International Olympic Committee : News

Speedy starlet Robinson makes dramatic bow

6/3/1928 12:00:00 AM

She was the first women’s 100m champion, she remains to this day the youngest and her story is one of the most remarkable in the annals of the Games.

When she ran in the final of the 100m at the Olympic Games in Amsterdam in 1928, it was only her fourth competitive race and she was just 16.

She had been spotted running after a train by her schoolteacher and was encouraged to take up sprinting. In her second competitive race, a matter of months before the Games in Holland, she broke the world record in an unofficial time.

She arrived in Amsterdam about as inexperienced as you can be but sometimes that level of naivety can work in your favour, and Robinson was far from over-awed by the occasion.

The six-woman final was whittled down to four sprinters after a series of false starts saw two competitors disqualified.

When the start finally came, Robinson surged steadily clear before winning in a world record 12.2secs, finishing about a foot clear of Canadians Bobbie Rosenfeld and Ethel Smith.

Three years later and Robinson was to experience even greater drama.

Travelling in a biplane piloted by her cousin, it crashed and Robinson was given up for dead when rescuers found the body among the wreckage. S

he and her cousin were placed in the trunk of a car and taken to an undertakers but on arrival they were found to be alive and Robinson remained in a coma for seven months.

She had suffered a broken leg, a crushed arm and severe concussion but her determination saw her recover and by 1936 she was back at the Olympics in Berlin.

So severe was her leg injury that she was unable to kneel down and could not compete in the 100m. However she was still able to run in the relay and she helped steer the US quartet to 4x100m gold in an astonishing performance.

Flying Finn Ritola signs off with fifth gold

6/2/1928 12:00:00 AM

Ville, or Willie, Ritola unfortunately played second fiddle during one of the greatest dynasties Olympic track and field has ever witnessed.

Much like the Kenyans and Ethiopians dominate distance running now, in the 1920s success in the longer events was the sole preserve of the Finns.

At the forefront of that success was the inimitable Paavo Nurmi -– whose record of nine golds stood until American swimmer Michael Phelps finally broke it – and Ritola had to long live in the shadow of his legendary countryman.

Ritola had a commanding Olympic record; four years earlier at the Games in Paris he won four golds and two silvers and his tally would have been better but for the ever-present Nurmi.

He finished runner-up to his fellow Finn in the 5,000m and the cross country but shattered his own world record in winning the 10,000m by a huge distance.

Four years later and again the medals were expected to be shared between the two team mates. Nurmi won his ninth and last gold medal in a scintillating 10,000m with Ritola clinging on until a burst down the home straight sent Nurmi past the tape about two metres clear.

Then in the 5,000m, Ritola was eager for revenge and it proved to be a highly tactical race in front of a packed, expectant crowd at the Olympic Stadium.

Nurmi upped the pace at halfway and most of the field were lagging badly. Ritola and Swede Edvin Wide kept up with the Finn and as the event entered the final 400m it was a three-horse race.

But with Ritola at the front, his head ducking inside to catch a glimpse of Nurmi on his shoulder, the decisive break came with 150 metres to go.

Ritola burst clear and Nurmi immediately glanced back to ensure his silver was safe knowing his countryman’s burst of speed had put the gold beyond him.

Radke wins controversial 800m gold medal

6/1/1928 12:00:00 AM

The race itself was an entertaining affair but the reaction to the sight of exhausted female runners prompted organisers to halt women running in races more than 200m for the next 32 years.

The 25-woman field was whittled down to nine for the final with German Marie Dollinger among the favourites after setting a new Olympic record in her heat.

The final, again played out in front of a capacity crowd in the Olympic Stadium, saw some extraordinary tactics with runners taking it in turns to surge into the lead.

The 25-year-old German Lina Radke made what proved to be a decisive move down the back straight and as the field entered the final bend she had a healthy eight-yard lead.

Radke, who was coached by her husband, checked behind her several times and comfortably held off a late charge from Japan’s Kinue Hitomi with Swede Inga Gentzel in third.

It was a new world record of two minutes 16.8 secs, but it would be the signs of exhaustion shown by some of her rivals that would dominate the headlines.

Opponents of the feminist movement said the distance race tested the endurance of women too far, with some newspapers even suggesting such exertion would speed up the onset of ageing.

The IAAF removed the 800m from the Olympic schedule and it would not return until Russia’s Lyudmila Shevtsova won the race at the 1960 Games in Rome.

Record-breaker Kuck lands American gold

5/30/1928 12:00:00 AM

Blessed with an agile frame and lightning bursts of speed, Kuck was among the favourites going into the Olympics in Amsterdam yet a broken ankle threatened to derail his chances before the competition even started.

As a student at Emporia State University in Kansas, he broke the world record in the shot put and the javelin and after a distinguished athletics career which saw him break more than 100 records the Amsterdam Games were very much seen as a swansong.

He and the German thrower Emile Hirschfeld, who claimed a new world record of his own just months before the Games started, were the warm favourites for gold when the competition started.

In the qualifying round at the Olympic Stadium his ankle injury was clear for all to see and he carefully threw the bare minimum to ensure his place in the six-man final. His US colleague, Herman Brix who would later become a prolific film actor, broke the Olympic record in qualifying.

Come the final and all the competitors were at the peak of their form. Using a more side-on throwing style to their modern-day equivalents, the standard was high.

It was clear a throw near or better than Hirschfeld’s best mark of 15.79 would be required to take the gold.

Hirschfeld fell four centimetres short but Kuck rose to the occasion. The pain from his ankle injury set to one side, Kuck sent the shot out to a new world record mark of 15.87.

Hirschfeld would become the first man to break 16 metres at a meeting in his native Germany barely a month after the Games concluded.

Williams, the fastest man in Amsterdam

5/28/1928 12:00:00 AM

When Williams turned up at the Canadian trials in early 1928, not only was he not yet 20 but he had run only a handful of 100m races in his career.

However he booked his place on the boat to the Olympic Games in Amsterdam in emphatic style with victories in the 100m and 200m events.

Williams opened in Holland with a standard 11.0 sec win in the opening round of heats but the world and the rest of the field sat up and top took notice of the waif-like Canadian when he equalled the Olympic record of legend Harold Abrahams of 10.6secs in the second heats.

In an incredibly tight set of semis, four men equalled Williams’s mark and commentators felt the favoured runners from the United States and Great Britain would come through in the final.

When the six sprinters settled down at the start line on the uneven, cinder track, there was an expectant hush among the crowd.

In his upright starting position, back straight, eyes focused forward, Williams exploded off the line and by 30 metres the race was already in his grasp.

As he crossed the line he flung his arms into the air in celebration and won by half a yard in 10.8secs from Britain’s Jack London.

A matter of days later he added the 200m title and news of his victories was greeted with jubilation in his native Vancouver.

Oda ends epic journey with landmark gold

5/27/1928 12:00:00 AM

Oda, from Hiroshima, would enter the history books at the Olympic Games in Amsterdam of 1928 by becoming the first Asian, never mind Japanese, to win an individual gold medal on the biggest sporting stage of them all.

But it wasn’t until after a journey of epic proportions to get him to the Olympic Stadium on that slightly rainy, windswept afternoon.

Oda was a particularly versatile jumper but opted to specialised in the triple jump, finishing a respectable sixth place at the 1924 Games in Paris.

Faced with making a similarly long trip to Europe, Oda’s only option was to take an epic train journey lasting several days through the heart of Siberia.

With no training facilities en route, and his meagre budget meaning he had to eat the cheapest food available – usually soup – when he arrived in Amsterdam he was not quite in the best of shapes.

But an enjoyable training environment when he got to Holland focused his mind and he knew a strong performance could earn him and his Continent’s first individual gold medal.

Running on a rutted grass track and jumping into an uneven sandpit, the conditions did not exactly suit world class jumping but it didn’t faze Oda one bit and he opened with a leap of 15.13metres.

The distance surprised him as he wasn’t the best of starters but it did serve to give him the added confidence he needed to go even further.

In the best round he recorded a mark of 15.21m which would not be bettered. By the time his medal ceremony came round, Oda had already left Amsterdam for a meet in Paris, and his gold was collected on his behalf by another Japanese athlete.

Thirty six years later at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the main stadium flag measured at 15.21m in honour of Oda’s breakthrough gold medal for Asia.

O’Callaghan hammers opposition for emotional Irish gold

5/26/1928 12:00:00 AM

He learnt the discipline using his own home-made hammer and ended up winning the sport’s biggest accolade borrowing someone else’s.

O’Callaghan was born in 1905 and was raised in a family steeped in the traditional sporting arenas of the Irish – Gaelic football, hurling and rugby.

He and his two brothers excelled in a variety of sports at school and university, yet in specialising in the hammer O’Callaghan had to overcome a number of prejudices against adopting a sport outside Ireland’s holy trinity.

