BLACK HISTORY MONTH—Not many athletes can say that they hopped, skipped, and jumped their way into the record books. Columbia track star George Shaw did just that. In fact, as a triple jumper, he hopped his way into the Olympics and became Columbia's first Black athlete to compete in the Olympic Games in 1952. In 1956, he became the first Black student-athlete at Columbia to compete at two different Olympic Games when he competed in Melbourne, Australia.
 
A 1953 Columbia graduate, Shaw was the last Lion track and field athlete to win an NCAA title, as he took home the 1952 triple jump championship. Competing in an event that wasn't a yearly collegiate event until the 1960s, Shaw took the title in an event that was contested only in the Olympic years. The NCAA title was just the icing on a cake of his brilliant collegiate career; Shaw broke multiple Columbia records that stood for almost five decades.
 
As Columbia's track and field team captain, Shaw was the Ivy League Heptagonal champion in the indoor long jump in 1953. He set multiple Heptagonal and Columbia records in his career and his performance marks still rank among Columbia's all-time best in the triple jump (second-best indoors) and long jump (best indoors, second-best outdoors).
 
Shaw held the triple jump record for 47 years (50'5.5") before Cie-Jay Brown broke it in 1999, with a jump of 51'03". He also set the school long jump record in 1952 (23'11"), breaking a record that had stood for 13 years. Daniel Igbokwe '20CC now holds the record.
 
Shaw also competed in the 55-meter dash indoors, and holds the record for indoor long jump, at 24'2.75". In 1953, he was crowned the AAU champion in the triple jump.
 
Shaw went on to compete in the triple jump in the 1952 Helsinki and 1956 Melbourne Olympics, but the closest he came to a medal was 12th place. To this day, Shaw remains the only Columbia track and field athlete to compete in two Olympic Games.


 
He was inducted into Columbia's Athletic Hall of Fame on October 2, 2008.
 
An executive in advertising and marketing after his track and field career ended, Shaw passed away on December 6, 1988 when he died after suffering a heart attack while jogging near his home at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. He was 57 years old.