Berlin’s 1936 Summer Olympics generated a great deal of controversy (we all know how that feels). For Adolf Hitler, the occasion served to further the Nazi party’s doctrine of white supremacy. A number of nations discussed boycotting the Games due to grave worries about the safety of Jewish athletes in addition to moral grounds. However, a few inspirational moments were able to come through. Jesse Owens, an African American sprinter, won four gold medals, and two Japanese athletes established the ‘Medals of Friendship.’
Olympic Pole Vault in 1936
Eighty-five years ago, in front of 25,000 spectators, American pole vaulter Earle Meadows achieved an impressive height of 4.35 meters. That was sufficient to win him an Olympic gold medal in Berlin. Three athletes, Shuhei Nishida of Japan, Sueo Oe of Japan, and American Bill Sefton, contested for second place. The two Japanese men cleared the jump-off height, but Sefton did not. The exact same outcome was obtained by Nishida and Oe, so the final standings were still up in the air. Nishida and Oe steadfastly refused to jump again for the silver, despite the judges’ wishes.
Do you know the story behind the 'medals of friendship'? 🎥https://t.co/oA6a8zGP0z #friendship #Olympic pic.twitter.com/J3VIzx15zg
— Athlete365 (@Athlete365) June 11, 2017
In addition to being elite athletes, the two were also close friends. They therefore asked the Olympic organizers if they could share the silver medal because they respected one another’s abilities. On this occasion, the judges steadfastly declined. The Japanese team was instructed to determine amongst themselves which medal each member should take home.
The Reason for the Dilemma
Nishida would accept the silver, it was decided after some consideration. There are numerous theories explaining how they arrived at this conclusion. The most widely accepted explanation claims that Oe won the bronze medal because he successfully cleared the 4.25-meter jump on his second try, while Nishida did so on his first. Nonetheless, some reports also assert that Nishida’s age played a role in the choice. Oe had reverence for his “senpai,” a person in a higher hierarchical position than he was, usually because of their age, despite being four years younger. Nevertheless, according to other reports, Oe, a student at Keio University, accepted the bronze because, as the younger athlete, he had a better chance of winning gold at the next Olympics and thought it would be better to give Nishida the silver medal. However, all of these theories stand at odds with what the two men did next.
Evidently dissatisfied with the competition’s official results, they resolved to resolve the issue on their own.
Making the Friendship Medals
Nishida and Oe asked a jeweler to cut both medals in half when they got back to Japan. After that, they had the bronze and silver portions fused together to produce two awards they believed more accurately represented their true achievements. A mixed-metal silver-bronze medal for every competitor. Eventually, the two medals were referred to as “the medals of friendship.”
友情のメダルを見ることできました。Do you know about this story??@Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/rFBwWEYhJK
— Koji Murofushi PhD 室伏広治 (@KojiMurofushi) November 27, 2017
It does not imply that they lacked competition. The plan was for Nishida and Oe to rematch at the 1940 Olympics, which was originally scheduled for Tokyo but was eventually rescheduled to Helsinki and eventually canceled entirely when World War II broke out. The two athletes would have had another chance to compete at an Olympics in 1952, but Oe was tragically killed in the conflict. Nishida finally passed away in 1997 from heart failure at the age of 87. The Japan Association of Athletics Federations (JAAF), of which Nishida was the honorary vice chairman, gave Waseda University, where he was a student, his medal of friendship in 2005. It is still there as of right now.
It’s critical to keep in mind that the Olympics have other purposes besides competition. It also represents friendship and tranquility. This tale perfectly captures that.
