was a Japanese Olympic athlete who competed mainly in the pole vault.Shuhei Nishida
sports-reference.com Nishida was born in what is now part of Nachikatsuura, Wakayama Prefecture,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. He was a student of the Engineering Department at Waseda University, when selected as a member of the Japanese Olympic team for the

1932 Summer Olympics The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held duri ...

in Los Angeles, where he won the silver medal in the pole vault event. Shuhei Nishida, Sueo Oe, Kiyoshi Adachi 1936

After graduation from Waseda University, he obtained a job at

Hitachi () is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...

. He subsequently participated in the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

held in Berlin, Germany where he repeated his performance winning a second silver medal in the same event tying with his friend and teammate Sueo Oe. When the two declined to compete against each other to decide a winner, Nishida was awarded the silver and Oe the bronze by decision of the Japanese team, on the basis that Nishida had cleared the height in fewer attempts. The competition was featured in a scene in the documentary ''Olympia'', filmed by Leni Riefenstahl. On their return to Japan, Nishida and Oe famously had their Olympic medals cut in half, and had a jeweler splice together two new “friendship medals”, half in bronze and half in silver. At the age of 41, Nishida won a bronze medal at the

1951 Asian Games The 1951 Asian Games ( hi, 1951 एशियाई खेल; Marathi: १९५१ आशियाई खेळ), officially known as the First Asian Games, was a multi-sport event celebrated in New Delhi, India from 4 to 11 March 1951. The Game ...

. He remained active in sports all of his life, serving as a referee at events, and from 1959 as an honorary vice chairman of the Japan Association of Athletics Federations, and as a member of the Japanese Olympic Committee. In 1989, he was awarded the silver medal of the Olympic Order. Nishida died of heart failure in 1997 at the age of 87.

References

* Cousineau Phil. ''The Olympic Odyssey: Rekindling the True Spirit of the Great Games''. Quest Books (2003) *Mandell, Richard. ''The Nazi Olympics''. University of Illinois Press (1987), {{DEFAULTSORT:Nishida, Shuhei 1910 births 1997 deaths Sportspeople from Wakayama Prefecture Japanese male pole vaulters Olympic male pole vaulters Olympic athletes of Japan Olympic silver medalists for Japan Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 1932 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1936 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1932 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1936 Summer Olympics Asian Games bronze medalists for Japan Asian Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 1951 Asian Games Medalists at the 1951 Asian Games Japan Championships in Athletics winners Waseda University alumni 20th-century Japanese people

References

Further reading