Vladimir Kuts at the Olympics
Biography and Olympic Results

Vladimir Kuts was born on February 7 1927 in Aleksino in Ukraine, which was at that time part of the Soviet Unioun. During his sports career he was an officer in the Soviet army. Kuts is in many new sources on the Olympic games named as Volodymyr, which is the Ukrainian spelling for Vladimir.

Kuts was for the first time known by a broader audience at the European athletics championships in Bern in 1954. Here he beat the two favourites on the 5000 m distance, Zatopek and Brittan’s Chris Chataway, and thereby became the European champion and at the same time sat a new world record.

Kuts’ greatest achievement happened at the olympic games in Melbourne 1956. Kuts came to Melbourne as the favourite on both the 5000 m and the 10.000 m distance after he had set a new world record on the 10.000 m just months before the olympics. In Melbourne Kuts was tremendously superior and won olympic gold on both distances – an achievement which only the Finn Hannes Kolehmainen had previously accomplished in Stockholm 1912 and Emil Zatopek in Helsinki 1952. After the Olympics Kuts was awarded the rare Lenin-order of the Soviet Union.

Kuts set a new world record in 1957 on the 5000 m in a time of 13.35,0 min. This record stood until it was beaten by Australian Ron Clarke in 1965.

In 1959 Kuts stopped his sports career. After retiring he suffered several heart attacks of which the last one caused his death on August 16, 1975 at the age of 48.