Athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics – Men's decathlon

The men's decathlon was a track and field athletics event held as part of the athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics programme. The competition was held from Saturday, July 13, 1912, to Monday, July 15, 1912. It was the first time the decathlon, which had been introduced in 1911, was held at the Olympics; a different ten-event competition, the all-around, had been contested in St. Louis in 1904. Twenty-nine decathletes from twelve nations competed.[1] NOCs could enter up to 12 athletes.[2]

Men's decathlon
at the Games of the V Olympiad
Gold medalists Hugo Wieslander and Jim Thorpe
VenueStockholm Olympic Stadium
DatesJuly 13–15
Competitors29 from 12 nations
Medalists
Jim Thorpe  United States
Hugo Wieslander  Sweden
Charles Lomberg  Sweden
Gösta Holmér  Sweden
Athletics at the
1912 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 mmen
200 mmen
400 mmen
800 mmen
1500 mmen
5000 mmen
10,000 mmen
110 m hurdlesmen
4×100 m relaymen
4×400 m relaymen
3000 m team racemen
10 km walkmen
Road events
Marathonmen
Field events
Long jumpmen
Triple jumpmen
High jumpmen
Pole vaultmen
Standing long jumpmen
Standing high jumpmen
Shot putmen
Discus throwmen
Hammer throwmen
Javelin throwmen
2-hand shot putmen
2-hand discusmen
2-hand javelinmen
Combined events
Pentathlonmen
Decathlonmen
Cross-country events
Individualmen
Teammen

Results

Thorpe's gold medal was stripped by the International Olympic Committee in 1913, after the IOC learned that Thorpe had taken expense money for playing baseball, violating Olympic amateurism rules, before the 1912 Games. This moved everyone else up in the rankings. In 1982, the IOC was convinced that the disqualification had been improper, as no protest against Thorpe's eligibility had been brought within the required 30 days, and reinstated Thorpe's medals. This made Thorpe and Wieslander co-champions.

Avery Brundage, president of the IOC from 1952 to 1972, competed in the decathlon finishing in 16th place. Brundage did not start in the last two events of the competition.

100 metres
Event 1
PlaceAthleteTimeScore
1 Skotte Jacobsson (SWE)11.0952.4
 Eugene Mercer (USA)11.0952.4
3 Frank Lukeman (CAN)11.2904.8
 Jim Thorpe (USA)11.2904.8
5 Pierre Failliot (FRA)11.3881.0
 Otto Röhr (GER)11.3881.0
7 Gösta Holmér (SWE)11.4857.2
8 Einar Nilsson (SWE)11.5833.4
 Valdemar Wickholm (FIN)11.5833.4
10 Géo André (FRA)11.6809.6
 Harry Babcock (USA)11.6809.6
12 Ferdinand Bie (NOR)11.7785.8
13 James Donahue (USA)11.8762.0
 Charles Lomberg (SWE)11.8762.0
 Hugo Wieslander (SWE)11.8762.0
16 Alexander Abraham (GER)12.0714.4
 Svend Langkjær (DEN)12.0714.4
18 Karl Halt (GER)12.1690.6
 Manlio Legat (ITA)12.1690.6
20 Alfreds Alslebens (RUS)12.2666.8
 Avery Brundage (USA)12.2666.8
22 Erik Kugelberg (SWE)12.3643.0
 Gunnar Rönström (SWE)12.3643.0
 Josef Schäffer (AUT)12.3643.0
 Aleksandr Schultz (RUS)12.3643.0
26 Alfredo Pagani (ITA)12.4619.2
 George Philbrook (USA)12.4619.2
28 Viktor Hackberg (SWE)12.5595.4
29 Mgirdiç Migiryan (TUR)13.3405.0

Long jump

Shot put

High jump

6 of the 29 starters did not appear for the fourth event.

400 metres

5 more athletes, including the 6th-placed Nilsson, retired after the high jump and did not appear for the fifth event. This brought the number of non-finishers up to 11, leaving 18 to continue the competition.

Discus throw

Philbrook scored over 1000 points in the event by breaking the previous Olympic record (listed as 41.46 metres in the 1912 official report, though actually only 40.89 set by Martin Sheridan in 1908). Since the discus throw event had been held 2 days prior to the decathlon and Armas Taipale had far exceeded the old record, Philbrook's mark was not a new record. It did vault him from 5th place to 2nd following the 6th event, however.

110 metre hurdles

Pole vault

Two more athletes dropped out, leaving 16 left out of the original 29.

Javelin throw

Only 14 athletes, fewer than half of the original 29, began the penultimate event.

1500 metres
Hugo Wieslander in long jump.
Eugene Mercer in long jump.
Hugo Wieslander in pole vault.
Jim Thorpe in pole vault.

Notes
  1. "Athletics at the 1912 Stockholm Summer Games: Men's Decathlon". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  2. Official report, p. 61.
  3. This score is reported in the Official Report. According to the formula given earlier in the Report (1000 point base, plus .38 points for each .01 metres from 41.46), however, the score should have been 1003.80 points.
  4. Score as reported in the OR. The formula gives 719.18 points.
  5. Score as reported in the OR. The formula gives 388.58 points.
  6. Total as given in Wudarski. A sum of the scores given by formula gives a total of 8412.995 points.

References
  • Bergvall, Erik (ed.) (1913). Adams-Ray, Edward (trans.). (ed.). The Official Report of the Olympic Games of Stockholm 1912. Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  • Wudarski, Pawel (1999). "Wyniki Igrzysk Olimpijskich" (in Polish). Retrieved 7 January 2007.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.