Steve Scott

Because records at the time were rounded up to the nearest tenth of a second, Scott missed tying Jim Ryun's American mile record of 3:51.1 by 1/100th of a second.

Steve Scott (born May 5, 1956) is an American former track athlete and one of the greatest mile runners in American history.

The silver medalist in the 1500 meters at the inaugural IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki in 1983, Scott owns the U.S. indoor record in the 2000 meters (4:58.6-1981).

He held the American outdoor mile record for more than 26 years and also is the former American indoor record holder in the same event.

Track & Field News ranked Scott #1 in the U.S. on 10 occasions, and 11 times during his career he was ranked in the top ten in the world by T&FN.

Scott grew up in the 1960s in Upland, California.

His mother was a runner who preceded the running boom.

His father was an overweight physician who smoked and did not see the value of running.

Through his mother's influence and a coach's persistence, Scott ran on Upland's cross country team.

The persistent coach was Robert Loney, cross country coach and math instructor at Upland High School.

Steve caught track fever watching the 1972 Olympics on television, as U.S. runner Dave Wottle won the gold medal in the 800 meters.

Wottle is often remembered for running the Olympic final in a golf cap, which he forgot to take off during the medal ceremony while the national anthem played.

Wottle's cap inspired Scott, so he wore a cap in every race of the 1972 cross country season.

In his junior year in high school, Scott made the varsity squad as the fifth runner.

In track, he concentrated on the shorter distances and ran the 800 in 1:58 and the mile in 4:30.

He liked coach Len Miller and joined him at the University of California, Irvine in the fall of 1974.

He still holds the UCI school record in the 1500, and the UC Irvine Steve Scott Invitational is named after him.

While at UCI, Scott won the 1977 NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championships Division-I 1500-meter title after winning the 1500 twice and the mile once at three previous NCAA Division-II meets.

Scott ran his first sub-4:00 mile indoors at the Sunkist Invitational in Los Angeles in January 1977, his junior year in college.

The following year, he blossomed from an unknown college runner to an international miler, competing on both sides of the Atlantic.

When he graduated with a degree in social ecology in 1978, Scott had already run 11 sub-4:00 miles.

He also met Kim Votaw, a freshman runner who would eventually become his wife in 1979.

When Sebastian Coe set a mile record of 3:48.95 in Oslo on July 17, 1979, Scott finished second with a time of 3:51.11.

Scott was also an Olympian on the 1980 Olympics team which was not allowed to go to Moscow.

He ran the sub four-minute mile on 136 occasions in his career, more than any other runner in history.

However, in 1981, the IAAF started to recognize records in running events longer than 400 meters to the hundredth of a second, meaning that Scott's 3:51.11 had tied Ryun's record, depending on how the times were interpreted.

Scott won the 1500 m at the 1980 U.S. Olympic Trials but did not compete at the Moscow Games due to the U.S. boycott.

He received one of 461 Congressional Gold Medals created especially for the spurned athletes, and won the 1500 m at the Liberty Bell Classic organised for athletes from boycotting nations.

While there was uncertainty whether his 3:51.11 was at least equal to the American mile record or not, his first undisputed American record came when he ran third in another Oslo race on July 11, 1981 with a time of 3:49.68, becoming the first American to break 3:50 in the event and the fifth ever to do so.

South African Sydney Maree, who was in the process of gaining his American citizenship, ran 3:48.83 on September 9, 1981, though this time was not generally seen as being an American record.

The following year Scott broke the American mile record twice, both times again at Oslo.

Scott is also regarded as the founder of speed golf in 1979; on December 2, 1982, Scott set a record for the fastest round of golf played on a regulation course, completing 18 holes in 29 minutes, 33.05 seconds at Miller Golf Course in Anaheim, Calif. Using only two clubs and running from hole to hole, he posted a respectable score of 95.

His greatest success at an Olympic or World championship came at the inaugural World Athletics Championships in Helsinki, Finland in 1983, when he won a silver medal behind Steve Cram.

Additionally, he participated for the US team at the 1984 Olympics.

He finished 5th in the 1500 meter run at the 1988 Olympics held in Korea.

At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and the 1988 Games in Seoul, he placed 10th and 5th in the 1500 m respectively.

Perhaps his greatest legacy was setting three American mile records.

The couple was divorced in 1994.

In his senior year, Scott became the top runner on the cross country team and improved his track times to 1:52 in the 800 and 4:15 in the mile.

He finished fourth in the CIF California State Meet in the 880 yards and drew several college scholarship offers.