Meatballs

[DoubleRBar]

Happy birthday today (Wednesday) to an Olympic champion who won the gold medal at the age of 28.

Our birthday athlete died at the age of 79, just fifteen days before the athlete's 80th birthday.

Born 93 years ago this day in January, this champion was definitely not the favorite going into the Olympic final.

A teammate of our birthday champion took the silver medal at these Olympics.

This teammate was also the world record holder at the time of the Olympic final.

Born on a Friday, our birthday champion won the Olympic gold medal on a Friday.

To this day, our birthday athlete remains the only person from this athlete's country to win the Olympic gold medal in this particular track and field event.

Please take these four numbers, unscramble them, and discover our birthday person's gold medal performance: 8493.

Serving in the military, this athlete later became a firefighter.

Don't worry about the hurdles or the horizontal jumps when trying to figure the name of this Olympic champion.

Name this champion athlete in track and field.

[LopenUupunut]

Henry Eriksson?

[DoubleRBar]

LopenUupunut, you are good. Yes, it is Henry Eriksson who was born 93 years ago today. Of course you know that Henry Eriksson beat teammate Lennart Strand by less than one second in the 1948 London Olympic 1,500 meters. Conditions were not the best for that 1,500 with lots of rain and a very muddy track. Amazing that Eriksson broke 3:50 to win the gold medal.