Guinn Smith

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Medal record
Competitor for Flag of the United States United States
Men's athletics
Gold 1948 London Pole vault

Owen Guinn Smith (born May 2, 1920 – died January 20, 2004) was an American athlete, the 1948 Olympic champion in the pole vault.

Born in McKinney, Texas, Smith moved to California when he was a kid. He was originally a high jumper, but UC Berkeley, the university he wanted to attend, already had a strong high jumping team, so he took up pole vaulting. He won the NCAA championships in 1941, the year before he graduated as a history major. During the remainder of World War II, Guinn Smith served as an air force pilot in Asia.

Smith, the 1947 national pole vault champion, was sent to the 1948 Olympics in London. During a rainy competition, Smith took the gold in his last attempt for 4.30 m (14 ft 1 1/4 in).

He died at age 83 in San Francisco of emphysema.

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Olympic Champions in the Men's Pole Vault
1896: Welles Hoyt • 1900: Irving Baxter • 1904: Charles Dvorak • 1906: Fernand Gonder • 1908: Edward Cook/Alfred Gilbert • 1912: Harry Babcock • 1920: Frank Foss • 1924: Lee Barnes • 1928: Sabin Carr • 1932: William Miller • 1936: Earle Meadows • 1948: Guinn Smith • 1952: Bob Richards • 1956: Bob Richards • 1960: Don Bragg • 1964: Fred Hansen • 1968: Bob Seagren • 1972: Wolfgang Nordwig • 1976: Tadeusz Ślusarski • 1980: Władysław Kozakiewicz • 1984: Pierre Quinon • 1988: Sergei Bubka • 1992: Maksim Tarasov • 1996: Jean Galfione • 2000: Nick Hysong • 2004: Tim Mack