Shuhei Nishida

Shuhei Nishida was particularly successful in the Student World Championships and the International University Games, the precursors of the Universiade, winning silver in 1928 and gold in 1930 and 1935. In 1930 he won the pole vault at the Far East Championships in Tokyo. Still a student, his first Olympic appearance brought him a silver medal at the Los Angeles Olympics. In 1936 he and Sueo Oe jumped-off for the silver medal but then elected to share the medals. The Japanese team leaders decided to award the silver medal to Nishida as the elder and bronze to Oe. On their return, they cut both medals in half and put them together again as silver / bronze medals. In 1951, at 41 years old, Nishida was third at the Asian Games in New Delhi. Domestically, he took his first title at the Japanese Athletics Championships in 1929 and then six consecutive titles 1931-36.

Nishida was educated at Waseda University as an engineer and worked for the Hitachi Group. Later he became an international referee, and in 1959 was appointed president of the Japanese Athletics Federation, eventually becoming an Honorary Vice-President and a member of the Japanese Olympic Committee. He managed the Japanese team at the 1st Asian Games and the Melbourne Olympics. At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics he headed the jury. Unlike Kenkichi Oshima, Nishida voted for a boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moskva. In 1988 he was appointed an Honorary Citizen of his hometown of Nachikatsuura and in 1989 he was awarded the Olympic Order in Silver. Nishida died of heart failure in 1997.

Personal Best: PV – 4.30 (1932).