DeHart Hubbard

Hubbard 1924

DeHart Hubbard ( William DeHart Hubbard ; born November 25, 1903 in Cincinnati , Ohio , † June 23, 1976 in Cleveland , Ohio) was an American athlete who was successful in the 1920s as a long and triple jumper. He became an Olympic champion, set a world record and won ten national championships. His Olympic victory in the long jump was the first gold for a black in an individual discipline (the Haitian Constantin Henriquez had won rugby for France in 1900 , John Taylor won the first African American in the relay in 1908).

Career

In the long jump he was national champion six times in a row between 1922 and 1927. There were also two triple jump titles:

year	1922	1923	1924	1925	1926	1927
Width (m)	7.44-14.67	7.51-14.34	7.31	7.73	7.68	7.84

In 1928 he was third in the long jump.

At the Olympic Games in Paris in 1924 he won the gold medal with 7.44 m in front of his compatriot Edward Gourdin (silver with 7.27 m) and the Norwegian Sverre Hansen (bronze with 7.26 m). He also started in the triple jump, but failed in the preliminary fight. He also took part in the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam without reaching the final battle.

Another year of success for him was 1925, when he not only won the state championship, but also two university championships - he started for the University of Michigan : He won over 100 y with 9.8 seconds and in the long jump with 7.90 m. However, this feat was not recognized as a world record because the take-off board was an inch higher than the landing pit. On June 13 of the same year in Chicago , however, he managed a second jump almost as long: with 7.89 m, he improved the previous world record of his compatriot Robert LeGendre by 13 centimeters. The record lasted for three years.

Web links

• USA Track & Field Hall of Fame entry
• DeHart Hubbard in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ARD