Welcome to the issue
Volker Kluge
Editor

It is four years since we decided to produce the Journalof Olympic History in colour. Today it is scarcely possible
to imagine it otherwise. The pleasing development of
ISOH is reflected in the Journal which is now sent to 206
countries.
That is especially thanks to our authors and the small
team which takes pains to ensure that this publication
can appear. As editor I would like to give heartfelt
thanks to all involved.
It is obvious that the new edition is heavily influenced
by the Olympic Games in Rio. Anyone who previously
believed that Brazilian sports history can be reduced
to football will have to think again. The Olympic line ofancestry begins as early as 1905, when the IOC presented
the flight pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont with one of
the first four Olympic Diplomas. Professor Lamartine
DaCosta and Ana Miragaya have written the history of
their compatriot.
Our Rio Special offers even more. Ana Miragaya
has written about the Brazilian Olympic idol Maria
Lenk. Marcia Neto-Wacker and Christian Wacker haveresearched the reasons for the failure of the Olympic bid
by Rio planned for 1936.
Janice Zarpellon Mazo and Alice Beatriz Assmannshow by the example of the athlete Willy Seewald how
it was necessary to improvise to be able to represent
Brazil.
That changed however with the start of the 1950s
and the emergence of Adhemar da Silva, whereby the

triple jump became the “Brazilian” discipline. History
and actuality at the same time: Toby Rider has written
about the first, though unsuccessful, attempt to create
an Olympic team of refugees, and Erik Eggers, who
accompanied Brazil’s women’s handball team, dares tolook ahead.
Two years ago Myles Garcia researched the fate of
the Winter Olympic cauldrons. In this edition he turns
his attention to the Summer Games. Others have also
contributed to this piece.
Again there are some anniversaries. Eighty years ago
the Games of the XI Olympiad took place in Berlin, towhich the Dutch water polo player Hans Maier looks
back with mixed feelings. The centenarian is one of the
few surviving participants.
The German Hans Günter Winkler, the most successful
showjumper in the world, celebrates his 90th birthday.
The first two of his five gold medals he won 60 years
ago at the Olympic Equestrian Games in Stockholm,
which are also remembered by an article by Franz Josef
Bomert.
In addition this edition contains Part 21 of the IOC
Members series, obituaries for famous Olympians –among them Muhammad Ali – as well as reviews ofrecently published books.
To this edition we join the wish to tune in to Rio 2016
and to convey background knowledge about the first
Olympic Games in South America. We hope they will bepeaceful and fair. 

ISOH Executive Committee | 2012-2016
President
Vice-President
Secretary-General
Treasurer
Members

on behalf of the IOC
ex-officio

JOH 2 | 2016

David Wallechinsky (USA)Dr. Christian Wacker (GER)
Anthony Th. Bijkerk (NED)
John Grasso (USA)
Philip Barker (GBR)
Dr. Kostas Georgiadis (GRE)
Volker Kluge (GER)
Leif Yttergren (SWE)Richard W. Pound (CAN)
Dr. Bill Mallon (USA)Secretary-General
Anthony Th. Bijkerk
Vogelrijd 168428 HJ Fochteloo
The Netherlands
Phone: +31-516-588520
Fax:+31-516-588260
E-mail: tony.bijkerk@planet.nl

1

Message fromthe President
David Wallechinsky
ISOH President

In recent months, the Olympic Movement has been
rocked by major doping scandals and by serious
allegations of bribery related to the voting for hostcities. What is most disheartening about these troubles
is that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has
actually stepped up its battles against doping andcorruption, and yet the revelations on both fronts areat least as bad as those during previous eras in Olympic
history.
Between 1965 and 1989, a government-sponsored
doping programme in East Germany fed prohibitedsteroids to thousands of athletes. It was hoped thatthe exposure of the East German programme would
put an end to governments trying to win Olympic
medals by cheating the system. But just 25 years later,
it would appear that in Russia, government-backed
sports officials, acting with a sense of impunity, went to
extraordinary lengths to break the rules in order to win
as many medals as possible. Of course it is troublesomethat a large number of athletes in a variety of othercountries have also been engaged in drug cheating,but the coordinated violations in Russia are particularly
disturbing.
As for bribery, after the 1998-1999 purge of IOC
Members who were found to have sold their votes
in the election of the host city for the 2002 Olympic
Winter Games, the IOC initiated a series of reforms thatwere intended to eliminate vote-selling. Yet only 17
years later, large payments to “consultants” are being
investigated regarding the selection of Tokyo to host the2020 Summer Games.
With all of this negative coverage, it is frustrating for
those of us who find enduring positive values in the
study of Olympic history. Those values are clear: thestriving for excellence, the coming together of athletes
and others from around the world, athletes viewing
their opponents as adversaries rather than enemies
and much more. As the Olympic Charter emphasizes,“Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joyof effort, the educational value of good example, social
responsibility and respect for universal fundamental
ethical principles.”One of this year’s positive changes is the inclusion
at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics of a 10-member teamof stateless refugees. The IOC has come a long way in2dealing with athletes who are not represented by anational team. After First World War, the leadershipof the IOC – over the objection of Baron Pierre de
Coubertin – barred athletes from Germany, Austria,
Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey from competing at the1920 Antwerp Games. The same prohibition was appliedin 1948 to athletes from Germany and Japan following
the conclusion of Second World War.
The IOC responded to the racist policies of the white
minority government of South Africa by banning its
athletes from Olympic participation from 1964 through1988. Meanwhile, in 1976, a number of African nations
staged a last-minute boycott of the Montreal Gamesbecause New Zealand’s rugby team had played several
matches in South Africa. There was also one non-African
government that supported the boycott: Guyana. Oneof the athletes from Guyana, sprinter James Gilkes,
asked to be allowed to compete as an independent
participant. The IOC rejected his request.
In 1992, the IOC faced a new situation: the United
Nations (UN) had imposed sanctions against the
government of Yugoslavia and the IOC wanted tosupport the UN. But by this time, members of the IOC
leadership were beginning to question whether it
was really in keeping with the Olympic spirit to punish
athletes for the policies taken by their governments.
So a compromise was reached that banned Yugoslavia
from taking part in team sports, but allowed individual
Yugoslavian athletes to compete under the banner of
the Olympic flag.
Now, 24 years later, the IOC has evolved in favour of
inclusion. In one case, the National Olympic Committeeof Kuwait has been suspended because of undue
government interference, but Kuwaiti athletes were
eligible to compete in the Rio Games … under the
Olympic flag. In addition, the IOC sought to address thefact that more than 10 million people, displaced by war
and poverty, are stateless. It created a Refugee Olympic
Team, consisting of six men and four women. Five of theathletes fled South Sudan, two Syria, two the Democratic
Republic of Congo and one Ethiopia. It would be nice tothink that the need to have a Refugee Olympic Team is a
one-time event, but, unfortunately, given the situationin these four countries and many more, it is more realistic
to expect to see such teams in many Olympics to come. Message from theSecretary-General
Anthony Th. Bijkerk
ISOH Secretary-General

This is my last Message as Secretary-General to all ISOH
members. Once again, unfortunately, I have to start thisMessage with sad news: ISOH again lost two members
over the last couple of months. They are our Finnish
member Markku Siukonen and our Dutch member JacoA. Treurniet. Vesa Tikander from the Olympic Library
in Helsinki wrote a short biography about Markku
Siukonen and I did the same for Jaco Treurniet.
After twenty years, I have decided to step down as
Secretary-General, as it is time to hand the work over
to a younger person. I had the honour to serve with four
ISOH Presidents: Ian Buchanan (1991-2000); Bill Mallon(2000-2004); Karl Lennartz (2004-2012) and David
Wallechinsky (2012-2016).
During those twenty years I have had the opportunity
to meet many ISOH members face to face; since owing
to the idea of awarding ISOH members for their special
efforts, it was always my duty to attend the ceremonies
and take care of the awards.
In the first six years (1997-2002), I had to combine thefunction with the editorial duties of the Journal. Thanks
to the assistance of associate editors, like the late Harry
Gordon, Stephen Harris, Anthony Edgar and the late Karl
Lennartz, we were able to slowly enhance the qualityof our magazine. One of the first things we did was tochange the name of our publication from Citius, Altius,
Fortius to Journal of Olympic History.

However, owing to personal circumstances, I had tostop my editorial duties and hand them over to Stephan
Wassong at the end of 2002. There was a brief interval
when Stephen Harris took the reins.
During the last twenty years the ISOH membershiphas more than doubled! From about 190 in 1996 to thecurrent 450 plus members in 54 countries, and as you
will see at the end of this Journal, International Societyof Olympic Historians is still growing.
However, one thing has always bothered me: whypeople “forget” to pay for their membership! Again,
the Executive Committee this year had to delete a few
members, who had not paid their dues for more than
three years. This is unfortunate and is always a topic on
the agenda of the Executive Committee. Each year wehave to discuss the deletion of those who have not paid
their subscription for three years. They are mentioned in
the members’ information of this issue.
I do not want to reminisce about all my experiencesin those twenty years, but I want to pay my gratitude to
all the people I have worked with in that period, andespecially to Bill Mallon and David Wallechinsky, withwhom I have worked during all those twenty years!
I express the hope that the future of our organisation
may continue to be bright, informative, innovative and,above all, be grow everywhere into a fully respectedbody of historians! 
The ISOH Executive
Committee at its mostrecent meeting in the
French village ofMaussane-les-Alpilles
on 30th May.
General Secretary­Anthony Th. Bijkerk
and Treasurer John
Grasso bade farewellas neither stood forthe new Executive
Committee.

JOH 2 | 2016

3

Report on the ISOH
Executive Committee
Meeting
By David Wallechinsky		Here is a brief summary of the most important decisions
made by the ISOH Executive Committee at its annual
meeting held on 30th May 2016 in Maussane-les-Alpilles,
France.

Election Results for Executive Committee 2016-2020
The following results were announced:
For President:
David Wallechinsky
For Vice-President:
Christian Wacker
For Secretary General:
Markus Osterwalder
Kitty Carruthers
For Treasurer:
Laura Zeisler Grasso
As Members:
Volker Kluge
Philip Barker
Kostas Georgiadis
Leif Yttergren
Åge Dalby
Jeffrey Segrave
Anthony Edgar
Colm Murphy
Ray Mason

129 votes
127 votes
72 votes (elected)
67 votes
127 votes
99 votes (elected)
83 votes (elected)
67 votes (elected)
58 votes (elected)
56 votes
56 votes
51 votes
36 votes
20 votes

Future Elections
There was an extended discussion regarding whether it
would be better to replace the current system of electing
all Executive Committee members at the same timewith a new system in which two non-Executive Board
members would be elected on a staggered basis every
two years. It was decided that Vice-President Christian
Wacker would lead a working group to create a formal
proposal for a change to the ISOH Constitution regarding
this subject.

Editor of the Journal of Olympic History
The current editor of the Journal of Olympic History,
Volker Kluge, is also a member of the Executive
Committee. However, in the future these two roles
might fall to two different people. Because the editor of
the Journal of Olympic History plays such an importantrole in ISOH, it was decided that he or she should bepresent at all meetings of the Executive Committee.

Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Founding of ISOH
It was decided to celebrate the 25th anniversary of thefounding of ISOH in London on or about 5th December
2016 with invited speakers and to allow ISOH members
to give short speeches. It was suggested that thiscelebration might be an unnecessary expense since theQuadrennial Meeting of ISOH will take place in Rio deJaneiro on 4th August. The Executive Committee remains
open to comments from the membership on this subject.

Future Book and Article Awards
Leif Yttergren agreed to lead a working group to createa proposal to engage non-Committee members inproposing candidates for the ISOH Awards for Best Book
and Best Articles.

ISOH.org Web Site
ISOH Awards
The following awards were approved:
Lifetime Achievement: Lamartine DaCosta (Brazil)
Vikelas Plaque: Stephen Harris (USA); Gennadi Maritchev(Latvia); Ruud Paauw (Netherlands)
Best Book or Monograph: Britain and the Olympic
Games 1908 – 1920 by Luke Harris
Best Article in the Journal of Olympic History 2014:“Homosexuality and the Olympic Movement” by
Matthew Baniak and Ian Jobling
Best Article in the Journal of Olympic History 2015:“Morality of the 1912 Olympics: American and British
Perspectives on Decadence” by Laurie Keskinen

4

Although the redesigned ISOH web site is wellestablished and ISOH member Mark Maestrone is serving
as webmaster, no single person is in charge of content.
No Executive Committee member volunteered for thistask and the Committee remains open to suggestions.

ISOH Public Relations and Community Outreach
ISOH member Nicholas Wolaver had volunteered to help
publicize the activities of the organisation using social
media and traditional news outlets on a pro-bonobasis. His proposal was accepted and Wolaver’s work
has already begun.

