Alex Wilson (athlete, 1905)

athletics
bronze	1932	400 meter run
silver	1932	800 meter run
bronze	1928	4 × 400 m relay
bronze	1932	4 × 400 m relay

Alex Wilson (actually Alexander S. Wilson ; born December 1, 1905 in Montréal , Québec , Canada ; † October 10, 1994 in South Bend , Indiana , USA ) was a Canadian athlete who, in the 1930s as a runner over 400 and 800 meters was successful. He took part in the Olympic Games twice and the British Empire Games once, winning a total of seven medals.

After finishing his active career, he became a trainer at the University of Notre Dame , where the Alex Wilson Invitational takes place every year.

In 1954 he was inducted into the Canadian Track Hall of Fame.

He was 1.78 m tall and 66 kg.

Olympic games

400 meters

Alex Wilson started over 400 meters in both the 1928 in Amsterdam and in 1932 in Los Angeles . While he was eliminated in Amsterdam as the fourth of his semi-final run (49.2 s), he was able to improve continuously in Los Angeles: 50.5 s in the run-up, 49.6 s in the quarter-finals and 47.8 s in the semi-finals, where he came second . In the final, he managed a further improvement to 47.4 s, which won the bronze medal in front of the two highly superior Americans Bill Carr (gold in the world record time of 46.2 s) and Ben Eastman (silver in 46.4 s ) meant.

800 meters

Alex Wilson also competed in both Olympic Games over the 800 meter distance and experienced the same thing as over 400 meters: In Amsterdam he reached the semifinals (seventh in 1: 57.1 min), in Los Angeles he improved from 1: 52.5 min in the semifinals to 1: 49.9 min in the final, where he was only defeated by the British Tommy Hampson , who set a world record with 1: 49.7 min.

4 times 400 meters

Alex Wilson was a member of the Canadian team in the 4 x 400 meter relay in 1928 and 1932 , both of which won bronze medals. In 1928 he was the starting runner, and in 1932 he was able to relegate the German relay team, for which Otto Peltzer played the last lap, to fourth place.

British Empire Games

Alex Wilson took part in the competitions over 440 and 880 yards in Hamilton in 1930 and as the starting runner of the Canadian relay and won three medals: gold over 440 yards (48.8 s), silver with the relay (3: 19.8 min) and Bronze over 880 yards (1: 54.9 min).

Web links

• Alex Wilson in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Alex Wilson Invitational