Jim Ryun

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
This article is about the athlete and congressman from Kansas. For people with a similar name, see Jim Ryan.
Jim Ryun
Jim Ryun
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Kansas's 2nd district
In office
1997-2007
Preceded by Sam Brownback
Succeeded by Nancy Boyda
Born April 29, 1947
Wichita, Kansas
Political party Republican
Spouse Anne Ryun
Religion Evangelical Presbyterian
Olympic medal record
Men’s Athletics
Silver 1968 Mexico City 1500 m

James Ronald ("Jim") Ryun (born April 29, 1947) is an American former track athlete and politician, who was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1997 to 2007, representing the 2nd District in Kansas. In the 2006 election, Ryun was defeated by Democratic challenger Nancy Boyda.

Years prior to his political career Jim Ryun had an athletic career that saw him become one of the greatest runners of all time, and the last American to hold the world record in the mile run. His career is highlighted by his many record times, but he never won an Olympic gold medal in three tries.

Contents

[edit] Athletics

[edit] High School Athletic Career

Ryun became the first high school runner to break four minutes for the mile, running 3:59.0 as a junior in 1964. While in high school at Wichita East High School Ryun:

  • Established the high school and US open mile record 3:55.3 as a senior in 1965, a record that stood as the high school record for 36 years until broken by Alan Webb’s 3:53.43 in 2001. It is also the last time an American male high school athlete broke an open American record in a major outdoor track and field event. In this record race he beat the reigning Olympic champion and former world record holder Peter Snell of New Zealand.
  • His 3:58.3 to win the mile at the 1965 Kansas High School State Meet is still the record for the fastest time ever in a race which includes only high school competitors.
  • Today he still holds five of the six fastest mile times in US high school history (all sub-four minute), with Alan Webb’s record race holding the other spot.
  • With five sub-four minute miles he is the only high school athlete in history with more than two such times. (Alan Webb has two, and Marty Liquori and Tim Danielson have one each.)
  • He is the only athlete to run a four minute mile as a high school junior.
  • After his junior year he qualified for the 1964 Olympics in the 1500, where he failed to make it through the semifinal round.
  • As a high school senior he was voted the fourth best miler in the world by the experts at Track & Field News.

[edit] Post High School Athletic Career

In 1966, at age nineteen, Ryun set the world record in both the mile and the half-mile runs, and received Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" award, as well as the James E. Sullivan Award as the nation's top amateur athlete and was vote Track & Field New’s Athlete of the Year as the world’s best track & field athlete. In 1967 he lowered his world-record time in the mile to 3:51.1, a record that stood for almost eight years and set the world record for the 1500 meters that same year in 3:33.1. He also held world records in the indoor half-mile, the sprint medley, and the distance medley relays.

Today Ryun still holds the American junior (19 and under) records in the 880y (1:44.9), 800m (1:44.3), 1,500 (3:36.1), mile (3:51.3) and two mile (8:25.1), over 40 years after he set them.

Ryun participated in the 1964, 1968, and 1972 Summer Olympics, but the gold medal eluded him. Battling mono and a hamstring injury, he still won a silver medal in the 1500 meters in 1968 in the high altitude of Mexico City, losing to Kip Keino from Kenya. In the 1972 Munich, Germany games, he was tripped, and fell down during a 1500 meters qualifying heat.

His 1500m world record was remarkable for the fact it was run with such uneven splits, which is the worst way to attempt to run a fast time. He ran the initial 300m in a pedestrian 46.5 & then accelerated to cover the last 1200m in an astounding 2:46.6. It's speculated that if he'd run that race at optimally fast even pace from start to finish he would have recorded a time in the region of 3:30 - 3:31 ( of note : it was run on a cinder track ), a time not actually recorded until the 1980's ( on significantly faster synthetic tracks ). Many observers feel his recorded 3:33.1 that day was a significant underachievement in light of the ability he demonstrated in the race. Despite that, it stood as a world record for seven years.

[edit] World Records

Distance Time Date City
880 yards 1:44.9 October 6, 1966 Terre Haute, IN
1,500 meters 3:33.1 July 8, 1967 Los Angeles, CA
One Mile 3:51.3 July 17, 1966 Berkeley, CA
One Mile 3:51.1 June 23, 1967 Bakersfield, CA
One Mile (indoor) 3:56.4 February 19, 1971 San Diego, CA

Notes:

  • Since 880 yards is longer than 800 meters the 1:44.9 was also converted into an en-route time at 800m of 1:44.3, which equaled the existing world record, and remained the world and American record until broken by Rick Wohlhuter’s 1.44.6y in 1973.
  • The 3:33.1 1,500m mark remained the world record for six years until broken by Tanzania’s Filbert Bayi’s 3:32.2 in 1974.
  • The 3:51.1 mile mark remained the world record for eight years until broken by Bayi’s 3:51.0 in 1975.

