Shuhei Nishida (西田 修平, Nishida Shūhei, March 21, 1910 – April 13, 1997) was a Japanese Olympic athlete who competed mainly in the pole vault.[1]
 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Native name | 西田 修平 |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Born | March 21, 1910 Nachikatsuura, Wakayama, Japan |
| Died | April 13, 1997 (aged 87) Tokyo, Japan |
| Alma mater | Waseda University |
| Height | 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in) |
| Weight | 61 kg (134 lb) |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Athletics |
| Event | Pole vault |
Medal record | |
Nishida was born in what is now part of Nachikatsuura, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. He was a student of the Engineering Department at Waseda University, when selected as a member of the Japanese Olympic team for the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, where he won the silver medal in the pole vault event.[1]
After graduation from Waseda University, he obtained a job at Hitachi. He subsequently participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, Germany where he repeated his performance winning a second silver medal in the same event tying with his friend and teammate Sueo Oe. When the two declined to compete against each other to decide a winner, Nishida was awarded the silver and Oe the bronze by decision of the Japanese team, on the basis that Nishida had cleared the height in fewer attempts.[2] The competition was featured in a scene in the documentary Olympia, filmed by Leni Riefenstahl. On their return to Japan, Nishida and Oe famously had their Olympic medals cut in half, and had a jeweler splice together two new “friendship medals”, half in bronze and half in silver.[1][3][4]
At the age of 41, Nishida won a bronze medal at the 1951 Asian Games. He remained active in sports all of his life, serving as a referee at events, and from 1959 as an honorary vice chairman of the Japan Association of Athletics Federations, and as a member of the Japanese Olympic Committee. In 1989, he was awarded the silver medal of the Olympic Order. Nishida died of heart failure in 1997 at the age of 87.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d Shuhei Nishida. sports-reference.com
- ^ "The Olympians who took matters into their own hands when they weren't allowed to share their medal". Independent.co.uk. 8 August 2016. Archived from the original on 2020-06-05. Retrieved 2021-05-09.
- ^ "The Olympians who took matters into their own hands when they weren't allowed to share their medal". The Independent. 2016-08-05. Archived from the original on 2020-01-01. Retrieved 2020-01-01.
- ^ "Shuhei NISHIDA". Olympic Channel. Archived from the original on 2020-01-01. Retrieved 2020-01-01.
Further reading
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- Cousineau Phil. The Olympic Odyssey: Rekindling the True Spirit of the Great Games. Quest Books (2003) ISBN 0835608336
- Mandell, Richard. The Nazi Olympics. University of Illinois Press (1987), ISBN 0252013255