Abel Kiviat

Abel Kiviat
Abel Kiviat (1912)
Full name	Abel Richard Kiviat
nation	United States
birthday	June 23, 1892
place of birth	New York ,  USA
size	172 cm
Weight	66 kg
date of death	August 24, 1991
Place of death	Lakehurst , USA
Career
discipline	Middle distance run
Best performance	1500 m: 3: 55.8 min; 1 mile: 4: 15.6 min
society	I-AAC Queens
Medal table
Olympic games 1 × 1 × 0 ×
Olympic games gold Stockholm 1912 3000 meter team run silver Stockholm 1912 1500 m

Abel Kiviat ( Abel Richard Kiviat ; born June 23, 1892 in New York , † August 24, 1991 in Lakehurst , New Jersey ) was an American middle-distance runner .

On June 8, 1912, he set the first official world record in the 1,500 meter run in Cambridge (Massachusetts) with 3: 55.8 . This made him a favorite for the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm . In the final, however, he was surprisingly defeated by Briton Arnold Jackson (3: 56.8 min) in a very close finish and won silver in 3: 56.9 min from his compatriot Norman Taber (also 3: 56.9 min). Kiviat also took part in the team run over 3000 meters and was the best of his team in the preliminary run. In the final, he dropped out when he realized that he would not be included in the ranking, but was nevertheless awarded a gold medal like the other members of the victorious US team.

On February 15, 1913, he set an indoor world record over 1 mile in New York City with 4: 18.2 minutes .

He was three times US champion over 1 mile (1911, 1912, 1914) and once in cross country (1913). In the hall he won the national title over 600 yards twice (1911, 1913) and three times over 1000 yards (1911, 1913, 1914).

Abel Kiviat, who was only 1.60 m tall, was 99 years old and invited to the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles as the last survivor of the 1912 Olympic team.

Web links

• Abel Kiviat in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

The winning team over 3000 meters (from left to right):
Abel Kiviat, Norman Taber , Louis Scott , Tell Berna , George Bonhag