Torch Relay inspires
Brazil to ‘Live the Dream’of Rio 2016
By Philip Barker 		Rio’s flame began its journey with a ceremony of
traditional dance and music in Ancient Olympia. It also
marked 80 years since an Olympic torch relay had been
introduced for the 1936 Games in Berlin.
Watched by Hellenic Republic President Prokopis
Pavlopoulos and IOC President Thomas Bach, Rio’s
flame was received from high priestess Katerina Lehou
by Greece’s 2015 world champion gymnast Eleftherios
Petrounias.
“The torch relay will spread the message of ourshared humanity to all people of the beautiful countryof Brazil”, said Bach who was also presented with astone from Ancient Olympia to be used as the “Olympic
Laurel”, a distinction which will be inaugurated thissummer.
After a traditional visit to the monument to Coubertin,
Petrounias passed the flame to the first Brazilian runner,
double Olympic volleyball champion Giovane Gavio.
The flame spent a week in Greece and made stops on
Zakynthos and Corfu. After the ceremonial handover to
Rio 2016 President Carlos Nuzman in Athens , the flame
was taken to United Nations headquarters in Geneva
and then to the Olympic City of Lausanne for a brief
stopover before the 95-day journey across Brazil.

First and last torchbearer 1936-2016
1936

Konstantinos Kondylis

Fritz Schilgen (ATH)

1948

Konstantinos Dimitrelis

John Mark (ATH)1952

Christos Panagopoulos

Paavo Nurmi (ATH)

1956

Dimitris Konstantinidis (ATH)

Hans Wikne (EQU)

Dionyssios Papathanassopoulos

Ronald Clarke (ATH)1960

Takis Epitropoulos (ATH)

Giancarlo Peris (ATH)

1964

George Marsellos (ATH)

Yoshinori Sakai (ATH)

1968

Haris Aivaliotis (ATH)

Norma E. Basilio Sotela (ATH)1972

Yiannis Kirkilessis

Günther Zahn (ATH)

1976

Tassos Psillidis (ATH)

Sandra Henderson

		

Stéphane Préfontaine

1980

Thanasis Kosmopoulos

Sergey Belov (BAS)

1984

*

Rafer Johnson (ATH)

1988

Thanassis Kalogiannis (ATH)

Kim Won Tak (ATH)		

Chong Son Man

		

Son Mi Jong

1992

Juan A. San Epifanio (BAS)

Savvas Saritzoglou (ATH)		

Antonio Rebollo (ARC)

1996

Kostas Koukodimos (ATH)

Muhammad Ali (BOX)2000

Lambros Papakostas (ATH)

Cathy Freeman (ATH)

2004

Kostas Gatsioudis (ATH)

Nikos Kaklamanakis (SAI)2008

Alexandros Nikolaidis (TAE)

Li Ning (GYM)

2012

Spyros Gianniotis (SWI)Carlum Airlie (SAI)		

Jordan Duckitt		Desirée Henry (ATH)		

Katie Kirk (ATH)		

Cameron MacRitchie (ROW)		

Aidan Reynolds (ATH)		

Adelle Tracey (ATH)

2016

N.N.

Eleftherios Petrounias (GYM)* No torch relay in Greece

Katerina Lehou lit the
Olympic Flame (topleft) on 21st April 2016.
Below: the first torchbearer was gymnast
Eleftherios Petrounias.
ISOH member Kostas
Georgiadis also carried
the flame in Ancient
Olympia. Below: Danceof the priestesses in
the Panathenian Stadium. When the flame
reached Brazilian soil,
the torch was also carried by double Olympic
volleyball champion
Fabiana Claudino.
Photos: picture-alliance (3),Philip Barker (2)JOH 2 | 2016

• Torch Relay inspires Brazil to ‘Live the Dream’ of Rio 20165

Alberto Santos-Dumont,
Sport Aviator and Olympic Hero*By Lamartine DaCosta and Ana Miragaya

Brazilian Alberto­Santos-Dumont (18731932) is regarded as
one of the pioneersof motorised flight.
In 1906 the Brazilian
succeeded in making
the first public flightin the world. The airport in Rio was named
in his honour.
Below: postcard witha caricature of SantosDumont. The text on
the card reads: “Myhomeland is the air ...
on the ground I am
in exile!”
Photos: Marcia Neto-Wacker/
Christian Wacker, O BRASIL­TORNA-SE OLÍMPICO

In 1905, the first ceremony to award Olympic Diplomas
to relevant personalities linked to sports at the time
took place at the Olympic Congress in Brussels. Theodore
Roosevelt, later President of the United States; Alberto
Santos-Dumont, Brazilian joint inventor of the airplaneand sporting aviator; Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian
explorer of the North Pole; and William H. Grenfell,
well-known educator in the United Kingdom and later
Lord Desborough would receive the very first awards.
At that time, Pierre de Coubertin, President of theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) founded in 1894,
described the purpose of Olympic Diploma thus:
dont la rareté dit le prix et qui, ne visant point
recompenser telle victoire sportive, tel record battu,
telle performance accomplie pût être attribué à unhomme pour l’ensemble de qualités athletiques etsurtous pour l’emploi qu’il en aurait pu faire 1.
[a rare prize, given to reward not this sporting victoryor that record broken, but in recognition of a man
who, above all, has used all his athletic talents to theutmost of his ability.]
By 1909, Olympic Diplomas had already been awarded
to ten international recipients, all of whom were6

respected personalities in their own societies andrenowned sportsmen internationally 2. In the case of
Santos-Dumont, the honour seemed relevant because
he was famous not only in France but also all over
Europe as a sportsman, and typical of the pioneer
aviators of the Belle Époque 3. As one of the inventorsof the airplane, this Brazilian sportsman was a hero in
his own country during the period he was most activewith his inventions (1890–1910), which coincided with
Coubertin’s creation of the Olympic Diploma (1901) andthe first nominees in 1905 4.
Santos-Dumont and Coubertin were contemporaries,
the Brazilian, born in 1873, being ten years younger
than Coubertin. His family had French and Portuguese
ancestry. As a child, Santos-Dumont was influenced
by his father, an engineer of French descent, andfascinated by machinery. While still a young child, helearned to drive the steam tractors and the locomotive
used on his family’s farm. He also participated in
excursions by bicycle and, later on, in automobiles andhot air balloons, the latter two constructed by SantosDumont himself. His favourite sport was tennis, which
he played right up until his death in 1932. He also playedgolf and skied when he lived in Europe 5.
With such devotion to sport, it was not surprising that
the World Air Sports Federation (Fédération AéronautiqueInternationale – FAI), founded in 1905, had SantosDumont as one of its inspirational symbols6, and theirrecords provide a source of reference for his life. The
purpose of this research was to set out a historiography
beginning at the end of the 19th century, period whichcoincides with the reinvention of the Olympic Games,
and reached its climax during the first decade of the 20th

century, and finally extended until the 1930s, following
the expansion of sports worldwide.
Again, it is relevant that the origins of aviation as asport had several pioneers, including the Americanbrothers Orville and Wilbur Wright, whose motivation
was more commercial and pragmatic than that ofSantos-Dumont. In fact Santos-Dumont, who camefrom a wealthy family, did not want to register any
patent for his inventions. Furthermore, during his
adult life he showed himself to be the epitome of asportsman – daring and romantic, becoming great
personality in Paris – which had become the world’s
center for the arts, creation of fashion and flamboyant
lifestyle during the Belle Époque 7 – thus confirming
Coubertin’s decision that he should be awarded the
Olympic Diploma.
While the Wright brothers constructed their machines
in secret, Santos-Dumont saw aviation as an amateur
sport, always searching for and counting on publicaudiences and striving for measurable results to verify
and legitimize the records of his performances (DaCosta,
1996; Hoffman, 2003) 8. Moreover, he instigatedfashion for clothes, hats and accessories for aviation
as a sport. These included the wristwatch, originallycommissioned by him from Maison Cartier de Paris,
whose design “Santos Dumont” as a brand namebecame a commercial success that has survived for morethan a century (Lins de Barros, 2006) 9.
Although Santos-Dumont enjoyed enormous
popularity in a dynamic and sportive Paris, so open to
the modern world he consciously wanted to represent,
he preferred to send a representative to the award
ceremony of the first Olympic Diplomas in Brussels in
1905, a procedure also preferred by Roosevelt, Nansen
and Grenfell. It may well be that the reason for thisdecision by the four celebrities was that they had ahigher public profile than the IOC itself at the time.
However, when historians Neto-Wacker and Wacker(2010)10 reported the ceremony and the absence of thenominees, they also highlighted that Santos-Dumont
had become “a reluctant Olympic hero who, together
with important personalities of the day, was awarded
the first Olympic Diploma, in which, however, heshowed little personal interest”.
This interpretation is confirmed by other sources thatreveal him to have been a personality who ignored
homage and tribute according to his mood or hishealth. A similar thing happened when Santos-Dumont
declined to answer Charles Lindbergh’s invitation fordinner in 1929 to celebrate the first transatlantic flight.
Santos-Dumont also refused to receive the Brazilian
President in his home in 1930, according to his American
biographer, Paul Hoffman 11.
As a result of the distance Santos-Dumont took fromthe IOC tribute, his Olympic identity was not cemented

JOH 2 | 2016

either in his home country or abroad, in spite of the factthat he declared his identification with sports in general
and with sport aviation in particular in his memoirs.
For example, the “father of flight” wrote in his 1918
autobiography (...):
Eu, para quem já passou o tempo de voar, quisera,
entretanto, que a aviação fosse para os meus jovens
patrícios um verdadeiro esporte” [“I, for whom thetime to fly has passed, wanted, however, aviation to
be a true sport for my young countrymen] 12.

The Olympic Diploma
presented to Alberto
Santos-Dumont.
He was one of the firstrecipients of thisaward. It was designed
by André Slom (18441909), known in Polishas Slomszyski. From
1871 he divided histime between Switzer-

Santos-Dumont may have been to some extent
forgotten, which undermines the narration of his
accomplishments as a sport aviator pioneer, besides
his negligence in relation to the Olympic ceremony toaward Olympic Diplomas, finally reducing the meaningof aviation itself as a sport. Within this context, SantosDumont can be understood as a case of sportsmansymbol whose influence became merely potential, once
his legacy was mostly fixed on the images of an inventor,
an enthusiast of technology and of adventurous life
molded by his Parisian public.
Recognition Santos-Dumont’s aeronautical feats in
Brazil only happened in the 1940s, almost a decade after
his death, according to Lins de Barros (2003), the aviator’s• Alberto Santos-Dumont, Sport Aviator and Olympic Heroland and Paris. The­Diploma was endowedby the Greek Mercati
Committee. Pierre de
Coubertin proposed
its introduction, a­decision approved
at IOC Session in 1901.
The Diploma for­Santos-Dumont­un­fortunately is lost!
Photo: Olympic Museum,
Lausanne

Lamartine DaCosta | *1935, holds a Ph.D in Philosophy(1988) and Sport Management (1989). He started his research
in Olympic Studies focusing on the 1968 Olympics and has
prominent academic production in sport history devoted today
to research of Olympic values. As a sports volunteer, he iscurrently curator of Maria Lenk’s memory, Brazil’s first Olympic
heroine.

7

Dumont. The newspapers focused on sensationalism,fads and gossip, as can be seen from the analyses ofParis press by Paul Hoffman a century later 14. Anothercharacteristic of the two magazines is that the articles
were written by specialist commentators, providing
technical observations, which made them different
from the reports of the daily newspapers habitually
written without attribution and usually subject toeditorial influence.

