Bob Richards

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Arts & Culture

Bob Richards

American athlete

Also known as: Robert Eugene Richards

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Feb 22, 2024 • Article History

Bob Richards

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Category: Arts & Culture

Byname of:: Robert Eugene Richards

Born:: February 20, 1926, Champaign, Illinois, U.S.

Died:: February 26, 2023, Waco, Texas (aged 97)

Awards And Honors:: Olympic Games; James E. Sullivan Award (1951)

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Bob Richards (born February 20, 1926, Champaign, Illinois, U.S.—died February 26, 2023, Waco, Texas) was an American athlete, the first pole-vaulter to win two Olympic gold medals. Sportswriters called him “the Vaulting Vicar” because he was an ordained minister. Richards was interested in athletics from boyhood, participating in diving and tumbling before taking up the pole vault in junior high school. He was also a football quarterback in high school. After a difficult adolescence and the breakup of his home by divorce, he was reared by a minister in the Church of the Brethren. He began his higher education in ...(100 of 328 words)

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