Unusual Technique Behind Mystery

[DoubleRBar]

Hope you all had a good Halloween yesterday. Today (Thursday) we say "Happy Birthday" to two Olympic champions.

One of these two was born 100 years ago this day, while the other was born 50 years ago today.

The older of the two won Olympic gold in a field event and died about two months after the Beijing Olympic Games.

Also winning Olympic gold in a field event, the younger of these two athletes also set two world records during this athlete's career.

Born in Europe, the younger athlete won Olympic gold in Asia. Born in North America, the older person went to college in California and won Olympic gold in California.

Both field events are part of the decathlon.

An athlete from Japan took the silver medal when our older athlete won the Olympic gold medal.

It was an American athlete that won the silver medal when our younger person won the gold medal.

Enough clues. Name these two Olympic champions, born the day after Halloween.

[dukehjsteve]

After some mental eliminating, I will take a shot at :

Ed Gordon 1932 LJ

Gennady Avdeyenko 1988 HJ

[DoubleRBar]

Very good guess, dukehjsteve, but incorrect. You have the correct Olympic years, however the wrong field events. I will say one event is a jumping event while the other is a throwing event.

[rhymans]

Bill Miller, and Ulf Timmermann

[DoubleRBar]

You got them, rhymans. Happy birthday today to Bill Miller and Ulf Timmermann. Miller won the 1932 Olympic pole vault and he went to Stanford. Bill Miller was born 100 years ago today, however he died at the age of 96.

Ulf Timmermann, of course, won the Seoul Olympic shot put in one of the best Olympic shot put contests in history. Ulf turns 50 today.

Nice job, dukehjsteve and rhymans.