Local Olympic gold medalist to speak at Air Force Marathon

FILE: The year 2014 marked the 50th anniversary of West Milton’s Bob Schul’s gold medal victory in the 5,000 meters at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics

FILE: The year 2014 marked the 50th anniversary of West Milton’s Bob Schul’s gold medal victory in the 5,000 meters at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics

A local American gold medal winner is set to speak at the Air Force Marathon in September.

Vetaran and Ohioan Bob Schul will join Paralympic gold medalist Grace Norman who is already scheduled to speak at the marathon, according to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Schul was the first and only American runner to win the 5,000 meters at the 1964 Olympic games.

He is a native of West Milton and began his running career in 1956 when he joined the track team at Miami University, according to Wright-Patt. Schul broke the Miami University record in the mile and in 1960.

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He went on to join the Air Force and was assigned to Oxnard AFB in California where he ran in the USA championships.

In 1961, Schul was trained by Hungarian coach Mihaly Igloi, and under his training, he finished third at the national championships in the 3,000 meter steeplechase and went on to become the U.S. indoor champion, according to Wright-Patt.

After returning to Miami in 1963, he qualified for the Olympic team and won gold medal in the 5,000 meters at the 1964 summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

Schul set five American records and one world record during his career and won three national championships. He has since served as the national coach for Malaysia, trained at Wright-Patt with the Air Force’s top distance runners and coached cross country at Wright State University, according to the base.

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