1952 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Decathlon (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Decathlon
gender	Men
Attendees	28 athletes from 16 countries
Competition location	Helsinki Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	25./26. July 1952
Medalist Bob Mathias ( USA )   Milt Campbell ( USA )   Floyd Simmons ( USA )

The men's decathlon at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki was played on July 25 and 26, 1952. 28 athletes took part, of which 21 finished the competition. A new point table developed in 1952 was used for the Olympic competition.

The US team celebrated a triple success of their athletes. Bob Mathias defended his Olympic victory in 1948 . He won ahead of Milt Campbell and Floyd Simmons .

Josef Hipp and Friedel Schirmer from Germany took part. Hipp finished fifth in the final, Schirmer came in eighth. Switzerland was represented by Max Wehrli, who reached 18th place. Austrian decathletes did not take part.

Existing records

World record	8042 points (7287)	Bob Mathias ( USA )	Tulare , USA	June 30, 1950
Olympic record	7900 points (7254)	Glenn Morris ( USA )	Berlin , Germany	7th / 8th August 1936

Note: The scores are based on the 1934 decathlon table used at that time. The points achieved according to the table valid today are given in brackets.

Conducting the competition

The decathlon was carried out according to the same rules as today. The ten disciplines took place over two days. The new points table from 1952 was used for scoring.

Competition schedule

July 25:
10.00 a.m .: 100 m
11.00 a.m .: long jump
3.00 p.m .: shot put
4.30 p.m .: high jump
6.30 p.m .: 400 m

July 26:
10.00 a.m .: 110 m hurdles
10.50 a.m .: discus throw
2.00 p.m .: pole vault
4.30 p.m .: javelin throw
6.30 p.m .: 1500 m

Attendees

28 athletes from 16 countries took part in the Olympic competition:

Surname	nation
Bob Adams	Canada
Georges Breitman	France
Milt Campbell	United States
Geoff Elliott	Great Britain
Fernando Fernandes	Portugal
Hernán Figueroa	Chile
Hugues Frayer	France
Erkki Hautamäki	Finland
Ignace Heinrich	France
Josef Hipp	BR Germany
Brígido Iriarte	Venezuela
Pyotr Koshevnikov	Soviet Union
Fotios Kosmas	Greece
Sergei Kuznetsov	Soviet Union
Eeles Landström	Finland
Pat Leane	Australia
Bob Mathias	United States
Reinaldo Oliver	Puerto Rico
Oto Rebula	Yugoslavia
Olli Reikko	Finland
Héctor Roman	Puerto Rico
Friedel Schirmer	BR Germany
Floyd Simmons	United States
Kjell Tånnander	Sweden
Carlos Vera	Chile
Max Wehrli	Switzerland
Göran Widenfelt	Sweden
Vladimir Volkov	Soviet Union

Disciplines

100 meter run

The discipline was carried out in nine runs.
Milt Campbell (USA) ran the fastest time ever in an Olympic decathlon over 100 meters with 10.7 seconds .

Classification space Surname time Points 01 Campbell 10.7 s 1034 02 Mathias 10.9 s 948 03 Vera 11.1 s 870 04th Reikko 11.3 s 800 05 Elliott 11.4 s 768 Hipp Koshevnikov Kuznetsov Tånnander Widenfelt Volkov 12 Fernandes 11.5 s 737 Heinrich Cosmas Simmons 16 Frayer 11.6 s 707 Iriarte 18th Figueroa 11.7 s 678 Rebula Novel Schirmer 22nd Adams 11.8 s 650 Wehrli 24 Leane 11.9 s 623 Oliver 26th Landstrom 12.0 s 597 27 Hautamäki 12.1 s 572 28 Breitman 13.8 s 254

