Growing up on an Ohio farm, Bob Schul battled asthma and allergies. But he loved to run.
He raced against his three brothers on the farmland and then ran the mile in high school and at Miami University of Ohio.
On a rainy day in Tokyo in October 1964, he won the Olympic 5,000-meter race, besting what was considered the strongest field ever assembled for that event.
Schul, who died at 86 on Sunday at a nursing home in Middletown, Ohio, became the only American to win Olympic gold in the 5,000 and did it with a remarkable sprint in the final yards on a muddy cinder track.