Sport: Milers In the Money

The pursuit of the fabulous four-minute mile has long since made track a biggish business in Sweden. When promoters found that amateurs liked to eat as well as run, they began cutting them in on the profits. Last week Swedish newspapers reported that the Amateur Athletic Association had finally heard about it—and had been prop-perly shocked to find that Gunder (4:01.4) Hagg, Arne (4:01.6) Andersson and some 13 other hot-footing track stars had been eating right well. For charging as much as $500 for a single performance, the Association was about to rule them pros and rub their names—and records—off the record book.

That would leave Sidney Wooderson’s 4:04.2 as the mark for the world’s milers to shoot at. It would also leave U.S. indoor track promoters, who had hoped to offer their customers a winter fare of Hagg and Andersson, facing an immediately bleak future. One Simon-pure Swede who might help to brighten the picture: Lennart Strand, a newcomer who has beaten both Hagg and Andersson in recent months—apparently on an empty stomach.