Frank Havens

Who is Frank Havens?

Frank Havens is an American sprint canoer who competed from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. Destined to compete in the Olympic Games since the day he was born, Frank Havens had the rare distinction of being a four-time Olympian. His father was scheduled to compete in the Olympics in 1924, but did not for fear of missing his son’s debut into the world. Many years later in the 1952 Olympic Games at Helsinki, Finland, Frank Havens won the grueling 10,000-meter Canadian single-blade race in 57 minutes and 41 seconds. He broke the world record set by Czechoslovakia’s Frantisek Capek. Havens proudly presented the gold medal to his father, thanking him for waiting around until he was born. Competing in four Summer Olympics, he won two medals in the C-1 10000 m event with a gold in 1952 and a silver in 1948. In Haven’s first shot in the 1948 Olympic games, he finished second to Capek by 35.4 seconds in a canoe he borrowed from the Czechs. In 1952, his world record was set in a canoe he and his brother, Bill, imported from Sweden for about $160.00.

He is, as of 2011, the only American Olympic gold medal winner in a singles canoeing event.