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Freeman Appears on National News Program
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William Freeman |
Campbell University’s Dr. Bill Freeman, professor and chairman of the
Department of Exercise Science, made a recent appearance on ABC World
News Tonight. Freeman, who presented a paper at Oxford University during
a conference observing the 50th anniversary of Sir Roger Bannister
breaking the four-minute mile, was asked to comment on the world-famous
athlete and the significance of his achievement.
“Bannister’s accomplishment really caught the imagination of the
time,” said Freeman. “Running a sub-four minute mile was viewed as being
equivalent to an airplane breaking the sound barrier. People thought the
body just couldn’t withstand the stress, just as they believed an
airplane would disintegrate at the speed required to break the sound
barrier.”
Freeman’s paper, “Reflections on 50 Years of Motivation and Training
in World Athletics: The Impact of a Realized Dream,” was presented at
St. Cross College, Oxford at the Roger Bannister and the Four-Minute
Mile Seminar on May 6.
“It was a wonderful event,” said Freeman. “I’m sure Bannister never
dreamed that the record he set in 1954 would still be inspiring athletes
today and races around the world to commemorate its 50-year
anniversary.”
A noted sport historian, Freeman coached track and field for over 30
years and is the author of four textbooks in the sport, including
Peak When it Counts: Periodization for American Track and Field
(4th ed., 2001), which is required reading in the USA Track and Field
coach certification program, and High Performance Training for Track
and
Field (2nd ed., 1991), which was co-authored with Bill Bowerman,
a former United States head Olympic coach and co-founder of Nike.
Described by Sports Illustrated as one of the two greatest
sport achievements of the 20th century, Bannister’s accomplishment still
reverberates because he touched a spot deep within the human spirit just
as later astronauts did.
“Even now, 50 years later, we still venerate that moment in time when
those young men, striving against the odds, against the very gods of the
weather in Oxford of 1954, achieved a kind of immortality,” Freeman
said.
A teacher at Campbell since 1989, Freeman has previously presented
papers on physical education, ethics, elite sport, and the impact of
technology on sport at scholarly conferences in Canada, England, France,
Spain, German, Austria, and Australia, as well as at numerous national
conventions across the United States. Freeman has written 13 books on
physical education and on track and field and edited a collection of
newspaper columns written by his late father, Dr. Tom Freeman, for a
book titled Faith for Our Time.
Founded in 1887, Campbell University is North Carolina’s second
largest private institution of higher education and the second largest
Baptist university in the world. Located in Buies Creek, NC, just east
of the center of the state, Campbell combines academic excellence and
Christian commitment.
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