Sport-aviation role model

An Aeronautic eventin Paris organised by
the Brazilian aviator­Santos-Dumont in
1900. He had a similar
philosophy to­Coubertin, although
they were not per­sonally related. Bothfrequently referredto the idea of Utopia.
For Santos-Dumont it
was the world of Jules
Verne. Coubertin’s
was that created byThomas Hughes (TomBrown’s School Days).
Photo: CEME, São Paulo8

most famous biographer. Nevertheless, the rescue ofSantos-Dumont as an Olympic hero only started 46 years
later with Lamartine DaCosta’s research (1996), publishedonly in Portuguese. The research was subsequently
reinterpreted by the same author in the book Atlas ofSports in Brazil (2005) and also by Marcia Neto-Wacker
and Christian Wacker (2010).13
This present reconstruction of Santos-Dumont’s
historiography as a sportsman draws on original
sources – in Portuguese, French and English – andfollows research by the authors of this essay in recent
years and focuses on an Olympic Santos-Dumont, taking
the sporting environment as the basis for his inventionsin the field of modern aeronautics.
The vision of Santos-Dumont as a sportsman was
first revived through research done at the Olympic
Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, by Ana Miragaya,
co-author of this study. She located two illustrated
magazines with sporting themes published in Paris in
the late 19th and early 20th centuries: La Vie au GrandAir and Le Sport Universel Illustré. These publications
detailed the conquests of Santos–Dumont, always
in the context of the sporting world in Paris andthroughout France. His triumphs and disasters are put
into context by information, also related to sport, foundin contemporary literature about the heroic aviation
pioneer.
Both La Vie au Grand Air and Le Sport Universel Illustré
focused on competition events, descriptions of airships,
performances, competition sequencing and the public’s
reaction. It was a different way of reporting, untypical of
the newspapers of that time, which were more oriented
not only to the daily life of France but also to thenovelties represented by the aeronautic experiments
conducted by the flamboyant personality of Santos-

A first indication of the distance between Brazilian
and international historians on the subject of SantosDumont as a sportsman is found in the collection of
documents about the pioneer aviator’s life, publishedin 1940 by Godin da Fonseca15. In this publication is an
18-page list of people of different nationalities who
were connected to the feats of the first ‘aeronaut’. This
list did not include Pierre de Coubertin nor any others of
the small group that made up the IOC at the dawn of the20th century.
However, the texts recovered by Norbert Müller and Otto
Schantz, historians of IOC President Pierre de Coubertin,
describe the Olympic Diploma 16. These records show
evidence of the reasons Santos-Dumont was chosen
by Pierre de Coubertin as a model of Olympic values.
Coubertin considered aviation to be a sport at thattime. Indeed, Müller & Schantz highlighted the Revue
Olympique (IOC’s official magazine), July 1907 edition,in which Coubertin penned an article with the title “LesFrontières Sportives de l’Aviation” (The Sporting Bordersof Aviation) 17. But even before that publication, Coubertin
had already written a note emphasising balloon racing
as a sport 18.
Away from Coubertin’s influence, based on documents
in collected writings celebrating Santos-Dumont’s
accomplishments, it is possible to confirm that sport
aviation had reached its climax at the beginning of the20th century. The first FAI Bulletins – especially the 12th
November 1906 edition – features Santos-Dumont asa “sportsman” 19 and related to the word “record” andto other sports rituals, such as referees, stopwatches,
programmed competitions, etc. 20 According to Cabrerodos Reis (1974), Santos-Dumont established the firstcertified records of aviation in the world, controlling timeand distances 21. Also, he was the very first man to becalled “aeronaut” 22.
Lavenere Wanderley (1974), who collected news about
Santos-Dumont’s performances in the internationalpress of that time, transcribes a note that appearedin the newspaper Paris Sport on 15th July 1901, which
defines the pioneer of the “heavier-than-air flight” as“a true sportsman, in every sense of the word” 23. This
very source also registers Santos-Dumont’s visit to theUnited States in 1902 to participate in a balloon raceat the Saint Louis Exposition, the venue for the third
edition of the Olympic Games in 1904.
At that time, President Theodore Roosevelt invited
Santos-Dumont for dinner in Washington, which
reveals the guest’s relevance 24. This fact was also
confirmed by Paul Hoffman 25. Hoffman reports SantosDumont’s visit to the United States as traumatic after
his balloon was found irreparably and deliberately
damaged by the New York customs. As a result, SantosDumont was unable to compete in Saint Louis. To
this biographer, this malicious action reveals theaggressiveness of the so-called “patent war” between
the first airship manufacturers in North America 26.
In the USA, Santos-Dumont also met Thomas Edison,at the time a renowned inventor of international
standing. Edison, on that occasion, declared to thepress his admiration and respect for Santos-Dumont’s
technological solutions as well as for his ethical stancein public, highlighting Santos-Dumont’s gentlemanly
attributes 27. A view endorsed three years later with
Coubertin’s nomination of Santos-Dumont for the
Olympic Diploma.

The leading promoter of sport aviation
Santos-Dumont’s attitudes towards sport from ahistorical perspective can be better understood whenlooking at aviation as a sport, before airships becamemeans of transportation and tools of war. Considering
only Paris and France – world centers of aeronauticalinnovation during Coubertin’s and Santos-Dumont’s
lifetime – the environment conducive to sporting
contest was linked not only to a privileged lifestylein the great outdoors but also to people’s mobility –something always associated with freedom of choice.
As a corollary, it is possible to see that such options
stimulated the use of bicycles, automobiles, balloons
and airships in a sporting context, as Santos-Dumont
himself experimented and, very likely, influenced
Pierre de Coubertin in his writings about ballooning andaviation.
These new social practices supported by technology
were the subject of individual articles in the French
publications mentioned above: La Vie au Grand Air andLe Sport Universel Illustré. A typical writer was La Vie au
Grand Air’s columnist Emmanuel Aimè, who frequently
wrote about sport aviation and about Santos-Dumont.28
Aimè discourses on a demonstration of ballooning
promoted by the Aéro-Club de France, which took
place in the streets and central parks of Paris – Boisde Boulogne, in particular – under the leadershipof Santos-Dumont. The text examines discussionsof possible balloon competitions to be held in thecity with a high circulation of people and vehicles,

JOH 2 | 2016

discussing the possibilities of creating a more efficientand manoeuvrable balloons. To the journalist, SantosDumont’s solutions for the dirigibility of airships (wires
and petrol engines) demonstrated increasing progress.
In addition, Aimè included personalities of greatsocial and political representation in Paris, who would
guarantee the continuity of the Aéro-Club de France’s
project.
This text marked the start of the exposure ofSantos-Dumont’s successful flights in the Frenchpress, especially with its provocative title: “Le Paride M. Santos Dumont” (“Santos-Dumont’s Bet”).
Likewise, in the edition of December of 1899 (pp. 178180), Emmanuel Aimè discourses about the theme“L’Aeroestation” (“The Aerostation”) as a new sporting
discipline, basically focusing on the role played by aeroclubs in the organisation and rules of competitions
between airships. He mentions various examples ofFrench balloonists who classify the “dirigeables” by
type of equipment, location of practice and chances
in forthcoming competitions with money prizes.
At the end of the article, Aimè goes back to SantosDumont, describing him as the greatest promise for thedevelopment of “Aeroestation” as an emerging sport,
as Santos-Dumont had until then experimented two
types of dirigibles and put into practice his balloon
No. 3, with 500 cubic metres (20 metres in length and 7.5
metres in diameter). To sum up, both 1899 selected texts
allow us to understand the initial inventions of SantosDumont in the sports world as well as his own means
to support his next undertakings in airships, goingfrom “lighter-than-air” to “heavier-than-air” withdiversified repercussions not only in France, but also inother European countries, the United States and Brazil.
Next, Santos-Dumont’s photograph appeared on
the cover of La Vie au Grand Air of 30th September 1900.
The magazine broke the news of dirigible No. 3’s good
performance, emphasising its manageability andengine. The headline names the Brazilian inventor“gentleman-aeronautique” praising once more his
ingenuity and tenacity, welcoming the arrival of a phaseof progress for the foundation of “Aeroestation” as asport.29
Another relevant event is shown in the edition of
26th October 1901, in which Frantz Reichel announces,with several photographs, the conquest of the Deutschde la Meurthe prize of 100 thousand francs by SantosDumont, when he rounded the Eiffel Tower in his
dirigible No. 5 on a marked trajectory and taking
the maximum time of 30 minutes (pp. 692-694). In
this edition, the title “Aerostation” is used, with thenoteworthy subtitle: “Santos Dumont Triomphe”(“Santos-Dumont Succeeds”). This article also sharesthe information that the victor would share part of the
prize with the poor of Paris.

• Alberto Santos-Dumont, Sport Aviator and Olympic Hero9Santos-Dumont­became a popular­figure in Paris becauseof his efforts to­promote aviation asa sport. The cartoon
above was drawn by
the famous artist
Georges Goursat,
called SEM, who­captured the important personalitiesof the Parisian Belle
Époque of the 1900s.
Photo: CEME, São Paulo

Returning to Le Sport Universel Illustré, it is importantto point out that the 17th July 1906 edition announced
the “Grand Prix Aéro-Club de France”, featuring morethan a dozen dirigibles, including Santos-Dumont’s.
However, the most relevant news of the year was
found in the 17th November edition, when with great
prominence and illustrated by photographs, themagazine proclaimed the historic flight of the aircraft 14
Bis, created and piloted by Santos-Dumont. According
to Le Sport Universel Illustré, it was the first public andsuccessful exhibition of a heavier-than-air aircraft.
Before the edition of 23rd September of the same year,
the airship 14 Bis had been introduced with all its
technical details (pp. 560-561). This fact suggests that
Santos-Dumont had chosen this magazine as the
instrument to create a public forum to gain support for
his greatest invention.
This thesis becomes more sound with the examinationof four editions of Le Sport Universel Illustré, whichanalysed the state of the art of the “Sport Aéronautique”,
published during the second half of 1906. In thevery first edition, on 3rd October 1906, G. Lemeuniercomments in his article on the recent developments of
the “Aerostation” from the Great Prize of the Aéro-Club
de France, with its first dirigibles contest in 1903, by its
fourth edition in 1906, seven countries had participated.
To Lemeunier,il semble qu’une heureuse rivalité se soit elevée entre
les nations pour la conquète de l’air. L’Allemagne,l’Espagne, l’ Angleterre, l’Amerique se préoccupent
fiévreusement de la question. Toutes ces nations ont
leurs aéronautes et leurs aérostats, toutes également
ont étudié différents modèles de dirigeables.
[It appears that a happy rivalry has arisen between
nations for the conquest of the air. Germany, Spain,
England, the United States are feverishly worried
about the question. All these nations have theiraeronauts and their aerostats, all have equallystudied different models of dirigibles”.] (p. 638)
In the same sequence, the 11st November 1906 editionof Le Sport Universel Illustré, also under G. Lemeunier’s
name, there is an analysis of the arrival of relevant
institutional and financial support to aviation as asport.
The third article, which appears in the 23rd November
1906 edition, follows in theme and title the newdevelopment of aviation as a sport after the impact
caused by 14 Bis and by Santos-Dumont’s declarations
regarding replacing dirigibles with airplanes (p. 702).
Lemeunier, in this case, writes about his interviews
with various French sport aviators, concluding thatthe general atmosphere was one of of creativity andadherence to innovations (p. 703). This optimism
explains the continuation of the theme, which

10

concludes with an article by Lemeunier entitled“Dirigibles and Airplanes”, published on 30th December
1906 in Le Sport Universel Illustré. Several experimentswith aeroplanes in various locations around France are
introduced, anticipating a greater contest in technology,
suggesting that the field of Bagatelle in Paris, occupied
first by Santos-Dumont’s dirigibles, would become an
aerodrome. Lemeunier declares:
Si l’ aérostation ne chôme pas, l’aviation est loind’être inactive .
[If the aerostation is not active, aviation is far frombeing inactive.] (p. 799)
Santos-Dumont, in this context, stayed faithful tohis principles, gradually abandoning the industrial
competition, but concentrating on the concept of an
airplane model for sport competitions.
In brief, from what has been reviewed here, thespecialist magazines writing about the role playedby Santos-Dumont in terms of aviation as a sport,
can finally be encapsulated by citing another French
publication, the newspaper Le Miroir des Sports,
founded in 1920. This newspaper led the sports pressin France until 1944, following standards of journalism
closer to reality and the present time. The chosen
excerpt is a reproduction of the edition of 19th November,
1924 (p. 370), which featured the article “Il y a Dix–huitAns l’Audacieux Aviateur Santos-Dumont, à Bagatelle,
Volait sur une Distance de 220 Mètres et Tenait l’ Air 21
Seconds” (“Eighteen years ago, at Bagatelle, the daringaviator Santos-Dumont flew a distance of 220 metres in
the air for 21 seconds”).
It thus sums up career of the Brazilian aeronaut andinventor in France, two decades apart from his most
relevant achievement:
Santos-Dumont, qui est un précurseur et qui doit aux
romans de Jules Verne sa carrière de conquérant del’air, n’est pas, on le voit, un visionnaire indifférent
aux jeux athlétiques de notre époque. Il vit avec son
temps, mais il dédaigne les honneurs et la tribune
officielle; il goûte le sport pour le sport.
[Santos-Dumont, who is a pioneer and owes to Jules
Verne’s novels his career of conquest of the air is not,as we see him, a visionary indifferent to the athletic
games of our times. He moves with the times, but helooks down on honours and official recognition; heenjoys the sport for the sport.]

Santos-Dumont: the Olympic hero of sport aviation
Certainly, the “enjoyment of the sport for the sport”
today appears to be a synthesis of Santos-Dumont’s
reconstructed memory. On the other hand, SantosDumont himself admitted the influence of Jules Verne inhis 1918 autobiography, when he declared that he hadread the adventures with flying machines narrated by
the famous French writer, whose collection of novels
he had already read before he was 10 years old 30. Lateron, when he was 18, Santos-Dumont, in his first trip to
Europe in the 1890s, competed in bicycle, automobileand hot air balloon races, and climbed Mont Blanc.
These achievements were forever imprinted in SantosDumont’s memory (Wykeham, 1962) 31.
Significantly, during adulthood, Santos-Dumont
was recognised more clearly as a sportsman, as canbe observed from the documents collected by Aluizio
Napoleao in 1988. For example, the 11 November 1901
edition of the Times of London, reports a banquet
offered by the Aero Club of England in honour of theBrazilian inventor, the practitioner of the “sport ofballooning” 32. Years later, in November 1915, themagazine Flying (published in the United States)
reports the achievements of the pioneer of aviation,
introducing him as “Alberto Santos Dumont,the Brazilian Sportsman … who took up cycling,
automobiling and aeronautics when they were in theirembryonic state” 33.
In turn, the relationship between cycling, motor
racing, and aeronautics in Santos-Dumont’s sporting
career, was interpreted by Godin da Fonseca. Crossing
sources, this author concluded that Santos-Dumont
found inspiration for the construction of his first hot air
balloon in 1897 while following the Paris-Amsterdam
car race on the tricycle he rode in his everyday outings
and also on long routes 34.

JOH 2 | 2016

However, Godin explains, “To be a sportsman at thattime did not mean to do gymnastics or play this orthat sport: it meant to be chic, to be a member of aclub ...” (19), and he adds the following, based oninterviews of Santos-Dumont to the French press: “He
did not consider himself as a technician of aerostation,
but as a sportsman of aerostation” 35. The expression“sportsman”, taking into consideration the Olympic
ideal, was the attitude of fair play in competitions,according to the English tradition that was extended
to the European continent. For this reason, Coubertin
added to the expression a sense of spirit, of ethics andof example within the Olympic model 36. Therefore, theaward of the Olympic Diploma to Santos-Dumont by the
IOC was more in recognition than reward.
Reinforcing the amateur cult of sports and the spirit offair play of the Brazilian inventor, we can cite instancesof his value-led actions. In this, it is relevant to mention
Santos-Dumont’s declarations to the press in the UnitedStates soon after his meeting with Thomas Edison when
they discussed the problem of patents impeding thedevelopment of aviation in that country: “I have nevertried to patent my airships and I do not intend to do so.
I will allot the money I get from the prizes I get to future
experiments in aeronautics” (Hoffman, p. 174).
At this historic meeting, Edison asked Santos-Dumont
to create the first aeronautics club in the UnitedStates. He declared himself in favour of community
participation in the way suggested by the Brazilian
pioneer in Paris (Hoffman, p. 177). On the same occasion,
Santos-Dumont declared, “I am an amateur”, toexplain his refusal to give commercial demonstrations
at the Saint Louis Exposition, adding that “to do
exhibitions according to the proposed conditions would
demand professionalism” (Hoffman, p. 178).
This “Olympic” spirit of sportsman Santos-Dumont
was meaningfully evidenced when he relinquished therights of the sports competition aircraft “Demoiselle",• Alberto Santos-Dumont, Sport Aviator and Olympic Hero

“Demoiselle” was thename given to the­invention by Santos-­
Dumont which had thegreatest impact: theworld’s first aircraftspecialized in aeronautic competitions.
The first “Demoiselle”
was built in 1909.
Photo: CEME, São Paulo11

starting in 1909 as reported earlier in this essay. Theinternational success of this pioneer airplane was due
not only to the merits of innovation but also to thedelivery of the drawings and rights to pilots and sports
clubs at no cost whatsoever and under cooperation. This
procedure gave initial support to aviation as a sport,
turning “Demoiselle” into a symbol of historical value(Hoffman, p. 249 and p. 314 upon citation from Lins deBarros).
Alberto Santos-­
Dumont in front of
his memorial in SaintCloud, France. Postcard with a dedicationin his own hand from
1922.
Photo: CEME, São PauloIn short, the “Olympic” Santos–Dumont as a public
figure actually existed, a man who espoused fair play,
gentlemanly behaviour, and had a straightforward
and continuous association with sports clubs and a
devotion to the practice of sports. These manifestations
continued even after he returned to Brazil before FirstWorld War, where, until his death in 1932, he devoted
himself to various sports clubs, especially Fluminense
Football Club in Rio de Janeiro and the Tennis Club ofPetropolis (today, Petropolitano Foot-Ball Club), his lastresidence in his home country.
In 1920, Santos-Dumont made his most ethical stanceyet, when he started an international campaign against
the use of aircraft in wars, according with the Olympic
value of Peace as propounded by Pierre de Coubertin in

12

his personal and professional guise. On this occasion,
Santos-Dumont discovered the limitations of his sports
philanthropy and of his popularity when found noecho for his ideals (Hoffman p. 274). He may have been
portrayed by his supporters on a wall of the restaurant
Maxim’s of Paris, but it was not enough to overcome thewarlike realpolitic of international relations in Europe,
already fragmented by First World War (Hoffman, pp.
64-65 with reference to Maxim’s).
Santos-Dumont’s ambitions were frustrated andhis reputation declined with the suggestion that as
an inventor or as a sportsman he was a myth. This
interpretation is shared by the French historian Pierre
Paquier who, in 1952, had labeled Santos-Dumont’s
accomplishments as no more than an adoring public’s
imagination. A piece of evidence then consisted in theobservation of the first generation of aviation pioneers
who had remained active until the 1930s. “Victoireégale volonté” (“the victory comes from the will”) says
this author as he describes the evolution of aeronautic
competitions of the first decades of the 20th century 37.
In addition, Paquier emphasises the shift in ­percetionof the aviation pioneers in Europe and in the UnitedStates: while the former aimed at creation-competition,
the latter focused on invention-performance. 38 That iswhy, in 1914, the American magazine Flying also characterised the evolution of aviation, placing the sports
sense in first place and the transportation objective­secondary: “Aviation as a sport then transportation” 39.
Although pragmatic, this very source recognised themythic ­posture of Santos-Dumont, placing him withinthe ­tradition of “Verne’s heroes”. 40
Nevertheless in Brazil, the tradition of the sportinglegend-folk-hero was already in existence in 1903, whenthe “father of flight” visited Rio de Janeiro for the firsttime after winning the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize.
In order to welcome the emergent Brazilian hero, agroup of mountain climbers ascended the Sugar Loaf, amonumental rock located at the entrance of Guanabara
Bay and a symbol of the city and at the time, capital of thecountry, fixing on the side facing the sea an enormous
banner saluting Santos-Dumont on his return from
Europe 41. Significantly, in 1973, in the centennial of hisbirth, the Santos-Dumont myth survived internationallywhen a lunar crater was named in his honour by theInternational Astronomical Union 42.
But the myth persisted in Brazil in 1936 in avery special manner, when four years after theBrazilian aeronautical engineer’s death, the Vargas
administration passed Law No. 218 of 4th July 1936,
creating the “Aviator Day”:
para que esta comemoração tenha sempre
condigna celebração cívica, esportiva e cultural, esta
especialmente escolar, e acentuando-se a iniciativa
do notável brasileiro Santos-Dumont.

[so that this special date always should be a civic,
sporting and cultural celebration, especially inschools, to recognise the initiative of this remarkable
Brazilian, Santos-Dumont.] 43

Conclusions
This memento of the aviator folk hero for his celebrationin the sports world has been neglected not only by theBrazilian sports institutions but also by today’s sports
historians, as it has happened with other relevantfacts related to the Olympic Movement in Brazil 44. This“oblivion” from Olympic history viewpoint and frombroader perspectives would also include the meaningsof the Olympic Diploma, a theme which has been little
studied, but which also reveals Pierre de Coubertin’s
perception in relation to the sportsman’s ideal profile
during the phase of restoration of the Olympic Games,“not only for his athletic qualities but for his attitudes
in sports competitions and his life in society”, as it has
been here previously quoted from the Olympic Games
reinventor.
Pierre de Coubertin and Alberto Santos-Dumont
had a lot in common 45, which addresses the typicalcompetitiveness of in the Belle Époque of sport. This
period between the late 19th to the early 20th century
represented the climax of innovation by both Pierre de
Coubertin and Santos-Dumont. The Olympic Diploma
thus takes on a new meaning in the deep bond between
them in modern sport’s journeys, despite their different
roles in Olympic history, as usually depicted today. 

1

2
3

4
5

6
7

8

Coubertin, P. Une Campagne de Vingt-et-un Ans (1887 – 1908), Paris
1909, pp. 162 – 171. In Müller, N. et Schantz, 0., Pierre de CoubertinTexts Choisis, Weidmann, Zurich, 1986, tome II, p. 209–210. See also
Revue Olympique, février, 1906, no. 2, pp. 19–20.
IOC. The International Olympic Committee and the Modern Olympic
Games. Imprimerie de la Plaine du Rhone 8. a., Aigle, 1950, p.15.
DaCosta, L. Atlas of Sport in Brazil, Shape, Rio de Janeiro, 2005,
p. 868. For further information on Brazilian aviators during
the Belle Époque see Sevcenko, N., Orfeu Extatico na Metropole,­Companhia das Letras, Sao Paulo, 1992, pp. 23–88.
Ibidem, p. 869. See also Sarmant, T. Histoire de Paris: Politique,urbanisme, civilisation. Editions Jean-Paul Gisserot, Paris, 2012.
Noel, F. L. & Lima, P.S. Uma Casa Muito Encantada – A ­Invencao
Arquitetonica de Santos-Dumont, Escrita Fina, Petrópolis, 2010,
p. 79–89; for the participation of Santos-Dumont in the UK ­National
Championship of Golf 1915, see Anderson, J.G. Many ­Eminent Men
Players of Golf. Sporting Life, London, Nov. 13, 1915.
http://www.fai.org/about-fai/history
http://historiahoje.com/santos-dumont-moda-e-aviao. For background acknowledgement in this issue see Visconti, R.M., Os ­Baloesde Santos-Dumont.Capivara Editora, Sao Paulo, 2010, pp. 13–83.
DaCosta, L. Santos-Dumont: O Primeiro Herói Olímpico do ­Esporte
Brasileiro. IV Encontro Nacional de História do Esporte, Lazer e­Educacao Física, UFMG, 22–26 outubro de 1996. Coletânea, Belo Horizonte, 1996, p. 229–233; Hoffman, P. Wings of Madness – ­Alberto
Santos-Dumont and the Invention of Flight. Hyperion, New York,
2002, pp. 97–138 (pages for the Brazilian edition of the book, Editora
Objetiva, Rio de Janeiro, 2003).

