Warmerdam, Cornelius

Warmerdam was born into a family of Dutch migrants ^[2] . Because of their origin, friends, and soon the media gave him the nickname - “ Dutchman ” ^[3] . At age 12, he dug a hole in front of his house and, together with his brothers, began to jump with a pole from a peach tree ^[4] . Soon, he was noticed by a local trainer from Hanford High School, which he graduated in 1932.

After graduation, none of the colleges offered him a sports scholarship, so he began working on his father's farm, picking peaches and apricots in the garden for the next year and a half before the sports goods seller saw Cornelius jumping and not informing the university coach Fresno - to Flint Hanner, where in the spring of 1934 Warmerdam began to jump ^{[2] [3]} .

Performing jumps with a bamboo pole, Warmerdam was the first to jump above 4.50 meters, with a jump of 4.57 meters. However, the result was not counted as a world record, but a few months earlier, on June 29, 1940, the 4.60 meter jump was already ratified. During his career, he jumped above 4.5 meters 43 times, while no other world jumper was able to conquer this height at least once. In four years, he officially set three world records, the best result was a 4.77-meter jump at the Modesto Relays tournament in in 1942. The record lasted until 1957 and was broken by Bob Gutowski already with an aluminum pole ^[5] . A participant in eight US athletics championships, of which 6 times became a champion (1938, 1940-1944). In 1942, he received the James Sullivan Prize , but was unable to take part in the Olympic Games due to World War II . The games of 1940 and 1944 were canceled, and in 1948 he already became a coach ^[3] .

Warmerdam, like many American athletes, was enlisted in the US Armed Forces; he was sent to the naval service in early 1943, conferring the rank of lieutenant. Initially, he was appointed a physical training officer and was asked to continue pole vaulting, as this could attract potential recruits.

However, by 1944 he was appointed an officer of the fire and surveillance service on the escort aircraft carrier Mattanikau . By the summer of 1945, Mattanikau was sent to help in the battles with Japan . When they almost reached the Marshall Islands , they were informed that President Harry Truman ordered atomic bombs to be dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , after which Japan announced her surrender. ^[3]

After the war, there was a change of bamboo pole to aluminum, which was soon replaced by fiberglass. Warmerd officially ended his sports career in 1946. He had already started a family and in order to support them, in 1947 he began to train at Fresno College. According to the Olympic rules of that time, athletes could not participate in the games if they earned money due to their sport, so he could not participate in future Olympic games and continued to train ^[3] .

In the end, he sometimes took part in amateur competitions. In 1975, he won the United States Decathlon Championships among athletes aged 60 and over. The result shown is still the best in history ^[6] .

Before retiring in 1980, he worked as a track and field coach at Fresno University (later renamed the University of California at Fresno ). The university team under his leadership won the second NCAA men 's track and field championship. The university named the new stadium Warmerdam Field in his honor, and also awarded the title of professor of physical education ^{[7] [3]} .

He is a member of several halls of fame, including: US Athletics Hall of Fame, Millrose Games Hall of Fame and IAAF Hall of Fame ^[8] .

On August 29, 1940, Warmerdam married Juanita Anderson. They lived together for more than 60 years, until his death in 2001, after the fight against Alzheimer's disease , which was discovered in 1990 ^[2] . Juanita continued to live in Fresno, where she died on February 14, 2006. There were five children (Mark, Greg, Gloria, David and Barry), twenty grandchildren and five great-grandchildren ^{[2] [3]} .