Nice post. I happen to live a mile from and bike with Chuck Aragon, one of his American competitors at the time. I will pass this along.

Good call as always Monty. Before my time, but listening to him on Babbitville, you could make a strong case for GOAT - certainly in America. So many sub-4s!

Medical is so expensive, especially cancer.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

Thanks for the post. I had two heroes growing up as a mid western high school miler: Craig Virgin and Steve Scott. Scott was truly a class act. I don't think he had the talent of Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, or Steve Cramm, but he had more heart. Pretty cool fact about him...he once did a whole round of golf in something like 45 minutes. Not sure what his score was, but I think he was a pretty good overall athlete. And a total work horse. Good luck to him.

I ran at UCI (his alma mater) a few years after Steve, and he would occasionally join us for a run. I was star struck, but he was so humble and easy going. I'm happy to pitch in, and I wish him all the best as he kicks cancer's ass a second time.
Cheers,
John

He was often in Coe, Ovett, and Cramm's shadow, but when he ran 3:47.69, that was the second fastest mile ever. And he was by far the the most consistent - 136 sub-4 min mile races kind of boggles the mind!! He also had some legendary indoor battles with Eamonn Coghlan.

Good luck to Steve.

If you don't mind me asking, what cost $30k with regards to having kids? Did you pay for IVF out of pocket or something? We were in the hospital for 5+ days for the birth of my daughter and I think our total cost was a $100 copay.

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Portside Athletics Blog

$100 co pay is pretty incredible for 5 days. I work for a company who has what is considered (in this area) an amazing health care plan and paid around $1200 for 5 days in the NICU for our first born, which still seems very reasonable.

Edited to send prayers Steve's way

I assumed Monty meant the bill before insurance...hopefully?

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

If you don't mind me asking, what cost $30k with regards to having kids? Did you pay for IVF out of pocket or something? We were in the hospital for 5+ days for the birth of my daughter and I think our total cost was a $100 copay. //

I wish!! We had twins a month early, a really messy cesarian birth with all kinds of specialists, and then 30 days in the NicU for the kids, and an extra week and a half for my wife. Total bill was well over a million, i just quit counting at some point. Lucky for me that i had good insurance, still fighting some battles on different fronts of many of the bills. Thus far i have won almost all of them, greedy bastards just hope no one is looking close at this stuff. They are barking up the wrong tree here, i make it my lifes game to ferret out abuses and ripoffs, especially when directed at me..


But back to Steve, give what you can, if everyone just gave $5 bucks here, he would meet his goal and then some..

Wow! I love visiting America but that's just outrageous. Here in Aust nothing like that. You need Medicare over there!

When my son was born in 1970, I paid the whole thing out of pocket; $500.

Times sure have changed.

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

Ya, in 1970 i was making a $1.35 an hour plus tips. And as you point out, times sure have changed in the medical insurance business. It just got so bad, that even an unpopular president was able to ram through some type of change, most of which other much more popular presidents tried to get through. It is still lacking, i fear only a full blown single payer system will eventually sort things out, but a lot more pain for the country is in store before that happens..

Just hope that Steve ended up with some decent coverage from some company along the way. Guess he can at the very least get on Obamacare if he was frozen out of the system. Very likely he was too, from his first fight against cancer, probably the biggest red flag for companies to deny coverage for.

Full blown single payee system---it exists. It is called the Department of Veterans Affairs. Enough said.

Unfortunately gunsbuns, it looks like we're heading down the US path with our current Government advocating the sale of Medicare.

Those really were some golden days around the mile with Scott, Coe, Ovett, Coghlan, and Cramm trading records, seemingly weekly (everything compresses in the mind of a 17 year old). I believe Coghlan still holds the masters record for the mile.

I was just looking at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile_run

and see Steve Scott is only 1 second behind Alan Webb's US record and also that Coughlan's 3:47 old indoor world record is only 1 second behind Hicham El Gherrouj's.

In my mind, the golden era of the mile record was in the early 80's....just looked up the progression. The early 80's for the mile was like the early 90's for the world hour record on the bike:

3:49.03:48.95Sebastian Coe United Kingdom17 July 1979[5]Oslo3:48.8Steve Ovett United Kingdom1 July 1980[5]Oslo3:48.53Sebastian Coe United Kingdom19 August 1981[5]Zürich3:48.40Steve Ovett United Kingdom26 August 1981[5]Koblenz3:47.33Sebastian Coe United Kingdom28 August 1981[5]Brussels3:46.32Steve Cram United Kingdom27 July 1985[5]Oslo

This was a few years ago, so my memory may be fuzzy on the details, but I think I heard Steve Scott speak one time, and he told the story of being in a post race tent with Michael Johnson. Johnson had won a heat or a race and was in for mandatory doping control. Scott had been picked at random. They struck up a conversation when Scott said his son really loved watching Johnson race. "My son asked me if I could beat you in a 200," Scott said. Johnson smiled. "I told him Michael Johnson is the best in the world at 200, so no, I could not beat you. Then he asked me if I could beat you in a 400." Johnson smiled again. "I told him Michael Johnson is the best in the world at the 400, so no, I could not beat you." At this point Smith stars to smile. "Then my son asked me if I could beat you in a mile." "What did you tell him?" Johnson asked. "I told him I though I might be able to beat you in a mile." Johnson laughed. "If I ran a mile," he said, "I would DIE!"

If this story isn't true, it is at least what I wish were true.

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International Program Director
Galloway Training Programs

Greatest male American miler of all time, easy - Brian Goodell. He was last American to hold the WR in the 1,500 (at age 16 I think) and last American to win the Olympic gold in a non-boycotted games. Plus his 15:02 from 1976 would still be reasonably competitive internationally in 2014.

As for women, it's a toss up for me. Obviously Janet Evans was/is amazing and her 15:52 in 1988 was the first time a woman broke 16min. It stood for 17 years, and rarely did anyone even come close to it. Katie Ledecky though is at a whole other level right now and I would imagine her 15:28 will only be broken by her in the next 20 years. She would have beaten Evans' swim by nearly 50meters and she was lapping international caliber people at Pan Pacs. So, I guess, Ledecky is more amazing which makes her best American and best all-time - men and women.

You are talking about swimming right?

1500 meters is not a mile… (-;

Steve Scott was obviously very talented and I'm very sorry about his health issues. However, Jim Ryun far exceeds any American...ever....taking into consideration the equipment of the time.

Far exceeds is pretty strong, considering no one has exceeded, or even come close to the number of 4 minute miles Steve ran in his career. Both held world records, Ryan had a bit better olympic career, both had long held world records, Scotts being the longest at 26 years. But I'm old enough to remember personally watching Ryun race, and you are right in that he could easily be considered Americas best miler. I just wouldn't say far exceeds…

Little known fact here, Ryun was the last American to win any medal at the olympics, back in 68, a silver, until this last games. The next American to win one, also a silver, was Leo Manzano, now the top sponsored Hoka athlete. Another instance of a triathlon based product making its way into the single sport. Pretty cool, just like when i first saw Cervelo, Felt, and a couple other Tri bike brands showing up on teams in the TDF…

Back to fund raising!!!!

The three best US middle distance runners to this day..all factors taken into consideration are Jim Ryun...Gerry Lindgren...and of course..Steve PreFontaine.