1938 European Championships in Athletics
Encyclopedia
The 2nd European Athletics Championships was a continental athletics competition for Europe
an athletes which was held in two places in 1938. The men's event took place in Paris
, France
between 3–5 September while the women's events were in Vienna
, Austria
(at the time part of German Reich) on 17 and 18 September. A total of 32 events were contested at the two competitions, comprising 23 events for men and 9 for women. This was the first time that events for women were held and the only occasion on which the competition was held in two separate locations.
Germany
topped the medals table with twelve gold medal
s and 32 in total. Finland
won the second greatest number of gold medals (5) and eleven medals in total. The next most successful nations were Great Britain
(four golds and eight overall) and Sweden
(three golds and a total of thirteen medals). France
won a medal of each colour in Paris, with Prudent Joye
the sole Frenchman to win a gold for the hosts of the men's championships.
In the men's competition at Stade Olympique de Colombes in Paris, Donald Finlay
of Great Britain
broke the European record to win the 110 metres hurdles
. Tinus Osendarp
of the Netherlands
won a sprint double, breaking two championship records. World record holder Sydney Wooderson
took victory in the 1500 metres
while Olympic gold medallists Matti Järvinen (javelin), Karl Hein
(hammer) and Harold Whitlock
(50 km walk) won their specialities. Finnish runners Taisto Mäki
, Ilmari Salminen
and Väinö Muinonen
won all three of the long distance running events at the championships, upholding the country's reputation as the Flying Finns.
Stanisława Walasiewicz of Poland
excelled in the women's events at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion in Vienna, winning both the 100
and 200 metres
, as well as silver medals in the long jump
and 4 x 100 metres relay
. Italian
athlete Claudia Testoni set a world record of 11.6 seconds over the 80 metres hurdles. Outside of these highlights, the German women dominated the competition by winning 15 of the 27 women's medals on offer. Among them were Käthe Krauß (who won two silvers in the sprints), 1936 Berlin Olympics champion Gisela Mauermayer
(who won the discus and a silver in the shot put) and Lisa Gelius, who completed an usual double of silver in the hurdles and gold in the javelin throw
. Among the minor medallists was Fanny Blankers-Koen
, who won the first international medals of her highly successful career. Dora Ratjen
was the initial winner of the women's high jump
, but this was rescinded after it was discovered that he was in fact a man.
Key:
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an athletes which was held in two places in 1938. The men's event took place in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
between 3–5 September while the women's events were in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
(at the time part of German Reich) on 17 and 18 September. A total of 32 events were contested at the two competitions, comprising 23 events for men and 9 for women. This was the first time that events for women were held and the only occasion on which the competition was held in two separate locations.
Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
topped the medals table with twelve gold medal
Gold medal
A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
s and 32 in total. Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
won the second greatest number of gold medals (5) and eleven medals in total. The next most successful nations were Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
(four golds and eight overall) and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
(three golds and a total of thirteen medals). France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
won a medal of each colour in Paris, with Prudent Joye
Prudent Joye
Prudent Joye was a French track and field athlete who specialised in the 400 metres hurdles. He competed for France at the 1936 Summer Olympics and won gold at the 1938 European Athletics Championships...
the sole Frenchman to win a gold for the hosts of the men's championships.
In the men's competition at Stade Olympique de Colombes in Paris, Donald Finlay
Donald Finlay
Group Captain Donald "Don" Osborne Finlay, DFC, AFC was a British athlete and Royal Air Force officer. He was born in Christchurch, Hampshire and died in Great Missenden.-Athletics career:...
of Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
broke the European record to win the 110 metres hurdles
110 metres hurdles
The 110 metres hurdles is a hurdling track and field event for men. It is incuded in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympic Games. The female counterpart is the 100 metre hurdles. As part of a racing event, ten hurdles of 1.067 metres in height are evenly spaced along a straight...
. Tinus Osendarp
Tinus Osendarp
Martinus Bernardus Osendarp was a Dutch athlete, excelling in the sprint events.Born in Delft, Osendarp won two bronze medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics in the 100 and 200 m sprint events...
of the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
won a sprint double, breaking two championship records. World record holder Sydney Wooderson
Sydney Wooderson
Sydney Charles Wooderson MBE , dubbed "The Mighty Atom", was an English athlete whose peak career was in the 1930s and 1940s. He was one of Britain’s greatest middle-distance runners and had an amazing sprint finish...
took victory in the 1500 metres
1500 metres
The 1,500-metre run is the premier middle distance track event.Aerobic endurance is the biggest factor contributing to success in the 1500 metres but the athlete also requires significant sprint speed.In modern times, the 1,500-metre run has been run at a pace faster than the average person could...
while Olympic gold medallists Matti Järvinen (javelin), Karl Hein
Karl Hein
Karl Hein was a German athlete who competed mainly in the hammer throw. Born in Hamburg, he won the gold medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, Germany. He was born and died in Hamburg....
