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In 1936, Two Japanese Olympians Forged Medals Born From Friendship

by viralbandit August 17, 2021, 7:10 pm 1.8k Views

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Sueo Ōe (still left) and Shuhei Nishida (correct) in 1930. (Photo: Asahi Shinbun, Community area, via Wikimedia Commons)

The Olympic Games are acknowledged for their skill to not only carry collectively the world’s leading athletes, but to spark friendships and encourage camaraderie. Nowhere was this far more obvious than throughout the Berlin 1936 Olympic Games. It was there that the “Medals of Friendship” ended up born, forged from the like and admiration between two teammates.

Sueo Ōe and Shuhei Nishida have been the two associates of the Japanese keep track of and subject team, competing in the pole vault. In the course of the event, 25,000 spectators viewed as the last 5 competitors in the pole vault battled it out for medals. They’d all cleared a height of 4.15 meters (13.6 ft), but now it was time to go for the gold. Several opponents dropped out and one, America’s Earle Meadows, cleared 4.35 meters (14.3 feet), which was ample to protected gold.

But who would acquire residence the silver? Right after but a different Olympian dropped out following failing to apparent 4.25 meters (13.9 feet)), it was up to the Japanese mates and teammates. They were established to soar off for the medals and equally cleared 4.25 meters. And that’s when anything amazing took place, a little something that can only transpire at the Olympics the place athletes comprehend the sacrifice and willpower it normally takes to make it to this stage—they equally refused to proceed. Rather than carry on with the showdown, they required to share the podium as equals.

Regrettably, again in 1936, the Olympic officials failed to rather consider in the noble gesture and explained to the Japanese group that a final decision on who took silver and who took bronze required to be manufactured. So, based mostly on the number of attempts it took the men to distinct the height, Nishida was awarded the silver medal and Ōe the bronze. If the tale ended there, it would already be touching, but it only continues as the teammates returned to Japan.

Undeterred by the formal standings, the males went straight to a jeweler when they arrived in Japan. Their medals had been split down the middle and then fused together—half silver and 50 percent bronze. These “Medals of Friendship” have turn out to be a lasting reminder of the deep bonds that type throughout Olympic preparing and competitors. The story is even more amazing when one remembers that the 1936 Berlin Olympics had been hosted in Hitler’s Germany underneath a tense atmosphere. Nevertheless, these video games were being the to start with to be televised and have been even filmed. In reality, Nishida and Ōe’s level of competition is in a scene from Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia.

So exactly where are the medals now? Ōe, sad to say, handed absent just five a long time afterwards in the war following joining the Imperial Japanese Military. His medal is privately owned, but the good thing is Nishida’s is on show at Waseda College. While Nishida passed 1997, his medal stands as a long lasting reminder that the Olympic Game titles are about significantly extra than basically winning or dropping.