In this paper we give a characterization of locally compact rank
one symmetric spaces, which can be seen as an analogue of
Ballmann's and Burns and Spatzier's characterizations of
nonpositively curved symmetric spaces of higher rank, as well as
of Hamenstädt's characterization of negatively curved
symmetric spaces. Namely, we show that a complete Riemannian
manifold is locally isometric to a compact, rank one symmetric
space if has sectional curvature at most and each normal
geodesic in has a conjugate point at .