1920 Summer Olympics / Athletics - High Jump (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	high jump
gender	Men
Attendees	22 athletes from 9 countries
Competition location	Antwerp Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 15, 1920 (qualification) August 17, 1920 (final)
Medalist Richmond Landon ( USA )   Harold Muller ( USA )   Bo Ekelund ( SWE )

Harold Muller (USA), active here as a football player, won the silver medal in the jump-off

The men's high jump at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp was held on August 15 and 17, 1920 in the Antwerp Olympic Stadium. 22 athletes took part.

The US athlete Richmond Landon was Olympic champion ahead of his compatriot Harold Muller . Bronze won the Swede Bo Ekelund .

Swiss athletes did not take part. Germany and Austria were excluded from these games.

Existing records

World record	Edward Besson ( USA )	2.02 m	Berkeley	May 2, 1914
Olympic record	Alma Richards ( USA )	1.93 m	Stockholm	July 8, 1912

Conducting the competition

All 22 jumpers had to jump a qualifying round on August 15th (start at 4.30 p.m.). The qualification height was 1.80 meters. The final for the qualified athletes began on August 17th at 2.30 p.m.

Note: The qualified jumpers are highlighted in light blue.

qualification

Date: August 15, 1920, 4:30 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	height	annotation
1	Benjamin Howard Baker	Great Britain	1.80 m
	Timothy Carroll	Great Britain
	Bo Ekelund	Sweden
	Hans Jagenburg	Sweden
	René Labat	France
	Richmond Landon	United States
	Pierre Lewden	France
	Harold Muller	United States
	John Murphy	United States
	Thorvig Svahn	Sweden
	Einar Thulin	Sweden
	Walter Whalen	United States
13	Pierre Guilloux	France	1.75 m
14th	Eric Dunbar	Great Britain	1.70 m
	Georges Henrion	Belgium
16	Dimitrios Andromedas	Greece	1.65 m
	Jean Hénault	Belgium
	Jean Mahy	Belgium
	František Stejskal	Czechoslovakia
20th	Henri Pleger	Luxembourg	1.60 m
ogV	William Hunter	Great Britain
	William Kennedy	Canada

final

space	Surname	nation	height	annotation
1	Richmond Landon	United States	1,935 m	OR
2	Harold Muller	United States	1.90 m
3	Bo Ekelund	Sweden	1.90 m
4th	Walter Whalen	United States	1.85 m
5	John Murphy	United States	1.85 m
6th	Benjamin Howard Baker	Great Britain	1.85 m
7th	Pierre Lewden	France	1.80 m
	Einar Thulin	Sweden
9	Timothy Carroll	Great Britain	1.75 m
	Hans Jagenburg	Sweden
	René Labat	France
	Thorvig Svahn	Sweden

Date: August 17, 1920, 2:30 p.m.

Twelve jumpers reached the final. The conditions for this competition were catastrophic. Continuous rain had turned the approach area into a quagmire. The organizers tried to remedy the situation with peat heaps, which, however, brought little improvement.

When it came to the Olympic victory, Richmond Landon managed the supposed height of 1.94 m alone, which he succeeded in his second attempt. When measured, it was found to be only 16 feet 4.24 inches (1.9368 m). It is not known whether the height was also measured in the metric system. Two heights were given in post-Olympic reports: 1,935 m - in both the Official Report and the United States Olympic Committee Report - and 1,936 m - in the Finnish report ( Seitsemannet Olympialaisat Kisat ).

This was irrelevant for the outcome, Landon won gold and had set a new Olympic record with his 1.935 m despite the miserable conditions . However, this was eight and a half centimeters lower than the existing world record .

Since there were still no rules for multiple attempts or failed attempts, a jump-off was held for the silver or bronze medal, which Harold Muller won with 1.88 m. Bronze went to Bo Ekelund with 1.85 m. There was also a jump-off for fourth place - the result can be seen in the table on the left.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, pp. 143f

Web links

• SportsReference high jump , accessed September 3, 2017
• Official report , French (PDF), accessed on September 3, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 144
2. ^ Official report ( Memento of October 7, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) p. 112, French. (PDF)
3. ^ Official report, page 112 (French) ( Memento of October 7, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)
5. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)