Frederick Morgan Hansen (born December 29, 1940) is an American former athlete who competed mainly in the pole vault.
A 1963 graduate of Rice University, he competed in the pole vault for the United States in the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan, where he won the gold medal. He held the world record in the pole vault for almost 2 years, first set as 5.23 m (17 ft 1+3⁄4 in) on June 13, 1964, and then improved to 5.28 m (17 ft 3+3⁄4 in) on July 25, 1964, at the USA vs USSR dual meet at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
1964 Olympics
Going into the 1964 Olympics, the United States had never lost an Olympic pole vault competition. In the final, the last remaining American was Hansen, who at the time was also the world record holder. The field included two other previous world record holders and decathlete C. K. Yang. Hansen cleared 5 meters on his first attempt, but so did three German athletes. Hansen then passed the next height, watching as only Wolfgang Reinhardt was able to clear. Re-entering the competition at 5.10, Hansen failed his first two attempts, but so did Reinhardt. Hansen then sailed over his final attempt, while Reinhart could not. Hansen continued the American streak, which would survive through one more Olympics until the 1972 pole vault controversy, when defending champion Bob Seagren had his pole confiscated at the games and had to compete on an unfamiliar, borrowed pole.
Hansen is featured on the cover of the book The Pole Vault: A Violent Ballet by David Butler.
Personal life
Hansen was an avid golfer, and played at the 1980 U.S. Amateur golf championship.6 He resides Gonzales County, Texas. He formerly practiced dentistry in Houston, Texas, in the Memorial area of town. He was Inducted into the Texas Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame, Class of 2016.7
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fred Hansen (athlete).References
Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Fred Hansen". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on August 30, 2013. /wiki/Bill_Mallon ↩
"Athletics at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Games: Men's pole vault". Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved April 30, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20121105144619/http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1964/ATH/mens-pole-vault.html ↩
Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Fred Hansen". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on August 30, 2013. /wiki/Bill_Mallon ↩
Fred Hansen. trackfield.brinkster.net http://trackfield.brinkster.net/Profile.asp?ID=2512&Gender=M ↩
Video on YouTube @1:10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYZQmihl-yM ↩
Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Fred Hansen". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on August 30, 2013. /wiki/Bill_Mallon ↩
http://ttfca2.wixsite.com/txtfhalloffame/inductees Archived January 16, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. wixsite.com http://ttfca2.wixsite.com/txtfhalloffame/inductees ↩