John Walker (runner)
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John George Walker (born January 12, 1952) was a middle distance runner from New Zealand.
Walker is best known for winning the Olympic Games 1500 metres in 1976. Unfortunately, this achievement was somewhat overshadowed because 22 African countries boycotted the games to protest against a tour of South Africa by the "All Blacks", the New Zealand national Rugby team.
Walker also held the world mile record with a time of 3:49.4 minutes set at Göteborg on August 12, 1975, bettering the previous time set by Filbert Bayi.
The record lasted until July 17, 1979, when it was beaten by Sebastian Coe. Walker later became the first to run 100 sub 4 minute miles during his career. In 1996, Walker announced that he had Parkinson's disease.
| Olympic medalists in athletics (men) | Olympic Champions in Men's 1500 m |
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Teddy Flack | Charles Bennett | Jim Lightbody (twice) | Mel Sheppard | Arnold Jackson | Albert Hill | Paavo Nurmi | Harry Larva | Luigi Beccali | Jack Lovelock | Henry Eriksson | Josy Barthel | Ron Delany | Herb Elliott | Peter Snell | Kip Keino | Pekka Vasala | John Walker | Sebastian Coe (twice) | Peter Rono | Fermín Cacho | Noureddine Morceli | Noah Ngeny | Hicham El Guerrouj |