Herb Elliott

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Olympic medal record
Men's Athletics
Gold	1960 Rome	1500 metres

Herbert James ("Herb") Elliott (February 25, 1938) was an Australian athlete, one of the world's greatest middle distance runners. He only ever lost one race over 1500 metres or the mile and during his career he broke the four-minute mile on 17 occasions.

Elliott, a native of Perth, Western Australia, set a new world record for the mile on August 6, 1958 (3.54,5) at Morton Stadium in Dublin and broke the 1500 metres world record the same year.

At the 1958 Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales, he won gold in the 880 yards and the mile. Two years later, at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Elliott won the gold medal in the 1500 metres, setting a new world record as well (3.35,6).

Elliott credited his visionary and iconoclastic coach, Percy Cerutty, with inspiration to train harder and more naturally than anyone of his era. Cerutty was known to avoid the track, talk about role models outside athletics (like DaVinci and Jesus), and bring his athletes to the unspoiled seaside beauty of Portsea training camp south of Melbourne, where Elliott would sprint up sand dunes until he dropped. "Faster," said Cerutty, "It's only pain."

Elliott retired from athletics in May 1961. He was once the CEO of Puma North America.

He was one of the bearers of the Olympic Torch at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and entered the stadium for the final segment before the lighting of the Olympic Flame.

He attended Aquinas College in Perth. Aquinas has a great culture for sport, which obviously played a part in his physical development. http://www.aquinas.wa.edu.au

Olympian althlete and Old Aquinian "Herb Elliot" was recently ranked in Western Australia's 100 most influential people

Olympic champions in men's 1500 m

1896: Teddy Flack | 1900: Charles Bennett | 1904: Jim Lightbody | 1906: Jim Lightbody | 1908: Mel Sheppard | 1912: Arnold Jackson | 1920: Albert Hill | 1924: Paavo Nurmi | 1928: Harry Larva | 1932: Luigi Beccali | 1936: Jack Lovelock | 1948: Henry Eriksson | 1952: Josy Barthel | 1956: Ron Delany | 1960: Herb Elliott | 1964: Peter Snell | 1968: Kip Keino | 1972: Pekka Vasala | 1976: John Walker | 1980: Sebastian Coe | 1984: Sebastian Coe | 1988: Peter Rono | 1992: Fermín Cacho | 1996: Noureddine Morceli | 2000: Noah Ngeny | 2004: Hicham El Guerrouj