was a Japanese Olympic athlete who competed mainly in the

pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the Myc ...

.Shuhei Nishida
sports-reference.com Nishida was born in what is now part of

Nachikatsuura file:Nachikatsuuracho.jpg, 270px, Nachikatsuura town hall is a List of towns in Japan, town located in Higashimuro District, Wakayama, Higashimuro District, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 14,420 in 7622 house ...

Wakayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 944,320 () and has a geographic area of . Wakayama Prefecture borders Osaka Prefecture to the north, and Mie Prefecture and Nara Prefecture ...

, Japan. He was a student of the Engineering Department at

Waseda University , mottoeng = Independence of scholarship , established = 21 October 1882 , type = Private , endowment = , president = Aiji Tanaka , city = Shinjuku , state = Tokyo , country = Japan , students = 47,959 , undergrad = 39,382 , postgrad ...

, when selected as a member of the Japanese Olympic team for the 1932 Summer Olympics in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, 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. He subsequently participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics held in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

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 Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, photographer and actress known for her role in producing Nazi propaganda. A talented swimmer and an artist, Riefenstahl also became in ...

. 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 Ga ...

. 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 The is the national governing body for the sport of athletics in Japan. Presidents * Ryōzō Hiranuma (1929–1958) *Hiroshi Kasuga (1958–1964) * Ichirō Kōno (1965) * Kenzō Kōno (1965–1975) * Hanji Aoki (1975–1999) *Yōhei Kōno (1999� ...

, and as a member of the

Japanese Olympic Committee The is the National Olympic Committee in Japan for the Olympic Games movement, based in Tokyo, Japan. It is a non-profit organisation that selects teams and raises funds to send Japanese competitors to Olympic events organised by the Internati ...

. In 1989, he was awarded the silver medal of the

Olympic Order The Olympic Order, established in 1975, is the highest award of the Olympic Movement. It is awarded for particularly distinguished contributions to the Olympic Movement, i.e. recognition of efforts worthy of merit in the cause of sport. Traditi ...

. Nishida died of heart failure in 1997 at the age of 87.

References

Further reading