Jim Ryun

Ryun participated in the

Ryun's 1,500-meter world record, run in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum during the United States vs. British Commonwealth meet in July 1967, was one of Ryun's greatest running performances. Track and Field News reported that "after 220 yards of dawdling, a record seemed out of the question." However, after 440 yards, which Ryun, in third, passed in 60.9 seconds, Kip Keino took the lead and ran the next lap in 56 seconds (the fastest second lap ever run at the time). Ryun, just behind, passed the 880-yard mark in 1:57.0. At 1,320 yards the two were side by side in 2:55.0. Ryun pulled away to finish in 3:33.1, a record that stood for seven years. With a last 440 yards of 53.9, a last 880 yards of 1:51.3, and the final 1320 yards in 2:47.4, Cordner Nelson of Track and Field News called it "the mightiest finishing drive ever seen," and said of Ryun's performance, "This was most certainly his greatest race."^[9]

Ryun's final season as an amateur was in 1972, and included the third-best mile of his career (at the time, the third fastest in history: a 3:52.8 at Toronto, Canada on July 29): a 5,000-meter career best (13:38.2 at Bakersfield, CA on May 20), and a win in the 1,500 meters at the U.S. Olympic Trials. He left amateur athletics after 1972 and for the next two years ran professionally on the International Track Association circuit.

World records

Notes:

• Because 880 yards is longer than 800 meters, the 1:44.9 was converted into an estimated en-route-time at 800 meters of 1:44.3, which equaled the existing 800 meters world record, but was not ratified as a record in that event. The 880 yards mark remained the world and American record until broken by Rick Wohlhuter's 1.44.6 in 1973.
• The 3:33.1 1,500 meters mark remained the world record for six years until broken by Tanzania's Filbert Bayi's 3:32.2 in 1974.
• The 3:51.1-mile mark remained the world record for eight years until broken by Bayi's 3:51.0 in 1975.

Athletic awards

• Track & Field News
  Athlete of the Year award for both 1966 and 1967, the first athlete to win this prestigious award two years in a row.
• 1966
  Sportsman of the Year
  award.
• 1966 James E. Sullivan Award, presented to the best amateur athlete in the U.S.
• 1966
  Wide World of Sports
  Athlete of the Year award
• Jim Ryun's
  Track & Field News
  World Rankings:

800 m (870 yd)::*1966 – 1

1500m/Mile

• 1965 – 4
• 1966 – 1
• 1967 – 1
• 1968 – 2
• 1969 – 7
• 1971 – 6
• 1972 – 9

In 1980, Ryun was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame^[10] and in 2003 into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame.

Ryan has competed in Masters athletics as well.^[11]

Personal life

Ryun was born in Wichita, Kansas. He now lives in Lawrence, though he was listed in the House roll as "R-Topeka." He also owns a farm in Jefferson County.

Ryun met his wife, Anne, when she asked him for an autograph after he broke the world record for the mile in Berkeley.^[12] They married in 1969 and have two sons, Ned and Drew Ryun, and seven grandchildren. He and his sons, Ned and Drew, have co-authored three books: Heroes Among Us, The Courage to Run, and In Quest of Gold – The Jim Ryun Story.

After graduating from the University of Kansas in 1970 with a degree in photojournalism, Ryun moved to Eugene, Oregon; looking for a good training situation to continue his track career. Six months later, he moved to Santa Barbara, California, where he and his family remained for nine years. He and his family moved back to Lawrence in 1981.

Raised in the Church of Christ, Ryun and his wife are members of Grace Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Lawrence.

President Donald Trump awarded Jim Ryun the Presidential Medal of Freedom on July 24, 2020.^[13]

Career prior to election to Congress

Before being elected to the House of Representatives in 1996, Ryun had operated Jim Ryun Sports, a company that ran sports camps, and worked as a motivational speaker at meetings of corporations and Christian groups around the country.^[14] Among his projects, Ryun, who has a 50% hearing loss, helped the ReSound Hearing Aid Company develop a program called Sounds of Success, aimed at helping children with hearing loss. Since 1973, Ryun and his family have hosted running camps every summer for promising high school aged runners.^[15]

House of Representatives

According to Ryun, he was interested in politics but did not have plans to run for Congress until

In March 2007, Ryun confirmed that he would run for his old seat.[20] In the Republican primary, he faced Kansas State Treasurer Lynn Jenkins, a slightly more moderate Republican who served two terms as State Treasurer, a partial term in the Kansas Senate and two years in the Kansas House. Ryun lost to Jenkins, who went on to win the seat in the general election, 51% to 46%.^[21]

Political actions

Ryun served on the Armed Services, Budget and Financial Services committees. He tallied a strongly conservative voting record.

