| Steve Scott the Miller | 
 enlarge | Author: Bloom
Publisher: Hungry Minds Inc,U.S.
Category: Book
Buy New: £102.60
New (1) Used (7) from £3.53
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 1023943
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6 x 1.1
ISBN: 0028616774
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.424092
EAN: 9780028616773
ASIN: 0028616774
Publication Date: September 15, 1997
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW RARE Book ~ Dispatched from NEW YORK CITY by AIR-MAIL! ~ No VAT or Extra Shipping ~ Speedy delivery! ~ Email confirmations * LABEL: MACMILLAN PUBLISHING COMP !n!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Excellent, honest, hard-hitting - runners will love it! December 21, 1998
Steve Scott does what very few athletes do - write an honest, self-critical autobiography including details from both his professional and personal life. Runners of all types will find this book both inspirational and sobering. Steve Scott is truly the best American miler ever. Period. That is not something Steve would say, but it's true. In addition, he's a class act both on and off the track.
 America's best miler reviews his career, warts and all. April 20, 1998
The sport of track and field has only a limited audience in the U.S. American athletes typically receive recognition only after setting a world record or winning an Olympic gold medal. Steve Scott, America's top miler throughout the 1980s, did neither. In his book, The Miler, Scott writes of a running career in which he unquestionably was America's best miler (his U.S. record of 3:47.69, set in 1982, still stands), and certainly one of the world's best (10 consecutive years ranked among the world's top 10 milers by Track & Field News). Yet without a world record or Olympic gold medal to his credit, Scott remained virtually unknown outside the small U.S. track and field community. The Miler traces Scott's reluctant beginnings as a high school runner, his development into a national-class competitor in college, and his emergence as a world-class racer. Along the way we're treated to profiles of Scott's leading international competitors, all icons in the history of the mile: John Walker, Eamonn Coghlan, Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett and Said Aouita. Scott beat them all, but not in either of the two races -- the '84 or '88 Olympics -- which would have brought him the recognition and financial rewards that accompany a gold medal. The Miler is not simply a book about running. Scott details the struggles he faced to support his wife and kids early in his career, when track and field was still regarded as an "amateur" sport. Scott also writes frankly of the toll the nomadic career of a track and field athlete exacted upon his marriage. Although it probably was cathartic for Scott to write these passages, it is uncomfortable for even a dedicated track & field fan to read. Despite this, I admire Scott for his willingness to write something other than the puff pieces that frequently pass for the biographies of famous athletes. He deals frankly with some of track and fields' unsavory elements -- unscrupulous meet promoters, under-the-table payments, agents, drugs, stars avoiding races with potential rivals, and track's governing bodies -- and isn't afraid of putting himself in the middle of situations that don't frame him in the best light. In fact, perhaps in an effort to balance his career's many triumphs, he frequently seems to come down too hard on himself. He writes extensively of his failures at the Olympics, but covers the race in which he set the American record for the mile in a few paragraphs. He takes great pride in having run more sub-4 minute miles (136) than any miler in history, but dwells more on how another runner, John Walker, beat him to the "media friendly" 100th sub-4 mile goal. I would have liked to have read more of his numerous triumphs, and less of his real or perceived shortcomings. Scott also write of the challenge of, and eventual triumph over, his most formidable opponent: cancer. The story of his recovery from testicular cancer and return to competition demonstrates that sheer force of will, more than physical ability, is the true mark of a champion. The Miler certainly will appeal to fans of track & field. But it should also find a wider audience among those who are curious as to the challenges, costs and rewards that come to those who strive for world class status in any field. For in The Miler Scott shows himself to be a winner not only on the track, but also in the ongoing race called life.
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