Around the time Zátopek was tearing up the track, Billy Mills was living in poverty in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. He was orphaned at the age of 12 and was raised on an Indian reservation rife with alcoholism. He turned to athletics for a positive outlet and eventually took up running. Mills made the U.S. Olympic track-and-field team for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. He was an afterthought in the 10,000-meter race—his qualifying time was almost a full minute slower than the favorites. However, the fiercely resilient Mills overcame a lack of international experience, a wicked shove and elbow on the
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