Decathlon

[DoubleRBar]

Happy birthday today (Friday) to an Olympic champion who was born on a Friday 84 years ago today.

This champion competed in two Olympic Games which were approximately 1,368 miles (2,202 kms) apart.

Our birthday athlete still holds an Olympic record which will be tough to beat.

An athlete, using the same initials as our birthday person, won Olympic gold about 16 years after our birthday individual won Olympic gold.

Can you figure out the correct name of our birthday athlete for this fourth and final Friday of March?

Please give it a try.

[Olli]

Seems strange. The athlete was born 1937; hence probable Olympic cities include Rome, Tokyo, Mexico, Munich? But I would guess all of these except Rome and Munich are farther apart than 2,200 km (and they are probably closer).

[dukehjsteve]

Seems strange. The athlete was born 1937; hence probable Olympic cities include Rome, Tokyo, Mexico, Munich? But I would guess all of these except Rome and Munich are farther apart than 2,200 km (and they are probably closer).

ditto to the above, and if you throw Melbourne ( age 19 ) into the equation the distances still do not make any sense.

[DoubleRBar]

Olli you guessed one of the two Olympic cities in your post.

To give you some additional help, please re-read my third sentence.

[LopenUupunut]

Barbara Jones

[Olli]

OK, I googled Barbara Jones and got the explanation. Quite sly.

[DoubleRBar]

Happy birthday (84) today to Barbara Jones. Very good, LopenUupunut. Barbara Jones might be most famous for being the youngest athlete (male or female) to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field. She ran the second leg on the U.S. winning four by 100 relay team at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics at the tender age of 15 years and 123 days.

She didn't make the U.S. team in 1956 to Australia, but she did return to the Olympics in 1960 at Rome. In Rome, she was probably most famous for handing the baton (third leg) in the four by 100 relay to Wilma Rudolph (anchor leg). That gave Jones her second Olympic gold medal at the age of 23.

Barbara Jones also ran the 100 (she was second to Wilma Rudolph at the U.S. Trials in 1960) in Rome, however she did not make the final six.

If someone is going to break Barbara's Olympic record as the youngest athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field, which event would you say would be the best chance? Another relay? I believe this is a very difficult record to beat and I probably won't live to see it, but who knows?

Thank you, LopenUupunut. Also, thank you Olli and dukehjsteve.

[niemand]

And Bruce Jenner

[Olli]

And Bruce Jenner

So that's the "decathlon" hint.

[KDFINE]

When the original post didn't make the usual claim regarding hurdles and said that it involved an Olympic Record that would be tough to beat, I felt it had to involve an 80 meter hurdler.

[DoubleRBar]

Bruce Jenner is correct, Olli. KDFINE, watch out for those curve balls.

[Trickstat]

If someone is going to break Barbara's Olympic record as the youngest athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field, which event would you say would be the best chance? Another relay? I believe this is a very difficult record to beat and I probably won't live to see it, but who knows?

If I recall correctly under current WA rules, an athlete must turn 16 by the end of the calendar year in which the Olympics (or World Champs) take place to be allowed to compete. Therefore this record can only be beaten if the Olympic Games are held in the first 4 months or so of the year.

[gh]

If I recall correctly under current WA rules, an athlete must turn 16 by the end of the calendar year in which the Olympics (or World Champs) take place to be allowed to compete. Therefore this record can only be beaten if the Olympic Games are held in the first 4 months or so of the year.

exactly: <<No athlete younger than 16 years of age on 31 December in the year of the competition>>

[noone]

When DoubleRBar wrote ‘an Olympic record that will be tough to beat”, my first thought was Bob Beamon. Obviously the other clues didn’t fit, so I moved on.
But seriously is there a real OR that is tougher than Beamon’s?

[Olli]

But seriously is there a real OR that is tougher than Beamon’s?

Most of the Olympic records seem (not unsurprisingly) pretty tough. For example, I find it more unlikely that the women's shot is put farther than 22.41 than someone exceeding 890 in the long jump.