Earl Thomson

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Earl Thomson 1920

Earl John "Tommy" Thomson (born February 15, 1895 in Birch Hills , Saskatchewan , † April 19, 1971 in Oceanside , California ) was a Canadian athlete and Olympic champion.

The Thomson family had moved to California when Earl was eight years old. But she had retained her Canadian citizenship, so that the AAU champion of 1918 (on the 120-yard distance) could compete for Canada in the 110-meter hurdles at the 1920 Olympic Games .

Thomson was favored after he had set a world record in the 120-yard hurdles on May 29, 1920 in Philadelphia with 14.4 s. That time was six tenths of a second better than Forrest Smithson's world record on the metric route, which is only 27 centimeters longer. This world record was not broken until 1931.

Thomson and the American Harold Barron equalized the world record of 15.0 s in the 110-meter intermediate run of the Olympic Games . Thomson then won the final in a new world record of 14.8 seconds ahead of Barron in 15.0 seconds.

Thomson was again AAU champion in 1921 and 1922 and then retired from competitive sports. Thomson later served as an athletics coach at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis for 36 years .

literature

  • 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
personal data
SURNAME Thomson, Earl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thomson, Earl John (full name); Thomson, Tommy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian athlete
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Birch Hills
DATE OF DEATH April 19, 1971
Place of death Oceanside (California)