Name Fortune Gordien | Role Olympic athlete | |
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Died April 10, 1990, Fontana, California, United States Olympic medals Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's discus throw People also search for Des Koch, Adolfo Consolini, Al Oerter, Giuseppe Tosi | ||
Fortune Gordien USA Discus (1956)
Fortune Everett Gordien (September 9, 1922 – April 10, 1990) was an American discus thrower and shot putter who set four world records in the discus throw. He competed in this event at the 1948, 1952 and 1956 Olympics and placed third, fourth and second, respectively. At the 1955 Pan American Games he won a gold medal in the discus and a silver in the shot put.
Domestically Gordien won six AAU and three NCAA titles. According to the Guinness Book of Track and Field: Facts and Feats, the smallest crowd ever to see a world record may have been 48, the number attending a Pasadena, California all-comers track meet in 1953 when Gordien set his last world record that stood for six years.
In the 1950s Gordien had a few minor roles in films and TV series, including The Cisco Kid (1950), Not for Hire (1959) and North to Alaska (1960).