Jim Spivey

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Jim Spivey is a former American middle distance runner and Olympian.

Jim began running competitively in 1975 as a sophomore in cross country and on the track at Fenton High School in Bensenville, Illinois. He was runner-up at state cross country his junior and senior year, running 14:00 for three miles at the Illinois State course in Peoria, Illinois. In Track and Field he was a state qualifier in the two-mile his sophomore year, was runner-up in the two-mile his junior year in 9:00.5 yards, and state champion in the half mile his senior year. His times of 1:50.2 880 yards was the #1 ranked high school time in the country; and mile of 4:06.2 was the 2nd fastest high schooler for 1978.

His greatest success came at the World Championships in Rome 1987 over 1500 m where he won a bronze medal. He also won the Silver Medal at the 1987 Pan American Games in Athletics/Indianapolis, Indiana 1987. In 1992 Spivey won the US Olympic trials in New Orleans ahead of Steve Holman to qualify for the Olympic Games in Barcelona where he came eighth. In 1984, he also won the Olympic Trails and placed 5th in the Los Angeles Olympic Games. His time of 3:36.05 is still the fastest run by an American in the Olympic final. Ironically, Spivey failed to qualify for the 1988 Summer Olympics (finishing fourth at the US trials in Indianapolis) in the same season in which he set his personal best over 1500m (3:31.01, Koblenz).

In 1996 Spivey competed in the Olympic 5000m competition in Atlanta, where he was a semi-finalist. He also currently holds the American record for the 2,000m at 4:52.44 set in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1987. His personal bests include 1:46.5 800m 1982 San Francisco; 2:16.05 1000 meters 1984 Eugene, Oregon; 3:49.80 mile 1986 Oslo, Norway; 7:37.07 3000m 1993 Colonge, West Germany and 13:15.86 5000 meters 1994 Berlin, Germany at age 34. He was a member of the 1983 Helsinki, Finland; 1987 Rome; 1991 Tokyo; 1993 Stuttgart, Germany and 1995 Gothenberg, Sweden USA World Championship teams.

Spivey was the head coach of men and women cross-country and track and field at the University of Chicago from 1997-2001, and had 13 all-Americans of the athletic department's 24 during that time. One individual won four NCAA Division 3 titles in 1999-2000. From 2001-2005, he was the head women's cross-country coach/assistant track and field coach at Vanderbilt University.

He currently lives in Wheaton, Illinois and works for ASICS America in college team sales.

Personal Bests
1000m -- 2:16.54 (1984)

1500m -- 3:31.01 (1988)

Mile -- 3:49.80 (1986)

2000m -- 4:52.44 (1987, American record)

3000m -- 7:37.04 (1993)

Source: TrackandFieldNews.com