July 21, 1952--You've all heard the phrase, “That's why they run the races”. That certainly applied to the final of the men's 100-meters at the Olympic Games in Helsinki, on a track made muddy after 3 days of rain. In one of the biggest surprises of these (or any other) Games,Manhattan College's Lindy Remigino emerged as the winner in the closest sprint finish in Olympic history, with the top 4 men all clocking 10.4.
Off to an early lead, Remigino, despite starting his lean 20-meters before the finish, was able to hold off Jamaica's Herb McKenley, the world record holder in the 440-yard dash, Great Britain's McDonald Bailey, and U.S. teammate Dean Smith(U.S. Trials winner Art Bragg went out in the semis with an injury). The finish was so close that officials took 20 minutes before announcing the official results. It wasn't until the scoreboard started spelling his name in first place that Remigino knew he had won and a dejected McKenley knew he hadn't.
Few would have picked the Manhattan College junior as the winner in any pre-Olympic prediction contests. He wasn't even the dominant sprinter on his college team, one that had won the 440 and 880 relays at Penn in April. He was 3rd in the IC4A 100, behind Cal's John George and Jasper teammate Joe Schatzle. He did finish 5th at the NCAA Championships to barely qualify for the U.S. Trials, but didn't make the AAU final. Remigino, who would win a 2nd gold medal as a member of the winning 4x100 relay, disagreed with those who called him the “Cinderella Kid”. "That really wasn't right," he said. "I was second in the U.S. Olympic Trials. If you are the second-fastest American qualifier, it's not a surprise if you do well at the Olympics." Before the Games began, the U.S. team flew to Finland, and he trained three times a day. "I knew I was going to do well," he said. "I was beating everybody there. I was the first guy down the straightaway. I didn't lose one gun start at practice."
He followed his Olympic win with a successful European tour and wound up ranked #1 in the world by Track and Field News.
Remigino, who celebrated his 78th birthday in June, has remained active in the sport ever since. He was a highly successful coach at Hartford Public High School in Connecticut (his alma mater) for more than 50 years, and has been the meet director of the Hartford Inv., one of the top prep meets on the East Coast, ever since its inception. When asked a few years ago if he ever showed the footage of his Olympic win to his family, he said with a smile, "Every night!". His son Michael was one of the top preps in the country in the 800 in 1987, running a best of 1:49.94.
Remigino wasn't the only American to win gold on this day. Parry O'Brien hadn't yet become the dominant thrower of his era, but his first-round toss of 57-1 1/2(17.41m) held up to give him the first of his two Olympic gold medals in the shot put (he also won in 1956). U.S. Trials winner Darrow Hooper almost “stole” the gold medal from O'Brien with his final put of 57-3/4(17.39m), which was good enough to win the silver medal. World record holder Jim Fuchs, hampered by ankle and wrist injuries, made it a U.S. sweep with his best of 55-11 3/4(17.06m0. And Charlie Moore, the former Cornell Athletic Director, won the 400-hurdles in 50.8 to match the Olympic Record he set in his semi-final race.
