This Day in Track & Field, July 21, Mel Sheppard added 800m gold to his 1,500m gold in London (1908), compiled by edited by Walt Murphy

This is This Day in Track & Field History, on July 21, 2025, was compiled and written by Walt Murphy, and used with permission.

Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service  (wmurphy25@aol.com)

This Day in Track & Field–July 21

1908–At the London Olympics, “Peerless Mel”  Sheppard won the 800-meters with a World Record time of 1:52.8. Not sure why, but Sheppard continued on to 880-yards (1:54.0). 2^nd and 3^rd were Italy’s Emilio Lunghi (1:54.2) and Germany’s Hanns Braun (1:55.2).

It was one of three gold medals for Hall-of-Famer Sheppard, who had earlier won the 1500 (7-14) with an Olympic Record-equaling time of 4:03.6 and later anchored the winning sprint medley (7-25). He won gold in the 4×400 relay and silver in the 800 at the 1912 Olympics. For many years the “Mel Sheppard 600y” was one of the featured events at the Millrose Games (revived in recent years at various distances).

Winner of the High Jump with an Olympic Record of 6-2  ¾  (1.90) was American Harry Porter, and there was a 3-way tie at 6-2 (1.88) for the silver medal—Great Britain’s Con Leahy, Hungary’s István Somodi, and France’s Géo André.

Results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1908_Summer_Olympics

Reports: https://www.olympedia.org/editions/5/sports/ATH

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Sheppard

1926— 14-year old Viola Edwards became the first female to clear 5-feet when she high-jumped 5-1/2 (reported elsewhere as 5-1/8) in Chicago.

http://tinyurl.com/ViolaEdwards

1952—Lindy Remigino emerged as the winner of the Men’s 100-meters in Helsinki 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, who had offered his congratulations to McKenley after the race, 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 finished 5th at the NCAA Championships to barely qualify for the U.S. Trials (top 6…