Charles Reidpath

Charles Reidpath
Full name	Charles Decker Reidpath
nation	United States
birthday	September 20, 1889
place of birth	Buffalo ,  USA
size	181 cm
Weight	76 kg
date of death	October 21, 1975
Place of death	Kenmore, USA
Career
discipline	sprint
Best performance	22.1 s ( 200 m )
society	New York Athletic Club
Medal table
Olympic games 2 × 0 × 0 ×
Olympic games gold Stockholm 1912 400 m gold Stockholm 1912 4 × 400 m

Charles Decker Reidpath (born September 20, 1889 in Buffalo , New York , † October 21, 1975 in Kenmore, NY ) was an American city ​​architect, city planner, track and field athlete and Olympic champion .

Life

Reidpath studied from 1908 to 1912 at Syracuse University . It was during that time that he became a college star winning the 220 and 440 yards . After completing his studies, he should end his sporting commitment and take a position in his parents' family business in Buffalo. Nevertheless, he was accepted into the Olympic team and traveled to Sweden .

Reidpath wins the 400 meters at the 1912 Olympic Games

At the 5th Olympic Games in Stockholm in 1912 , he won the gold medal in the 400-meter run with a new Olympic record of 48.2 s, ahead of the German Hanns Braun and the American Edward Lindberg as well as the team gold medal in the 4-time 400-meter relay race with a new world record of 3: 16.6 min, together with his teammates Mel Sheppard , Edward Lindberg and Ted Meredith , ahead of the teams from France and Great Britain . His Olympic record over 400 meters was not broken until 1924 by Eric Liddell . The 400-meter run was highly controversial at the time, as the preliminary rounds and the semifinals did not start in individually specified lanes, but rather freely. The result was a confrontation between the German Hanns Braun and the American Donnell. Braun is said to have handicapped Donnell but Donnell was disqualified. As a result, the final was decided between Braun and Reidpath. In the final, Hanns Braun led the first 200 meters, but in the last half of the race Reidpath caught up and finally won the race by a minimal margin.

After the Olympic Games, he took a job with a construction company, where he stayed until 1937. He was then appointed city architect and city planner in Buffalo and was jointly responsible for the construction of the Federal Reserve Bank , as overall responsible for the architectural construction. His military career was also amazing. During World War II he served in England , France and Belgium in the supply corps. In Belgium he was made an officer of the crown after the war in recognition of his services to the important port of Antwerp in 1944 and 1945. When he left in 1948, he was brigadier general.

Reidpath died in 1975 at Kenmore Mercy Hospital after a brief illness at the age of 86.

Web links

• More detailed biography
• Charles Reidpath in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )