Alma Richards
 Richards in 1912 | ||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | Alma Wilford Richards February 20, 1890 Parowan, Utah, U.S.[1] | |||||||||||
| Died | April 3, 1963 (aged 73) Long Beach, California, U.S. | |||||||||||
| Education | Brigham Young High School | |||||||||||
| Height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)[2] | |||||||||||
| Weight | 84 kg (185 lb) | |||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||
| Sport | Track and field | |||||||||||
Events | High jump, long jump, shot put, discus throw, decathlon | |||||||||||
| University team | Cornell University Big Red | |||||||||||
| Coached by | Eugene L. Roberts[1] | |||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||
| Personal bests | HJ – 1.956 m (1915) LJ – 7.125 m (1915) SP – 14.01 m (1916) DT – 44.12 m (1922)[3] | |||||||||||
Medal record
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Alma Wilford Richards (February 20, 1890 – April 3, 1963) was an American athlete. He became the first resident of Utah to win an Olympic gold medal, achieving this feat in the running high jump event at the 1912 Summer Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden.[1][4]
Biography
[edit]Richards graduated from Brigham Young High School in 1913 and then attended Cornell University with a scholarship, where he was also a member of the Quill and Dagger honor society.[5][6] He earned a law degree.[7]
He served in the US Army during World War I. He was discharged as a first lieutenant.
Rather than practice law, he chose to teach science at Venice High School in Los Angeles for 32 years.[1] Richards was buried, according to his wishes, in the Parowan Cemetery.[8] He was posthumously inducted into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame (1970),[9] Helms Hall of Fame, and Brigham Young University Hall of Fame.[1]
Personal life
[edit]Richards’ first wife was Marian Gardiner Richards. They married in 1918. They had three children: Joanne Richards, Marion Richards, who died in infancy (1924), and Carolyn Richards, who died when she was two years old (1928). His second wife was Gertrude Anita Huntimer Richards. They married in 1932 and had three children: Mary Richards Schraeger of La Habra Heights, California; Anita Richards Ricciardi of Whittier, California; and Paul Richards of Los Angeles, California. His third and final wife was Lenore Catherine Griffin, whom he married in 1948. They did not have any children.[8] Richards was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, their first member to compete in the Olympics.[10]
A movie, Raising the Bar: The Alma Richards Story was released in April 2025.[11][12] It was written and directed by LDS filmmaker, T.C. Christensen, who is a grand-nephew of Alma Richards.[13]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 Reese, W. Paul (February 1995) Alma Richards Was Utah's First Olympic Gold Medalist. History Blazer
- ↑ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Alma Richards". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020.
- ↑ Alma Richards. trackfield.brinkster.net
- ↑ "Alma Richards". Olympedia. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
- ↑ "Alma: BYA Boy Wins Olympic Gold". Y Magazine. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
- ↑ "Alma Richards (1986) - Hall of Fame". Cornell University Athletics. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
- ↑ Benson, Lee; Robinson, Doug (January 1, 1992). Trials & Triumphs/Mormons in the Olympic Games. Deseret Book Company. ISBN 978-0875796284. Retrieved October 13, 2023.
- 1 2 Wallechinsky, David and Loucky, Jaime (2008). "Track & Field (Men): High Jump." In "The Complete Book of the Olympics – 2008 Edition." London: Aurum Press, Limited. p. 197.
- ↑ Honorees. Utah Sports Hall of Fame
- ↑ Deseret News 1999-2000 Church Almanac. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret News. 1998. p. 555. ISBN 1573454915.
- ↑ "Raising the Bar: The Alma Richards Story - Official Website". raisingthebarmovie.com/. December 8, 2025. Retrieved December 8, 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Raising the Bar: The Alma Richards Story". IMDB.com. December 8, 2025. Retrieved December 8, 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ Ginos, Becky (April 1, 2025). "T.C. Christensen's 'Raising the bar: The Alma Richards story' set to open April 24". Davis Journal. Retrieved December 8, 2025.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
External links
[edit]
- Alma Richards at World Athletics
- Photograph of Alma Richards in a triumphal parade after his return from the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, UA P 2 Series 2 Item 1100 box 7 folder 70–89 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University
- Alma Richards
- Alma Richards at Olympedia
- Alma Wilfred Richards at Olympics.com
- Alma Richards at Olympic.org (archived)
- Olympics 1912 High jumpers (16-second-video) on YouTube
- Alma Richards: Mormon Athlete at mormonwiki.com/
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   | This article about a track and field Olympic medalist of the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. |
- 1890 births
- 1963 deaths
- American Latter Day Saints
- Latter Day Saints from Utah
- Latter Day Saints from California
- Schoolteachers from California
- 20th-century American women educators
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1912 Summer Olympics
- Cornell University alumni
- Stanford University alumni
- BYU Cougars men's track and field athletes
- USC Gould School of Law alumni
- American men high jumpers
- Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field
- People from Parowan, Utah
- Track and field athletes from Utah
- Medalists at the 1912 Summer Olympics
- 20th-century American educators
- Brigham Young High School alumni
- United States Army personnel of World War I
- Cornell Big Red men's track and field athletes
- 20th-century American sportsmen
- Olympic men high jumpers
- American track and field athletics Olympic medalist stubs
