Olympic Profiles-The Fastest Jew On Ice

With the Winter Games in Vancouver just a little over six months away I've already got a bad case of Olympic fever! Yes, it's true I love the Olympics. And I love the Olympiads that are held in the Americas most of all. In fact, I love them so much that I began writing, and may finish one day, a history of all the Olympiads that have been held in the Americas, and yes I am including the ones held in Canada and Mexico, because after all they are in the Americas too.

So to get you all in the Olympic state of mind, from time to time I'll be doing posts about some little known and unusual Olympians and Olympic events. And we begin this series with an excerpt from my unpublished history of the Olympiads that have been held in the Americas, which was tentatively titled American Spectacle, and the story of Irving Jaffee the fastest Jew on ice.

Jaffee was a nice Jewish boy from the streets of New York city who got into ice skating after winning multiple roller skating competitions and his Olympic story began in 1928 at the second winter Olympiad which was held in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Having just barely made the team, USOC speedskating officials felt he was not experienced enough to compete against the tougher Europeans, Jaffe was selected to skate in the long distance speed skating events, the 5000 and the 10,000 meter races. Proving his critics wrong Jaffe skated to a fourth place finish in the 5000 meter race. In fact he finished just two tenths of a second slower than the bronze medal winner.

When it came time to run the 10,000 meter race then, Jaffe was ready and rarin’ to go. When it was his turn to skate he took off like a shot and he skated magnificently. He skated so well in fact that he was in the lead, the races in 1928 were held under what was called the European system which meant that the skater were competing against the clock and not against one another, what that meant then was whoever skated the race in the shortest amount of time was the winner. Soon after he finished his brilliant 10,000 meter run Jaffee felt, as did everyone else in St. Moritz that day, the temperature rise dramatically. It rose so fast in fact that the ice on the outdoor rink began to melt.

The Olympic skating officials halted the race. They told the other skaters that as soon as conditions permitted they would be able to complete their runs. It soon became clear however that the freakishly warm weather that settled in over those games in 1928 was not going anywhere anytime soon. The skating officials then declared that since he had finished his race with the fastest time that Jaffee was the winner of the 10,000 meter race.

The next day they changed their minds. No doubt that after they slept on it they saw how unfair it was to the other skaters who had been robbed of their chance to go up against Jaffee’s time by the warm weather. They decided that since not all competitors had had a chance to race there would no winner.

Howls of protest went up from the Untied States team and for his part Jaffee was crushed. He decided then and there that he would not only make the 1932 speed skating team but that he would also skate the 10,000 meter race in his home country and he would do his damnedest to win it. He said he had to, “Prove I wasn’t a fluke champion.”

And so he began a brutal training regimen when he got back to the States after the 1928 games, which were held in Lake Placid, New York. He trained hard for the four years that led up to the games. He hit the rink most every day and after he had finished his daily skate, he would jog or hike for another two hours after that. Jaffee claimed later that his teammates and even his coach Bill Taylor resented his work ethic, he said, “Taylor and the rest of the team claimed I was a show off because I worked so hard.” It’s an incredible statement when you think about it now because how many coaches these days would complain that their charges work too hard?

The first race for Jaffee then at those 1928 Olympics in his home state of New York was the 5000 meter. It was to be the first long distance race held under the new American system of racing using the qualifying heat method and in the race there were enough skaters to provide for two qualifying heats. The first heat saw Jaffee and Edward Murphy of the United States finish first and second, in third came the speed skating legend from Norway Ivar Ballangrud , and the fourth place finisher was Harry Smyth of Canada. Qualifying from the second heat were Bernt Evenson of Norway, Herbert Taylor of the USA, and a Canadians Bill Logan and Frank Stack.

The final race was, according to the New York Times, a snooze fest. “It bore much resemblance to a six-day bicycle race where every contestant is reluctant to take the lead,” they reported. All the skaters were content to plod along and to follow behind whoever was leading at the time. The race continued on slowly until the ninth lap when the skaters began to break out of their tight pack. Edward Murphy found himself in the lead and he stayed there as the other skaters began to make their move. Jaffee, who had been in fifth place, saw a hole in the pack and darted into it. He ended up in second behind the hard charging Murphy. Close behind the leaders were Ballangrud and Smyth. When Smyth made his move to pass the Norseman, they collided and their collision knocked both men off their stride. Jaffee took full advantage of the commotion as he sped up, passed Murphy about ten yards from the finish line, and won the race and the gold medal.

