 Løvland at the 1920 Olympic Games | |||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Helge Andreas Løvland | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 11 May 1890 (1890-05-11) Froland, Norway | ||||||||||||||
| Died | 26 April 1984 (1984-04-27) (aged 93) Oslo, Norway | ||||||||||||||
| Education | Norwegian Military Academy | ||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Military officer (Lieutenant colonel) | ||||||||||||||
| Years active | 1913–1920 (athletics) | ||||||||||||||
| Employer(s) | Norwegian Armed Forces Norwegian Confederation of Sports (secretary-general) | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
Event(s) | Pentathlon, decathlon, 110 metres hurdles, long jump, discus throw, javelin throw | ||||||||||||||
| Club | IF Ørnulf | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Helge Andreas Løvland (11 May 1890 – 26 April 1984) was aNorwegian military officer,track and field athlete, sports official and writer. He won thegold medal in thedecathlon at the1920 Olympics. Løvland was awarded theEgebergs Ærespris in 1919.
He was born inFroland as a son of forest owner Anders Løvland (1852–1928) and Helga née Lyngrot. He was a nephew of Norway's Prime Minister from 1907 to 1908,Jørgen Løvland. Helge Løvland attendedArendal Upper Secondary School, but completed theexamen artium atAars og Voss School in 1911. He resided inKristiania until he graduated from theNorwegian Military Academy in 1914. He then resided inHarstad for two years as a Premier Lieutenant, also taking the State School of Gymnastics in 1917. He returned to Kristiania, and was in 1919 promoted to Captain in the infantry.[1]
In Kristiania, he joined the sports clubIF Ørnulf and made a local breakthrough in an athletics meet in 1913.[2] Løvland then entered the 1914 Norwegian Championships, and won the110 metres hurdles. He also managed a bronze medal in thelong jump and silver in thejavelin throw.[3][4][5] He did not enter the 1915 or 1916 championships.
Løvland returned to win four more national titles in the high hurdles, in 1917, 1918, 1919 and 1920.[3] He also won the long jump in 1919. He did that by erasingFerdinand Bie's championship record, but in turn,Sverre Hansen overtook it in 1921.[4] Moreover Løvland took three silver medals in the discus throw before winning the event in 1920, and won silver and bronze medals in the javelin in 1917, 1919 and 1920.[6][5]
Coming late into thecombined events, Løvland won the Norwegian titles in the pentathlon in 1918 and 1919 as well as decathlon in 1919 and 1920.[7][8] He set Norway's first official pentathlonrecord in 1918, and improved it three times in 1918 and 1919. His last record stood until 1933.Løvland's only decathlon record was set in July 1919 atFrogner Stadium. The points score was 7786.920 following the scoring system at the time; the modern scoring system (from 1985) sets it to 6033 points. As a Norwegian record, it stood until 1931, although that score was lower according to the modern system.[9] His 7786.920 score was also an unofficial world record;[10] official world recordswere not instituted until 1922.
When it came to the Norwegian record in the 110 metres hurdles, Løvland faced 15.8 set by Ferdinand Bie in 1912. Løvland tied the result twice in 1918, and also improved it by 0.1 second in 1919, but all four results were disregarded as records. In three instances, it happened according to the rule at the time (until 1934) that no hurdles could be overturned. Løvland finally beat Bie's time in August 1919, clocking in 15.7 seconds in Bergen. One week later, he lowered it to 15.3 seconds at Frogner Stadium. This record was tied once by himself and six times by others untilHolger Albrechtsen overtook it in 1929.[11]
Løvland was also agymnast, with his exploits in both sports awarding him theEgebergs Honorary Prize in 1919. The King's Cup, awarded to the best overall athlete at the Norwegian Championships, was given to Løvland in 1919 and 1920.[2]
Partially owing toWorld War I, Løvland would enter only one international competition, the1920 Olympic Games.[2] Here, he was alsoNorway'sflag bearer. The first event was thepentathlon, where Løvland only finished fifth.[10] The pentathlon did not include his favourite event, the 110 metres hurdles.
Having tied withBrutus Hamilton in the pentathlon, the American became Løvland's main rival in thedecathlon. Hamilton took the lead after the first event, the 100 metres, which was exacerbated by the long jump and shot put. Løvland performed below par in the long jump, but beat Hamilton in the 400 metres and high hurdles, and became the overall winner of the discus throw. Løvland also set a personal best in thepole vault, and according to the scorekeepers, he had the chance of winning the decathlon if he finished the1500 metres 9 seconds faster than Hamilton. As Løvland finished 9.4 seconds ahead of Hamilton (4:48.4 versus 4:57.8 minutes), the Norwegian camp celebrated victory. Some declared Hamilton the winner, and following numerous messages back and forth, the 1500 metres score as well as Løvland's points score in the discus was also corrected, and he was finally pronounced winner. Løvland retired after the Olympics.[2][12]
Løvland's Olympic victory score was 6803.355 points; 5803 according to the 1985 scoring system. Løvland is the oldest decathlon winner at the Olympics.[10] He was Norway's second Olympic champion in the combined events, though Ferdinand Bie'spentathlon victory in 1912 has beenrevised, first as a joint gold withJim Thorpe, and finally with Thorpe as the sole victor. Løvland would eventually be followed byMarkus Rooth who won theOlympic decathlon of 2024.[13] In between, Norway also had the 1946 European champion in the decathlon,Godtfred Holmvang, who spoke on being directly inspired by Løvland growing up, as they resided in the same district, and Holmvang was impressed by Løvland's physical stature.[14]
From 1921, Løvland served in theNorwegian Armed Forces as Sports Inspector until 1930. He was then secretary-general of theNorwegian Confederation of Sports and theNorwegian Olympic Committee until 1940.[2]
He also impacted a generation with his textbook on training instructions,Idrettsbok for norske gutter (1925). Other books includeFri-idrett (1924),Helse- og treningslære (1938) andHold deg i form (1940).[2]
Theoccupation of Norway by Nazi Germany entailed asports strike, in which most of organized sports in Norway ceased its activity, in part orchestrated by Løvland.[2] He was later arrested in August 1943 during the occupying power's crackdown on military officers. He was shipped to Germany and imprisoned inSchildberg andLuckenwalde.[15]
After the war, he returned to the Armed Forces as a sports consultant, also chairing its Sports Council (Forsvarets idrettsråd) from 1948 to his retirement in 1955. He reached the rank of Major in 1950 and Lieutenant Colonel in 1953.[2] He also sat on the planning committee for theNorwegian School of Sport Sciences, which would eventually be built atSognsvann. Løvland was further decorated with the Ling Medal from theSwedish Gymnastics Federation [sv] in 1939, theKing's Medal of Merit in gold in 1940, and theSwedish Sports Confederation Gold Medal in 1954.[16]
Løvland married Gerd Holmboe Helmers (1898–1986) in August 1921; they had a daughter in 1923 and sons in 1925 and 1930. They resided in three different then-suburbs of Oslo,Grefsen from 1921,Blommenholm from 1926, andSmestad from 1935.[1]Løvland was active withinpistol shooting, chairing the Norske Offiserers Pistolklubb in 1948–1950,[16] and was also a hobby chess player.[1]He died in Oslo in 1984.[2] Abronze relief depicting Løvland was unveiled in Froland on 9 June 2001.[17]
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| Preceded by | Egebergs Ærespris 1919 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by none (1912) | Olympic flag bearer for Norway 1920 | Succeeded by Harald Strøm (1924 Winter) |
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