Yet specialise he did and thanks to the practice using the hammer he had made himself using a shot filled with ball bearings attached to a bicycle pedal he booked his place at the 1928 Games.

He and his brothers paid their own way to Amsterdam, and yet O’Callaghan was not expected to prevail in an event where the Americans had dominated.

It was actually British thrower Malcolm Noakes who was favoured to win gold but O’Callaghan, sporting a more agile, athletic frame than many of his burlier rivals, rose to the occasion.

He qualified for the final in sixth and was trailing in the early rounds before he decided to ask the leader Oissian Skiold if he could use his hammer.

The Irishman, his face a picture of focus, sent the hammer flying out to168ft 7 inches, or 51.39m, and the gold was his.

It was an emotional occasion for the Irish nation, as it was the first time they had won gold since independence from the British in 1921 and hence the first time their new national - Amhrán na bhFiann – had sounded out over the Olympic arena.

O’Callaghan would defend his title in Los Angeles four years later. He died in 1991.

Youngster Lundqvist sends javelin soaring for gold

5/25/1928 12:00:00 AM

Using an explosive run-up and whiplash action not dissimilar to the leading throwers of today, Lundqvist looked full of confidence in the competition’s four-group format.

Favourite for the event had been Finn Eino Penttila but the occasion got to him and all he could muster was a throw good enough for sixth place.

A sign painter by trade, Lundqvist sent the javelin out to an Olympic record distance of 66.60m, well over a metre clear of his nearest rival, the Hungarian Bela Szepes.

With the neat touch of miniature national flags marking the competitors’ best throws, the blue and yellow of Sweden stood some distance ahead of its rivals.

The versatile Szepes had represented Hungary at the Winter Olympics in Chamonix four years earlier but had failed to win a medal in the Nordic Combined.

Lundqvist won gold at the age of 20 years and a month to become the youngest person to ever win gold in the event.

Thirteen days later he became the first man in history to break the 70m landmark when he threw 71.01m, breaking the record set by Penttila.

His was one of seven Swedish golds in Amsterdam, leaving them fifth in the overall medals table.

Lowe proves Paris was no fluke

5/24/1928 12:00:00 AM

British team-mate Henry Stallard was favoured to prevail but a foot injury restricted his movements and despite leading for all but the last 100 metres of the race he fell back to fourth and allowed Lowe to take the honours.

But the sense of under-appreciation weighed heavily on Lowe four years later in Amsterdam where the level of competition had become a whole lot tougher.

German Dr Otto Pelzer, Switzerland’s Sera Martin and American Lloyd Hahn had been taking it in turns to break the world record leading up to the 1928 Games.

Pelzer had won a string of British amateur titles before Amsterdam but he was struck down by illness as the Games loomed and was eliminated in the semi-finals.

Lowe had his chance to prove 1924 was no fluke and he ran a technically perfect race in the final.

The race was run at an electrifying pace but Lowe remained on the shoulder of American Hahn throughout.

It looked like the race was set for a close, blanket finish when the Englishman produced an astonishing turn of foot as the field entered the home straight.

He put the race beyond all doubt with a stunning surge which put him around eight yards clear of second-placed Erik Bylehn of Sweden. His time of 1 minute 51.8secs was also an Olympic record.

He became the first man to retain the 800m Olympic title and later went on to enjoy a successful legal career, becoming a judge in the 1960s.

Lowe was the inspiration for one of the main characters in the Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire film based on the British team’s exploits at Paris in 1924, but because he did not support the film the character’s name was amended.

Konopacka takes landmark Olympic gold

5/22/1928 12:00:00 AM

Utterly dominant in the event was Polish athlete Halina Konopacka who looked like a champion from the very outset of the competition.

Throwing from a basic circle carved out of the grass and sporting a trademark beret, Konopacka cruised through the qualifying round.

The 21 starters were whittled down to six finalists with Konopacka’s 39.17m over 2.5m clear of her nearest challenger.

With a jaunty, loose throwing action, Konopacka was the clear favourite and she didn’t let her country down in the final which started later in the day.

She was crowned Poland’s first Olympic champion and the first female discus champion when she reached a world record mark of 39.62m. It improved her own record mark by almost 50cms.

American Lilian Copeland, who would win the title in Los Angeles eight years later, finished in second place with 37.08m.

A national heroine, she further endeared herself in her country’s heart by some remarkable achievements during the Second World War when she was instrumental in moving Polish gold and national treasures to France and safety.

She became a writer and lived in the Unoted States, where she died at the age of 88.