JOH 2 | 2016

9

Lins de Barros, H.; Santos-Dumont and the Invention of Airplane,
Ministério da Ciencia e Tecnologia, Brasilia, 2006. For Cartier wristwatch see http://www.chrono24.com/en/cartier/santos-dumont.
10 Neto-Wacker, M. & Wacker, C. Brazil Goes Olympic. Agon Sport­verlag,
Kassel, 2010, p. 81.
11 Hoffman, p. 274.
12 See Napoleao, A.; Santos-Dumont e a Conquista do Ar. Instituto
Histórico e Cultural da Aeronáutica – Editora Itatiaia, Rio de Janeiro,
1988, p. 174; page 98 in the 1918 autobiography “O que Eu vi, o que
nos Veremos”.
13 Op. Cit. DaCosta, 1996; DaCosta, 2005 and Neto-Wacker & Wacker, 2010.
14 Hoffman, pp. 229–252.
15 Fonseca, G.; Santos-Dumont. Editora Vecchi, Rio de Janeiro, 1940.
p. 306–324.
16 Op. Cit. Muller & Schantz, 1986.
17 Ibidem, p. 318–321, tome III; pages of original source: pp. 293–298.
18 Ibidem, p. 325–327, tome III; original source: Revue Olympic,­Octobre, 1906, pp. 151–154.
19 See data set by Alexandre Brigole, Santos-Dumont – The Air­Pioneer, Aero Clube do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 1943, pp. 86–87.
20 Ibidem, pp. 88–89.
21 Cabrero dos Reis, A.; Santos-Dumont – Os seus Avioes e a Primazia
do Voo do Mais Pesados que o Ar. in: Revista do Instituto de Geo­
grafia e História Militar do Brasil, Vol. LIV, 1974, pp. 71–90.
22 Ibidem, p. 88.
23 Lavenere Wanderley, N.F.; Santos-Dumont e a sua Glória, in: Revista do Instituto de Geografia e História Militar do Brasil, vol. LIV,
1974, pp. 125–166.
24 Ibidem, p. 159.
25 Hoffman, pp. 174–176.
26 Ibidem, pp. 139–187.
27 Ibidem, pp. 171–187.
28 In the edition of May 28, 1899, pp. 439–440.
29 Similar approaches are found in the magazine Le Sport Universel­Illustré of 27 July, 1901, in an article by the aeronautic sports news
analyst Frantz Reichel, wherein he describes the performances of
dirigible No. 5, constructed in Santos-Dumont’s hangar. In this case,the praise is more emphatic, considering that the Brazilian was
searching for perfection, but justifiable (p. 483). At the end of the­article, Reichel declares: “Pour les débuts, le XXe siècle sera um ­siècle
heureux. Il aura donné à l’homme la direction des ballons; Jules
Verne et Robida auront été de bons prophètes” (p. 485). (“From thestart, the 20th century will be a happy century. It has given mankind
the direction of balloons; Jules Verne and Robida have been good
prophets”).
30 Santos-Dumont’s autobiography, Op. Cit. p. 4.
31 Wykeham, P.: Santos-Dumont – o Retrato de uma Obsessao.
­Civilizacao Brasileira Editora, Rio de Janeiro, 1962, p. 9.
32 Napoleao, A. Op.cit., p. 491.
33 Ibidem, p. 731.
34 Fonseca, G. Op cit. p. 50.
35 Ibidem, p. 70.
36 Pierre de Coubertin. The Olympic Idea. Discourses and Essays.
­Editions Internationales Olympiques, Lausanne, 1970.
37 See comparative data elaborated by Hoffman, p. 326 and interpretations from Santos-Dumont in his autobiography about the­design of “Demoiselle” as an airplane “for amateurs”, Cf. “O Que
Eu Vi, o Que Nos Veremos”, (1918 edition). Universidade do Amazonas – DEAD, 2015, pp. 15–19.
38 Paquier, P.; Santos–Dumont Maître d’Action. Editions ­Conquistador,
Paris, 1952, p. 72s.
39 Ibidem, p. 734.
40 Ibidem, pp. 732–734.
41 See Lavanere Wanderley, Op. Cit. p. 160.
42 http://www.vaztolentino.com.br/conteudo/533-Cratera-brasileiraSANTOS-DUMONT
43 The full text of Law 218 is found in Napoleao, A., Op. cit. pp. 264–265.
44 For comparisons see the overview of the Brazilian Olympic History
that has been elaborated by Neto-Wacker, M.F. & Wacker, C. Rio deJaneiro Goes Olympic, in: Journal of Olympic History vol. 17, Dec.
2009, pp. 6–20.
45 The relationship chart was constructed by means of consult to theprevious sources referred in this essay in addition to MacAloon,
J. J. This Great Symbol: Pierre de Coubertin and the Origins of the­Modern Olympic Games. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1981.

• Alberto Santos-Dumont, Sport Aviator and Olympic Hero13

Adhemar da Silva and the “little uncle”
By Volker Kluge

Teacher and pupil:­Dietrich Gerner andAdhemar Ferreira da
Silva, who called hiscoach ‘’little uncle“.
Photos: Volker Kluge Archive

Brazilians have won 23 gold, 30 silver and 55 bronze
medals in the Olympic Games before Rio. The firstunder their national flag was achieved by pistol shooter
Guilherme Paraense at the 1920 Antwerp Games, butthey had to wait 32 years until the next, won by 24-yearold triple jumper Adhemar Ferreira da Silva. After his
success in Helsinki, his second gold medal followed in
Melbourne. More than half a century later, only sailors
Torben Grael and Roberto Scheidt had emulated thisachievement .
Da Silva embodied Olympic sport in Brazil like noother. In 1982 I met him in Athens, as the International
Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) celebrated its
70 th anniversary on the fringes of the European
Championships. Da Silva had been invited along witheleven other celebrities and greeted me in German:“Guten Tag, wie geht es Ihnen?” And thus we were on
the subject.

14

It was no chance matter that da Silva could express
himself very well in German for he spoke sevenlanguages. It was in May 1946 when this young blackman, then 18, appeared with a friend at the evening
training session of the athletes of FC São Paulo. He
explained to coach Dietrich Gerner, a German, that heplayed football for a club on the outskirts edge of town,
but both his parents, father a railway worker, his motheran assistant housekeeper, had demanded that heshould look for a “better sport”.
Gerner liked the look of this slight young man,although he could not recognise any particular sporting
abilities in him. He was poor at the 100 metres, and hadno talent for middle or long distances. In the high jump
he had trouble clearing 1.50 metres, and showed nointerest in long jump, in which he reached 5.20 metres.
The young Adhemar came into contact with the triple
jump or Hop, Step and Jump quite by chance in 1947.

He liked the technique. In his first competition, which
took him in 1947 straight away to Mexico City, he jumped
13.05 m. In the second – on 1 st June – he got to 13.56 m –a Brazilian record for beginners. That was the start of agreat career. It also began a friendship with a coach who
became a second father to him. From then on Adhemar
called Gerner “titio” – “little uncle”.

Colonists and the great coffee crisis
Dietrich Gerner had been born in 1902, grew up in
Pomerania, and was once one of Germany’s best
athletes. In 1923 he took a course as a sports teacher
at the Deutsche Hochschule für Leibesübungen in
Berlin. From 1926 he studied at the Higher Trade Schoolin Stettin (today the Polish Szczecin) with the aim of
becoming a merchant.
In Stettin he joined the well-known Preussen sports
club, whose most prominent member was world record
holder Dr. Otto Peltzer. On 27th July 1927, Gerner was
runner-up to Pelzer over 400 m hurdles in the German
Championships. His time of 55.1 seconds, put him ninth
in the the world rankings .
In particular he was encouraged by Sepp Christmann,
the founder of modern hammer-throwing. Gerner wasa good enough standard to take part in the Olympic
Games. But he finished fourth in the 1928 German
Championships and so narrowly missed Olympic
qualification.
By this time, he had resolved to emigrate to Brazil. He
had been persuaded to do so by Max Engelhardt, thePresident of “Germania” the German sports club in São
Paulo. During the Second World War the club changed
its name to EC Pinheiros in deference to the allies.
In February 1929 Gerner arrived in São Paulo, toembark on a career in the export timber trade. Howeverat that time the Brazilian economy was flatlining. The
dramatic fall in coffee prices had led to a state crisis,
which had an effect on the Olympic Games. In 1928
there had been no Brazilian team in Amsterdam.
And so new colonists were welcome to get theeconomy moving again. As far as sport was concerned,
Gerner was not the only German immigrant. In autumn
1930 he was followed by the long jumper Rudolf
Dobermann. He had been English champion in 1927
and had set a new European record with 7.645 m thefollowing year. While Dobermann started a job as coachwith the Brazilian Athletics Confederation, Gernercontinued his career as an active athlete. At the end of
October 1931 he set a South American decathlon record
points total of 7309.370 at a meeting in São Paulo, but
he was now offered the chance of a job as a sports
teacher. So he said farewell to amateur sport and thusabandoned hopes of competing in the Games in Los
Angeles.

JOH 2 | 2016

• Adhemar da Silva and the “little uncle”

Football star Leônidas cleared the way
In 1941, after a year’s study, Gerner passed his diploma asa teacher in athletics and tennis. He began his coachingcareer with the exclusive Club Atletico Paulistano inclose proximity to the Jardim América. But in 1944 heswitched to the rich São Paulo Futebol Clube (SPFC). Twoyears earlier they were able to sign football star Leônidas
da Silva on an eight year deal from Flamengo in Rio deJaneiro. It had been the biggest transfer deal to date.
Nicknamed “Diamante negro” Leônidas had scored no
fewer than seven goals at the 1938 World Cup in France,
occasionally playing barefoot. He injured himself in thereplay against Czechoslovakia, so that he missed thesemi-final against World Cup holders Italy. Brazil lost
1-2. He was not available until the game for third placeagainst Sweden, in which Brazil won a 4-2 success.
The 1938 World Cup matches were transmitted overloudspeakers in cities such as São Paulo. Football had
finally become the sport of the masses in Brazil. But it
also represented a social force. For players like Leônidas
it was a counter to often deep-seated racial prejudiceswhich argued that black athletes were less able toperform. Boxer Joe Louis and runner Jesse Owens had asimilar impact in the USA. This prepared the ground on
which talents like Adhemar da Silva could flourish.
In the shadow of the SPFC, whose supporters werecalled “São Paulinos”, athletics started to flourish.
The club, in which Gerner initially looked after therunners, had produced since 1945 numerous Brazilian
champions, among them Sebastião Alves Monteiro who
won the prestigious Saint Silvester Road Race in São
Paulo in 1945 and 1946.
The SC Preussen ­Stettin
relay squad which
set a new ­German
3 x 1000 metres record
in 1927: (from left)
Dr. Otto Peltzer,
Willi Boltze and­Dietrich Gerner.

15

Darling of the public
at the 1952 Olympic
Games: Adhemar da
Silva. The Brazilian­improved his own­triple jump world
record to 16.12 m andthen again to 16.22 m.
to make sure of victory.
Photo: Official Report
Helsinki 1952

Triple jump – a “Brazilian” event
Before the Second World War, Brazil had no world classathletes except Sylvio Padilha, who had been fifth in1936 Olympic Games in Berlin over 400 m hurdles andwho was a member of the IOC from 1964 to 1995. The
beginning of a tradition was hinted at, when in 1937João Redher Neto – actually a decathlete – became
South American champion in triple jump and was
followed four years later by Carlos Pinto, who also set a
South American record with 15.10 m.
Triple jump from then on became a Brazilian domain.
After Pinto came Geraldo de Oliveira, who won thenext two South American titles – in 1945 and 1947. The
Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) decided now to send
three triple jumpers to the 1948 Olympic Games: besides
de Oliveira, who it was hoped would win a medal in
London, but he only placed fifth. Two athletes withsimilar names were also sent causing confusion which
continues to this day. Twenty year old Adhemar da Silva
finished eighth, and Hélio Coutinho da Silva, 25, waseleventh. At the South American Championships in 1949
in Lima the Brazilian trio occupied the entire podium.
Tough domestic competition inspired Adhemar da
Silva, who made his definitive breakthrough on 3rd
December 1950. With exactly 16.00 m in São Paulo heequalled the world record set by the Japanese Naoto
Tajima when won Olympic gold in Berlin in 1936.
The following year da Silva improved his mark by
a centimetre, but his namesake stayed on his heels.

16

Hélio, who had been second at the first Pan-American
Games behind Adhemar, leapt 15.99 m the third best
performance of all time. Thus the world ranking list
for 1951 was led by two Brazilians. Regrettably Hélio
was injured during that competition and was forced toabandon the triple jump.

The charismatic Olympic champion of Helsinki
As the 1952 Helsinki Olympics approached, there
no shortage of competition for the gold medal. The
new rivals whom da Silva now had to face came fromthe Soviet Union, who entered the Olympic arena
for the first time. The most likely prospect was Leonid
Shcherbakov, the same age as da Silva, who in 1950 had
set a European record and in the same year won theEuropean Championship in Brussels.
Helsinki provided da Silva with a moment of glory.
In the second round he improved his own world
record with 16.12 m, and in the final to 16.22 m. Fourof his attempts lay over 16 m, which Shcherbakov –an outright strength jumper – only narrowly failed toreach. Despite a European record of 15.98 m he had
to be satisfied with silver. In third place was a further
South American: Arnaldo Devonish from Venezuela. Likeda Silva he had come from football to athletics, where
he had adopted Gerner’s training methods.
But it was not merely for his performances that da
Silva was one of the most admired and popular athletesin Helsinki, which had a previous history. When in 1949

As a reward for his­Olympic victory,­Gerner went on a tour
with his protégé in1953. In Japan aloneda Silva competed­seven times, winningeach time.
Below: During this trip
he met his ­predecessor
Naoto Tajima, Japan’s­Olympic ­champion
from 1936. The coachfacilitated thec­onversation.
Photos: Volker Kluge Archive

the 10,000 m world record holder Viljo Heino came toSão Paulo to take part in the Saint Silvester Race, theFinn was accompanied everywhere by two interpreters.
Da Silva did not move from their side.
As a consequence, he soon picked up a little Finnish
and made good use of this in 1952. At the arrivals hallof Helsinki Airport he greeted the Finns with “Terve!” –“Hello!” and he asked in Finnish “What is the weather
like?” The fans loved his charisma, especially as heshowed great patience and a willingness to sign
autographs.
In 1953 on his European tour he returned to Helsinki,
where he was rapturously received. As a reward for
his Olympic victory, Gerner also undertook with him ajourney to Japan, during which da Silva competed seventimes and also met Naoto Tajima, the athlete who had
preceded him as world record holder.
In August 1953, still a sports student took part in theinternational Student Sports Week held in Dortmund(This was a predecessor of the Universiade). He won
easily with 15.92 m. Six days later, on 19th August 1953,
the news came from Moscow that Shcherbakov hadtaken his world record albeit only by a centimetre. For
Gerner, who thought long term, it was a signal that his
protégé, who after Helsinki had celebrated a lot andtrained little, would have to improve his technique tokeep his position at the top of his event. He had longrecognised the necessity, as da Silva’s weak point was
the “step” and that that was Shcherbakov’s strong
point.

