Gus Pope

Gus Pope, 1920

Augustus Russell "Gus" Pope (born November 29, 1898 in Seattle ; † 1953 ) was an American discus thrower and shot putter who was active in the early 1920s. He started for the Illinois Athletic Club in Chicago , was 1.85 m tall and 95 kg heavy.

National successes

Pope won three national championships:

• 1920: Master (and at the same time winner of the Olympic elimination) discus with 44.63 m
• 1921: Master discus with 43.89 m and third ball with 13.87 m as well as Hochschulmeister ( NCAA ) discus (43.34 m) and ball (13.83 m)
• 1922: Master Diskus with 44.47 m
• 1923: Vice-champion discus with 45.19 m (behind Thomas Lieb with 46.12 m)
• 1924: Vice-Champion Diskus with 42.43 m (behind Thomas Lieb with 44.07 m) and Vice-Champion Kugel with 13.59 m (behind Ralph Hills with 14.17 m)
• 1925: Vice-champion discus (only known is Bud Houser's victory distance with 47.70 m)

International successes

In addition, Pope took part in two Olympic Games: 1920 in Antwerp and 1924 in Paris . In Antwerp he won the bronze medal with 42.13 m behind the two Finns Elmer Niklander (gold with 44.68 m) and Armas Taipale (silver with 44.19 m). All three athletes had already achieved their distances in qualifying. Four years later, Pope finished second in the Olympic eliminations. With his performance of 45.97 m, he would have won the silver medal in Paris. There he came only to 44.42 m, the 4th place behind his compatriots Bud Houser (gold with 46.15 m) and Thomas Lieb (bronze with 44.83 m) and the Finn Vilho Niittymaa (silver with 44.95 m ) meant. Here, too, all distances came from the qualification.

Top performances

In his special discipline, discus throwing, Pope has six placements among the top ten of the world's best list:

• 1920: 3rd place with 44.63 m, achieved on July 17th in Cambridge
• 1921: 1st place with 46.50 m (personal best), achieved on May 14th in Pullman
• 1922: 7th place with 44.47 m, achieved on September 9 in Newark
• 1923: 3rd place with 45.64 m, achieved on June 9 in South Bend
• 1924: 7th place with 45.98 m, achieved on June 13 in Cambridge
• 1925: 6th place with 45.39 m, achieved on July 4th in San Francisco

His personal best in the shot put is given as 14.25 m; he achieved this distance in an indoor competition on March 20, 1925 in Chicago.

Web links

• Gus Pope in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Gus Pope in the database of trackfield.brinkster.net (English)