Long jump

Classification space Surname Expanse Points 01 Heinrich 7.10 m 818 02 Kuznetsov 7.09 m 815 Volkov 04th Iriarte 7.06 m 804 Simmons 06th Mathias 6.98 m 779 07th Vera 6.96 m 773 08th Tånnander 6.90 m 755 09 Hipp 6.85 m 740 10 Frayer 6.80 m 725 11 Widenfelt 6.76 m 713 12 Campbell 6.74 m 707 13 Landstrom 6.70 m 695 14th Reikko 6.66 m 684 15th Rebula 6.64 m 678 16 Fernandes 6.52 m 645 17th Wehrli 6.48 m 635 18th Novel 6.47 m 632 19th Elliott 6.44 m 624 20th Figueroa 6.38 m 608 21st Hautamäki 6.37 m 605 Schirmer 23 Adams 6.22 m 567 24 Cosmas 6.20 m 562 25th Oliver 6.15 m 550 26th Koshevnikov 5.80 m 466 27 Breitman 5.43 m 385 28 Leane 5.22 m 341

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Campbell 1741 02 Mathias 1727 03 Vera 1643 04th Kuznetsov 1583 Volkov 06th Heinrich 1555 07th Simmons 1541 08th Tånnander 1523 09 Iriarte 1511 10 Hipp 1508 11 Reikko 1484 12 Widenfelt 1481 13 Frayer 1432 14th Elliott 1392 15th Fernandes 1382 16 Rebula 1356 17th Novel 1310 18th Cosmas 1299 19th Landstrom 1292 20th Figueroa 1286 21st Wehrli 1285 22nd Schirmer 1283 23 Koshevnikov 1234 24 Adams 1217 25th Hautamäki 1177 26th Oliver 1173 27 Leane 964 28 Breitman 639

Shot put

The Australian Pat Leane, the Greek Fotios Kosmas and the Soviet Russian Pyotr Koschewnikow did not compete in the third discipline, the shot put .

Classification space Surname Expanse Points 01 Mathias 15.30 m 912 02 Campbell 13.89 m 759 03 Hipp 13.26 m 696 04th Simmons 13.18 m 688 05 Tånnander 12.97 m 669 06th Rebula 12.90 m 663 07th Figueroa 12.87 m 660 08th Heinrich 12.83 m 656 09 Wehrli 12.73 m 647 10 Schirmer 12.69 m 644 11 Volkov 12.62 m 637 12 Elliott 12.40 m 618 13 Frayer 12.36 m 614 14th Hautamäki 12.19 m 599 15th Adams 12.01 m 582 16 Reikko 11.85 m 568 17th Landstrom 11.75 m 560 18th Kuznetsov 11.71 m 556 19th Iriarte 11.66 m 552 20th Widenfelt 11.61 m 548 21st Novel 11.56 m 544 22nd Fernandes 11.20 m 516 23 Oliver 10.22 m 437 24 Vera 9.52 m 387 25th Breitman 9.28 m 369

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Mathias 2639 02 Campbell 2500 03 Simmons 2229 04th Volkov 2220 05 Heinrich 2211 06th Hipp 2204 07th Tånnander 2192 08th Kuznetsov 2139 09 Iriarte 2063 10 Reikko 2052 11 Frayer 2046 12 Vera 2030 13 Widenfelt 2029 14th Rebula 2019 15th Elliott 2010 16 Figueroa 1946 17th Wehrli 1932 18th Schirmer 1927 19th Fernandes 1898 20th Novel 1854 21st Landstrom 1852 22nd Adams 1799 23 Hautamäki 1776 24 Oliver 1610 25th Breitman 1008

high jump

Classification space Surname height Points 01 Widenfelt 1.94 m 960 02 Simmons 1.92 m 930 03 Mathias 1.90 m 900 04th Heinrich 1.88 m 872 05 Campbell 1.85 m 832 Tånnander 07th Schirmer 1.80 m 770 08th Adams 1.75 m 711 Elliott Hipp Landstrom Vera Volkov 14th Fernandes 1.70 m 656 Hautamäki Oliver Reikko 18th Frayer 1.65 m 605 Kuznetsov Rebula Novel 22nd Figueroa 1.60 m 555 Iriarte Wehrli 25th Breitman 1.50 m 464

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Mathias 3539 02 Campbell 3332 03 Simmons 3159 04th Heinrich 3083 05 Tånnander 3024 06th Widenfelt 2989 07th Volkov 2931 08th Hipp 2915 09 Kuznetsov 2744 10 Vera 2741 11 Elliott 2721 12 Reikko 2708 13 Schirmer 2697 14th Frayer 2651 15th Rebula 2624 16 Iriarte 2618 17th Landstrom 2563 18th Fernandes 2554 19th Adams 2510 20th Figueroa 2501 21st Wehrli 2487 22nd Novel 2459 23 Hautamäki 2432 24 Oliver 2266 25th Breitman 1472

400 meter run

The discipline was carried out in eight runs.
The Chilean Carlos Vera did not participate in this fifth discipline.

Classification space Surname time Points 01 Mathias 50.2 s 828 02 Reikko 50.3 s 821 03 Schirmer 50.5 s 807 04th Campbell 50.9 s 779 05 Heinrich 51.0 s 772 06th Simmons 51.1 s 765 07th Fernandes 51.2 s 758 Volkov 09 Frayer 51.3 s 751 Hipp Widenfelt 12 Tånnander 52.6 s 666 13 Novel 52.7 s 660 14th Figueroa 52.8 s 654 Kuznetsov 16 Elliott 53.0 s 642 17th Iriarte 53.1 s 636 18th Oliver 53.4 s 618 19th Hautamäki 53.9 s 588 20th Rebula 54.3 s 565 21st Wehrli 54.7 s 545 22nd Adams 55.2 s 520 23 Landstrom 56.7 s 445 24 Breitman 1: 03.9 min 189

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Mathias 4367 02 Campbell 4111 03 Simmons 3924 04th Heinrich 3855 05 Widenfelt 3740 06th Tånnander 3690 07th Volkov 3689 08th Hipp 3666 09 Reikko 3529 10 Schirmer 3504 11 Frayer 3402 12 Kuznetsov 3398 13 Elliott 3363 14th Fernandes 3312 15th Iriarte 3254 16 Rebula 3189 17th Figueroa 3155 18th Novel 3119 19th Wehrli 3032 20th Adams 3030 21st Hautamäki 3020 22nd Landstrom 3008 23 Oliver 2884 24 Breitman 1661

110 meter hurdles

The discipline was carried out in eight runs.
The French Georges Breitman did not participate in this sixth discipline.
With 14.5 seconds, Milt Campbell ran the fastest time ever in an Olympic decathlon over the 110 meter hurdles .

Classification space Surname time Points 01 Campbell 14.5 s 953 02 Mathias 14.7 s 894 03 Simmons 15.0 s 813 04th Frayer 15.4 s 716 05 Elliott 15.7 s 652 06th Fernandes 15.8 s 632 Tånnander Volkov 09 Heinrich 16.0 s 593 Rebula Schirmer 12 Hipp 16.1 s 575 Widenfelt 14th Hautamäki 16.3 s 540 15th Figueroa 16.4 s 523 Kuznetsov Novel Wehrli 19th Adams 16.6 s 489 Iriarte 21st Oliver 16.7 s 473 22nd Landstrom 17.1 s 413 23 Reikko 18.8 s 208

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Mathias 5261 02 Campbell 5064 03 Simmons 4737 04th Heinrich 4448 05 Tånnander 4322 06th Volkov 4321 07th Widenfelt 4315 08th Hipp 4241 09 Frayer 4118 10 Schirmer 4097 11 Elliott 4015 12 Fernandes 3944 13 Kuznetsov 3921 14th Rebula 3782 15th Iriarte 3743 16 Reikko 3737 17th Figueroa 3678 18th Novel 3642 19th Hautamäki 3560 20th Wehrli 3555 21st Adams 3519 22nd Landstrom 3421 23 Oliver 3357

Discus throw

The French Ignace Heinrich did not take part in the seventh discipline, the discus throw .
With 46.98 m, Bob Mathias achieved the largest distance of an Olympic discus throwing competition in the decathlon.

