Charles Bacon

Charles Bacon, London 1908

Charles Joseph Bacon Jr. (born January 9, 1885 in Brooklyn , New York , † November 15, 1968 in Fort Lauderdale , Florida ) was an American athlete and Olympic champion . With a height of 1.83 m, his competition weight was 77 kg.

At the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis , Charles Bacon was ninth in the 1,500-meter run . At the Olympic Intermediate Games in Athens in 1906 , Bacon was fifth in the 400-meter run and sixth in the 800-meter run .

Bacon experienced the high point of his career at the 1908 Olympic Games in London . Shortly before the games, Bacon ran the unofficial world record in the 400-meter hurdles with 55.8 seconds . In London he won the final in 55.0 s before his compatriot Harry Hillman in 55.3 s. Bacon even left his track for a short time and jumped over the wrong hurdle. However, he was not disqualified because the jury found that he had not gained an advantage through his detour.

Harry Hillman had won the 1904 Olympic finals in 53.0 seconds. However, in St. Louis the hurdles were only 76 instead of 91 centimeters high. Thus, Bacon's performance was now considered a world record. When the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) first recognized official world records in 1912, Charles Bacon's time of 1908 was also recognized. The time was not undercut at the Olympic Games in 1912 , if only because the competition was not held in 1912. And so it was not until 1920 that Frank Loomis improved Charles Bacon's world record.

literature

• Manfred Holzhausen: world records and world record holder - 110 m hurdles / 400 m hurdles. Grevenbroich 1997
• Ekkehard zur Megede: The Modern Olympic Century 1896-1996 Track and Field Athletics. Berlin 1999, published by the German Society for Athletics Documentation eV

Web links

• Charles Bacon in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )