Passages: Lance Larson, Former World-Document Holder Controversially Denied Olympic Gold, Dies at 83
Lance Larson, a former world-record holder within the 100 butterfly and 200 IM and the winner of two Olympic medals on the 1960 Video games, handed away January 19 at age 83. Larson was a longtime resident of Southern California, attending USC earlier than working as a dentist in Orange County later in life whereas persevering with to compete in Masters swimming.
Larson was the primary highschool swimmer to interrupt 50 seconds within the 100-yard freestyle earlier than turning into the primary man to ever break 1:00 within the 100-meter fly, setting the world document on two events in 1960 previous to competing on the Rome Olympics. However Larson is greatest recognized for what occurred in Rome, when a controversial resolution by the top choose on deck denied him Olympic gold within the 100 free.
The Olympic swimming program in 1960 consisted of solely six particular person males’s occasions plus two relays, with each of Larson’s world-record occasions omitted. That left the 100 free as his solely probability for a person medal, and Larson confronted off with Australia’s John Devitt down the stretch of the race. Larson appeared to the touch the wall first, however in an enormous controversy, Devitt was declared the winner, leaving Larson with silver.
Larson did, nonetheless, earn gold as a part of the U.S. males’s 400 medley relay, during which he swam butterfly and his crew completed in a world-record mark of 4:05.4. He was inducted into the Worldwide Swimming Corridor of Fame as an Honor Swimmer in 1980.
A celebration of life for Larson will happen March 1 at 11 a.m. on the Backyard Grove Lodge of the Benevolent and Protecting Order of Elks in Backyard Grove, Calif. Based on an obituary revealed within the Orange County Register, Larson’s household is asking for contributions in his reminiscence to be made to the Trojan Victory Fund, which helps the USC males’s and ladies’s swimming and diving program.
Lance Larson, proper, and John Devitt, center, after a controversial judging resolution handed the Australian gold in a 100 freestyle closing at Rome 1960 during which Manuel Dos Santos, of Brazil, claimed bronze – Photograph Courtesy: ISHOF movie nonetheless
On the 1960 Video games, the relatively-new automated timing expertise was not official in declaring winners and medalists, and neither have been the hand-timers positioned on deck. As an alternative, place judges have been answerable for figuring out the order of end, and two of the three first-place judges mentioned Devitt had gotten to the wall first. Nevertheless, two of the three second-place judges additionally dominated for Devitt, forcing the state of affairs into flux.
Hand-timing outcomes have been 55.0, 55.1 and 55.1 for Larson and 55.2 from all three timers for Devitt. The automated timing system mentioned that Larson had gotten to the wall six hundredths forward of Devitt, 55.10 to 55.16. However that’s when chief choose Hans Runströmer obtained concerned. Runströmer, the chief choose, was not speculated to have any say in figuring out the order of placement, however he stepped in and dominated in favor of Devitt, although it appeared that Runströmer didn’t have a transparent view of the end.
Each of the lads have been listed with occasions of 55.2, and whereas Larson was given the Olympic document, Devitt obtained the gold medal. An enchantment by the American crew, which included recorded video proof and was supported by American FINA official Max Ritter, was unsuccessful, and additional makes an attempt to vary the outcomes over time by no means resulted in Larson receiving gold. Devitt handed away in August at age 86.
The occasions of that 100 free Olympic closing would power change within the sport, with influential voices calling dependable automated timing upfront of the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. And simply 12 years later, touchpads can be used to interrupt a tie for Olympic gold, with Sweden’s Gunnar Larsson given the gold within the 400 IM over American Tim McKee by a margin of two hundredths, 4:31.981 to 4:31.983. After that, although, ties to the hundredth resulted in shared Olympic gold medals, and after Individuals Larson and McKee have been each denied the highest prize, three future ties for Olympic gold would all contain at the very least one American.
