Harry Porter

Harry Porter
	;
Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing the United States
Olympic Games

Harry Franklin Porter (August 31, 1882 in Bridgeport, Connecticut – June 27, 1965) was a high jumper from the United States of America. He was a member of the Irish American Athletic Club, and won gold in the High Jump in the 1908 Summer Olympics setting an Olympic record at mark of 6'3".

Porter was born on August 31, 1882 in Bridgeport, Connecticut and graduated from Cornell University in 1905.^[1]^[2]

According to his 1910 trading card; "it was not until after his graduation that he became imbued with the athletic spirit. In 1907 and 1908, Porter won the National Amateur Athletic Union championship indoor running high jump title, making a new record, 6ft 1½ inches, and in the latter year he won the outdoor National and Metropolitan Amateur Athletic Union championship."^[3] Porter won five United States championships,^[4] including four AAU high jump championships, from 1908 to 1911.^[2]

Porter used a modified scissors jump to set a new Olympic record of 1.905m (6ft 3in).^[5]

Porter also helped found the Society of Industrial Engineers in 1907.^[2]

Porter was inducted into the Cornell Athletics Hall of Fame in 1987, and into the Niagara Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2010.^[4]

Notes

^ "Harry Porter". Olympedia. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Harry Porter (1987) - Hall of Fame". Cornell University Athletics.
^ 1910 Mecca Cigarette Champion Athlete and Prize Fighter Series.
^ ^a ^b "Porter, Best Inducted Into Niagara Track & Field Hall of Fame". Cornell University Athletics. 5 June 2024.
^ "BBC - History - British History in depth: The 1908 London Olympics Gallery - image 6 of 9". www.bbc.co.uk.

References

Cook, Theodore Andrea (May 1909). The Fourth Olympiad London 1908 Official Report (PDF). London: British Olympic Association. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
Greenberg, Stan (1987). Olympic Games: The Records. London: Guinness Books.
Kiernan, John (1977). The Story of the Olympic Games: 776 B.C. to 1976. Philadelphia and New York: J.B. Lippincott Company.