Alexander Decoteau

Alexander Decouteau
Full name	Alexander Wuttunee Decouteau
nation	Canada
birthday	November 19, 1887
place of birth	Red Pheasant Reserve,  Canada
size	178 cm
date of death	October 17, 1917
Place of death	Passendale ,  Belgium
Career
discipline	Long distance running
Best performance	5000 m: 15: 24.2 min
society	Red Pheasant SA

Alexander Wuttunee Decoteau , also Alexander Wuttunee Decouteau , (born November 19, 1887 in the Red Pheasant Indian Reserve, Saskatchewan , † October 17, 1917 in Passendale , Belgium ) was a Canadian long-distance runner of Indian origin.

School and work life

Alexander Decoteau was born in the Red Pheasant Indian Reserve in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Decoteau was a member of the Cree tribe . He attended the reservation's day school and then went to a secondary school in North Battleford . After leaving school, he moved to Edmonton and found a job as a farrier with his brother-in-law. In 1909 Decoteau went to the Edmonton City Police, he became the first Canadian police officer of Native American descent. In 1914 he was promoted to sergeant.

Athletic career

Alexander Decoteau developed into a medium and long distance runner. Between 1909 and 1916 he won numerous races in western Canada. So he won u. a. 1910, a Christmas race over six miles hosted by the Calgary Herald . In 1911 he won the five-mile race for the Hon. CW Cross Challenge Cup for the fifth time . In 1912 he won the annual Fort Saskatchewan 10-Mile Race for the third time in a row . His successes earned him the call to the Canadian Olympic selection. At the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm he started over 5000 meters on July 9th. In the preliminary run, he finished second with a time of 15: 24.2 min and thus qualified for the final on the following day. In the final he was plagued by cramps and reached the finish in sixth.

Despite the disappointing experience, he continued to compete in Canada. Further victories in the years up to 1915 followed. In 1913, Decoteau won a mile race to celebrate Orangemen's Day in Edmonton. In the same year he started for the Edmonton City Police Amateur Athletic Association at the Canadian Championships in Vancouver . Here he finished second over a mile. In 1915 he won the Calgary Christmas race for the second time in a row .

military service

In 1916, Alexander Decoteau enrolled as a recruit for the Canadian Expeditionary Corps. He first served in the 202nd Infantry Battalion, and later moved to the 49th Battalion. In 1917 Decoteau was shipped to the front in France. In the Third Battle of Flanders he took part in the fighting for the village of Passendale . Alexander Decoteau was shot dead by a German sniper on October 30, 1917.

Honors

In 1967, Decoteau was inducted into the Edmonton Sports Hall of Fame . The Edmonton Police Museum and Archives holds many of Decoteau's trophies and honors, including a. on the participation medal for the Stockholm Olympic Games. In 2014, Edmonton decided to create a park on the corner of 105th Street and 102nd Avenue and name it Alex Decoteau Park . A planned residential area in the southeast of the city was named Decoteau .

Web links

• Alexander Decoteau in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Canadian Dictionary of Biography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The date of death October 17th comes from the Olympic database SportsReference. The Canadian Dictionary of Biography gives October 30th as the date of death.
2. ↑ Information on Edmonton's website ( Memento from March 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive )