John Devitt, an Australian champion swimmer who was awarded a gold medal within the showcase race of the 1960 Rome Olympics, despite the fact that he had a slower time than the runner-up, died on Thursday in Sydney. He was 86.
The Australian Olympic Committee announced his demise, saying it got here after an extended sickness.
Devitt was one of Australia’s greatest swimmers, thrilling the house crowds when he gained gold and silver medals within the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. He went on to win a bronze medal as properly within the 1960 Video games. Together with relays, he broke 14 world information and gained 13 Australian championships.
However past Australia he could also be greatest remembered for his half within the end of the 100-meter freestyle last in Rome, one of many extra freakish moments in sports activities historical past. It led to an overhaul of the best way the placings and instances for swimming races had been determined, with digital timers and pictures changing judgment calls.
Devitt, at 23 and a lean 6 toes 1 in 1960, was captain of the Australian males’s swimming group for the second consecutive Olympics and the race favourite. One opponent was Lance Larson of Monterey Park, Calif., a 20-year-old sophomore on the College of Southern California.
Within the eight-man last, Devitt was clearly forward till the final 20 meters, when Larson, in an adjoining lane, caught as much as him. They touched the end wall virtually collectively, with Larson seemingly barely forward. Every congratulated the opposite, then waited for the official outcomes. The wait was excruciating, virtually 10 minutes.
In that period, the principles known as for 3 judges to decide on first place, three different judges to decide on second, and three others to decide on third. Every lane had three timekeepers, however their timing, by hand, was virtually incidental in figuring out who completed the place. There was no beginning beep or automated contact pads or accepted digital timing or replays, as there are in main swimming competitions in the present day.
When the judges had been polled after the race, the outcomes had been uncommon. Two of the three first-place judges had picked Devitt because the winner, and one had picked Larson. Two of the second-place judges had picked Devitt for second, and one had picked Larson. The three timekeepers for Devitt’s lane had all timed him in 55.2 seconds. The three in Larson’s lane had timed the American in 55.0, 55.1 and 55.1.
And a newly launched automated timing machine — which was began electronically however stopped manually, and which was to be consulted solely when judges had been tied, as they had been in Rome — had Larson in 55.10 seconds and Devitt in 55.16.
It appeared apparent that Larson had gained — till the chief choose, Hans Runstromer of Germany, interceded and voted for Devitt.
American officers protested the choice to the jury of appeals, saying the principles didn’t give the chief choose a vote. Runstromer disagreed. In addition to, he mentioned, he had been standing on the end line and had seen the entire thing. {A photograph} by Sports activities Illustrated, nonetheless, confirmed that Runstromer was 25 yards away on the time and had seen the end at an angle.
The enchantment failed. The Individuals appealed 3 times extra within the subsequent 4 years and misplaced each time. As Larson mentioned, “It was a nasty deal.”
Devitt disagreed, saying that a number of the judges and timers might need missed his contact as a result of it got here after a brief stroke underwater.
In the long run, as The New York Herald Tribune wrote after the race, “This required a Solomon, and the Worldwide Swimming Federation was contemporary out of Solomons.”
In 2009, a paper within the journal Bodily Tradition and Sport: Research and Analysis concluded that “Runstromer’s resolution undoubtedly sanctioned untruth.”
In different phrases, the examine mentioned, Larson had gained.
For the reason that 1968 Olympics in Mexico Metropolis, all worldwide swim races have been timed electronically.
John Thomas Devitt was born on Feb. 4, 1937, in Granville, a suburb of Sydney. He began swimming at age 4 and sometimes educated by swimming in opposition to currents of discharged water from an influence plant.
Devitt’s gold medal in Melbourne in 1956 got here within the 4×200-meter relay; he gained the silver there within the 100-meter freestyle. In addition to the gold medal in Rome, he took the bronze there within the 4×200-meter freestyle.
He retired after the 1960 Olympics and was elected to the Worldwide Swimming Corridor of Fame in 1979. (Larson was elected in 1980.)
His survivors embody his spouse, Wendy, whom he married in 1961.
In later years, Devitt was the European supervisor for the Speedo swimwear firm and opened his personal swimming gear firm. He headed the Australian swimming federation, served as a excessive official of the Australian Olympic Committee and helped carry the 2000 Olympics to Sydney.
Within the Nineteen Eighties, Devitt and Larson met for the primary time since their race, and all was nice. However Larson by no means forgot these Olympics, saying, “I feel John has needed to dwell with the sensation for a few years that he most likely didn’t actually win that gold medal.”
Frank Litsky, a longtime sportswriter for The Instances, died in 2018. William McDonald contributed reporting.
