Charles James Bacon Jr. (January 9, 1885 – November 15, 1968) was an American athlete and a member of the Irish American Athletic Club and the New York City Police Department. He won the 400 metres hurdles at the 1908 Summer Olympics.[1]
![]() Charles Bacon Jr. at the 1908 Olympic Games | |||||||||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||||||||
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Full name | Charles James Bacon Jr. | ||||||||||||||
Born | Brooklyn, New York | January 9, 1885||||||||||||||
Died | November 15, 1968 Fort Lauderdale, Florida | (aged 83)||||||||||||||
Height | 6 ft 0 in (183 cm) | ||||||||||||||
Weight | 170 lb (77 kg) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Charles_Bacon_Mecca_card_front2.jpg)
He was born in Brooklyn, New York and died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
At the 1904 Summer Olympics he finished ninth in the 1500 metres event.
Two years later at the 1906 Summer Olympics he finished fifth in the 400 metres competition and sixth in the 800 metres event.
Just a month and a half before the 1908 Olympic Games in London, Bacon ran in Philadelphia setting a new unofficial world record of 55.8 in the 400 metre hurdles.
At the Olympic Games in 1908, he and fellow American Harry Hillman went over the last hurdle simultaneously, after which Bacon pulled away on the straight to win in a new world record of 55.0 seconds. This record was recognized by IAAF, thus Bacon became the first world record holder in the 400 metres hurdles. The same year, Bacon set the world record for the 440 yards, 10 hurdles, 3 feet 6 inches at Celtic Park, Queens, New York, the home of the Irish American Athletic Club on October 11, 1908.[2]
Notes
edit- ^ "Charles Bacon". Olympedia. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
- ^ 1910 Mecca Cigarettes Champion Athlete and Prize Fighter Series trading card.
References
edit- Cook, Theodore Andrea (May 1909). The Fourth Olympiad London 1908 Official Report (PDF). London: British Olympic Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-01-16. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
- De Wael, Herman (2001). "Athletics 1908". Herman's Full Olympians. Archived from the original on 2006-09-27. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
- Greenberg, Stan (1987). Olympic Games: The Records. London: Guinness Books. ISBN 0-85112-896-3.
- Kieran, John (1977). The Story of the Olympic Games; 776 B.C. to 1976. Philadelphia and New York: J.B. Lippincott Company. ISBN 0-397-01168-7.
External links
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