JOH 2 | 2016

• Adhemar da Silva and the “little uncle”

What emerged was a tailor-made result: In 1954 da
Silva leapt 16.22 m, exactly the distance he had achievedin Helsinki. The following year he competed in the
Pan-American Games. The date was 16th March 1955
eight years almost to the day after his modest debut.
He recorded 16.56 m on his final jump, improving
Shcherbakov’s world record by 33 centimetres.
As luck would have it, this performance was his
100th competition. Then he embarked on a 45 day tour
competing in North America. On his return he found acongratulatory telegram from Moscow in São Paulo.

17

The campaign: “A house for Adhemar“

In Melbourne Adhemarda Silva won his­second Olympic gold
and improved the­Olympic record to
16.35.
Below: the 1956
­medallists (from left)
Vitold Kreer (URS),
da Silva and the­Icelander Vilhjálmur
Einarsson.
Photos: Official Report 1956

18

Despite all successes, coach and athlete still lived avery modest way. In 1954, Gerner, had received a fixedmonthly payment of 8000 cruzeiros, but lost this thefollowing year and was dependent on bonuses. He
moved with da Silva to CR Vasco de Gama, a club thatspecialized in rowing.
Da Silva proved that he was still the “big boss” in 1956
at the Olympic Games in Melbourne, where despitea tooth infection which flared up three days before
the start of his competition, he retained his Olympic
title. His big rival proved not to be Shcherbatov, but
an outsider: Vilhjálmur Einarsson of Iceland who had
trained as a student at Dartmouth College in America.
He now won his country’s first Olympic medal .
With 16.26 m he pushed another Russian, Vitold Kreer,
into third place. Shcherbakov was only sixth. This order
was repeated on 4th August 1957 at the III International
Games in Moscow: 1. da Silva 15.92 m, 2. Einarsson
15.90 m, 3. Shcherbakov 15.70 m. Now the Brazilian had
been unbeaten for seven years.

After his second Olympic victory a nation lay at his feet,as da Silva experienced the adulation hitherto thepreserve of footballers in Brazil. The newspaper Gazeta
Esportivo used that for a campaign with the title “Ahouse for Adhemar“.
The Brazilians were urged to present da Silva witha house. It would be a campaign which reboundedon him. The strict rules on amateurism prevented
the receipt of valuable gifts. In order to avoid
disqualification as a professional, da Silva was forced toreject this tempting offer.
It was a different matter when French director Marcel
Camus offered him a film role, for which da Silva was
not appearing as an athlete. Black Orpheus (Orfeu
Negro) was Camus’s second film. In it he transposed theancient legend of Orpheus and Eurydice to the carnival
time of modern Rio de Janeiro.
With the exception of the American Marpessa Dawn,
who had the female lead and for whom the film
represented a major career boost, Camus worked
principally with amateur actors. For the role of Orpheus
he had considered the attractive footballer Breno Mello,
who came from a impoverished background and whom
he had noticed in the streets of Rio.
In deciding in favour of da Silva, Camus certainly was
influenced by the athlete’s popularity. This would also
guarantee more publicity for the film. The role hadsomething extra, for da Silva played a man costumed as“Death”, who follows Eurydice around. As in antiquity
the story ended as a tragedy. This did not apply to thereception for the film. On the contrary: in 1959 it wasawarded a “Palme d’Or” in Cannes. In 1960 it received
the “Oscar” for best foreign film and a “Golden Globe”.
The Bossa-Nova music with classics like A Felicidade thesamba began their victorious procession.

A lawyer for the poorest
Adhemar da Silva was now over 30 and the father of twochildren. In the triple jump he was still capable of 16
metres, but the world record in 1960 was already morethan a metre further. Shortly before the Olympic Games,
Poland’s Józef Schmidt reached 17.03 m. As expectedIn Black Orpheus (­Orfeu
Negro) da Silva playeda man dressed as“Death” who pursues
Eurydice. The film wasawarded the “Palmd’Or” in Cannes in
1959. In 1960 it received the “Oscar” forthe best foreign film
and a “Golden Globe”.

he then secured the gold medal, while da Silva in his
fourth Olympic Games was only fourteenth. It was not
the sporting farewell he had envisaged.
After that he immersed himself in studies in four
different directions: law, journalism, sports teachingand publicity work. He began his post athletic career of
all as a coach, among other places in Nigeria, where heworked from 1964 to 1966. But after he had passed his
examination as a lawyer in 1968, he opened his own
practice “because I had grasped that Brazil is in moreneed of lawyers than coaches”.
Children and teenagers grew up in miserable
conditions and for that reason, many often became
criminals. This had a profound effect on him. At that1982 meeting in Athens he reflected “I have a hugeamount of work”.
As a role model for Brazil’s triple jumpers, his
inspirational effect was clear. In 1968 in Mexico City
Nelson Prudencio won Olympic silver, to be followed
onto the podium by João Carlos de Oliveira who wonbronze medals in 1976 and 1980.
Twenty years on from da Silva’s triumph, de Oliveira
had brought the world record back to Brazil. Once again
this was achieved in in Mexico, this time with a leap of
17.89 m. De Oliveira’s story had a tragic conclusion. At theend of 1981 he was the innocent victim of a car accident,
as a result of which his right leg had to be amputated. He

JOH 2 | 2016

• Adhemar da Silva and the “little uncle”

died in 1999 of a double lung inflammation. In fact, daSilva survived him by two years. The Estádio do Morumbi,
owned by the São Paulo Football Club is his memorial.
The foundation stone was laid in the year when Adhemarda Silva won his first Olympic title. 
In Rome in 1960 da­Silva took part in his
fourth Olympic Games.
He carried the Brazilian
flag at the opening
ceremony, just as hehad done four years
before in Melbourne.
In the 1990s a memorial to him was erectedin the Estádio do­Morumbi in São Paulo.
Photos: 100 Years Brazil Olympic
Committee 1914-2014,
Volker Kluge Archive;­Gazetapress

19

Maria Lenk – the Profile
of an Olympic Idol in Brazil*
By Ana Miragaya

In 1932, swimmer Maria
Lenk (1915-2007)­became the first
South American female­competitor to takepart in the Olympics.
Photo: 100 Years Brazil Olympic
Committee 1914-2014

20

Maria Emma Hulga Lenk, a Brazilian swimmer of Germanancestry, born in São Paulo, has been considered oneof the greatest Brazilian female athletes of all times. At
the age of 17, she was the very first Brazilian and SouthAmerican woman to ever participate in the Olympic
Games: 1932 in Los Angeles (Miragaya & DaCosta, 2000).
Although very tired from her long trip aboard avery uncomfortable freighter, she managed to makethe semifinals in the 200 metres breaststroke andalso participated in the 100 metres freestyle and the

100 metres backstroke, remarkably at a time when
there were no women in Brazil competing in swimming(Miragaya & DaCosta, 2002).
Maria Lenk became a role model and encouraged
Brazilian women not only to start competing in sports
and physical activities, but also to participate incompetitions, especially in swimming contests (Miragaya& DaCosta, 1998; Miragaya & DaCosta, 2007). As a result,
Maria Lenk became a source of inspiration for many girls
who wanted to do sports at a time when women werestill fighting for their inclusion (Miragaya, 2002).
Continuing with her hard training, Maria Lenk also
participated in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, when
she reached the semifinal of the 200 m breaststroke.
Still in this edition of the Olympics, Maria Lenk, as apioneer, became the first woman in the world to swim
the butterfly stroke in an official competition. At thattime, the butterfly stroke was only another style of thebreaststroke and had not yet been recognised as anindividual swimming stroke (Lenk, 1986).
As a result of her intensive training and development
as an Olympic athlete, Maria Lenk was the first SouthAmerican woman to set world records in the 200 metresand 400 metres breaststroke in 1939. She also brokerecords in South American Swimming Championships:
1935 gold (100 metres backstroke, 200 metresbreaststroke) and one relay; nine American records: (200yards, 220 yards, 440 yards, 500 yards, 200 metres, 400
metres and 500 metres breast) (Lenk, 1986).
Due to Second World War, Maria Lenk’s aim to win
an Olympic medal was not reached as both the 1940
and 1944 Olympic Games were cancelled during thetime which would have corresponded to her peak incompetitive swimming.
However, she never gave up swimming. After 1942,
she decided to continue her training and compete
in Masters events. Lenk had always been very active,
participated in many international competitions andtournaments. Even into her 1990s, she still swam 1.5 km
every day.
At the time of her death, she held five Master world
records in breaststroke, age group 90-94: in longcourse: 50m, 100m, and 200m; in short course 200m
and one world record category 85-89 breaststroke shortcourse (US Masters Swimming, 2000).

Internationally recognised as a very active swimmer, in
1988, Maria Lenk was inducted into the International
Swimming Hall of Fame as an Honour Swimmer and also
received the “Top Ten” award given to the best masters
swimmers worldwide. Nationally, Maria Lenk received
several honours. In 2004, she received the Adhemar
Ferreira da Silva Trophy for lifetime achievement fromthe Brazilian Olympic Committee at the Prêmio Brasil
Olímpico, an annual award given to the best athletes ineach Olympic sport.
Today, the main Brazilian swimming tournamentcontested by teams in long courses, is the “Maria Lenk
Trophy” (Troféu Maria Lenk), and the Rio 2016 “Maria
Lenk Swimming Park” (Parque Aquático Maria Lenk),
located in the City of Sports Complex, which
will host the swimming events for the2016 Summer Olympic and Paralympic
Games. These tributes give Maria
Lenk a unique position as sports
idol from the creation of a public
image of a true sports andOlympic heroine of Brazil.
She died at 92 while she
was training for anothercompetition in a swimming
pool of Clube de Regatas do
Flamengo (Flamengo RacingClub), an institution she represented
during great part of her athletic life.
Parallel to her life as an athlete, Maria
Lenk graduated in physical educationin the Universidade de Sao Paulo (SaoPaulo University - USP) in 1936 (Lenk,
1986). A few years later, she started
teaching at the School of Physical Education of theFederal University in Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), which shehelped found in 1939, after she gave up her career as aprofessional swimmer. She retired from UFRJ in the early
2000s.
With her long and successful career as an athlete,
Maria Lenk published two very important books
for Brazilian sport: Braçadas e Abraços (Strokes
and Embraces, 1982) and Longevidade e Esporte(Longevity and Sports, 2003), which report her history,
her development, her strategies for an active andproductive life as an Olympic athlete, as an educatorand as a woman athlete pioneer.
Ana Miragaya | *1954. She holds a Master’s Degree
in linguistics, and a Master’s and Ph.D. in Physical Education.
She does research on Olympic Studies and women athletes. As
a recipient of an IOC Ph.D. grant research in Lausanne, she had
the opportunity to consult invaluable sources. Currently she
works at Universidade Estácio de Sá Petrópolis as a professor of
the School of Physical Education.

JOH 2 | 2016

Maria Lenk in her own words at IOA
As a former Olympic athlete and as a physical educationteacher, Maria Lenk actively promoted Olympic values. As
a result, she was invited to participate in the 1980 Sessionof the International Olympic Academy (IOA) in Olympia,
Greece, when she interpreted some of her athleticachievements, describing Olympic values developed andfollowed at that time. Her short speech had a personal
touch presenting a title which is all-encompassing of the
profile of an idol: “What I felt participating in the Olympic
Games”. In that occasion, her words were the following(Lenk, 1981):“It is a great honour for me to speak to such a selectedaudience. Among you are the greatest
experts on the subject Olympism. Even
knowing, all I am expected to say is
about what I felt in participatingin the Olympic Games.
“It has been many years
and only the very special
occurrences were impressed
into my mind to come backas memories now.
“It was 1932 — the X th
Olympic Games of Los Angeles.
We arrived on a Brazilian
freighter carrying ‘coffee andathletes’, as the newspapers would
write about. Between those athletes
there was the first South American
woman ever to take part in the
Olympic Games, and that was
precisely the person who is
speaking to you now, so many
years later. It was then that the
Olympic Flame was lit in my heart.
“These were the Games where you could have seen
Johnny Weissmuller, Buster Crabbe (both famous lateron for their movies as Tarzans). There was the mighty
American swimming team with Helen Madison, Eleanor
Holm, Georgia Colman, Dorothy Poynton - and there
was the all-around champ Babe Didrikson. All of them
became friends of that lonely young swimmer almost
lost in the immensity of these strange surroundings.
This is my first practical lesson of Olympism. There
were other occurrences which proved that not only theathletes were possessed of that spirit but more than
all the wonderful public, then mostly American. They
knew by heart, through their ancestors and by tradition
what it meant: fair-play, respect of the oppositionand hospitality. And they had an opportunity to show
it when their greatest hope for a gold medal in 5000
metres. Hill was blocked from passing his opponent,
losing his chance.

