Since the Bring Back the Mile launch in January 2012, the Mile's profile & footprint have notably increased along with event prize money and the number of American men & women breaking for the first time the recognized benchmarks: Sub-4 & Sub-4:30. The interactive charts below reflect this: The BBTM Effect.

CHART 1 note:
Due to COVID-19 race cancellations, prize money, dramatically and unsurprisingly, fell from $626,950 in 2019 to $100,000 in 2020. Excluding this past pandemic year, since 2012, prize money at Mile events has grown by more than $485,000 or 350%.

CHART 2 note:
In 2020, 19 U.S. men ran their first sub-4 minute Mile on the track, and for the 15th consecutive year, the first sub-4 U.S. annual number again reached double digits with an average of 23 first-timers over the past 9 years (since BBTM’s launch) compared to only 7 per year from 1957-2011, while four U.S. women ran their first sub-4:30 track Mile, and since 2012, first-time U.S. women to this select club have averaged just over 5 per year compared to only 1 per year from 1975-2011 or in other words, 56% of the overall total (47 women out of 84) have been recorded since 2012.

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SOURCE: Bring Back the Mile

Also, another example of the BBTM Effect, since 2015, seven U.S. high school boys, out of 12 overall, have clocked a sub-4 minute Mile!

Back to History page HERE.