Olympic Gold Medalist Comes To Campus
- by R. Ankrom
Billy Mills, world-renowned Olympic champion, humanitarian, speaker, and author, is the 2012 Freshman Leader in Residence at Chatham Hall. Mr. Mills spent the day meeting with students and answering questions about his impressive past and current work as the spokesperson for Running Strong for American Indian Youth.
In addition to meeting with students in intimate classroom and meal settings, Mr. Mills also delivered a keynote address to the entire student body and invited guests.
“I nominated Mr. Mills after watching an article on 20/20,” shared freshman Mary-Michael Robertson. “It was very touching and I felt he was the perfect candidate for our Leader in Residence program because of all he has done to help Native-American youth.”
Billy Mills, a member of the Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe, was born in 1938 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. After being orphaned at the age of twelve after both of his parents' deaths, he was sent to a boarding school in Kansas, where he began running. He later received a track scholarship to the University of Kansas and was named an NCAA All-American cross-country runner three times. After graduating, Mills joined the United States Marine Corps and qualified for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. Mills stunned the entire world as he shattered his personal record by forty-six seconds to win the gold medal in the 10,000-meter race, passing the two front-runners in the last few seconds. Billy Mills is the only American to ever win the gold in this event.
Today, Mr. Mills is the spokesperson for Running Strong for American Indian Youth, an organization with the mission statement of "helping American Indian people, especially youth, meet their immediate survival needs- food, water, and shelter- while implementing and supporting programs designed to create opportunities for self-sufficiency and self-esteem."
Mills was the subject of the major motion film Running Brave and is the author, along with Nicholas Sparks, of Lessons of a Lakota. Mills travels about 300 days out of every year with his organization and speaks to groups about achieving happiness, leadership, and giving back.
Photos from his visit can be seen in the gallery section.
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