- Born
- Died
- Birth nameRobert Lucien LeGendre
- Height6′ 2¾″ (1.90 m)
- Robert "Bob" LeGendre was a star athlete for Georgetown University and a two-time Olympian (1920, 1924), noteworthy for setting a world record in the long jump on his way to a bronze medal in the pentathlon at the 1924 Games in Paris.
Born January 7, 1898, in Lewiston, Maine, to French-Canadian parents, Bob LeGendre was one of ten children. His father died when Bob was only a year old, and Bob's mother was left to raise the kids on her own (she would die when Bob was 19). Bob spent a year at Hebron Academy in Maine before enrolling at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Bob LeGendre was a multi-sport athletic star at Georgetown, excelling at track and field while also participating in football and baseball. Acclaimed for his all-around athletic ability, LeGendre competed in the "classic" pentathlon, featuring the 200-meter sprint, javelin throw, discus throw, long jump, and 1500-meter run.
As a member of Georgetown's Student Army Training Corps during World War I, LeGendre was able to compete in the Inter-Allied Games held in France in 1919, winning first place in the pentathlon.
At the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium, LeGendre narrowly missed the podium with a fourth-place finish in the pentathlon (after losing a third-place tie-breaker).
LeGendre was the collegiate pentathlon champion in 1920, 1921, and 1922, before graduating from Georgetown with the Class of 1922.
At the 1924 Olympics in Paris, LeGendre was one of five Georgetown Hoyas representing the United States in track and field. LeGendre won a bronze medal for the pentathlon, setting a new world record in the long jump (25' 5-5/8", or 7.76 m). An injury had kept LeGendre from qualifying in the individual long jump event, which was won by fellow American William DeHart Hubbard, whose gold-medal distance was a foot short of LeGendre's mark.
After his athletic career, Bob LeGendre signed a Hollywood contract, but never pursued movie stardom. He returned to Georgetown and earned a degree in dentistry, later serving in the U.S. Navy Dental Corps.
Lt. LeGendre died of bronchial pneumonia at the Naval Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, on January 21, 1931, at the young age of 33.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- SpouseHelen Marie Rhett Lake(October 17, 1921 - ?) (1 child)
- Two-time Olympian, competing at the 1920 Games in Antwerp, Belgium, and again at the 1924 Games in Paris. LeGendre finished in fourth place in the pentathlon in 1920 (initially tying for third place), and won the bronze medal in the event in 1924 (setting a world record for the long jump in the process).
- Star track and field athlete for Georgetown University (1918-1922).
- LeGendre's world record-setting long jump distance of 25 ft. 5-5/8 in. (7.76 m) in the pentathlon at the 1924 Olympics was a full foot longer than William DeHart Hubbard's gold medal-winning distance in the individual event that year.
- First male athlete from Maine to represent the Unites States at the Olympic Games.
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