Date: March 17, 1972
Place: The Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, Virginia
Meet: The USSR vs. USA Indoor Meet

Story: Debbie Heald is a 16 year old high school junior running in her first international competition. Three weeks earlier, running for her club team, the La Mirada Meteors, she had qualified for the US team by running a 4:47 mile to place second in the national indoor championship in Madison Square Garden. Her competition in this race is Doris Brown, 29, the US champion and five-time world cross country champion, Tamara Pangelova, 28, who had set the world record in the indoor 1500 meters in the European Championship the previous week and Lyudmila Bragina, 29, who would win the Olympic 1500 in Berlin that summer. Thirty-five years later Debbie's time in this race still stands as the US high school indoor mile record. (In watching this race be aware that this is 160 yard track which requires 11 laps to make a mile. The traditional quarter mile splits are at 2 3/4, 5 1/2 and 8 1/4 laps.)