[edit] Athletic Awards

Track & Field News Athlete of the Year award for both 1966 & 1967, the first athlete to win this prestigious award two years in a row.

The 1966 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year award.

The 1966 James E. Sullivan Award, presented to the best amateur athlete in the US.

The 1966 ABC Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year award

Jim Ryun’s Track & Field News World Rankings

800/880

  • 1966 - 1

1500/Mile

  • 1965 - 4
  • 1966 - 1
  • 1967 - 1
  • 1968 - 2
  • 1969 - 7
  • 1971 - 6
  • 1972 - 9

In 1980 Ryun was inducted into the USATF Hall of Fame and in 2003 he was inducted into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame.

[edit] Personal

Ryun was born in Wichita, Kansas. He now lives in Lawrence, though he was listed in the House roll as "R-Topeka." He also owns a farm in Jefferson County.

Ryun and his wife, Anne, who he married in 1969, have four children and six grandchildren. He and his sons, Ned and Drew, have co-authored two books, Heroes Among Us and The Courage to Run.

After graduating from the University of Kansas in 1970 with a degree in photojournalism, Ryun moved to Eugene, Oregon; looking for a good training situation to continue his track career. Six months later, he moved to Santa Barbara, California, where he and his family remained for nine years. He and his family moved back to Lawrence in 1981.

Raised in the Church of Christ, Ryun and his wife are members of Grace Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Lawrence. He spoke in tongues during at least one campaign rally in 1996, according to a report in the Wichita Eagle.[1]

[edit] Career prior to election to Congress

Before being elected to the House of Representatives in 1996, Ryun had operated Jim Ryun Sports, a company that ran sports camps, and worked as a motivational speaker at meetings of corporations and Christian groups around the country. [2] Among his projects, Ryun, who has a 50% hearing loss, helped the ReSound Hearing Aid Company develop a program called Sounds of Success, aimed at children with hearing loss. Since 1975, Ryun and his family have hosted running camps every summer for high school aged runners and continue to do so.

[edit] House of Representatives

[edit] Elections

Ryun was first elected in 1996 to fill a seat vacated by Republican Sam Brownback. He won the three-person Republican primary with 62 percent of the vote, defeating former Topeka mayor Doug Wright and Cheryl Brown Henderson[3], the daughter of the plaintiff in the historic Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka desegregation case.[2] In the general campaign, Ryun was in tight race with Democrat John Frieden, a prominent Topeka trial attorney, who outspent Ryun $750,000 to $400,000.[2] Ryun won with 52 percent of the vote.

He was re-elected in 1998, 2000 and 2002, receiving more than 60 percent of the vote each time. He served on the Armed Services, Budget and Financial Services committees.

Ryun's strongest challenge came in 2004 from Democrat Nancy Boyda, a former moderate Republican. She ran a well financed campaign, spending $1,105,838 (compared to Ryun's $1,136,464).[4], but Ryun still defeated her by a margin of 56% to 41%.

Boyda was again the Democratic nominee in the 2006 election. Ryun also faced Roger Tucker of the Reform Party USA.[5] Initially expected to win, Ryun found his campaign faltering as internal polling by both Boyda and Republicans revealed a Democratic lead. In response, Ryun's campaign recruited both President Bush and Vice President Cheney to visit Topeka to campaign for Ryun. Ryun was defeated by Boyda, 51% to 47%, on November 7, 2006.

In March 2007 Ryun confirmed that he would run for his old seat[1]. However, he could potentially face a divisive Republican primary against State Treasurer Lynn Jenkins, who is considerably more moderate than Ryun.

[edit] Political positions

The National Journal rated Ryun as one of the nation's most conservative members of Congress, more so than 90% of his colleagues[6]. He was a member of the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of conservative House Republicans. He is also a leading member of the Kansas Republican Party's social conservative wing.

Ryun generally supported Bush's legislative agenda, though he broke with the President over Medicare reform legislation that included a prescription drug benefit. In opposing the bill, Ryun said the bill didn't provide enough reform to keep future costs from soaring.

Ryun voted with fellow conservatives against the $373 billion end-of-session spending bill in 2003 because he considered it to be too costly and had come to Congress to support fiscal restraint.

