Frank Benjamin Heavens ( eng. Frank Benjamin Havens ; August 1, 1924 , Arlington - July 22, 2018 ) - American canoe rower , played for the US team in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. Participant of the four summer Olympic games, champion of the Olympic Games in Helsinki, silver medalist of the Olympic Games in London, multiple winner and medalist of national importance regattas.
| Frank Havens | |
|---|---|
| English Frank Benjamin Havens | |
| personal information | |
| Floor | |
| A country |  USA |
| Specialization | canoe sprint |
| Club | Washington Canoe Club |
| Date of Birth | |
| Place of Birth | Arlington , United States |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
| Growth | 188 cm |
| Weight | 89 kg |
Biography
Frank Havens was born on August 1, 1924 in Arlington County, Virginia . He grew up in a sports family, his father Bill was engaged in rowing and as a champion of the national championship he had to participate in the Olympic Games of 1924 in Paris , but he then decided to stay with his pregnant wife and refused this trip (and later he no longer had the opportunity participate in the Games). Frank trained in one of Washington 's canoe clubs, trained along with his elder brother William , who later also became a fairly well-known rower.
He achieved his first serious success at the international level at the age of 23 in the 1948 season when he joined the main team of the American national team and, thanks to a series of successful performances, was granted the right to defend the country's honor at the Summer Olympics in London . Started here in the standings of single canoes at a distance of 10,000 meters and took the final second place, losing at the finish only to the Czechoslovak rower Frantisek Čapek , who managed to come off for more than 35 seconds.
After becoming silver medalist, Havens remained in the main line-up of the USA rowing team and continued to take part in major international regattas. So, in 1952, he went to represent the country at the Olympic Games in Helsinki and won the gold medal in single kilometers over ten kilometers - he dedicated this victory to his father, immediately sending him a telegram. It is noteworthy that so far he remains the only American Olympic champion among canoe singles. Also, Havens started here one kilometer away and finished fourth in the final, a little short of the prize positions.
As one of the leaders of the American national team, Frank Havens successfully qualified for the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne - he tried to repeat the success of four years ago, but took the penultimate eighth place, behind the winning Romanian Leon Rotman by almost five minutes. The last time showed any significant result in the international arena in the season of 1960, when he selected for the Olympic Games in Rome - this time he could not get through to the final stage of the tournament: at the preliminary stage he finished only eighth, while in the consolation race he the fourth.
During his long career, Havens has repeatedly been the champion of the United States in various rowing disciplines, in particular in single canoes, he won national championships a total of ten times (1950-1952, 1954, 1956-1957, 1961), and won several times in the standings double and quadruple canoes. He lived almost all his life in Washington, where he was engaged in rowing up to his old age, and actively participated in amateur and veteran competitions. In addition to sports, he worked in an insurance company as an appraiser of cars. In 1995, he entered the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame [1] .
Notes
- ↑ HOF Inductees - Frank B. Havens (not available link) . Virginia Sports Hall of Fame . The appeal date is January 29, 2011. Archived November 30, 2010.
Links
- Frank Havens - Olympic statistics on Sports-Reference.com (English)
- Frank Havens - medals at major international competitions
- Lists of champions and prize-winners in rowing and canoeing (1936–2007) (English)