Billy Mills Backs Tokyo Olympic Bid

The upset winner of the 10,000m gold medal in 1964 hopes to return to Japan for the games.

At the 1964 Olympics, American distance runner Billy Mills was hardly the favorite to earn a medal in the men’s 10,000m event. However, in the last lap of that storied race, Mills out-sprinted competitors with much better PRs to win gold.

The Japan Times recently ran an exclusive interview with Mills, a Native-American, who is now 75 years old.

In it, Mills fondly remembers his Tokyo experience and has backed that city’s bid for the 2020 Summer Games.

“My wife Patricia and I look forward to returning to Tokyo, where in 1964 I won the Olympic 10,000-meter run,” an optimistic Mills remarked. “More importantly, I became a member of the global Olympic family [there] and it was where we started our sacred journey of global unity through global diversity. A journey that has taken us to 106 beautiful countries around the world and over 1,000 tribal nations as we search for the horizon to the future and empowerment for humanity.”