The World's Fastest Mile is NOT What You Think

In the 80's and 90's, downhill races were an extreme form of mile showdowns where seasoned runners would sprint down a long hill, with some hoping to break the 4-minute barrier. Others, however, would run much faster than the official world record, and would even go as far as to run a mile faster than even the 1500m record as well.

[RunnerBoi]

Lemme know if y'all like shorter vids like this. There's some things I wanna cover that don't constitute a documentary, but they're still neat enough for me to want to talk about.

[Icosi_Real]

with terminal velocity, you could "run" a 16.2 second mile

[kray]

Wouldn't a skydiver technically be the fastest miler under any setting? It's really just a super steep artificial hill.

[t_c]

A lot of commenters don't seem to understand what running is. No. Falling or skydiving isn't running

[undeadfury]

I love this style of video, the unofficial world records for many other sports would be so cool

[davidtt]

Someone get red bull on it. This seems like it would be right up their alley.

[BennyMKW]

i love anything involving the mile tbh but this video was particularly interesting and im surprised it doesnt have more views

[qaw]

If a seventeen year old can shave off nearly 20 seconds off of the track mile record, a woman could break 4 minutes. The only reason one hasn’t is how unpopular this race is

[Mrspookster]

Road footage is not of the Meltham course, but of Holme Moss. The downhill race at Meltham was featured in a TV program at the time. The race was cancelled after a few years as too many runners were getting out of control and falling over!

[MrJoeolive]

What's the mile world record when wearing a cape?

[josephmyers]

Since it doesn't seem like there's a limit to the decline angle, you could just skydive off an extremely steep cliff and that would decimate all these times

[ItsJustStevesWorld]

On a side note, per World Athletics, Wheeler’s fastest 1500m time converts to a 4:06 mile. Given that, and an appropriately large prize fund (and/or a large enough bonus for achieving a time goal), I think that an elite miler could easily go sub 3:10, and take a shot at sub 3:00.
Or get Corey Bellemoore to run it as a beer mile.

[AliceOutlandish]

I the top female milers of today would have a good shot at breaking the 4 minute barrier downhill, get siffan hassan on there and she has a really solid chance

[mountbara]

Interestingly, I have never heard Mike Boit's name with a french pronunciation. Is that correct?

[benmullen]

At a certain point, just skydive and move your legs ;)

[travisty]

Great quality video! One thing I would suggest... maybe you could try a different thumbnail ;)

[walexia]

That's my Dad😊 but your saying his last name wrong, he is not french. Yes he was fast...like really fast, he got a bronze in the Olympics.

[frostie]

Probably so bad for your hips quads and knees 😂😂

[lutriss]

These short videos are great, but the longer videos I prefer so I have more to watch

[decanator]

By this logic the world record mile by any standards would be a skydive