Donald Paige (born October 13, 1956 in Baldwinsville, New York

Baldwinsville, New York

Baldwinsville is a village in Onondaga County, New York, United States. The population was 7,053 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Syracuse Metropolitan Statistical Area....

) is a retired middle distance runner

Running

Running is a means of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. It is simply defined in athletics terms as a gait in which at regular points during the running cycle both feet are off the ground...

 from the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, who set the world best year performance in the men's 800 metres in 1980. Paige ran 1:44.53 on 23 June 1980 in Eugene

Eugene, Oregon

Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...

, Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

, U.S. After the U.S. boycotted 1980 Olympic Games

1980 Summer Olympics

The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament...

, he defeated Olympic gold medalist Sebastian Coe by 0.03 seconds in an 800 meter race in Via Reggio, Italy and was later ranked number one in the world for the 800m in 1980 by Track & Field News

Track & Field News

Track & Field News is a magazine founded in 1948 by brothers Bert Nelson & Cordner Nelson, focused on the world of track and field.The magazine provides coverage of athletics in the U.S.A. from the high school to national level as well as covering the sport on an international bases. The magazine...

 magazine. His personal best in the same event came three years later: 1:44.29, achieved on 4 September 1983 in Rieti

Rieti

Rieti is a city and comune in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of c. 47,700. It is the capital of province of Rieti.The town centre rests on a small hilltop, commanding a wide plain at the southern edge of an ancient lake. The area is now the fertile basin of the Velino River...

, Lazio, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.

In 1979 Paige ran an indoor American Record of 2:20.3 for 1000m and a few months later ran a personal best of 3:54.6 for the mile. In June he pulled off a rare 800m/1500m double at the NCAA championships, becoming only the third man to win both events after Ron Delany

Ron Delany

Ronald Michael Delany , better known as Ron or Ronnie is a former Irish athlete, who specialised in middle distance running.Born in Arklow, Delany moved with his family to Dublin when he was 6...

(1958) and Ross Hume (1945). (In the 800, run only 35 minutes after the 1500m final, he ran a rare negative split race of 54.3/51.9, while in the 1500 he closed his last lap in a swift 53.7, the last 200 being covered in 26.2 seconds.) Two weeks later Paige ran a personal best for the 1500 of 3:37.4, good for 10th place on the all-time U.S. list at that time, in finishing second to Steve Scott at the AAU championships.

Paige ran 3:54.19, his lifetime best for the mile, on May 16, 1982.