Athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's long jump

The Men's long jump at the 1952 Olympic Games took place on July 21 at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. American athlete Jerome Biffle won the gold medal.[1]

Men's long jump at the Games of the XV Olympiad
Date	July 21
Competitors	27 from 19 nations
Medalists
Jerome Biffle  United States Meredith Gourdine  United States Ödön Földessy  Hungary

Video on YouTube amateur film

Summary

George Brown came into the Olympics having been the best long jumper in the world for the previous 3 years and the third man to jump 8 meters ever. But Brown's 41 competition win streak ended at the US Olympic Trials, where he barely qualified for Helsinki. In wet conditions, everyone was having trouble with their run up.

In the first round Meredith "Flash" Gourdine took the early lead with a 7.38m. Jerome Biffle, a former NCAA Champion at the University of Denver, was in second place with 7.21m and Ary de Sá was in third with 7.15m. In the second round Ödön Földessy jumped into second place with a 7.23m. In the third round the medals were decided, Gourdine getting a 7.53m to extend his lead, then Biffle carefully came down the runway to leap 7.57 m (24 ft 10 in) to take the lead. That 7.57 would be well within Brown's range but he and Henk Visser failed to get a legal jump in. Biffle also was unable to get another jump in, while Gourdine made three solid attempts but was unable to improve his mark, giving Biffle the gold. Földessy got off a 7.30m in the fifth round to assure himself the bronze medal while de Sá tied Földessy's 7.23 and would have had the tie breaking edge without the 7.30.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Jesse Owens (United States)	8.13 m	Ann Arbor, United States	25 May 1935
Olympic record	Jesse Owens (USA)	8.06 m	Berlin, Germany	4 August 1936

No new world or Olympic records were set for this event.

Results

Qualifying round

Qualifying Performance 7.20 (Q) or at least 13 best performers (q) advance to the Final.

Rank	Group	Name	Nationality	Mark	Remarks
1	A	Meredith Gourdine	United States	7.41	Q
2	A	Jerome Biffle	United States	7.40	Q
3	B	Neville Price	South Africa	7.36	Q
4	A	George Brown	United States	7.32	Q
5	A	Ödön Földessy	Hungary	7.25	Q
6	A	Ary de Sá	Brazil	7.24	Q
7	B	Henk Visser	Netherlands	7.21	Q
8	B	Masaji Tajima	Japan	7.13	q
9	B	Karl-Erik Israelsson	Sweden	7.10	q
10	A	Paul Faucher	France	7.10	q
11	B	Pentti Snellman	Finland	7.09	q
=12	A	Leonid Grigoryev	Soviet Union	7.09	q
=12	B	Jorma Valtonen	Finland	7.09	q
14	B	Carlos Vera	Chile	7.07
15	B	Felix Würth	Austria	6.99
16	B	Sylvanus Williams	Nigeria	6.98
17	B	Jorma Valkama	Finland	6.97
18	B	Karim Olowu	Nigeria	6.96
19	A	Toni Breder	Saar	6.88
20	A	Brígido Iriarte	Venezuela	6.82
21	A	Henryk Grabowski	Poland	6.77
22	A	Nikolay Andryushchenko	Soviet Union	6.74
23	B	Geraldo de Oliveira	Brazil	6.71
24	B	Pat Leane	Australia	6.40
25	B	Kamtorn Sanidwong	Thailand	5.31
	A	Avni Akgün	Turkey	NM
	B	Khandadash Madatov	Soviet Union	NM

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	1	2	3	4	5	6	Result	Notes
	Jerome Biffle	United States	7.21	x	7.57	x	x	x	7.57
	Meredith Gourdine	United States	7.38	6.58	7.53	7.49	7.36	7.51	7.53
	Ödön Földessy	Hungary	7.04	7.23	x	7.17	7.30	7.12	7.30
4	Ary de Sá	Brazil	7.15	6.77	7.06	7.22	7.20	7.23	7.23
5	Jorma Valtonen	Finland	x	7.06	7.16	x	x	6.97	7.16
6	Leonid Grigoryev	Soviet Union	x	7.14	6.92	5.55	x	6.67	7.14
7	Karl-Erik Israelsson	Sweden	x	x	7.10				7.10
8	Paul Faucher	France	x	6.96	7.02				7.02
9	Pentti Snellman	Finland	x	6.88	7.02				7.02
10	Masaji Tajima	Japan	x	7.00	x				7.00
11	Neville Price	South Africa	6.40	x	x				6.40
	George Brown	United States	x	x	x				NM
	Henk Visser	Netherlands	x	x	x				NM

NM — No Mark

References

1. "Athletics at the 1952 Helsinki Summer Games: Men's Long Jump". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 14 December 2017.

External links

• Official Olympic Report, la84.org.