• Maria Lenk – the Profile of an Olympic Idol in Brazil“We are all Maria Lenk”
says the message of a
campaign to preserve
the memory of Brazil’s
model athlete. She left
an archive of 10,000
documents detailingher achievements insport and promotionof Olympic values.
Illustration:
Campanha#seguimosmarialenk

21During the 1932
­Olympic Games,
Los Angeles news­
papers nicknamed
Maria Lenk “the lonegirl” as she was the
only woman among
the 66 athletes of
the Brazilian team.
Photo: e-Museu Maria Lenk

“80.000 persons started to ‘boo’ but it needed nothing
but the speaker to say: ‘Ladies and gentlemen please
remember that those people are our guests’ for acomplete acceptance of the fact and even applause
when the winner Lehtinen offered Hill to step on
the victory pedestal with him. This very same publicapplauded the Brazilian runner Cardoso, who at the
10,000 m, still had one lap to run after all the opponents
had finished, doing so despite his wounded feet (he ran
barefoot) on the rough coal ash track.
“In 1936, the Xlth Olympic Games in Berlin again
patriotism and Olympism were combined in a noble
way — at least it seemed so to me. I do not want to finish
this, little talk to you without presenting a thought
which came up while looking at the problems of
Olympism or Olympic Games as presented here. Then I
look back to what was one of the worries presented by
Coubertin. At the opening ceremony as the French teamentered the stadium, saluting with the elevated arms,
there was also the dramatic drop of the baton by the last

Swimmer, Water Polo player, Football patriarch

The venue for the Olympic athletics competitions of Riode Janeiro, which begin on 12th August 2016, is the Estádio
Olímpico, which bears the name of João Havelange. He
became known worldwide as President of the International
Association Football Federation (FIFA), which he led from1974 until 1998. Under his presidency and in association with
Adidas boss Horst Dassler, he began the big-style marketingof football .
In 1963 Havelange became a member of the IOC. He re­mained a full member and eventually doyen until he resigned
in 2011. In doing so he pre-empted investigation of the Ethics

22

Commission which was to
scrutinise the financial ma­
chi­nations of FIFA's Executive.
There were no songs ofpraise sung in the media forHavelange’s 100th birthday,
which he celebrated on 8th
May.
He began his sporting
career as a football player
in his native city of Rio deJaneiro, which was obvious.
His father, Faustin Havelange(1880-1934), had been one of the founders of the F.C. Standard
in Liège, Belgium, where he was born and where he had been
trained as a mining engineer at the local university.
As his second son became tall and athletic, he recom­
mended swimming to him. Aged 20, João competed in 1936
at the Olympic Games in Berlin, where he was last in his heats
over 400 m and 1500 m. (Photo top: in the Olympic Village)
Sixteen years later and now qualified as a lawyer, he took
part in the 1952 Olympic Games in Brazils water polo team.
In 1951, they had won silver at the inaugural Pan-American
Games in Buenos Aires but were eliminated in the first roundat the Olympics.
Havelange was more successful as a sports official. After hehad become President of the water polo section of the Clube deRegatas Botafoga in 1937, he led the Federação Metropolitana
de Natação from 1952. In 1955 he became Vice-President of theConfederação Brasileira de Desportes (CBD). At the 1956 Gamesin Melbourne he led the Brazilian team.
Volker Kluge

German girl in the 400 m relay. All her opponents went
to console her as if it happened to themselves.
“Another occurrence happened to Nida Senff, theDutch backstroke world record holder. In the finals she
failed to touch the wall; her reaction of fair-play was toreturn to the wall, attend the rules and only then go on.
She did it with so much vigor that it resulted not only inher victory but in a new Olympic record, which earned
her the applause of everybody.
“This Olympic Games gave all of the participants anopportunity to meet each other, not only at the Olympic
Village but at the special reserved sections.
“Another event (regardless in which sport they would
compete) and where one could get to know the otherin great emotional moments as their compatriots where
down at the arena, doing their best. All I can confirm
about those remote Olympic Games: there was fair-play,mutual understanding, mutual respect, comradeship,friendship besides peaceful patriotism – in short, THEREWAS OLYMPISM.”

Maria Lenk according to her followers
The result of Maria Lenk’s so many national andinternational values-led achievements produced acampaign with the participation of many volunteers topreserve her memory once she still lives in the Brazilian
culture by her Olympic participation and promotion of
Olympic values. The objective of this call was to preserve
more than 10 thousand documents from Maria Lenk’s
remains and collections. These pieces of memory havebeen kept by past associates and followers after she
passed away and are now being adequately treatedunder professional guidance.
The preservation of Maria Lenk’s memory has received
full adherence from the part of the public in Brazil.
This might be simply explained by the fact that she is
the very first Brazilian Olympic heroine. The meaningof this effort is directly related to the consolidation of
the values that she had always followed and treasured
as depicted by her talk at the International Olympic
Academy at the beginning of the 1980s.
Again the demonstration of this public appeal seems
to lie on the simplicity of the heroine’s rationale. This
presupposition becomes clear in the letter she wrote
to the Olympic historian John Lucas in 1990: “I swam
well in the 1932 Olympics, but failed to win a medal. For
nearly 60 years I’ve been uplifted and strengthened bythat peak experience”. (Lucas, 1992) 

References
Lenk, Maria. What I felt in participating in the Olympic Games. ­Reportof the Twentieth Session of the International Olympic Academy at­Olympia. Athens: Hellenic Olympic Committee, 1981 pp. 186-187.
Lenk, Maria. Braçadas & Abraços. Rio de Janeiro: Gráfica Bradesco,
1986.

JOH 2 | 2016

Lenk, Maria. Longevidade e Esporte. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Didática e
Científica, 2003.
Lucas, John. Future of the Olympic Games. Champaign: Human ­Kinetics,
1992.
Miragaya, A. The female Olympian: tradition versus innovation in thequest for inclusion. In: Lamartine DaCosta. (Org.). Olympic Studies:­Current Intellectual Crossroads. Rio de Janeiro: Gama Filho, 2002, pp.
307-338.
Miragaya, A.; DaCosta, L. A inclusão da mulher brasileira no esporte­através da natação na perspectiva histórica de 1930 a 1933. In: VI­Congresso Brasileiro de História da Educação Física, Esporte, Lazer eDança, 1998, Rio de Janeiro. Anais do VI Congresso Brasileiro de História
da ­Educação Física, Esporte, Lazer e Dança. Rio de Janeiro: Gama Filho,
1998.
Miragaya, A.; DaCosta, L. Considerações históricas sobre métodos e­técnicas de treinamento da natação no Brasil (1909-1938). In: VII Congresso Brasileiro de História do Esporte, Lazer e Educação Física, 2000,
Gramado, RS. Anais do VII Congresso Brasileiro de História do Esporte,
Lazer e Educação Física. Porto Alegre: CV Artes Gráficas, 2000.
Miragaya, A.; DaCosta, L. Maria Lenk: as revoluções política e emancipadora da década de 1930 no Brasil que levaram a nadadora da
Atlética às Olimpíadas de Los Angeles. In: VIII Congresso Brasileiro deHistória da Educação Física, Esporte, Lazer e Dança, 2002, Ponta Grossa,
PR. Anais do VIII Congresso Brasileiro de História da Educação Física,
Esporte, Lazer e Dança. Ponta Grossa: Monferrer Produções, 2002.
Miragaya, A. Maria Lenk: a primeira heroína olímpica brasileira. In: 6ºFórum da Academia Olímpica Brasileira, 2007, Rio de Janeiro. Anais do
6º Fórum da Academia Olímpica Brasileira. Rio de Janeiro: COB, 2007.
U.S. Masters Swimming. Maria Lenk, 1988 ISHOF Honor Swimmer.
­Available at http://www.usms.org/articles/articledisplay.php?aid=1415• Maria Lenk – the Profile of an Olympic Idol in Brazil

A few weeks before
her death Maria Lenk
visited the sports
complex, then still­under construction,
which now bears
her name: ParqueAquático Maria Lenk.
Photo: Satiro Sodré / Divulgacão23Brazil, Berlin and Bavaria –back in 1936*
By Marcia De Franceschi Neto-Wacker and Christian Wacker		The logo of the 1936
Chess Olympia in
Munich. 21 national
teams with 208
players took part in
the tournament,
which took placefrom 17 th August to
1st September. It was
not recognised by
FIDA. The winners
were Hungary
ahead of Poland,
who included Jewish­players in their team.
Germany was third.
Photos: Marcia Neto-Wacker/
Christian Wacker Archive

Since Rio de Janeiro wasbeen chosen as host forthe 2016 Olympic Games,
interest in historical re­search about Brazil in the
Olympic Movement has
grown significantly. Whilecollecting documents andinformation we discovered
new and forgotten material
and in some cases primarysources had been listed under unexpected keywords.
This was the case with a 15-page summary of theachievements of Raul do Rio Branco, member of the IOCfrom 1913 until 1938. 1
Various colleagues started to write about topics simply
forgotten over decades. New information was created,
new questions arose. Now on the eve of the openingof the Olympic Games in Rio, two main sport historicalquestions about Brazil and the early Olympic Movement
still lack an answer: Had Rio de Janeiro really beencandidate for the 1936 Olympic Games? Why did Brazil
participate at the 1936 Chess Olympia in Munich?

Brazil as candidate to host the Olympic Games 1936
One of the topics discussed over the last years has
been the possibility of a candidature of Brazil for the1936 Olympic Games.2 In the official minutes of the IOC
Session organised in Monaco from 21st to 27th April 1927,
Brazil was registered as one of the candidate countries. 3
In the minutes of the IOC Session in Berlin, having takenplace from 22nd to 24th May 1930, Brazil was no longer
mentioned as a candidate.
Now the candidates were cities and not countries.
Those were Alexandria, Barcelona, Berlin, Budapest,
Buenos Aires, Cologne, Dublin, Frankfurt, Helsinki,
Nuremberg, Rome and Lausanne.4 In the minutes of the1927 Session, eight countries were listed with dedicatedcities: Switzerland (Lausanne), Italy (Rome or Milan),Germany (Berlin), Spain (Barcelona), Finland (Helsinki),
Hungary (Budapest), Egypt (Alexandria) and Brazil (Riode Janeiro). The text also emphasises that the candidates
had been presented by their respective governments.
Despite the context of the minutes, no other document24

could be secured that mention the candidature of Brazil
for 1936. 5
Even though Argentina had not been mentioned in theminutes of 1927, Buenos Aires appears in the minutes of1930. An important letter in the IOC Archives might shedlight concerning that contradiction.6 In that letter, dated
10th August 1928, IOC President Count Henry de BailletLatour wrote to Argentinean IOC Member Riccardo Aldao
that the candidature of Buenos Aires had been accepted
and the city will be added to the list of candidates.
This letter is of additional interest taking into accountthat Brazilian IOC Member Raul do Rio Branco, whoparticipated at the IOC Session in Monaco, positioned
himself at several occasions against a candidature ofBrazil to be a host for the Olympic Games. In his opinion
Brazil was not prepared to organise the Olympic Gamesbecause of a lack of a sports culture in his country.
In a letter Raul do Rio Branco wrote to his colleagues
at the IOC on the occasion of the recognition of thefoundation of the Brazilian Olympic Committee 1935.7
His letter included a summary about his 22 years’ service
as a member of the IOC.8 An important paragraphdeals with a critical approach about Brazil in the
Olympic Movement and does not mention a Brazilian
candidature at all.
On the contrary, Raul do Rio Branco seriously doubted
the capacity of Brazil to host an Olympic Games. Related
to that, he recorded a conversation he had with thetwo Brazilian officials: Ferreira dos Santos and Roberto
Trompovsky, Jr. during the 1920 Olympic Games in
Antwerp. The possibility of Brazil hosting the Olympic
Games had been discussed and Raul do Rio Branco
called it an illusion that died in December 1922 with thedeath of Roberto Trompovsky Jr.
Brazil’s ambition to host an Olympic Games goes backto the second decade of the 20th Century. In a small
article published in the paper Estado de São Paulo on 2nd
July 1919,9 criticism had been raised about the possible
candidature of France for the 1920 Olympic Games in
the light of promised Olympic Games to Rio de Janeiro
in 1922.10 It should not be forgotten, that Brazil did notparticipate in any Olympic Games back in 1919! 11
It should be allowed to summarize two hypotheses
connected to the candidature for the Olympic Games
1936.

