Donald Paul Bowden (born August 8, 1936) is an American middle-distance runner. He competed in the 1500 m at the

1956 Summer Olympics The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, from 22 November to 8 December 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, whi ...

, and in 1957 became the first American to run a mile within four minutes. At the 1956 Olympics, he failed to reach the final, coming 11th in his qualifying heat.Men 1500m Athletics Olympic Games Melbourne 1956 – Saturday 03.12
, Sport Statistics – International Competitions Archive. Retrieved October 28, 2013. Despite having previously run only a few full mile races, on June 1, 1957, he clocked a 3:58.7, setting a new American record.Don Bowden
, USA Track and Field – Hall of Fame. Retrieved October 28, 2013. He also ran on a world-record-setting 4×880 yd team for

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

. Bowden attended Abraham Lincoln High School in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

, where he was a star 880 yd runner, winning the state meet in 1953 and 1954. He then entered the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, where he again specialized in the 880 yd. After college he helped develop the

Tartan track Tartan Track is a trademarked all-weather synthetic track surfacing made of polyurethane used for track and field competitions, manufactured by 3M. It lets athletes compete in bad weather without serious performance loss and improves their resu ...

, the first artificial running surface. He was inducted into the

National Track and Field Hall of Fame The National Track and Field Hall of Fame is a museum operated by The Armory Foundation in conjunction with USA Track & Field. It is located within the Armory Foundation (the former Fort Washington Avenue Armory) at 216 Fort Washington Avenue, b ...

in 2008.

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* * * 1936 births Living people American male middle-distance runners California Golden Bears men's track and field athletes Track and field athletes from San Jose, California Athletes (track and field) at the 1956 Summer Olympics Olympic track and field athletes of the United States {{US-middledistance-athletics-bio-stub