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By the Book. By the end of the 1947 track season, there was no doubt that Bob was on the way to becoming one of the nation's top athletes. But it was almost an accident that sent him toward the decathlon, and to the Olympics in 1948. Even Tulare High School's Track Coach Virgil Jackson was a little vague about the decathlon, an event that, in those days, most of the U.S. had never heard of; he was not even sure of the name. Jackson wrote to the A.A.U. for information, finally got a book, published in Finland, which gave the official decathlon rules. After he found out what the decathlon was, Jackson decided that it was just the thing for Bob's versatile talents.
Bob had never pole-vaulted, had never even seen a javelin, never broad-jumped nor run the 400-or 1,500-meter races in competition. The running was mainly a matter of conditioning, and finding out how to pace himself. Learning to measure his stride and developing a take-off lift for the broad jump was not too difficult. But the pole vault and javelin throw were another matter.
Coach Jackson ordered a javelin from San Francisco, and Bob spent all summer working out with it, practicing his grip without ever trying a throw. During the 1948 track season, he concentrated on perfecting his form in regular events: high hurdles, broad and high jump. Not until three weeks before the Pasadena games did he first start pole-vaulting and throwing the javelin, following the instructions laid down in a track manual.
"Don't Worry, Mom." Jackson now admits that he was really looking ahead to the 1952 Olympics, and was just trying to get Bob interested in the idea. But Bob had quietly decided not to wait for 1952. In the Pasadena meet he threw the javelin 171 ft., pole-vaulted 11½ ft. and fought his way to first place. Two weeks later, at the National Championships (and Olympic tryouts) in Bloomfield, N.J., Bob easily beat Irving ("Moon") Mondschein, three times national champion, to become the No. 1 decathlon man on the U.S. Olympic team. A month later, 17-year-old Bob Mathias stepped into London's Empire Stadium before a crowd of 80,000 spectators, to compete in his first Olympic Games.
At the end of the first day, Bob was in third place. But he told his mother: "Don't worry, I'll be up there for the victory ceremony tomorrow." Next day Bob was dressed and on the field at 9:30 a.m., ready for the final five events. A persistent downpour, mud and cold—the worst Olympic weather anyone could recall—slowed down competition. In between events Bob napped and conserved his energy, stuffed down two box lunches to keep himself going.
He had to wait almost eight hours to take his turn at the pole vault. Fighting exhaustion and gathering darkness, Bob made his vault of 11 ft. 5¾ in. while officials marked the take-off point with a white sneaker in the 9 p.m. gloom. At 9:15, running up to a foul mark lit with an official's flashlight, he threw the javelin 165 ft. 1 in.