(hammer) and Harold Whitlock
Harold Whitlock
Hector Harold Whitlock was a British athlete who competed mainly in the 50 kilometre walk.Whitlock won his first national title in 1933. Two years later, he set a new world record for a 30-mile walk, finishing in 4 hours, 29 minutes, 31.8 seconds...
(50 km walk) won their specialities. Finnish runners Taisto Mäki
Taisto Mäki
Taisto Armas Mäki was a Finnish long-distance runner - one of the so-called Flying Finns. Like his coach and close friend, Paavo Nurmi, Mäki broke world records over two miles, 5000 metres and 10,000 metres - holding the records simultaneously between 1939 and 1942...
, Ilmari Salminen
Ilmari Salminen
Ilmari R. Salminen was a Finnish athlete, winner of the 10,000 metres at the 1936 Summer Olympics.He was born in Elimäki and died in Kouvola....
and Väinö Muinonen
Väinö Muinonen
Viktor Muinonen was a Finnish long-distance runner, who competed for his native country at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany....
won all three of the long distance running events at the championships, upholding the country's reputation as the Flying Finns.
Stanisława Walasiewicz of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
excelled in the women's events at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion in Vienna, winning both the 100
100 metres
The 100 metres, or 100-metre dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, it is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896...
and 200 metres
200 metres
A 200 metres race is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 m track, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques are needed to successfully run the race. A slightly shorter race, called the stadion and run on a straight track, was the first...
, as well as silver medals in the long jump
Long jump
The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength, and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a take off point...
and 4 x 100 metres relay
4 x 100 metres relay
The 4 × 100 metres relay or sprint relay is an athletics track event run in lanes over one lap of the track with four runners completing 100 metres each. The first runners begin in the same stagger as for the individual 400 m race...
. Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
athlete Claudia Testoni set a world record of 11.6 seconds over the 80 metres hurdles. Outside of these highlights, the German women dominated the competition by winning 15 of the 27 women's medals on offer. Among them were Käthe Krauß (who won two silvers in the sprints), 1936 Berlin Olympics champion Gisela Mauermayer
Gisela Mauermayer
Gisela Mauermayer was a German athlete who competed mainly in the discus. She won the gold medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, Germany....
(who won the discus and a silver in the shot put) and Lisa Gelius, who completed an usual double of silver in the hurdles and gold in the javelin throw
Javelin throw
The javelin throw is a track and field athletics throwing event where the object to be thrown is the javelin, a spear approximately 2.5 metres in length. Javelin is an event of both the men's decathlon and the women's heptathlon...
. Among the minor medallists was Fanny Blankers-Koen
Fanny Blankers-Koen
Francina "Fanny" Elsje Blankers-Koen was a Dutch athlete, best known for winning four gold medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. She accomplished this as a 30 year old mother of two, during a time when many disregarded women's athletics...
, who won the first international medals of her highly successful career. Dora Ratjen
Dora Ratjen
Heinrich Ratjen was a German athlete who competed for Germany in the women's high jump at the 1936 Summer Olympics at Berlin, finishing fourth, but was later discovered to be male...
was the initial winner of the women's high jump
High jump
The high jump is a track and field athletics event in which competitors must jump over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without the aid of certain devices in its modern most practiced format; auxiliary weights and mounds have been used for assistance; rules have changed over the years....
, but this was rescinded after it was discovered that he was in fact a man.
Men
| 100 metres | 10.5 CR | 10.6 | 10.6 | |||
| 200 metres | 21.2 CR | 21.6 | 21.6 | |||
| 400 metres | 47.4 CR | 48.2 | 48.8 | |||
| 800 metres | 1:50.6 CR | 1:51.6 | 1:52.0 | |||
| 1500 metres | 3:53.6 CR | 3:54.5 | 3:55.2 | |||
| 5000 metres | 14:26.8 CR | 14:27.4 | 14:29.2 | |||
| 10,000 metres | 30:52.0 CR | 30:53.2 | 30:57.8 | |||
| 110 metres hurdles | 14.3 ER | 14.5 | 14.8 | |||
| 400 metres hurdles | 53.1 CR | 53.3 | 53.6 | |||
| 3000 metres steeplechase | 9:16.2 | 9:19.2 | 9:21.4 | |||
| 4×100 metres relay |  GermanyManfred Kersch Gerd Hornberger Gerd Hornberger Gerd Hornberger was a German athlete who competed mainly in the 100 metres.He competed for Germany in the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, Germany in the 4 x 100 metre relay where he won the bronze medal with his team mates Wilhelm Leichum, Erich Borchmeyer and Erwin Gillmeister.Hornberger was... Karl Neckermann Jakob Scheuring |
40.9 CR |  SwedenGösta Klemming Åke Stenqvist Lennart Lindgren Lennart Strandberg Lennart Strandberg Lennart Strandberg was a Swedish athlete, who competed mainly in the 100 metres at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Lennart Stranberg finished sixth in the 100m at the Berlin Olympics. He was in 3rd place behind Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe of the US, but his thigh burst 20 yards before the finish... |
41.1 |  United KingdomMaurice Scarr Godfrey Brown Godfrey Brown Arthur Godfrey Kilner Brown was a British athlete, winner of gold medal in 4x400 m relay at the 1936 Summer Olympics... Arthur Sweeney Arthur Sweeney Arthur Wellington Sweeney was an English athlete who competed for Great Britain in the 1936 Summer Olympics.... Ernest Page |
41.2 |
| 4×400 metres relay | Germany Hermann Blazejezak Manfred Bues Erich Linnhoff Rudolf Harbig Rudolf Harbig Rudolf Harbig was a German middle distance runner best known for the 800 metres world record that he set in Milan in 1939.-Life:... |
3:13.7 CR | United Kingdom John Barnes Alfred Baldwin Alan Pennington Godfrey Brown Godfrey Brown Arthur Godfrey Kilner Brown was a British athlete, winner of gold medal in 4x400 m relay at the 1936 Summer Olympics... |
3:14.9 | Sweden Lars Nilsson Carl Hendrik Gustafsson Börje Thomasson Bertil von Wachenfeldt |
3:17.3 |
| Marathon | 2:37:28.8 | 2:39:03.0 | 2:42:13.6 | |||
| 50 km walk | 4:41:51 | 4:43:54 | 4:44:35 | |||
| High jump | 1.97 m | 1.94 m | 1.94 m | |||
| Pole vault | 4.05 m CR | 4.00 m | 4.00 m | |||
| Long jump | 7.65 m CR | 7.61 m | 7.56 m | |||
| Triple jump | 15.32 m CR | 14.95 m | 14.73 m | |||
| Shot put | 15.83 m CR | 15.59 m | 15.52 m | |||
| Discus throw | 49.70 m | 49.48 m | 48.72 m | |||
| Hammer throw | 58.77 m CR | 57.34 m | 51.23 m | |||
| Javelin throw | 76.87 m CR | 75.00 m | 72.78 m | |||
| Decathlon | 6870 pts CR | 6661 pts | 6444 pts | |||
Women
| 100 metres | 11.9 | 12.0 | 12.0 | |||
| 200 metres | 23.8 | 24.4 | 24.9 | |||
| 80 metres hurdles | 11.6 WR | 11.7 | 11.8 | |||
| 4×100 metres relay | Germany Josefine Kohl Käthe Krauß Emmy Albus Ida Kühnel |
46.8 |  PolandJadwiga Gawronska Barbara Ksiazkiewicz Otylia Kaluzowa Stanisława Walasiewicz |
48.2 |  ItalyMaria Alfero Maria Apollonio Rosetta Cattaneo Italia Lucchini |
49.4 |
| High jump | 1.64 m | 1.64 m | 1.64 m | |||
| Long jump | 5.88 m | 5.81 m | 5.47 m | |||
| Shot put | 13.29 m | 13.27 m | 12.55 m | |||
| Discus throw | 44.80 m | 40.95 m | 39.81 m | |||
| Javelin throw | 45.58 m | 44.14 m | 42.49 m | |||
Medal table
| 1 | Germany |
12 | 11 | 9 | 32 |
| 2 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 11 | |
| 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 8 | |
| 4 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 13 | |
| 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 6 | |
| 6 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 | |
| 7 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 8 | |
| 8= | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| 8= | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 11 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 12= | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 12= | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Total | 32 | 32 | 32 | 96 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|