Lacey Hearn

athletics
bronze	1904	1500 meter run
silver	1904	4 mile team run

Lacey Hearn ( Lacey Earnest Hearn ; born March 3, 1881 in Portland , Indiana , † October 18, 1969 in Fort Wayne , Indiana) was an American athlete and as a middle-distance runner a medalist at the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis .

Life

Hearn attended Purdue University . In 1903 he started a mile run for his university in competitions of the Big Ten Conference and won it. At the same time, Frank Verner , another top middle-distance runner, also attended university. Hearn benefited from the more successful Verner, and when the most well-known sports clubs and universities proposed their athletes for the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis - the eliminations that were common in the USA at that time - Hearn was one of the selected participants alongside Verner. As a member of the Chicago Athletic Association , he then went to St. Louis.

The first competition for Hearn in St. Louis was the 800-meter run , which was held in a single run with 13 athletes. At no time was Hearn able to intervene in the battle for the first places. His deficit was so great that no placement was noted for him.

Two days later the 1500 meter run was on the program. Nine athletes started in the only decisive run, seven of them came from the United States. This time Hearn had divided his forces better, because only towards the end of the race did he make up space after space and came third behind his club and student colleague Verner.

On the same day, the last athletics competition was a team run over 4 miles , which was actually a city battle between runners from Chicago and New York City . The Chicago runners have been announced as a team for the Chicago Athletic Association . A run was held in which ten runners (five for each team) took part. The team evaluation was based on the number of places (1st place = 1 point; 2nd place = 2 points etc.). Lacey Hearn started for the Chicago Athletic Association and finished fourth out of all ten runners, again one place behind Verner. However, his team lost the rating against the team of the New York Athletic Club, statistically they finished second despite the defeat, because other teams were not at the start.

For Hearn, the Olympic Games were undoubtedly the highlight of his short sporting career, because after that his name no longer appeared in the winners' lists of various competitions. He focused entirely on his studies at Purdue University, where he graduated as an electrical engineer in 1905 . However, he later changed his profession and became a real estate agent .

Placements at the Olympic Games

• III. 1904 Olympic Games, St. Louis
  • 1500 m - bronze without specifying time or delay (gold to James Lightbody from the USA with 4: 05.4 min; silver to Frank Verner from the USA with 4: 06.8 min)
  • 4 Mile Team - Silver with Mixed Team Chicago Athletic Association (Gold to New York Athletic Club, USA)
  • 800 m - Participated in the final (gold to James Lightbody from the USA with 1: 56.0 min)

Web links

• Lacey Hearn in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )