Medals of Friendship: When Shuhei Nishida and Sueo Oe paid tribute to their friendship

Japan's Shuhei Nishida and Sueo Oe took a unique step and paid tribute to their friendship during the 1936 Olympics that took place in Berlin, Germany. In the men’s pole vault event, Earle Meadows won the gold medal by clearing 4.35m.

Nishida and Oe were among the five athletes who qualified for the final after clearing 4m and 15cm, which was considered high in those days.

Bill Graber was the first to get disqualified after failing to clear 4.25 meters. With Meadows already winning the gold, it was up to the remaining three athletes to fight it out for the silver and bronze medals in a jump-off. Ben Sefton could not clear the bar, meaning that Nishida and Oe were assured of winning the medals.

However, there was confusion regarding who won which medal. Their request to share the honors was turned down. In the end, it was decided that Nishida should win the silver since he crossed 4.25 in his first attempt while his friend Oe took two attempts.

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Medals of Eternal Friendship

But Nishida and Oe were not happy with the result by any means. After going back to Japan, they cut their medals into halves and then fused them into hybrid medals, half silver and half bronze. Later, the medals went on to be known as ‘Medals of Friendship’.

Oe died in action in 1941 while serving for the Imperial Japanese Army. In 1997, Nishida passed away. Oe’s medal from the Berlin Olympics stays in private hands. Waseda University has Nishida’s medal.

Apart from his silver in 1936, Nishida had also bagged the silver medal in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. In 1951, he also won the bronze medal in the Asian Games in New Delhi. Oe, on the other hand, did not win another Olympic medal but had won gold in the Far Eastern Championship Games in Manila in 1934.