Earle Meadows

Earle Meadows at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin

Earle Meadows (born June 29, 1913 in Corinth , Mississippi , † November 11, 1992 in Fort Worth , Texas ) was an American athlete who was successful in the pole vault before World War II . He won Olympic gold and set two world records.

Since Earle Meadows achieved two of his three NCAA championship titles (1935-1937), the AAU title in 1935 and also his two world records together with his teammate William "Bill" Sefton , Meadows and Sefton became the "heavenly twins" ( The Heavenly Twins ). Only in 1936 in Berlin the “twins” separated: Earle Meadows became Olympic champion by jumping 4.35 m, while Bill Sefton was 4.25 m without a medal.

Meadows also won the US Indoor Championships three times (1937, 1940 and 1941, the latter with an indoor record). In 1996 he was posthumously inducted into the National Track & Field Hall of Fame.

successes

• World record (together with Bill Sefton) with 4.48 m (14 '8 ½ ") on May 8, 1937 in Stanford
• World record (together with Bill Sefton) with 4.54 m (14'11 ") on May 29, 1937 in Los Angeles

Another world record attempt at this event had to be omitted because the bar could no longer be raised for technical reasons.

• Gold with 4.35 m at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin

Web links

• Earle Meadows in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• USC Trojans Hall of Fame