Just Keep Different Strides

[DoubleRBar]

Happy birthday today (Wednesday) to two Olympic champions with a total age today of 201 years.

One of our birthday people was 25 years old when the other athlete was born.

These two both won Olympic gold medals on a Sunday four days shy of being exactly 20 years apart.

None our birthday athletes competed in the Olympic hurdles.

Both people competed in only one Olympic Games, but the younger person competed in two events at those Olympic Games.

You might be interested to know that one of our birthday athletes turns 88 today while the other athlete died at the age of 33.

Interesting to note that one of these two mystery athletes was born in North America and won Olympic gold in Europe while the other person was born in Europe and won Olympic gold in North America.

Please name these two champions on this third Wednesday of the new year (2020).

[Pego]

This one is way above my paygrade .

[KDFINE]

So the younger was born in 1932 and the older was born in 1907. The younger was born in North America won in Europe. By the timing it sounds like Rome. Might be Otis Davis who I recall was born in 1932. The older was born in Europe in 1907 and won in North America which narrows it to Los Angelos. That the person died at the age of 33 it would have been 1940, so could have been a casualty of WW2. That's as far as I can go with this. The problem with my reasoning is that 20 years prior to Rome was 1940 and there wasn't any Olympics that year. Is there an error with the clues?

[DoubleRBar]

Neither athlete competed in the Rome Olympics. I can tell you that one of our birthday athletes was 20 years old when winning the Olympic gold medal and the other person was 25 when winning the Olympic gold medal.

[thedoorknobbroke]

So the younger was born in 1932 and the older was born in 1907. The younger was born in North America won in Europe. By the timing it sounds like Rome. Might be Otis Davis who I recall was born in 1932. The older was born in Europe in 1907 and won in North America which narrows it to Los Angelos. That the person died at the age of 33 it would have been 1940, so could have been a casualty of WW2. That's as far as I can go with this. The problem with my reasoning is that 20 years prior to Rome was 1940 and there wasn't any Olympics that year. Is there an error with the clues?

If the 1st letters of each of the words in the title are the athletes names than Otis Davis cannot be correct.

[DoubleRBar]

That is true, thedoorknobbroke.

[KDFINE]

So its Helsinki and Los Angeles. The younger is Dean Smith. I suspect that the older may have been a distance runner.

[thedoorknobbroke]

I am not much of a historian but these get the gold medal for obscure Olympic Gold Medalists..that's what makes it fun! :-)

[KDFINE]

JK isn't obscure.

[DoubleRBar]

Happy 88th birthday today to Dean Smith. Smith, as you may remember, ran the lead off leg on the winning four by 100 relay team in Helsinki (1952). Dean Smith also ran the 100 where he was fourth place in Finland. Some of you have seen Dean Smith on television and/or movies where he worked as a pretty well-known stuntman after his running career came to an end.

Our older birthday athlete was murdered by the Nazis at the start of World War II. Who is he?

[bambam1729]

When I was playing golf, I met Dean Smith at the Byron Nelson Classic in Dallas - he was playing in the pro-am, circa 1977. He was about 45 years old and was working as a stuntman at the time. He was a stud still, the women were all over him.

[bambam1729]

The other guy must be Janusz Kusocinski

[Pego]

Janusz Kusoczynski (sp.)?

[tandfman]

bambam's spelling is closer to correct. It's Kusociński, with the diacritical over the n.

[KDFINE]

Smith actually had a speaking role in the Burt Lancaster film "Ulzana's Raid."