Athletes - Lindy Remigino

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	Athletes - Lindy Remigino

Lindy John Remigino (born June 3, 1931) is an American athlete, the 1952 Olympic 100 m champion.

Born in Elmhurst, New York, Remigino's qualification for the 1952 Summer Olympics was a surprise to many. By the time he was done, his gold medal victory stood as an example of the full meaning of 'champion.'<

The Metropolitan-AAU (New York City)was the most competitive conference in the nation for sprinters during the early Fifties. Multiple ICAAAA champion Andy Stanfield, the great 200-Meters Olympic champion, was until 1952 a tremendous 60 and 100 yard sprinter and a champion, prior to injuring himself hurdling, which thereafter limited his all-out power in the short dashes. Even after Stanfield's graduation, the ICAAAA was full of more terrific sprinters, namely Remigino's teammates at Manhattan College 60-Yards US Nationals champion Jack O'Connell, the great long-sprinter Bob Carty, and Joe Schatzle. Together, they formed the world's dominant 4x100 and 4x220 sprint relay. Remigino won the ICAAAA 220 championship in 1952, then placed close second to Morgan State's terrific sprinter, Art Bragg, at US Olympic Trials.

In Helsinki, Remigino continued on a roll. In pre-Olympic workouts, none of the others could come close to catching him in the practice runs. Some were 40 yards, some were all-out all the way and no one could catch Remigino - not once. Italian fans watching got to cheering him on. Bragg was injured prior to the Games, and eliminated in the Trials. The other American Dean Smith of Texas qualified for the final. The Olympic 100-M final was one of the most exciting ever in the history of the event. Out of the blocks, John Treloar took a step ahead, but Remigino the eventual Olympic champion and several more quickly picked him up, with Jamaica's Herb McKenley lagging well behind. Remigino sped out of his pickup to well ahead of the field, and then by mid-race to an extraordinarily wide two-meter lead. By the 80-meter mark, Remigino held that big lead, and then the 19-year old at that point in the race made a mistake. In his excitement at sight of the advancing tape he pitched forward in a virtual lean. Thus, the field advanced on him. If he'd have stayed tall like a brook stick he'd have dashed right through the tape. Instead, he decelerated in the lean, and McKenley came like a freight train, and at the tape no one was certain who won.

No one except all of the place-pickers. The officials were in utter agreement - Remigino for gold.

All six athletes finished very close to each other, in fact, the times ranging from 10,4 for the first four to 10,5 for the fifth and sixth runners. Remigino himself thought he had blown it, and congratulated McKenley. However, examination of the finish photo showed Remigino had tucked his shoulder and won the title.

Across Europe that Summer, Remigino defeated McKenley several times more at 100, McKenley defeated the new 'World's Fastest Human' one time at 200. In Oslo, Norway, Remigino won in 10.2 to equal the 100-Meters world-record, but an out of place wind-o-meter was relied upon to cancel ratification. The great 5-time British Amateur Athletic Association 100/220 champion MacDonald Bailey - the Helsinki 100 'favorite' by the writers - was one of the men who held the 10.2 world-record. Bailey never defeated Remigino.

Sportswriters painted Remigino as a Cinderella story. He wasn't dominant - but it was a very good time for sprinters in the East. People have forgotten that the ICAAAA not the NCAA was the oldest most traditional major conference, and in 1952 it was still major - 1/3 of all US Olympians competed that year at the ICAAAA Indoors championships.

When he won, Remigino was portrayed with a yellow pen. No sportswriter bothered to cover that Remigino was the hottest US sprinter. But, if the journalists had asked US coach Clyde Littlefield who he liked to win gold they would have gotten an answer because Littlefield - Smith's coach at Texas - said as much that he thought Remigino would win.

One well-known writers has stated that Remigino was "outclassed by {Jim] Golliday" who handily beat him earlier. Bragg had beaten Golliday on many occasions. No one is unbeatable, and part of winning is putting yourself in the position to win - Golliday was a tremendous sprinter, but not always a relaxed sprinter. He suffered muscle pulls several times. Remigino made it through all the meets and all the heats, others couldn't, and Remigino put himself in the position to win - that's a great part of being a champion sprinter.

Others have written that Remigino "never again won anything major." In 1953, he won both ICAAAA sprint championships. In 1955 he placed second to the great Bobby Morrow in the 100 US Nationals.

After his running career, Remigino became a high school coach. His Hartford Public High School teams won 31 state titles in his 43 year career.

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