Lou Jones (athlete)

Louis Woodard Jones (January 15, 1932 – February 3, 2006) was an American athlete. He won a gold medal in the 4 × 400 m relay at the 1956 Summer Olympics.

Born in New Rochelle, New York, Jones graduated from Manhattan College in 1954. He won the 400 m at the 1955 Pan-American Games, where he set a new world record of 45.4. He was also a member of the gold medal-winning American 4 × 400 m relay team.

Just four months before the Melbourne Olympics, Jones broke his own 400 m world record, clocking 45.2 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in the US Olympic Trials, thus becoming a main favorite at this event in Melbourne. But in the Olympic 400 m final, Jones was off form, and managed to finish only in a disappointing fifth place, 1.50 seconds behind teammate Charles Jenkins. A few days later, Jones partly compensated for his disappointment, running the second leg in the gold medal-winning American 4 × 400 m relay team.

• Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Lou Jones". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2020-04-18.
• "Olympic gold medallist Louis Jones of New Rochelle dies" Westchester Journal News 7 February 2005 at the Wayback Machine (archived March 12, 2007)
• Lou Jones 1932-2006 Teacher, coach, Olympic athlete