Walter Marty

As a student at Fresno High School, Marty jumped 6 ft ​4 ¹⁄₄ in (1.93 m) at the 1929 West Coast Relays, setting a United States high school record;[1][2] only five athletes of any age jumped higher that year.[3] Marty duplicated the mark in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum while winning the 1929 CIF California State Meet.[4] In 1930 Marty was national junior champion[5] and represented the United States in a dual meet against the British Empire; he cleared a personal best 6 ft ​5 ¹⁄₄ in (1.96 m) in that meet and won ahead of national senior champion Anton Burg.[6][7]

In June 1931 Marty cleared a personal best 6 ft ​6 ³⁄₈ in (1.99 m) at the inaugural Kern County Relays in Taft;[8] at the national (AAU) senior championships three weeks later he jumped 6 ft ​4 ³⁄₈ in (1.94 m) and placed second to Burg, who defended his title.[9] Marty was selected to tour South Africa that fall as one of nine American track and field athletes.[10][11] In Queenstown he cleared 6 ft ​6 ³⁄₄ in (2.00 m) for a new South African all-comers record;[12] it was the second-best jump in the world that summer, behind George Spitz at 6 ft ​7 ⁵⁄₁₆ in (2.01 m).[13]

Marty remained in good form in 1932; he cleared 6 ft ​6 ¹⁄₂ in (1.99 m) at the Far Western Conference meet in Sacramento, leading Fresno State College to a conference title.[14] Marty also won at the Olympic Trials semi-finals in Long Beach, jumping 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m).[15] He was considered one of the favorites to make the 1932 Olympic team but narrowly missed out; at the final Olympic Trials in Palo Alto he cleared 6 ft ​5 ⁵⁄₈ (1.97 m) and placed shared fourth as the top three qualified.[16][17]

In 1933 and 1934 Marty was the world's leading high jumper, setting several new world records.[11] He set his first world record at the West Coast Relays in Fresno on May 13, 1933, clearing 6 ft ​8 ⁵⁄₈ in (2.04 m) and breaking Harold Osborn's outdoor world record from 1924.[18][19] Marty's main rivals at his peak were Spitz and Cornelius Johnson; Spitz held the indoor world record of 6 ft ​8 ¹⁄₂ in (2.04 m), while Johnson was a consistent competitor with excellent head-to-head records against both Spitz and Marty.[20][21][22] Johnson won the 1933 AAU title with a jump of 6 ft 7 in (2.00 m), ahead of Marty, who shared second place with Spitz.[9]

Marty competed indoors for the first time in the winter of 1934; until then, he'd been purely an outdoor jumper.[23] At the New York Athletic Club's indoor games on February 17 he jumped 6 ft ​8 ³⁄₄ in (2.05 m) to set a new indoor world record and defeat previous record holder Spitz, who was second.[24] In the AAU indoor meet later that winter Marty cleared 6 ft ​7 ¹⁄₂ in (2.01 m) and shared the championship with Spitz.[25] Marty's 1934 outdoor shape was also record-breaking; on April 7 he jumped 6 ft ​9 ¹⁄₂ in (2.07 m) in a dual meet between Fresno State and Sacramento Junior College, but the jump couldn't be recognized as a new record as no AAU officials were present to ratify it.[19][26] Three weeks later he cleared 6 ft ​9 ¹⁄₈ in (2.06 m) in a dual meet against Stanford, his second official outdoor world mark.[19]

Marty was then briefly sidelined by a bruised knee but returned in time for the NCAA championships in Los Angeles, where he tied for first with Spitz at 6 ft ​6 ³⁄₄ in (2.00 m).[22][27][28] Marty also tied for first, with Johnson, at the 1934 AAU outdoor meet; the two cleared 6 ft ​8 ⁵⁄₈ in (2.04 m) for a new meeting record.[9]

A hernia kept Marty out of action for most of 1935, and he was expected to retire;[29][30] however, after a successful operation he attempted a comeback in 1936.[31][32] He almost managed to regain his 1934 form, clearing 6 ft ​8 ³⁄₄ in (2.05 m) in May 1936 and even exceeding his world record in training.[7][30] He was favored to qualify for the United States' 1936 Olympic team,[21] but at the Olympic Trials he only cleared 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m), again placing shared fourth and missing out.[33][34] The top two - Johnson and Dave Albritton - both sailed over 6 ft ​9 ³⁄₄ in (2.07 m), breaking Marty's world record.[33][34] The American team of Johnson, Albritton and Delos Thurber went on to sweep the Olympic medals.[33]

Marty used the high jump technique known as the Western roll, pioneered in the early 1910s by George Horine and Edward Beeson.[35] At the time, there were two main jumping styles; Marty (and other west coast jumpers, like Johnson) used the roll, whereas east coast jumpers (such as Spitz) mostly used the Eastern cut-off or other developments of the old scissors jump.[11][35]