Times Whitfield

Times Whitfield
Full name	Malvin Greston Whitfield
nation	United States
birthday	October 11, 1924
place of birth	Bay City , Texas
size	185 cm
Weight	76 kg
date of death	19th November 2015
Place of death	Washington, DC
Career
discipline	400 meter run , 800 meter run
Best performance	45.9 s (400 m) 1: 47.9 min (800 m)
Medal table
Olympic games 3 × 1 × 1 × Pan American Games 3 × 0 × 0 ×
Olympic games gold London 1948 800 m gold London 1948 4 × 400 m bronze London 1948 400 m gold Helsinki 1952 800 m silver Helsinki 1952 4 × 400 m  Pan American Games gold Buenos Aires 1951 400 m gold Buenos Aires 1951 800 m gold Buenos Aires 1951 4 × 400 m

Malvin Greston "Mal" Whitfield (born October 11, 1924 in Bay City , Texas , † November 19, 2015 in Washington, DC ) was an American sprinter and middle-distance runner who was Olympic champion in 1948 and 1952 .

Career

Whitfield, also known as the Marvelous Mal , joined the United States Air Force in 1943 . After World War II , he stayed in the Air Force, but enrolled at Ohio State University . In the early 1950s he also took part in the Korean War.

At the Olympic Games in London in 1948 , he won the bronze medal in the 400-meter run , behind the two Jamaicans Arthur Wint and Herb McKenley , the gold medal in the 800-meter run in front of Arthur Wint and the Frenchman Marcel Hansenne, and the team gold medal in the 4 x 400 meter relay together with his teammates Arthur Harnden , Cliff Bourland and Roy Cochran , in front of the teams from France and Sweden .

In 1951 he won the Pan American Games in Buenos Aires over 400 meters , 800 meters and in the 4-by-400-meter relay .

At the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 he was able to repeat his success over 800 meters and won the gold medal in front of Arthur Wint and the German Heinz Ulzheimer as well as the team silver medal in the 4 x 400 meter relay together with his teammate Ollie Matson , Gene Cole and Charles Moore , behind the team from Jamaica and in front of the team from Germany . He finished sixth over 400 meters .

He was five times US champion over 800 meters or 880 yards (1949-1951, 1953, 1954) and once over 400 meters (1952). In the hall he won the national title over 600 yards in 1953 and over 1000 yards in 1954. Starting for Ohio State University , he was NCAA champions over 800 meters and 880 yards in 1948 and 1949 .

He improved his world record of 880 yards from 1950 with a time of 1: 49.2 minutes to 1: 48.6 minutes in 1952. In 1954 he won the James E. Sullivan Memorial Award, which is presented annually by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) to the most outstanding amateur athletes. He was the first black person to receive this award. After graduating, he worked for the United States Department of State and was responsible for running sports clinics in Africa . He later ran a training camp for runners in Ethiopia .

Personal bests

• 400 m: 45.9 s, August 16, 1953, Eskilstuna
• 800 m: 1: 47.9 min, July 17, 1953, Turku

Web links

• Two-time Olympic 800m champion Mal Whitfield dies at the age of 91 , obituary on the IAAF website, November 19, 2015
• Times Whitfield in the database of trackfield.brinkster.net (English)
• Times Whitfield in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )