Henry Deloge

athletics
silver	1900	1500 m
silver	1900	5000 m team

Henry Léon Émile Deloge , often also Henri Deloge (born November 21, 1874 in Saint-Mandé , † December 27, 1961 in Bourg-la-Reine ) was a French athlete and medalist at the Olympic Games .

At the turn of the 20th century, Deloge was one of the world's best middle-distance runners and was one of the few athletes of that time to compete with the top US and British runners.

As a member of the Racing Club de France , the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris were a home game for Deloge, as the athletics competitions took place on the club's own sports grounds. A month before the start of these competitions, he drew attention to himself with an outstanding performance. On June 10, 1900, he ran a time of 2: 36.8 minutes over 1000 meters, which was the fastest time ever run over this distance and was unofficially reported as a world record .

Deloge took part in the 800 and 1500 meter races at the Olympic Games in Paris . Over 800 meters he was able to qualify for the finals with a victory in the preliminary run, in which he defeated three US runners, but only finished fourth there.

The heats over 1500 meters should be held on July 15th, a Sunday. Four US athletes wanted to take part. Two of them, John Cregan and Alex Grant , refused to start any sport on a Sunday for religious reasons. The organizers basically had no sympathy with the wishes of many US athletes who did not want to compete on a Sunday. They decided without further ado to forego the prelims over 1500 meters because of the lower number of participants and to organize the final run immediately. Deloge took the unexpected chance and finished second ahead of the two other US athletes, John Bray and David Hall . The winner, the Briton Charles Bennett , set a new world record in this race, but Deloge also stayed below the old record.

At the end of the track and field competitions in Paris, a 5000 meter race was held for teams on July 22nd. Only two teams competed, the British Athletics Association Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) , and for France a team from the Racing Club de France , for which Henry Deloge also started. A team consisted of five athletes. A run was held in which all ten runners participated. Deloge took third place in the race behind the two Britons Charles Bennett and John Rimmer , but the French team lost the team ranking in terms of place numbers (1st place = 1 point; 2nd place = 2 points, etc.) thanks to the poor placements of Deloge's teammates .

The placements at the Olympic Games for Henry Deloge:

• II. Summer Olympics 1900, Paris
  • 1500 m - SILVER with 4: 06.6 min (gold to Charles Bennett, GBR with 4: 06.2 min; bronze to John Bray , USA with 4: 07.2 min)
  • 5000 m team - SILVER with the France team (Gold to Mixed Team GBR / AUS )
  • 800 m - fourth with unknown time (gold to Alfred Tysoe , GBR with 2: 01.2 min)

Note: With the exception of the time of the winner, the running times are estimated as there was no time measurement for those placed. With them, the gap to the winner or the first place was determined with a length specification.

Nothing is known about the further life of Henry Deloge, who reached the age of 87 years.

Web links

• Henry Deloge in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )