Wyndham Halswelle

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Olympic medalist
Wyndham Halswelle
Medal record
Men's athletics
Gold	1908 London	400 metres

Wyndham Halswelle (30 May 1882 – 31 March 1915) was a British athlete, winner of the controversial 400m race at the 1908 Summer Olympics, becoming the only athlete to win an Olympic title by a walkover.

Born in London to London-born, Edinburgh-trained artist Keeley Halswelle and Helen Marianna Elizabeth Gordon, he is nonetheless usually referred to as being Scottish, the nationality of his maternal grandfather, General Nathaniel J. Gordon.^[1][2] Wyndham Halswelle had a notable athletic career at Charterhouse School and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, before being commissioned into the Highland Light Infantry in 1901.^[3] While his regiment was in South Africa in 1902 for the Second Boer War, Halswelle's ability was recognised by Jimmy Curran, a coach and former professional athlete. It was him who persuaded Halswelle to take up athletics seriously when his regiment returned to Edinburgh in 1904.^[3]

In 1904 he was army champion for 880 yards, and in 1905 he won the Scottish and AAA 440 yard (402 m) titles. In the Athens Intercalated Olympics, he achieved a silver medal in the 400 metres and a bronze in the 800 metres. On his return, in a single afternoon at the Scottish championships, he won the 100, 220, 440 and 880 yards races (91, 201, 402, 805 m).^[3] His season was cut short by a leg injury in 1907, but he came back the following year to set a world record of 31.2 for 300 yards (274 m) and a twenty nine year British record over 440 yards of 48.4s.^[3]

In 1908 Summer Olympics, Halswelle reached the final of the 400m with the fastest qualifying time (an Olympic record 48.4 seconds). The 400m was not run in lanes at this point. Halswelle was baulked by Robbins in the first 50m. ^[3] Then, coming off the final bend, Robbins lead Carpenter by a yard, with Halswelle waiting to pass him in the last straight, as he had done to other athletes in the earlier rounds. Carpenter ran wide, forcing Halswelle to within eighteen inches of the outside of the track, using his right elbow to prevent Halswelle overtaking.^[3] On seeing the interference, umpire Roscoe Badger shouted "Foul!", the tape was broken, and the race declared void.^[3] Pictures of the race indicate that Carpenter blocked Halswelle.^{[citation needed]} While blocking was allowed under US rules at the time, the Olympic race was conducted under stricter, British rules that did not allow this.^[3]

The race was ordered to be rerun in lanes two days later without Carpenter; however, but the other two U.S. runners refused to race, so, though reluctant, Halswelle ran the race by himself to win the gold in a time of 50.2s.^[3] It is the only occasion in Olympic history where the final was a walk-over. As a result of the controversy, from the next Olympics in 1912 onwards all 400 metre races were run in lanes, and the International Amateur Athletic Federation was founded to establish uniform worldwide rules for athletics.

The controversy soured Halswelle's view of athletics, and he retired after a farewell appearance at the 1908 Glasgow Rangers Sports.^[3] Halswelle, by then a captain, was killed by a sniper at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in France, during World War I.^[3] In 2003, he was posthumously inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.^[4]

References

1. ^ E.Radford, "Haswelle, Keeley (1832-1891), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
2. ^ Doug Gillon, "Hero from a forsaken generation", The Herald, July 21, 2008, http://www.theherald.co.uk/sport/thearchive/display.var.2403999.0.hero_from_a_forsaken_generation.php.
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} M.Pottle, "Haswelle, Wyndham (1882-1915), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
4. ^ http://www.ssc.org.uk/inductees/detail.asp?newsid=40

• Cook, Theodore Andrea (1908). The Fourth Olympiad, Being the Official Report. London: British Olympic Association. 
• De Wael, Herman (2001). "Athletics 1908". Herman's Full Olympians. Retrieved on 25 July, 2006.
• Wudarski, Pawel (1999). "Wyniki Igrzysk Olimpijskich". Retrieved on 25 July, 2006. (Polish)