About Horace Ashenfelter
Horace Ashenfelter III (January 23, 1923 – January 6, 2018) was an American athlete. He competed in international athletics from 1947 to 1956. He won fifteen AAU nationals titles and three collegiate national titles during his career. == Biography == Ashenfelter was born in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and attended Collegeville High School. He completed his degree at Penn State, where he was a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity, and served in the United States Army Air Forces as a pilot and gunnery instructor during World War II. Although he was considered a long shot, Ashenfelter was the surprise winner of the steeplechase at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki with a dramatic surge on the last lap following the final water jump after trailing substantially early in the race. In what was considered an early athletic Cold War battle, he finished ahead of Vladimir Kazantsev of the USSR and John Disley of Great Britain. In the process, he broke Kazantsev's unofficial world record (the IAAF did not accept official records in the steeplechase until 1954). Since Ashenfelter worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, it led to humorous comments about him being the first American spy who allowed himself to be chased by a Russian KGB agent (Kazantsev was a KGB officer). In addition, Ashenfelter won the Sullivan Award as the outstanding amateur athlete in 1952. Ashenfelter won the Millrose Games two-mile run from 1952 to 1955 and again in 1957.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.