Track Brings Joy, Knowledge, Discipline, Strength

[DoubleRBar]

Happy birthday today (Saturday) to three Olympic champions with a grand total of 252 years since their births.

Today's birthday people will be known as "J', "Q", and "A".

Athlete "J" was 32 years old when "Q" was born.

All three champions competed in just one Olympic Games.

"A" was born about six months before "Q" won Olympic gold.

Both "J" and "A" won Olympic gold medals in Europe.

Two of these three individuals ran the same event in the Olympics.

The same two people from the previous sentence were born in the same continent where "Q" won the Olympic gold medal.

Only one of our birthday champions is still alive today and that person turns 90 today.

"Q" was 25 when "A" was born.

One of our birthday athletes was a lawyer while the other two were a gardener and a cowboy.

Time to name these three Olympic champions with birthdays on this third Saturday of 2022.

Please remember that no research in allowed and best of luck to you.

[KDFINE]

Well the cowboy has got to be Dean Smith. I think he must be 90.

[DoubleRBar]

Happy 90th birthday today to Dean Smith. Very well done, KDFINE.

Dean Smith was born in Texas, graduated from the University of Texas, and made the Olympic team to the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games where he placed fourth in the men's 100. He also ran the first leg on the winning American four by 100 relay team.

Smith worked as a cowboy, competed in rodeos, and also was a stuntman in several well-known movies.

Thank you, KDFINE.

[noone]

Is that the same Dean Smith who coached basketball?

[DoubleRBar]

No, a different Dean Smith.

[KDFINE]

Smith even had a speaking role in "Ulzana's Raid" which starred Burt Lancaster.

[bambam1729]

Is that the same Dean Smith who coached basketball?

The Olympic sprinter Dean Smith was best known in later life as a Hollywood stuntman. Met him in 1977 at the Byron Nelson Classic in Dallas. He was still a stud - very good looking guy and sitll in great shape. All the women in the clubhouse were gaga over him when he came through.

The basketball Dean Smith was, no surprise, a basketball player at Univ of Kansas in the early 1950s.

[LopenUupunut]

Tom Burke and Janusz Kusociński?

(I'm assuming the year count should be 352; the numbers just don't add up at 252.)

[Tuariki]

Are you sure their years add up to 252?
Perhaps 277?
Perhaps 122, 90, 65?

[Tuariki]

Tom Burke and Janusz Kusociński?

(I'm assuming the year count should be 352; the numbers just don't add up at 252.)

90, 115, 247 would do it as well
.
And more likely a typo for 352

[DoubleRBar]

Tom Burke was born in Massachusetts 147 years ago today and Janusz Kusocinski was born in Poland 115 years ago today. Yes, the total years of all three athletes should read 352 years and not 252. Very good, LopenUupunut. I need to double-check my math (maybe triple-check it).

Tom Burke won the 1896 Athens Olympic 400 in 54.2. That was an Olympic record (you can probably guess why). Burke's time was not too bad considering that he ran on a 333.33 meter track in Athens with very sharp turns, forcing the runners to break as they went into each bend. Four days later, Burke won the Olympic 100 in 12.0 (with no bends).

Burke went on to fight in World War I. He became a lawyer, a track coach, and a journalist. He died on Valentine's Day in 1925 in Boston, Massachusetts (same city where he was born) at the age of 54.

Janusz Kusocinski was born in Warsaw, Poland, 115 years ago today. He won the 1932 Olympic 10,000 in the Los Angeles Coliseum on the last day in July of 1932. His time of 30:11.4 was an Olympic record (with no sharp bends). Kusocinski led at the 5,000 in 14:56.5 and finished the 10,000 with a final lap of 62 seconds to win by about one second from Volmari Iso-Hollo (Finland). Volmari Iso-Hollo would go on to win the steeplechase about six days after running the 10,000.

Kusocinski worked as a gardener and later fought in World War II where he was captured and executed by the Germans in Poland. He was only 33 years old when he died in June of 1940.

Thank you, LopenUupunut, noone, bambam1729, and Tuariki. Sorry about the math error.