Home > Olympics > Bronze Medalists > Henry B. Richardson

Henry B. Richardson

The Olympic Games, or Olympics, is an international multi-sport event taking place every four years which comprises of summer and winter games. Though the first ancient games were held in 776 B.C, the modern games started from 1896.The unity of the 5 continents is shown on the Olympic flag by five colorful intertwined rings of red, blue, green, yellow, and black, created by Baron Pierre de Coubertin to represent atleast one color of the participating country’s national flag.

Henry Barber Richardson was born on May 19, 1889 and died in November, 1963. He was an American archer and won two Olympic bronze medals. Richardson was the first archer to win medals at two different editions of the Olympic Games as well as the youngest medalist at the 1904 Summer Olympics. Richardson's first medal was in the team event at the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri. 15 years old at the time, he was a member of the Boston Archers team that finished third of four teams in the event with a total of 1268 points. Richardson also placed 9th in the double York round with 439 points and 10th in the double American round with 813 points.

Four years later, at 19 years of age, he won his second bronze medal, this time in the men's double York round at the 1908 Summer Olympics. Richardson's first round was solid, but not spectacular. His score of 343 led him in 5th place, 60 points behind the leader William Dod. In the second half of the competition, however, Richardson took honors for the best round of the tournament, with 417 points only 22 points fewer than his two-round sum 4 years previously, despite gaining little ground against Dod, who shot a 412. Richardson's round was nearly enough to put him into second place, as he trailed Reginald Brooks-King by only 1 point with 3 arrows left before finally finishing in third with 760 points to Dod's 815 and Brooks-King's 768. He also entered the Continental style event, placing 15th with 171 points. More than just statistics, Henry Barber Richardson had the ability to control the game, to take over. He had the speed to float away from defenders and also to recover effortlessly.

Back to Bronze Medalists