Classification space Surname Expanse Points 01 Mathias 46.89 m 838 02 Hipp 45.84 m 802 03 Adams 42.45 m 696 04th Kuznetsov 41.04 m 656 05 Campbell 40.50 m 640 06th Frayer 40.02 m 627 07th Widenfelt 39.53 m 613 08th Tånnander 39.30 m 607 09 Rebula 38.55 m 587 10 Iriarte 38.23 m 578 11 Figueroa 38.08 m 574 12 Volkov 38.04 m 573 13 Simmons 37.77 m 566 14th Hautamäki 37.20 m 552 15th Schirmer 37.01 m 547 16 Wehrli 36.81 m 541 17th Landstrom 34.51 m 483 18th Fernandes 34.27 m 477 19th Elliott 34.21 m 476 20th Novel 32.98 m 446 21st Reikko 30.72 m 392 22nd Oliver 29.95 m 374

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Mathias 6099 02 Campbell 5704 03 Simmons 5303 04th Hipp 5043 05 Tånnander 4929 06th Widenfelt 4928 07th Volkov 4894 08th Frayer 4745 09 Schirmer 4644 10 Kuznetsov 4577 11 Elliott 4491 12 Fernandes 4421 13 Rebula 4369 14th Iriarte 4321 15th Figueroa 4252 16 Adams 4215 17th Reikko 4129 18th Hautamäki 4112 18th Wehrli 4096 20th Novel 4088 21st Landstrom 3904 22nd Oliver 3731

Pole vault

At 4.20 m, the Finn Eeles Landström achieved the greatest height in the pole vault that was skipped in an Olympic decathlon.

Classification space Surname height Points 01 Landstrom 4.20 m 855 02 Elliott 4.10 m 795 03 Mathias 4.00 m 745 04th Wehrli 3.80 m 645 Volkov 06th Adams 3.70 m 596 07th Kuznetsov 3.60 m 556 Simmons 09 Figueroa 3.50 m 516 Hipp Oliver Reikko Schirmer Tånnander Widenfelt 16 Frayer 3.40 m 476 Hautamäki Iriarte Rebula Novel 21st Campbell 3.30 m 438 22nd Fernandes 3.00 m 328

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Mathias 6844 02 Campbell 6142 03 Simmons 5859 04th Hipp 5559 05 Volkov 5539 06th Tånnander 5445 07th Widenfelt 5444 08th Elliott 5286 09 Frayer 5221 10 Schirmer 5160 11 Kuznetsov 5133 12 Rebula 4845 13 Adams 4811 14th Iriarte 4797 15th Figueroa 4768 16 Landstrom 4759 17th Fernandes 4749 18th Wehrli 4741 19th Reikko 4645 20th Hautamäki 4588 21st Novel 4564 22nd Oliver 4247

Javelin throw

Eeles Landström (FIN) took second place in the javelin throw. In the final statement he came in 14th.

Classification space Surname Expanse Points 01 Mathias 59.21 m 715 02 Landstrom 57.61 m 680 03 Oliver 56.68 m 660 Volkov 05 Iriarte 55.55 m 637 06th Simmons 54.69 m 620 07th Campbell 54.54 m 617 08th Hipp 54.14 m 609 09 Schirmer 54.00 m 606 10 Hautamäki 53.57 m 597 11 Tånnander 52.79 m 582 12 Reikko 51.41 m 554 13 Rebula 51.39 m 554 14th Figueroa 51.22 m 550 15th Wehrli 51.08 m 548 16 Novel 49.80 m 525 17th Elliott 49.56 m 520 18th Widenfelt 49.36 m 517 19th Adams 44.83 m 436 20th Fernandes 43.55 m 414 21st Kuznetsov 43.19 m 408 22nd Frayer 41.31 m 376

Intermediate result space Surname Points 01 Mathias 7559 02 Campbell 6759 03 Simmons 6479 04th Volkov 6199 05 Hipp 6168 06th Tånnander 6027 07th Widenfelt 5961 08th Elliott 5806 09 Schirmer 5766 10 Frayer 5597 11 Kuznetsov 5541 12 Landstrom 5439 13 Iriarte 5434 14th Rebula 5399 15th Figueroa 5318 16 Wehrli 5289 17th Adams 5247 18th Reikko 5199 19th Hautamäki 5185 20th Fernandes 5163 21st Novel 5089 22nd Oliver 4907

1500 meter run

The discipline was carried out in four runs.
The Finn Erkki Hautamäki did not take part in this last discipline.
The Finn Olli Reikko achieved the fastest time ever run in an Olympic decathlon over 1500 meters with 4: 28.0 minutes .