Ryun voted with President Bush 89% of the time.[7]


Ryun voted the GOP party line 98% of the time.[8]

[edit] Controversies

[edit] ARMPAC campaign contributions

Ryun received $31,777 in campaign contributions from former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's political action committee, ARMPAC. DeLay has faced ethics charges. To date, Ryun has not offered to return the contributions, despite calls from Democrats to do so.[9] Ryun has also contributed to DeLay's legal defense trust.[10]

[edit] Townhouse purchase in 2000

On December 15, 2000, Ryun bought a townhouse in the District of Columbia from U.S. Family Network for $410,000,[11], in a private sale. [12] That organization was controlled by Ed Buckham, DeLay's former chief of staff; funding of the organization came mostly from Jack Abramoff's lobbying clients.[13] The townhouse had been purchased about two years earlier, for $429,000,[14] to house Buckham's consulting firm Alexander Strategy Group and DeLay's ARMPAC.

When questions arose as to whether Ryun had paid full market value in 2000, his office released documents showing that another home on the same block was sold for $409,000 on the same day he bought his home. According to property records, the other home is on a land area about half the size of Ryun's, and was assessed in 2006 as worth $528,000, compared to $764,000 for Ryun's home.[15]

[edit] Connection to Mark Foley

After Rep. Mark Foley resigned in October 2006, following revelations he had sent sexually explicit e-mails to teenage congressional pages, Ryun contended that he barely knew Foley, had never spent time with him, and was unaware that they lived directly across the street from each other in Washington, D.C. "I know that [we were neighbors] only because somebody has mentioned that, too, already," he told reporters at the time. However, it was later revealed that Ryun and Foley had hosted a joint fundraiser on their street on May 18, 2006, called the "D Street Block Party." An invitation to the fundraiser included side-by-side pictures of Ryun and Foley. Ryun's campaign manager later admitted that Ryun had always known he was Foley's neighbor. [16]

[edit] Audio interview

[edit] References

  1. ^ Fred Mann, "Jim Ryun: Running on Faith," Wichita Eagle, December 29, 1996
  2. ^ a b c Chris Wilson and Greg St. Clair, "The runner's last lap: how Jim Ryun refused to go negative, lost a big lead, then recovered in the final week to win a U.S. house seat", Campaigns & Elections, April, 1997, published by Congressional Quarterly
  3. ^ Toppo, Greg. "Cheryl Brown Henderson", USA Today, 2004-05-16. Retrieved on 2006-08-30. (in English)
  4. ^ Total Raised and Spent 2004
  5. ^ List of Candidates in Kansas
  6. ^ SPECIAL REPORT: 2005 VOTE RATINGS House Liberal Scores, National Journal
  7. ^ http://www.dccc.org/gopauctionhouse/members/JimRyunKS-2.html
  8. ^ http://www.dccc.org/gopauctionhouse/members/JimRyunKS-2.html
  9. ^ http://www.ourfuture.org/issues_and_campaigns/accountablecongress/delay/money9.cfm Contributions from ARMPAC to 109th Members of Congress, 1994-2006]
  10. ^ "Rep. Tom DeLay’s Legal Expense Trust: Analysis of Contribution Records" (pdf), Public Citizen, February 1, 2005
  11. ^ Deed for sale of U.S. Family Network's townhouse, December 15, 2000, TPMMuckracker.com
  12. ^ Paul Kiel, "Just How Sweet Was Ryun's Townhouse Deal?", TPMMuckracker.com, March 28, 2006
  13. ^ R. Jeffrey Smith, "Former DeLay Aide Enriched By Nonprofit: Bulk of Group's Funds Tied to Abramoff", Washington Post, March 25, 2006
  14. ^ Deed for purchase of U.S. Family Network's townhouse, January 12, 1999, TPMMuckracker.com
  15. ^ "Congressman denies improper real estate deal: GOP representative defends town house buy from group with Abramoff ties", Associated Press, March 29, 2006
  16. ^ "Ryun's story on Foley changes: Congressman has always known who lived across street", The Capital-Journal, October 23, 2006

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Dick Anderson, Bob Johnson, Donna Lopiano, Don Schollander, Stan Smith and Wyomia Tyus		 Silver Anniversary Awards (NCAA)
Class of 1994
alongside: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Lee Evans, Calvin Hill, William C. Hurd and Leroy Keyes		 Succeeded by
Lesley Bush, Larry Echohawk, Kwaku Ohene-Frempong, Bob Lanier, Mike Phipps and Mike Reid
Preceded by
Sam Brownback		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Kansas's 2nd congressional district
1997 - 2007		 Succeeded by
Nancy Boyda
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../j/i/m/Jim_Ryun_4956.html"
In other languages