SAN FRANCISCO -- At the 1948 Olympics in London, Bob Mathias
became the youngest gold medalist to win a track and field event.
British journalists asked the 17-year-old decathlon champion how he
planned to celebrate.
"I guess I'll start shaving," he said.
Mathias died of cancer Saturday in Fresno at age 75, his record
intact.
An Olympic historian said Sunday that Mathias' achievements,
which included a second gold medal in decathlon at the 1952
Helsinki Olympics, came at a simpler time in the history of sports.
"There were no sponsors. There was no money. There were no
drugs," said David Wallechinsky, author of `The Complete Book of
the Summer Olympics.' "He was just doing it to perform well -- not
to be in an advertisement."
Mathias' 1948 medal came in only his third decathlon. He
qualified for the Olympics by winning two events in the United
States.
At the 1952 Helsinki Games, he became the first athlete to
repeat as Olympic champion in the decathlon. A Stanford star who
led that team to the Rose Bowl, Mathias was drafted by the
Washington Redskins but never signed. He won the 1948 Sullivan
Award as America's top amateur athlete.
Eugene Mathias said his brother was a gifted athlete from
childhood, often outperforming older children.
"I tried jumping the high jump and I couldn't make it. He was
three years younger and he said, 'Let me try it.' He did it and he
made it," Eugene Mathias recalled. "We knew then that he could
just do anything athletic."
Although fans marveled at his athleticism, Mathias worked
determinedly at both sports and academics. As a child, he suffered
from anemia and had to eat special foods, take vitamin supplements
and frequent naps, and he fell ill to measles, whooping cough and
scarlet fever.
He spent a year at The Kiski School, an all-boys boarding
college in Saltsburg, Pa., before entering Stanford in 1949. The
6-foot-3, 204-pound Mathias led Stanford to a Rose Bowl appearance
in 1952.
After retiring from sports, he served four terms as a Republican
congressman representing California's San Joaquin Valley from
1967-74. After his political career, Mathias became the first
director of the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs,
Colo.
He also is a member of the U.S. Olympic and national track and
field halls of fame.
"Bob Mathias was one of those rare individuals with the ability
to inspire a nation through his determination and perseverance. He
was a champion in every aspect of life, and he embraced the values
that make our country and the worldwide Olympic movement special,"
U.S. Olympic Committee chairman Peter Ueberroth said in a
statement.
Mathias is survived by his wife, Gwen, and several children.
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Associated Press Writer Marcus Wohlsen contributed to this
report.