John Devitt was an Australian swimming champion and awarded the Award of Excellence. a He won the gold in the highlight race at the 1960 Rome Olympics, despite having a sprained ankle. a On Thursday, the man who had a slower time than his runner up died in Sydney. He died on Thursday in Sydney. 86.
Australian Olympic Committee announced After the death of the person, saying that it was after a long illness.
Devitt one of Australia’s greatest He won both gold and silver at the 1956 Olympics held in Melbourne. He would go on to win a He also won a bronze medal at the 1960 Games. In relays, he won 13 Australian Championships and broke 14 records.
He is probably best known for the moment he played in the final of the 100m freestyle race in Rome. It was one of the most bizarre moments in sporting history. This led to a change in the method of determining the times and placings for swimming events, replacing judgement calls with timers or photos.
Devitt, at 23. a lean 6-foot-1 in 1960, was captain of the Australian men’s swimming team for the second consecutive Olympics and the race favorite. Lance Larson, a Monterey Park resident, was one of the competitors. a The 20-year old sophomore at The University of Southern California.
Larson caught him up in the final 20 metres of the 8-man race. Larson was running on the adjacent lane. Larson appeared to be slightly in front of Devitt as they touched the wall at the end. They both congratulated one another and then waited together for the official result. The wait was excruciating — almost 10 minutes.
During this time period, there were three judges who would choose the winner, followed by three more judges for second place and then three more judges for third. The timing of each lane was done by three people, but it wasn’t a major factor in the final results. As in today’s major swimming events, there was no electronic timekeeping or acceptation of replays.
Results were unusual when the judges were polled following the race. One of the first-placed judges chose Larson as winner and two others picked Devitt. Devitt came in second for two judges and Larson was third. The three timekeepers for Devitt’s lane had all timed him in 55.2 seconds. The three in Larson’s lane had timed the American in 55.0, 55.1 and 55.1.
The following are some of the ways to improve your understanding. a newly introduced automatic timing machine — which was started electronically but stopped manually, and which was to be consulted only when judges were tied, as they were in Rome — had Larson in 55.10 seconds and Devitt in 55.16.
It seemed obvious that Larson had won — until the chief judge, Hans Runstromer of Germany, interceded and voted for Devitt.
American officials protested to the jury on appeals the decision, claiming that the rules didn’t give the chief Judge a vote. Runstromer disagreed. Runstromer said that he saw it all because he stood on the finish-line. Sports Illustrated’s photograph showed him to be 25 yards away. at The time had been viewed and the end at An angle
The appeal was unsuccessful. Three times in four years, the Americans lost their appeals. Larson had said: “It was a bad deal.”
Devitt was not convinced, claiming that the touch might have been missed by some judges or timers because it occurred after a short stroke underwater.
The New York Herald Tribune reported that the final result was as follows: “This required a Solomon, and the International Swimming Federation was fresh out of Solomons.”
The year 2009 was a very exciting one. a In a journal article, Physical Culture and Sport : Studies and Research, it was concluded that “Runstromer’s decision undoubtedly sanctioned untruth.”
The study concluded that Larson won.
Since 1968, when the Mexico City Olympics were held, international swimming events have all been timed electronically.
John Thomas Devitt, born in Granville on February 4, 1937. a Sydney suburb. He started swimming at Age 4 is often trained to swim against the currents by swimming in discharged water. a Power plant
Devitt’s gold medal in Melbourne in 1956 came in the 4×200-meter relay; he won the silver there in the 100-meter freestyle. In addition to the gold in Rome, Devitt also won the bronze in the 4×200 meter freestyle.
After the 1960 Olympics, he retired and was elected The International Swimming Hall of Fame, 1979. (Larson was elected (In 1980.
Wendy, the wife he married back in 1961, was also one of his survivors.
Devitt later became European manager at Speedo and founded his own swimwear business. He was the Australian Swimming Federation’s president. a High official of the Australian Olympic Committee who helped to bring the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
All was well when Devitt Larson first met in 1980. Larson, however, never forgot the Olympics. “I think,” He said “John has had to live with the feeling for many years that he probably didn’t really win that gold medal.”
Frank Litsky a In 2018, William McDonald, longtime sportswriter of The Times died. William McDonald reported.
