Raaf

[DoubleRBar]

Happy birthday today (Tuesday) to an Olympic champion who was born 95 years ago today and died two days after turning 83.

Our birthday athlete did not win Olympic gold in the hurdles and competed in only one Olympic Games.

You might already know that this athlete won Olympic gold in a nation that speaks the same language as does the nation in which this person was born.

I can tell you that our birthday champion was not born in South America, Asia, or Africa.

This individual was not the gold medal favorite going into the Olympic final, but did benefit from certain weather conditions.

Unscramble these six letters to give yourself a clue: "Mrs. Emu".

Now that you know our birthday athlete for this first Tuesday of December, please name this Olympic gold medal winner.

[dukehjsteve]

Summer is a season, and so is winter, so I pick John Winter, HJ champ in 1948.

[gh]

as soon as i saw the subject line I figured it had to be somebody who served in the Royal Australian Air Force

[DoubleRBar]

You guys are too good. Nice job, dukehjsteve (and gh), it is John Winter who was born 95 years ago today in Australia. Of course you know that he won the high jump in London (1948) under fairly wet conditions which turned out to benefit his eastern cut-off style of the scissors jumping form. When Winter jumped in London, his take-off foot planted in a fairly dry section of the high jump area. Most of the other jumpers took off from a more wet area. Nevertheless, Winter returned home to western Australia in 1948 (and it was winter in Australia) with the Olympic gold medal.

[dukehjsteve]

Back In The Day as a right-foot planting straddler, I LOVED it when a meet was in the rain, as it gave me a decided advantage, with all the other guys muddying up the cinders where they all took off !

[DoubleRBar]

I remember those days before all-weather tracks. I can remember some tracks where nobody wanted to run in the inside lane because it was so wet and muddy.

[lonewolf]

Back In The Day as a right-foot planting straddler, I LOVED it when a meet was in the rain, as it gave me a decided advantage, with all the other guys muddying up the cinders where they all took off !

HJ was not my primary event but I too was a right-foot plant straddler off dirt, cinders or grass. I don't remember that being an advantage but on reflection, why did most straddlers jump off left foot?
I also LJ off right foot and left leg lead in hurdles but left foot forward in blocks.. is that right?

[dukehjsteve]

I am a total Lefty, whereas most of you are Righties. To use my left leg as a kick leg and
my right leg as my plant leg seemed natural to me. Ditto for kicking a football.

[DoubleRBar]

I agree, dukehjsteve. I use to long jump in high school and my coach determined that my left leg was my stronger leg (I am right-handed). Interestingly he did this by having me stand relaxed while he pushed on my back, making me fall forward. Immediately, I put out my left leg to stop the fall. Then he told me I should jump from my left leg, yet when I kick a football or go over a hurdle, it is with my right leg. It felt very natural to me. I was amazed when Christian Taylor changed his take-off leg in the triple jump and still won Olympic and World Championship gold medals. Of course Christian Taylor jumps close to 20 feet farther than I did in the triple jump.

[lonewolf]

My natural inclination is everything right dominant but in brief experimenting with HSJ in 1952 discovered RRL and LLR came out about the same.

[Pego]

I am right-handed

Cerebral dominance is a fascinating subject and far more complicated than people think.

[Trickstat]

A few years ago I was at a major champs (possibly Europeans). Whilst following the decathlon, I observed that the German, Sebastian Knabe was left-handed in the shot and discus. However, he then pole vaulted right-handed and proceeded to no-height. At the time, it was tempting to think this was more than just coincidence.

[gh]

are you suggesting he had both East and West German genes? :-)

[DoubleRBar]

I think the no-height in the vault came from the East German genes.

[Trickstat]

I think the no-height in the vault came from the East German genes.

Once the wall went up it was likely they would never develop a true successor to Nordwig!