Ryun generally supported George W. Bush's legislative agenda, voting to support it 89% of the time, average for a House member who was from the same party as the sitting president.^[22] In 2003, he voted against the $373 billion end-of-session spending bill because he considered it to be too costly and had come to Congress to support fiscal restraint.

Ryun broke with the President over two major initiatives,

In 2006, the National Journal rated Ryun as the nation's most conservative member of Congress.^[23] He was a member of the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of 103 fiscally and socially conservative House Republicans.

Environmental record

In 2005, Ryun scored 0 percent on the

Ryun also scored a 0 on League of Conservation Voters's ("LCV") scorecard. Many of REP's critical issues were present on the scorecard.^[25]

In 2006, Ryun improved his REP scorecard when he voted pro-environment on 2 of 7 critical issues. This earned him a 17 percent.^[26] He voted to help reduce the impact the Army Corps of Engineers had on the environment. The issues in which he voted against the REP were ones involving oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, renewable resource programs, and the movement to end debate and accept the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act.

Controversies

Townhouse purchase in 2000

On December 15, 2000, Ryun bought a townhouse in the District of Columbia from U.S. Family Network for $410,000.^[27][28][29] The townhouse had been purchased about two years earlier, for $429,000,^[30] to house Ed Buckham's consulting firm Alexander Strategy Group and Tom DeLay's ARMPAC.

After questions were raised as to the purchase of Ryun's townhouse, his office released official documents showing that Ryun paid $80,000 more than the tax assessed value of the house, that he put another $50,000 into house repairs and that another home on the same block was sold for $409,000 on the same day he bought his home. According to property records, the other home does not have a garage or a back patio and is on a land area about half the size of Ryun's. It was assessed in 2006 as worth $528,000, compared to $764,000 for Ryun's home. In contrast, homes across the street from Ryun's were sold for over $900,000.^[31]

Connection to Mark Foley

After Rep. Mark Foley resigned in October 2006, following revelations he had sent sexually explicit e-mails to teenage congressional pages, Ryun contended that he barely knew Foley, had never spent time with him and was unaware that they lived directly across the street from each other in Washington, D.C. "I know that [we were neighbors] only because somebody has mentioned that, too, already," he told reporters at the time. However, it was later revealed that Ryun and Foley had hosted a joint fundraiser on their street on May 18, 2006, called the "D Street Block Party." An invitation to the fundraiser included side-by-side pictures of Ryun and Foley. Ryun's campaign manager later said that Ryun had always known he was Foley's neighbor.^[32]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jim Ryun.

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• National Track & Field Hall of Fame entry at the Wayback Machine (archived 2006-07-21)
• Kansas Sports Hall of Fame entry at the Wayback Machine (archived 2011-07-18)
• Jim Ryun at Olympics.com
• Jim Ryun at
  Olympedia
• 1968 Olympic 1500 final on
  YouTube
• 1967 World Record on
  YouTube
• high school record on
  YouTube
• Appearances on C-SPAN

U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Sam Brownback	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kansas's 2nd congressional district 1996–2007-01-03	Succeeded by Nancy Boyda
Records
Preceded by Herb Elliott	1500 m World Record Holder July 8, 1967 – February 2, 1974	Succeeded by Filbert Bayi
Preceded by Michel Jazy	Men's Mile World Record Holder July 17, 1966 – May 17, 1975
Preceded by N/A	800 meters June 10, 1966 – August 13, 1997	Succeeded by Japheth Kimutai
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Ron Clarke	Track & Field News Athlete of the Year 1966–1967	Succeeded by Bob Beamon
Preceded by Gerry Lindgren	Track & Field News High School Boys Athlete of the Year 1965	Succeeded by Tim Danielson
U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded by Denny Smith as Former US Representative	Order of precedence of the United States as Former US Representative	Succeeded by Lynn Jenkins as Former US Representative