Mal Whitfield, Famed Olympic Gold Medalist And Tuskegee Airman, Dies At 91

Mal Whitfield, the famed African-American Olympian who won a total of three gold medals as a middle distance runner in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics, including one while serving as a Tuskegee Airman during the Korean War, has died from heart disease and prostate cancer, according to his daughter, Fredricka Whitfield. He was 91-years-old.

Mal Whitfield was born in 1924 in Bay City, Texas, but he moved with his family to Los Angeles, California when he was still an infant. His parents had both died by the time he was 12-years-old, leaving Mal to grow up with his sister in the Watts section of Los Angeles.

Whitfield’s love of running took root when he saw the outstanding African-American athletes, Eddie Tolan and Ralph Metcalfe, at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. In 1936, he witnessed Jesse Owens compete at a Los Angeles track meet not long before Owens traveled to Germany and won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Later, Mal Whitfield would befriend Owens, and Jesse convinced Mal to attend his Alma mater, Ohio State University, which Whitfield did in 1946 after a stint with the Air Force in World War II. During his tenure at Ohio State, Whitfield won the NCAA 880-yard titles in 1948 and 1949, and the 880 ultimately became his favorite event. Mal Whitfield competed in 69 half-mile events between 1946 and 1955, and he won all but three of them.

Ohio State mourns the loss of Mal Whitfield, a great Buckeye, Olympian and American hero: https://t.co/oL7ZiaNexi. pic.twitter.com/i3a2rbRrnx

— Ohio State T&F/XC (@OhioStateTFXC) November 20, 2015

When Mal qualified for the London Olympics in 1948, he had never competed internationally. He would go on to win a bronze medal in the 400-meter run and a gold medal in the 800-meter race, which he won in the Olympic record time of 1:49.2. On the last day of the 1948 Olympics, Mal Whitfield would win his second gold medal of the games when he ran the anchor leg for the United States in the 4 x 400-meter relay. Whitfield was a Staff Sergeant with the Tuskegee Airmen when he won his two gold medals and one bronze medal in the 1948 games, making him the first active-duty member of the U.S. military to win an Olympic gold medal in track.

During World War II and the Korean War, Mal Whitfield was a member of the highly celebrated Tuskegee Airmen, but fighting for his country would not stop Whitfield’s Olympic dreams. According to the New York Times, Whitfield managed to train for the 1952 Olympics while he served as a tail gunner in the Korean War. During his free time between bombing missions, he would run on the airstrip at night with a.45-caliber pistol strapped to his side.

In a 2006 interview, “Marvelous Mal,” as he would come to be known after the London Games, called the experience of training for the Games while serving in active combat “the most miserable time in my life.”

At the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Mal Whitfield would match his record time from the 1948 Olympics, winning the 800-meter run in 1:49.2. He also won a silver medal for running a leg on the U.S. 4 x 400-meter relay team.

Three-Time Olympic track champion Mal Whitfield passes away at 91.https://t.co/Z6mDu0SonK pic.twitter.com/ibk7aZ1GJh

— Team USA (@TeamUSA) November 20, 2015

In 1954, Mal Whitfield became the first African-American to win the James E. Sullivan Award, an award which is given out annually to the country’s number one amateur athlete by the U.S. Amateur Athletic Union. In 1974, Mal was inducted into the U.S. Track & Field Hall of Fame, and he became a member of the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1988.

In 1956, after failing to make the Olympic team for the third time, Whitfield retired from running and became a coach and athletic adviser around the world, spending the majority of his time in Africa. In 1963, Whitfield joined the U.S. Foreign Service, and he spent the next almost four decades developing sports and education programs as an athletic ambassador for the State Department. Mal Whitfield retired from the Foreign Service in the 1990s, and he opened his own education foundation. In 2002, he published his autobiography, entitled Beyond the Finish Line.

Mal Whitfield, the famed Olympian and celebrated Tuskegee Airman, died November 19 at a veterans’ hospice facility in Washington. He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Nola Simon Whitfield, his four children, eight grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

[Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images]