Gaston Strobino

Gaston Strobino
Gaston Strobino (1912)
Full name	Gaston M. Strobino
nation	United States
birthday	August 23, 1891
place of birth	Büren an der Aare ,  Switzerland
size	160 cm
Weight	50 kg
date of death	March 30, 1969
Place of death	Downers Grove ,  USA
Career
discipline	Long distance running
Best performance	Marathon: 2:38:43 h
Medal table
Olympic games 0 × 0 × 1 ×
Olympic games bronze Stockholm 1912 Marathon run

Gaston Strobino ( Gaston Maurice "Gal" Strobino ; born August 23, 1891 in Büren an der Aare , Canton of Bern , Switzerland ; † March 30, 1969 in Downers Grove ( Illinois ), United States ) was an American long-distance runner .

Gaston Strobino's parents were Italian citizens who were in Switzerland at the time of his birth. In the first year of his life, the family emigrated to the United States, where they settled in Paterson , New Jersey .

Strobino was a member of the South Paterson Athletic Club when he first started running. In 1911, The Evening Mail, a New York-based newspaper, hosted one of the first runs through the streets of New York, considered a forerunner to the city marathons and city runs that are very popular today. The run ran over 12  miles from the Bronx to City Hall and had 1,014 participants. According to newspaper reports from that time, around 1,000,000 spectators were present. The previously completely unknown Strobino reached fourth place with a running time of 1:11:20 hours. The winner was Lewis Tewanima , who was therefore appointed to the US Olympic team for the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm.

In May of 1912, Strobino also started the second run of what is now known as The Evening Mail Modified Marathon and finished second with a running time of 1:09:20 hours, only beaten by his club mate Louis Scott . Scott was also considered for the US Olympic team.

Strobino's chances of participating in the 1912 Games were bad, because he had not otherwise participated in any of the eliminations, the US Trials . Finally he was put on a supplementary list that contained athletes who would be accepted into the US Olympic team if they paid their own travel expenses. Many friends of Strobino and his association raised and donated money, and they actually managed to raise the requested amount.

Strobino 1912 at the finish line

Gaston Strobino (1910)

The team captains had decided to only let Strobino start in the marathon at the 1912 Olympic Games , even though he had never run such a long distance before. He was also the youngest runner in the field at his late twenties. Given the very high temperatures, the US runners' tactic was to run cautiously for the first half of the race. Strobino is based on Lewis Tewanima, who seemed to implement this tactic excellently. Running together, both slowly fought their way from far behind. After 25 km they were eighth and ninth respectively. Surprisingly, it was Tewanima who could no longer keep up the pace while Strobino hurried forward undeterred. 5 km from the finish, he had advanced to third place and was only 30 seconds behind the leaders. But in the end he had to submit to the previous exertions. With a pained face and bleeding feet, he was able to defend his third place to the finish.

The placements at the Olympic Games for Gaston Strobino:

• V. 1912 Summer Olympics, Stockholm
  • Marathon - bronze with 2: 38: 42.4 hours (gold to Ken McArthur from South Africa with 2: 36: 54.8 hours; silver to Christopher Gitsham from South Africa with 2: 37: 52.0 hours)

Gaston Strobino's third place in the marathon was one of the biggest surprises at the 1912 Olympic Games. In addition, Strobino went down in the history of the Olympic Games. The agony he suffered during his run made him never run such a distance again. Strobino was the only participant in an Olympic marathon who won a medal at the Olympic Games with a single run over this distance.

Back in the US, Strobino was suddenly a highly respected runner who was widely seen as the savior of US honor in the Olympic marathon. He knew how to use his popularity and took part in numerous running events, at which he was quite successful. Mainly on distances of three to ten miles, he achieved several victories between 1912 and 1914, but what he lacked was a national title.

In 1915 Strobino moved to the prestigious New York Athletic Club and in the same year he finally became a national champion in cross-country six miles.

In 1918 he was called up for service in the First World War , but was no longer sent to Europe and soon retired.

Strobino did not have a solid professional education and worked as a mechanic assistant. However, he obviously had a great technical skill and understanding of mechanical relationships. In 1920, Strobino developed a machine for forming oval objects , for which he received his first patent. A number of other patented inventions followed, including a phonograph with a significantly improved sound .

After 1928 he moved to the Chicago area , where he continued to make a name for himself as an inventor. His last patent dates from 1953. All patents are freely available today, but technically out of date and therefore of little interest.

Web links

• Gaston Strobino in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )