdle, for some unknown reason he started falling apart at the end of his races.  He would be right on pace and then run out of energy and fade.  His training was right on "track".  He was even preparing with 48.5 second running start quarter miles to get ready in practice.  This went on for 7 months and was a huge disappointment and mystery.  He went to the doctor and they experimented with a high protein diet to level off his blood sugar.  Finally, he discovered that if he ate a candy bar right before a race, he would remain strong through the finish.

The Olympic 10,000 meter race was the big dream and chance to heal his soul.  The field started strong and the Australian Ron Clarke took the lead.  Billy and only 3 other runners could keep the pace.  Billy went through the 5,000 meter mark only 1 second off his personal best for that distance!!  Now he had yet another 5,000 meters to go.  Incredible.  Fast forward to the end of the race.  With 2 laps to go, Ron looked over his shoulder indicating nervousness.  Billy was still within striking distance and knew he had a chance.  With 500 meters to go, the athletes were all fighting for position for the big sprint, and Billy was roughly shoved out to lane 4 and almost fell.  Somehow he recovered his balance.  As he was shoved, he glanced sideways and saw an eagle within a circle on the jersey of another runner.  A voice in his head whispered "it's time to fly Billy".  The message was loud and clear to him.  Immediately he practically levitated to his toes and out-kicked the other runners by 3 meters at the finish!

I got goosebumps as Billy shared his story.  Then, he turned to me in a quiet voice, and shared this ... "I went back after the race to congratulate the runner with the eagle on his jersey and to thank him for the inspiration ... and there was no eagle on his jersey."  His soul was healed.

If you enjoyed this article and want to see more inspirational life and business lessons, please check out my book:  Gold Medal Business Marketing.