1936 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Pole Vault

sport	athletics
discipline	Pole vault
gender	Men
Attendees	30 athletes from 21 countries
Competition location	Olympiastadion Berlin
Competition phase	August 5, 1936
Medalist Earle Meadows ( USA ) Nishida Shūhei ( JPN ) Ōe Sueo ( JPN )
← 1932 1948 →

Nishida Shūhei (before 1935)

The 1936 Olympic pole vault competition was held on August 5, 1936 and went down in sports history because of the long battle between two Japanese and two US Americans for medals. The US jumper Earle Meadows eventually became Olympic champion. The two Japanese Nishida Shūhei and Ōe Sueo initially placed second after the US American Bill Sefton was eliminated in the jump-off for the silver medal in contrast to the two Japanese. Shūhei and Sueo decided not to continue the jump-off and the Japanese team management decided, using the then not yet valid rule of failed attempts, that Nishida Shūhei was second and Ōe Sueo third. Since the two athletes did not agree with this decision, they had their Olympic medals halved in their home country and made up of one half of silver and one half of bronze .

Existing records

• World record : 4.43 s - George Varoff ( USA ), Princeton , July 4, 1936
• Olympic record : 4.315s - Bill Miller ( USA ), Los Angeles final , August 3, 1932

Conducting the competition

A qualification took place on August 5th. At 3.80 m, the qualifying height was set so low that only five of the 30 athletes who competed were eliminated. 25 jumpers qualified for the final in the afternoon. Due to this high number, the course was set for an extremely long duration of the finale until well into the evening hours.

qualification

Date: August 1, 1932,
qualifying height in the morning : 3.80 m

The following jumpers did not make this height:

Surname	nation	height
Aulis Reinikka	Finland	3.70 m
Evald Äärma	Estonia	3.70 m
Jasa Bakov	Yugoslavia	3.70 m
Rigoberto Pérez	Mexico	3.50 m
Guillermo Chirichigno	Peru	3.50 m

final

Illustration of a medal from the 1936 Summer Olympics

Date: August 5, 1936, 4 p.m.

World record holder George Varoff had only finished fourth in the national eliminations and was therefore unable to qualify for the Olympic competition. The pole vault competition in Berlin lasted until 9:00 p.m., between 6:15 p.m. and 6:35 p.m. it had to be interrupted due to rain. When the medals were jumped, it was already so dark that the headlights were switched on. Together with the external coolness, these conditions were not easy for the jumpers. Again there was a fight between the Americans and Japanese, in which Nishida Shūhei and William Graber were involved, as in 1932 . After several unsuccessful attempts at lower heights, the American Earle Meadows was ultimately the only one to cross the Olympic record height of 4.35 m. The ranking in places two to four was decided by a playoff. Shūhei reached a height of 4.25 m just like his compatriot Ōe Sueo. Since William Sefton, who was also involved in the jump-off, had since retired, the two Japanese agreed not to continue.
The Japanese team management then determined that Shūhei should receive the silver and Sueo the bronze medal, because Shūhei had one failed attempt less. The two athletes disagreed with this decision. On their return they cut up their medals and put them back together with the other half. This unique event in Olympic sports history was seen as a true team spirit and true friendship and was known worldwide. The two medals are in Japanese as yujo no Medal ( 友情のメダル yujo no Medaru ) or in the English-speaking world as a Medal of Friendship ( German  Medal of Friendship ) or as Medal of eternal Friendship (dt. Medal of eternal friendship referred).
Of course, dividing the medals did not change the official ranking. However, it already seems a bit strange that a national team management and not the judges determine the official ranking.
Sixth place was awarded a total of eleven times with a jump of 4.00 m. There was no stinging here.

space	Surname	nation	3.40 m	3.60 m	3.80 m	4.00 m	4.15 m	4.25 m	4.35 m	4.45 m	height	annotation
1	Earle Meadows	United States	-	O	-	O	O	xo	x o	xxx	4.35 m	OR
2	Nishida Shuhei	Japan	-	-	O	O	O	O	xxx		4.25 m	4.25 m in a playoff with Ōe Sueo and William Sefton
3	Ōe Sueo	Japan	-	-	O	O	O	x o	xxx		4.25 m	4.25 m in a playoff with Nishida Shūhei and William Sefton
4th	Bill Sefton	United States	-	O	-	O	xxo	O	xxx		4.25 m	ogV in a playoff with Nishida Shūhei and Ōe Sueo
5	William Graber	United States	-	O	-	O	x o	xxx			4.15 m
6th	Adachi Kiyoshi	Japan	-	O	O	O	xxx				4.00 m	The jump-off for sixth place was waived.
	Syl Apps	Canada	-	O	O	O	xxx
	Péter Bácsalmási	Hungary	-	O	O	xx o	xxx
	Josef Haunzwickel	Austria	-	O	O	x o	xxx
	Danilo Innocenti	Italy	-	O	O	x o	xxx
	Jan Korejs	Czechoslovakia	-	xo	O	xx o	xxx
	Bo Ljungberg	Sweden	-	O	O	O	xxx
	Alfred Proksch	Austria	-	O	O	O	xxx
	Wilhelm Schneider	Poland	-	-	O	O	xxx
	Richard Webster	United Kingdom	-	O	O	O	xxx
	Viktor Zsuffka	Hungary	-	O	O	xx o	xxx
17th	Andries du Plessis	South African Union	O	O	O	xxx
17th	Ernst Larsen	Denmark	-	O	O	xxx					3.80 m
	Julius Muller	German Empire	-	O	O	xxx
	Miroslav Klásek	Czechoslovakia	-	O	O	xxx
	Fu Baolu	China	-	O	O	xxx
	Pierre Ramadier	France	-	O	O	xxx
	Siegfried Schulz	German Empire	-	O	O	xxx
24	Adolfo Schlegel	Chile	-	x o	xxx						3.60 m
25th	André Crépin	France	O	xxx							3.40 m

Review

Ōe Sueo, who studied at Keiō University during his sports career , fell in late December 1941 during World War II . Nishida Shūhei was a student at Waseda University . On June 21, 2005, his eldest daughter presented Amano Kiyoko Shūhei's medal and other sports trophies from the university at a ceremony. The silver-bronze medal was then exhibited in the Aizu Museum on the university grounds. Sueo's medal is in the Chichibu-no-Miya Kinen Sports Hakubutsukan Sports Museum .

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, pp. 288-290

Web links

• hurdler49.wordpress.com : Image of one of the Friendship Medals , accessed September 21, 2017
• SportsReference pole vault , accessed September 21, 2017
• 1936, Pole Vault, Men, Olympic Games, Berlin , published July 28, 2013 on youtube.com, accessed September 21, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 548 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ ^{a b} waseda.jp : Bonds of Friendship Tied Rivals- Waseda and Keio. Medal of Friendship , August 1, 2011, in English, accessed August 2, 2012
3. ↑ ^{a b c} 友情 の メ ダ ル . (No longer available online.) In: オ リ ン ピ ッ ク ・ メ モ リ ア ル グ ッ ズ . Japanese Olympic Committee , archived from the original on August 3, 2012 ; Retrieved August 3, 2012 (Japanese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ athleteoutreach.com ( Memento of the original from July 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Sueo Oe and Shuhei Nishida: Friendship on the Field , in English, accessed August 2, 2012 
5. ↑ sports-reference.com : Athletics at the 1936 Berlin Summer Games , in English, accessed on August 4, 2012
6. ↑ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, pp. 288f
7. ↑ waseda.jp : Medal of Friendship Donated to Waseda University - A donation ceremony for Syuhei Nishida , in English, accessed on August 2, 2012