A medal does not equal friendship

Nasa 1936 Berlin Olympicshighly condemned for being the Nazi regime’s height of greatness Hitler Wanting to give his concept of race, several aspects emerged that compliment his memory. Jesse Owens is, without a doubt, the star athlete. At the sporting and social level. His four gold medals in the 100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100m relay were won in front of a state that viewed blacks as inferior.

‘The medal of friendship’

But the steadfast decision of the two Japanese pole valter to put their friendship before the metals will also remain in the memory: neither of them considered themselves better than the other. Healthy rivalry between colleagues for the improvement of a brand is welcomed West became quite insulting Nishida Y hey. The metal hung is already known as ‘The Medal of Friendship’.

Shuhei Nishida was born on May 21, 1910 in Nachikatsuura, Japanese. Engineering student, debuted at Los Angeles Olympics 1932 in the pole vault, where he won silver. Later, he started working at a technology company Hitachiand returned to the Games, this time in Berlin in 1936. Nishida Y hey (MaizuruAugust 2, 1914) became friends in 1932, after Nishida returned carrying silver from The Angelsto practice on tokyo. In addition, they hit it off because of their love of technology. Nishida is committed to hey help him while he is studying at the University of Keio. The pole vault did the rest.

the turning point

During the event, 25,000 spectators watched as the last five competitors in the pole vault pushed themselves to the limit to win a medal. All exceeded the 4.15 meter high mark and it was time to go for gold.

The bar is set at 4.35 meters. The American Bill Graber the first removed while his countrymen Earle Meadows he caught up with them to secure first place.

So the time came when Bill Sefton, Sueo Oe and Shuhei Nishida they compete for silver and bronze. Sefton failed to pass the bar during the jump, while Japanese competitors passed. It is necessary to tie the leash between two friends. But then the surprise hit. Neither of the two Japanese athletes agreed to compete for silver by relegating their bronze partner.

In 1936, Olympic officials, all Westerners, did not buy much of the dignified gesture and urged the Japanese committee to decide who won silver and who won bronze. The decision is to grant Nishida silver because he was older and reached 4.25 meters in one test; while in hey it took him two (a rule that would later be enforced even for other disciplines).

dissatisfied with the decision

If that’s where the story ends, it will be emotional, but the best part happened when the comrades returned to Japan. They were surprised at their committee’s decision and the first thing they did, when it came to Japanese is to go to a jeweler. Each gave him a medal to split it in half and melt again. Both will have silver and copper in one.

Next year, hey broke the record for Japanese in the pole vault, valid for 21 years. In 1939, he enlisted in the Imperial Army on the occasion of World War II. dream oe died in the battle of Wake upon December 24, 1941. He was 27 years old.

Nishidameanwhile, continued to compete, winning at the age of 41 (in 1951) a bronze in asian games. He is an international referee, vice president of the Japan Athletics Federation and a member of the Japanese Olympic Committee. On April 13, 1997, at age 86, Shuhei Nishida died in tokyovictim of a heart attack.

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