Classification space Surname time Points 01 Reikko 4: 28.0 min 526 02 Volkov 4: 33.2 min 475 03 Fernandes 4: 37.0 min 441 04th Widenfelt 4: 38.6 min 427 05 Kuznetsov 4: 42.0 min 396 06th Schirmer 4: 47.6 min 352 07th Iriarte 4: 49.8 min 336 08th Mathias 4: 50.8 min 328 09 Oliver 4: 51.8 min 321 10 Simmons 4: 53.4 min 309 11 Adams 4: 57.0 min 283 12 Hipp 4: 57.2 min 281 Tånnander 14th Figueroa 4: 58.2 min 274 15th Wehrli 4: 58.6 min 272 16 Landstrom 5: 01.0 min 255 17th Rebula 5: 01.8 min 249 18th Elliott 5: 03.6 min 238 19th Campbell 5: 07.2 min 216 20th Frayer 5: 14.4 min 175 Novel

Bottom line

space	Surname	nation	Points - official rating	Points - 1985 rating
1	Bob Mathias	United States	7887 WR	7580
2	Milt Campbell	United States	6975	6948
3	Floyd Simmons	United States	6788	6903
4th	Vladimir Volkov	Soviet Union	6674	6868
5	Josef Hipp	BR Germany	6449	6705
6th	Göran Widenfelt	Sweden	6388	6662
7th	Kjell Tånnander	Sweden	6308	6553
8th	Friedel Schirmer	BR Germany	6118	6464
9	Geoff Elliott	Great Britain	6044	6280
10	Sergei Kuznetsov	Soviet Union	5937	6349
11	Hugues Frayer	France	5772	6193
12	Brígido Iriarte	Venezuela	5770	6250
13	Olli Reikko	Finland	5725	6170
14th	Eeles Landström	Finland	5694	6161
15th	Oto Rebula	Yugoslavia	5648	6135
16	Fernando Fernandes	Portugal	5604	6088
17th	Hernán Figueroa	Chile	5592	6065
18th	Max Wehrli	Switzerland	5561	6093
19th	Bob Adams	Canada	5530	6035
20th	Héctor Roman	Puerto Rico	5264	5832
21st	Reinaldo Oliver	Puerto Rico	5228	5817

Date: July 25-26, 1952

With Bob Mathias the favorite won the decathlon. From the third exercise on, the shot put , Mathias took the lead and never gave it up. The two other Americans, Milton Campbell and Floyd Simmons, were also in second and third place from then on. Nothing changed in this order until the end. After five disciplines, Mathias had already collected 4,367 points and, with his outstanding performance, laid the foundation not only for another Olympic victory, but also for a new world record , which by far exceeded the previous record.

Bob Mathias was the first decathlete to repeat his Olympic victory.

For a better classification of the performance, in addition to the official points according to the rating table from 1952, the number of points converted according to the current rating system from 1985 is also given. According to this table, which is valid today, there would have been a different order in some places. But these comparisons are only indicative, because the different standards of the time must apply as a basis. This is most noticeable in the pole vault , where people jumped with completely different poles than they do today.

reception

In 1954 the US film The Bob Mathias Story was directed by Francis D. Lyon . The film, produced for US $ 180,000, tells the story of the Olympic champion, with archive footage of his victories in 1948 and 1952 incorporated. Bob Mathias played himself in the film.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 98f

Web links

• SportsReference Decathlon , published May 21, 2013 on youtube.com, accessed September 28, 2017
• Official report pp. 326–331, engl. (PDF), accessed on September 28, 2017
• Robert Mathias Becomes First To Retain Decathlon Gold - Helsinki 1952 Olympics , published May 21, 2013 on youtube.com, accessed September 28, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009, page 559 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ ^{a b} Official report p. 266, engl. (PDF)
3. ↑ SportsReference decathlon (100 m)
4. ↑ SportsReference decathlon (110 m hurdles)
5. ↑ SportsReference decathlon (discus throw)
6. ↑ SportsReference decathlon (pole vault)
7. ↑ SportsReference (1500 m)