Guinn Smith was originally a high jumper but upon his enrollment at the University of California at Berkeley he found they already had a strong contingent of high jumpers team, so he took up pole vaulting.
After Smith finished second in the pole vault in 1940, he came back in 1941 to win the NCAA Championship. Later that year he competed for the Olympic Club at the National AAU Championships. Smith finished second to the Club’s legendary pole-vaulter (and fellow Hall of Fame member) Cornelius “Dutch” Warmerdam. Their success helped the Olympic Club win its third consecutive national track and field team championship.
He was discharged in 1945 from World War II service, in which he was awarded the distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal.
At the urging of the Club’s legendary track coach Dink Templeton, Smith resumed competing for the Olympic Club. Smith won the 1947 U.S. Indoor Championships and finished 2nd at the Olympic Trials to earn a spot on the 1948 U.S. Olympic Team. At 28 years old he was one of the oldest competitors at the London Games.
The Pole Vault final began in front of 72,000 fans jammed into Wembley Stadium. By late afternoon, Smith was tied with Erkki Katoja of Finland and U.S. teammate Bob Richards at 13 feet, 9-1/4 inches. To break the tie, the bar was raised to 14 feet, 1-1/4 inches. All competitors were given three attempts to vault the new height. The Finn and Richards failed in each of their three attempts. Smith was down to his final vault, having not cleared on his first two. With another miss by Smith, the Finnish vaulter would be declared the winner with fewer misses.
What followed was a historic Olympic moment. The once-full stadium was nearly empty due to a driving rainstorm. For his last attempt, Smith surprised his teammates and Coach by selecting a new bamboo pole given to him by the Japanese pole-vault champion whose team had been banned from the 1948 Olympics. Smith had never used this pole before.
Smith, against all odds, with a heavily bandaged left knee, amid horrible conditions and with an unfamiliar pole completes the fairy tale by clearing the 14 feet, 1-1/4 inch height to win the gold medal.
After the Games, Smith returned to the U.S. and worked for his Alma mater Cal Berkeley before accepting a position as associate Dean of the Harvard Business School. He returned to the Bay Area and finished career at the Palo Alto Medical Center’s San Francisco Branch.
Guinn Smith was a 50-year member of the Olympic Club. He died on January 20, 2004 at the age of 83 in San Francisco.