The next day the controversy over the American vs. European styles of racing came to a head. Things got so heated in fact that at one point the Canadians threatened to yank their team from the final race, the grueling 10,000 meter.

After the race officials saw how the skaters dilly-dallied in the 5000 meter race the day before they sent out a decree that in the 10,000 meter qualifying heats that each lap had to be completed in 45 seconds and that each man in the race had to “bear his share of the pace setting.” The skaters grumbled about this new rule and the heads of their national delegations watched the heats with interest.

From the start the qualifying heats were a disaster due to some skaters being disqualified for either not following the “pace setter” rule or for making illegal contact with one another in the race. After the disqualifications, in an act of international unparalleled solidarity, the Finns, the Japanese, the Swedes, and the Norwegians all got together and sent a letter to the Olympic skating officials. The letter, in effect, said that the new rules stank and that they wanted a return to the old style of racing.

It was decided after a meeting of international skating officials that the results of the qualifying heats in the 10,000 meter, in which American Irving Jaffee once again qualified for the final, would be tossed out. The first results would be declared “no contest,“ the heats would be run once more the following day, and the final was to be held on the day after that. The Europeans and the Japanese all agreed to this uneasy truce.

The next day however saw a change of heart by the United States team. Over night they decided that they would not rerun the heats, they felt like they had qualified once so why should they be forced to qualify again. The United States team said they would only send their men out to skate in the finals and for some odd reason they were joined in this position by the Norwegians, yes the very same Norwegians who had signed the letter asking for a return to the old style rules. For a few moments it looked as if the final in the 10,000 meter race might not be run since all the national teams dug in their heels on the matter.

The shockingly childish behavior of the United States and Norwegian teams was brought to a crashing halt though when the head referee of the skating events, John K. Savage, ordered that all heats would be rerun. He told the teams that if they did not send their skaters to the starting line to rerun the qualifying heats then they would be barred from skating in the final. That did the trick and all the skaters lined up once more to rerun the qualifying heats.

After the heats were rerun it was, as Yogi Berra would say, déjà vu all over again. The same men who had finished well enough to qualify for the finals the day before had done so once again. The next day with the sun breaking through the heavy black clouds that hovered over Lake Placid the eight finalists in the men’s 10,000 meter race took to the starting line. They were told that each man in the race had to be the pace setter for two laps and that after all the men had completed their pacesetting then they skaters were free to race as they wanted. The skaters duly followed their orders and each man did indeed set the pace for two laps. But after they had done so “the dawdling started” once again. The pace slowed as the skaters fanned out over the entire speedskating oval. Each man seemed content to go slowly and lay in wait for the best time to make his move.

They skated that way until the bell that lets the racers know they are in the last lap rang out. The Norwegian Ballangrud found himself in the lead with Jaffee of the USA close on his heels and behind Jaffee was the Canadian, Stack.

Jaffee caught Ballangrud in the final moments of that controversy laden 10,000 meter final in Lake Placid. With Stack on his heels and Ballangrud beside him Jaffee surged ahead. He broke for the finish line and picked up speed as he made his way down the last straightaway. When he crossed the finish line he not only won the race and the gold medal but, he also put to bed any doubts of whether his time in the 1928 Olympiad in St. Moritz would have stood up as the fastest. Jaffee must have felt this victory surely vindicated his performance in the 1928 games.
He was hailed as a hero as soon as the race was finished. The Times reported that, “It was no wonder then that American officials and athletes danced with glee on the ice, pounded Jaffee on the back and shook his hand before being joined in their rousing outburst of applause by the 5,000 spectators huddled in the stands, forgetful of the cold and snow at the sight of this heart warming spectacle.”

In a sad postscript to Jaffee’s win, he would later on during the Great Depression, pawn his gold medals. He told an interviewer in the mid 1970’s that he did so because he needed the cash and that later when he went to buy back his Olympic medals, the shop had gone out of business. He told another interviewer in 1979, “I’m still looking for them…and I’ll keep looking.” It is not known if he ever found his medals before his death in 1981.