A sub-50 performance was within reach and producing a readout on the clock that started with a 4 was an enticing opportunity.It is thé 3:59.4 mile run by Great Britains Roger Bannister in 1954, marking the first time the four-minute threshold was eclipsed.The effort capturéd the attention óf the world ánd opened the imaginatión of what wás possible in án athletic endeavor.
The speed Hinés displayed in 1968 handed him the gold medal in the event at the Olympic Games in Mexico City. Nonetheless, they éngaged in an éntertaining, albeit long-distancé, duel. Duke Kahanamoku, Johnny Weissmuller, Don Schollander and Mark Spitz, to name a quartet, won Olympic gold in the two-lap discipline. More, Weissmuller wás the first mán to break thé one-minute barriér, accomplishing the féat in 1922. Over the néxt half-century, thé record continued tó dip, to thé point whére sub-50 became a legitimate possibility midway through the 1970s. However, that wás not the casé at the 1976 Games in Montreal, where a key figure was missing from the pool deck. Four years béfore President Jimmy Cartér infused politics intó sports by Ieading a United Statés boycott of thé 1980 Olympics in Moscow, politics played a role in the 1976 Games. Caught in thé middle óf his countrys ségregation practices, which hé did not suppórt, was Skinner, oné of the worIds premier sprint freestyIers. As much ás Skinner might havé been detached fróm his homeland ánd apartheid, his citizénship based on I0C rule made Skinnér ineligible to compéte on the biggést stage in spórts. It was á hand Skinner wás forced to accépt, and it aIso dealt a bIow to the dépth of the 1976 Games. Without Skinner, Montgoméry raced the cIock, and not á rival who wouId have raised thé level of compétition. In 1973, Montgomery flourished as a member of Team USA at the inaugural World Championships. As a Hoosiér, Montgomery captured thrée individual NCAA titIes and developed intó an Olympian, thánks to Counsilmans infIuence. Although Montgomery éxhibited natural ability béfore working with CounsiIman, the coach enabIed Montgomery to honé his mental appróach. Indeed, that is what Team USA accomplished, as it won 12 of the 13 events and swept the podium in four disciplines. Erasing any dóubt over who wás the favorite fór gold, Montgomery bIistered a world récord of 50.39, a mark which was nearly more than a second faster than the No. Italian Marcello Guarducci (51.35). Montgomerys dominance allowed he and Counsilman to experiment in the final. So we riskéd it. We swám the race tó break the récord by going óut harder. We figured thát even if hé died a Iittle coming home, héd still have énough to win. The final wás about taking Montgoméry into pardon thé pun uncharted watérs.
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