Horace Ashenfelter with a look of intense concentration on his face. He is in the middle of an event and has his arms raised

1952 Helsinki Olympics

  • NUMBER OF PENN STATERS COMPETING: 3
  • NUMBER OF PENN STATERS IN ALL ROLES: 7
  • NUMBER OF OLYMPIC ALTERNATES: 0

 

The Penn State community sent seven members of the Nittany Lions family to Helsinki for the 1952 Olympics. Four of the seven served in support roles outside the field of competition. 1941 Penn State graduate Joseph R. Scalzo, Jr. made the first of his six appearances as a wrestling official in Finland. After serving as a coach for the U.S. gymnastics team four years earlier in London, Eugene Wettstone returned to the Olympics as a judge. Charles “Chuck” Medlar made his first trip to the Olympics as a trainer with Team USA. And Penn State head track and field coach Charles D. “Chic” Werner took up the same post for the U.S. track and field team at the Olympics.

Three former Penn State runners joined Werner in Helsinki to represent the United States. Curt Stone, the oldest of the bunch, failed to reach the final in the 5000-meter race as he finished eighth in his qualifying heat. Stone did reach the 10-kilometer final, where he emerged as the fastest American but finished 20th overall. Bill Ashenfelter, the youngest of the bunch after graduating from Penn State in 1951, failed to finish his qualifying heat of the 3000-meter steeplechase.

 

Profile: Horace Ashenfelter

Horace Ashenfelter running for Penn State
Horace Ashenfelter running for Penn State (Pennsylvania State University, Intercollegiate Athletics, Athlete and Athletics personnel files)

Ashenfelter’s older brother Horace came through in the steeplechase for the United States, securing what remains the only gold medal ever won by an American in the event. Horace Ashenfelter’s college days were delayed by World War II, as he spent four years as a pilot and gunnery instructor in the Army Air Corps after high school before enrolling at Penn State after his discharge in 1946.

In State College, Ashenfelter won the two-mile race at the NCAA championships as a junior in 1948 and as a senior in 1949. After graduation, Ashenfelter went to work as a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in Newark, New Jersey. His showdown in the 1952 Olympic final was touted as a Cold War battle against Vladimir Kazantsev, a Soviet Red Army hero and the unofficial steeplechase world record holder.

Pulling away from Kazantsev down the homestretch of the race, Ashenfelter won by 30 meters in a new world record time of 8 minutes, 45.4 seconds. Ashenfelter could not replicate his Olympic record when he returned to the Olympics four years later in Melbourne, as he failed to qualify for the steeplechase final out of his qualifying heat. By the time he retired from the track in 1957, Ashenfelter had claimed 17 national indoor and outdoor titles on the track at two miles, three miles, and 10,000 meters, in cross country, and in the steeplechase.

 

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