1924 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Cross Country (Men)
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| sport | athletics | ||||||||
| discipline | Cross running single | ||||||||
| gender | Men | ||||||||
| Attendees | 38 athletes from 10 countries | ||||||||
| Competition location | Stade de Colombes (start and finish) | ||||||||
| Competition phase | July 12, 1924 | ||||||||
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| discipline | Cross-country team competition | ||||||||
| Competition phase | July 12, 1924 | ||||||||
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The cross-country run of the men, which was held as part of the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris , went down in history as the Heat Battle of Colombes (alternatively also the Sun Battle of Colombes ) .
The run took place on Saturday, July 12, 1924. The start and finish point was the Stade de Colombes . Due to the enormous heat, only 15 of the 38 runners who started reached the finish. The Finnish running legend Paavo Nurmi mastered the 10,650 meter long route as the fastest with a time of 32: 54.8 minutes. His lead over the runner-up, his compatriot Ville Ritola , was almost a minute and a half.
Field of participants
38 runners from ten countries started in Colombes . A team competition was also associated with the run. The three best runners in each country were included in the ranking by adding up their place numbers - see table. The ranking was then based on the lowest number of points. France, Spain, the United States and Finland sent the maximum number of six runners into the race. Five runners started for Great Britain and four for Sweden. Italy was with two athletes in the race and South Africa, Brazil and Ireland with one each. The big favorite was the Finn Paavo Nurmi, who two days earlier had won gold in both the 1500 and 5000 meters and had also won the cross-country competition in Antwerp as early as 1920 . Nurmi's compatriot Ville Ritola was one of the favorites as the winner of the 10,000 meter run , as was the Swede Edvin Wide , who won the silver medal over 10,000 meters behind Ritola. Nurmi himself did not start in the 10,000 meter run because the Finnish officials did not want to burden him too much. Belgium, Ecuador, Luxembourg and Mexico had withdrawn their starters.
route
The route near Colombes was chosen on largely flat terrain. Of the 10,650 meters, 650 were covered on ashes, the remaining 10,000 meters on grass. However, there was hardly any natural shade along the way, which made the heat even more difficult to bear. The start was in front of the actual stadium on a meadow. The course then continued on a cinder track on a small loop in front of the stadium. From there it went on the actual circuit with a length of 3420 meters along the Seine . This course had to be run twice before going back to the stadium, where another 300 meters had to be covered to the finish.
Race and result
Individual evaluation
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The favorites passed the first checkpoint after 2700 meters together. It was led by Edvin Wide, who was also ahead at the second checkpoint. In the middle of the race, however, he had to let Nurmi and Ritola go. Wide was able to hold onto third place for a long time, but got out completely exhausted after about eight kilometers. Previously, the promising runners Väinö Sipilä and Sidon Ebeling had given up the race. On the last section, Nurmi left his last remaining opponent Ritola behind and became Olympic champion with a lead of almost one and a half minutes. The further distances at the finish were also large. More than a minute after Ritola was Earl Johnson, who won the bronze medal.
Sven Thuresson from Sweden suffered severe heat stroke , but remained the only seriously injured participant in the competition despite the heat and the numerous tasks.
Team ranking
| space | country | Athletes | Place number |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
 Finland
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Paavo Nurmi (1st) Ville Ritola (2nd) Heikki Liimatainen (12th) |
11 |
| 2 |
 United States
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Earl Johnson (3rd) Arthur Studenroth (6th) August Fager (8th) |
14th |
| 3 |
 France
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Henri Lauvaux (5th) Gaston Heuet (10th) Maurice Norland (15th) |
20th |
Only these teams managed to bring three runners to the finish.
See also
literature
- Ekkehard zur Megede : The History of Olympic Athletics . 2nd Edition. tape 1: 1896-1936 . Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin 1970, p. 162 f .
Web links
- Official report of the 1924 Olympic Games, Part 1 (French) (PDF; 19.3 MB), accessed on September 7, 2017
- List of results on sports-reference.de , accessed on September 7, 2017
100 m | 200 m | 400 m | 800 m | 1500 m | 5000 m | 10,000 m | Marathon | 110 m hurdles | 400 m hurdles | 3000 m obstacle | 4 × 100 m | 4 × 400 m | 3000 m team | Cross-country run | 10,000 m walking | High jump | Pole vault | Long jump | Triple jump | Shot put | Discus throw | Hammer throw | Javelin throw | Pentathlon | Decathlon