Herb Elliott
Elliott at the 1960 Olympics | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
Nickname | Herb |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Born | Herbert James Elliott 25 February 1938 Subiaco, Western Australia, Australia |
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (180 cm) |
| Weight | 150 lb (68 kg) |
| Sport | |
| Country | Australia |
| Sport | Middle-distance running |
| Coached by | Percy Cerutty |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Olympic finals | Rome 1960 |
| Personal bests | |
Medal record | |
Herbert James Elliott AC MBE (born 25 February 1938) is a former Australian athlete and arguably the world's greatest middle-distance runner of his era. In August 1958 he set the world record in the mile run, clocking 3:54.5, 2.7 seconds under the record held by Derek Ibbotson; later in the month he set the 1500 metres world record, running 3:36.0, 2.1 seconds under the record held by Stanislav Jungwirth. In the 1500 metres at the 1960 Rome Olympics, he won the gold medal and bettered his own world record with a time of 3:35.6.
Herb Elliot never lost a mile run and accomplished 36 wins over this distance. During his career, he broke four minutes for the mile on 17 occasions.
Elliott retired from athletics soon after the 1960 Olympics, at the age of 22. He made a career in business, and at one time was chairman of Fortescue. He was also chairman of Global Corporate Challenge health initiative.