Hypothesis 1: It would have been possible for theBrazilian government to present the candidature
without the accord of Raul do Rio Branco. Because ofpolitical and economical crises at the time, Brazil did
not follow up the process. Between 1927 and 1931 Brazil
faced an extremely difficult situation with social andpolitical movements leading to a coup d’état in 1930,
when the military powers replaced their President
Getúlio Vargas. The economy of Brazil was based before
on coffee production but changed to an industrializatedone with a strong bourgeoisie and a powerful middle
class.
Those new powers entered politics, reformed public
institutions, influenced the industries and mostimportantly changed the Brazilian election system. At
the same time first workers’ movements started to fightfor a reduction of working hours and poor payments
in coffee production. The so-called “tenentismo” andthe “coluna Prestes” are the most famous examples of
those movements. Brazil had been mainly an agrarian
country with dependency from exterior powers. The
crisis of 1929 demonstrated the power of the coffee
oligarchs in Brazil. The oligarchs from Minas Gerais andSão Paulo managed an agreement called “café comleite” (coffee with milk) to nominate one candidate
for the federal government to maintain their politicalpower in their country.
Finally, the candidate from São Paulo, Júlio Prestes,
won the election, but could not take over because of
the coup d’état in 1930. The country had been close tocivil war, but the threat ended by the strong hand ofPresident Getúlio Vargas, who had gained power byforce and had been elected only several years later. He
ruled the country until 1945 and then committed suicide
1954.

Hypotheses 2: It might be possible that the records tothe minutes of the 1927 IOC Session in Monaco were
wrong. Brazil was not meant to be the candidate, but
Argentine. The mistake might have had happened
during the process of transcription and Brazil got
confused with Argentina, which happened quite often
in those times.

Brazilian participation at 1936 Chess Olympia
After the Olympic Winter Games in GarmischPartenkirchen and the Summer Games in Berlin, the1936 Chess Olympia in Munich should have defined athird Olympic mega-event in Germany. 12 The politicaldimension of the event got additionally underlined
by its location in Munich, which had been regarded as“Hauptstadt der Bewegung” (Capital of Movement) by
the National Socialists and the centennial celebrationof the Chess Club Munich. 13 The German Reich had two
main reasons to organise the Chess Olympia despite alack of membership at the World Chess Federation (FIDE)
and therefore the unofficial status of the event.14
The event was part of the German Reich propaganda
promoting chess as an able-bodied game to ideologically educate the German “soldier”. And the Olympic
year of 1936 could be consumated with a third megaevent following the organisation of the Winter andSummer Olympics.15
Huge banners in Munich promoted the event; at oneof the central squares - the Karlstor - luminous writings
announced the event, including the Olympic rings. The
chess players even had been called “Olympioniken desGeistes” (Olympians of the spirit).16• Brazil, Berlin and Bavaria – back in 1936

Borges, Brazilian­National Chess­Champion in 1935.

The organiser of the third olympic mega-event
In 1933, the German Reich forced all chess federations inGermany to connect to the “Großdeutscher Schachbund
GSB” (Greater German Chess Association), including thepowerful German Chess Federation and the Workers
Chess Clubs. This political move enabled the German
Reich to exclude communists and, ideologicallymore important, Jews, since chess sports had been
dominated by Jewish players worldwide and therefore
also in Germany. With the officially proclaimed goal ofaryanization the GSB even excluded so-called QuarterJews from their association, even surpassing the laws of
the German Reich.
The level of solidarity to the German Reich also got
its expression in the design of the logo for GSB withthe usage of the swastika inside a chess field. Even
the NSDAP could not accept such a symbol as the GSB
had not been part of the party! The GSB wanted to berecognised as a loyal and politically opportunistic
institution inside the machinery of the German Reich.

JOH 2 | 2016

Tomás Pompeu Acioly

The Chess Olympia
took place in a hallat the Munich­Exhibition Park on
the “Theresienhöhe”.

25

Already in the dusk of the 1936 Chess Olympia, theGerman Reich promoted chess as a sport to mentally
prepare German soldiers for war. It even had beencalled “Wehrschach” (able-bodied chess) and wasto be absorbed by everybody. Chess Olympia 1936 in
Munich was designed and organised as tool of maximum
propaganda, starting the day after the 1936 Olympic
Games.17
Brazil’s Olympic teamof 1936 during theirsymbolic propaganda approaches had not been seen
even in Berlin, according to the Official Report! 20
Chess had fit perfectly into the ideology of the
National Socialists and had been promoted as“Volksspiel” (game for the people). Already back in 1933,
the educational purpose of chess had been emphasizedin setting the “Wehrschach” (able-bodied chess) in
close relation to able-bodied sport.21 The able-bodied
chess should be absorbed by everybody and the 1936
Chess Olympia started right after the opening day of the1936 Olympic Games.22

march into the

The Brazilian participation­Olympic Village.
­Second from left: The
deputy commandantof the Olympic Village,
Wolfgang Fürstner
took his life by suicide
three days after theend of the Games.
­Second from right:

During the time of the Chess Olympia a huge chess event
had been organised in Nottingham with the attendanceof some elite players. For England this had been reason
enough not to send a team to Munich, the same had
been done by the US. The strongest nation in Latin
America, Argentina, did not send a team either, eventhough the organisers in Munich would have paid thetravel costs. The Netherlands did send a B-team on
purpose and refused to report the Munich event in its
official chess press.
Even if it is not possible to state an official boycott forthe 1936 Chess Olympia, indirect boycotts were obvious
and, in reverse, participating nations could not be
regarded as to be sympathetic to the German Reich.18
The only team participating from outside of Europe had
been Brazil!

IOC Member Raul do
Rio Branco.
Photo: Volker Kluge Archive

The organisation of the 1936 Chess Olympia
Munich was not only the location for the biggest Chess
Olympia ever organised since then, even it had notbeen officially accredited by the World Chess Federationand therefore remained an unofficial chess Olympia. It
also had seen the most expensive and representative
promotional features, with banners from participating
nations and oversized knightheads in front of the trade
hall at “Theresienhöhe”, where the games took place. 19
The event took place inside the trade hall. It had been
extremely hot in mid-August 1936 and around 3000
spectators had been arrived from all over Germany towatch the event. As part of the opening ceremony alife-size chess game had been performed, banners of
all participating nations had been carried along toward
a swastika flag, that finally surrounded by them. Such

26

A quick view to the list of participating nations isastonishing. Twenty-one, mostly European nations,
took part with 208 players competing. Each team
could nominate maximum 10 players. Brazil had been
the only team outside of Europe to send chess players.
As mentioned earlier, big chess nations like the USA,
Argentina and England did not come to Munich andpreferred to participate at the chess event organised
at the same time in Nottingham. They did not officiallyboycott the Chess Olympia, but probably regarded theirabsence as convenient. Brazil, on the contrary, did notparticipate in any international FIDE chess events before
Munich and for many years after. The USA, Argentina andEngland never missed any.
One might ask here, why did Brazil make so manyefforts to take part. Could it be because of the strong
political relations between the Getúlio Vargas regime
and the German Reich? It should not be forgottenthat the Vargas regime demonstrated open solidarity
to NSDAP, especially during the Olympic year of 1936.
Lucrative business relations bound the two regimes,
vast groups of German expatriates in Brazil officiallyconfessed to the ideology of the German Reich andstrong relations between the secret services existed.23
Brazil did not only send a team with appropriate chessplayers to the 1936 Chess Olympia, it also took care to
exclude those not sympathetic to the Vargas regime. In
order to understand the situation of chess in Brazil andthe organisations behind, it will be necessary to share a
glimpse of Brazilian chess history.
The first internationally recognised and highly
respected Brazilian chess player had been João Caldas
Viana Neto, who, in 1905, was able to reach a draw
against the famous German player, Richard Teichmann
in Rio de Janeiro. Almost two decades later, in 1927, thefirst national chess competition had been organisedin Rio de Janeiro with the winner João Souza Mendes
Júnior from the organising city of Rio. He had beenborn on the Azores Islands, but became a nationalized
Brazilian and one of the dominant chess players during
the early decades of chess in Brazil.

Another important personality in Brazilian chess was
Walter Oswaldo Cruz, the son of the internationally
famous and influential medical scientist, Dr. Oswaldo
Cruz. The 1932 national championship had been badlyorganised due to political changes – Getúlio Vargas
pushed himself to power after a bloodless coup d’étatin October 1930 and chess doyen João Caldas Viana Netopassed away one year later.
The small and fragile Brazilian chess community founditself paralyzed and only had been able to organise
the championship with two inscribed participants.
The young Orlando Roças Júnior managed the win. The
final of the 7th Brazilian Chess Championship started in
September 1935 with the two finalists Tomás Pompeu
Acioly Borges and Orlando Roças Júnior. The later had
been part of the carioca bourgeoisie, like most Brazilian
chess players of that time. They cooperated or at least
tolerated the nationalist regime of Getúlio Vargas,
himself a Brazilian bourgeois empowered by membersof this type of society. Tomás Pompeu Acioly Borges on
the contrary derived from a family from Fortaleza inNorthern Brazil and had been an active supporter of theanti-fascist “Aliança Nacional Libertadora” (National
Liberation Alliance).
The games of the two adversaries ended in chaos with
Orlando Roças Júnior not respecting the decisions ofreferees and even provoking arguments with the resultof a change of the President of the “Federação Brasileirade Xadrez” (Brazilian Chess Federation). Nevertheless.
Finally, Tomás Pompeu Acioly Borges had been declared
winner. 24
But the best Brazilian chess player at the eve of the1936 Chess Olympia had not been nominated for thisinternational event.25 On the contrary, Tomás Pompeu
Acioly Borges was imprisoned from March 1936 to June
1937 and later immigrated to Argentina. The rules for theBrazilian Chess Championship were changed and Borges
never again participated at those championships. 

Literature
Costa, Waldemar (without year): Epopeia do Campeonato Brasileiro de
Xadrez. www.wsc.jor.br/xadrez/epopeia.htm, 15th April 2016.
De Francesco Wacker-Neto, Marcia – Wacker Christian 2011, Brazil goes
Olympic, (2nd edition).
Gillam, Anthony J. 2000: Munich Chess Olympiad 1936, Chess Players.
Grosse, Frank 2008: Die Geschichte der Schacholympiade, Vol. 3:
Vor dem zweiten Weltkrieg (1931-1939). http://de.chessbase.com/post/
geschichte-der-schacholympiaden-dritter-teil/742
Negele, Michael 2008: Propaganda auf 64 Feldern. Das Schach-­Olympia München 1936. In: Karl, 3, 2008, pp. 20–26.
Richter, Kurt (Ed.) 1937: Schach-Olympia München 1936. 2 Vols., Berlin Leipzig.
Tal, Mario 2008: Bruderküsse und Freudentränen. Eine K­ulturgeschichte
der Schach-Olympiaden, pp. 91–117.
Winter, Edward 2006: The 1936 Munich Chess Olympiad. www.
chesshistory.com/winter/extra/municholympiad.html, 23rd April 2016

JOH 2 | 2016

• Brazil, Berlin and Bavaria – back in 1936

1

When the first edition of the book De Francesco Wacker-Neto –Wacker Christian 2010 with the title Brazil goes Olympic had been
published back in 2010, the topic Brazil and the Olympic Movement
did not yet find the interest of historians and journalists. The Olympic Games in London had been on the agenda. With the beginningof the Olympic period towards Rio de Janeiro many new documents
had been discovered. The authors discovered the document of Rauldo Rio Branco recently in the archives of IOC in Lausanne.
2 This topic already had been mentioned at De Franceschi WackerNeto – Wacker 2010, p. 165 without further remarks due to a lack ofprimary sources.
3 Despite the usual process to nominate cities, the IOC registered only
candidate countries during its IOC Session from 21st to 27th April 1927 in
Monaco.
4 The same minutes mentioned by mistake, that the Olympic Games of1936 will be the 50th anniversary of the beginning of Modern Olympic
Games. In fact the Games commemorated 40 years since the first
Olympics in 1896.
5 The last research at the archives of IOC took place by the authors at
10th May 2016.
6 This letter is stored together with all further communication regarding the other candidate cities mentioned in the minutes 1930 in one
and the same folder at IOC Archives.
7 Regarding the two foundations of the Brazilian Olympic Committee
see also De Francesco Wacker-Neto – Wacker 2010, pp. 85-104.
8 When we carried out our research for the book De Francesco WackerNeto – Wacker 2010 this letter did not exist yet in the IOC archives(folder Brazil). Probably it had been relocated later.
9 Lamartine Da Costa had been so kind to forward this article to us.
10 It had been agreed with the IOC to call the Regional Games in Rio deJaneiro 1922 Regional Olympic Games. See also De Francesco WackerNeto – Wacker 2010, pp. 152-160.
11 The only exception might have been Adolpho Christiano Klingelhofer, a Brazilian national, who participated at the Olympic Games 1900
in Paris and had been wrongly considered French. The first official
participation of a Brazilian team took place in 1920.
12 Schach-Echo, Vol 5, Nr. 9,7, Sept. 1936, p. 212: „... dritte Großveranstaltung des olympischen Jahres...“.
13 Tal 2008, p. 99.
14 Due to the new ideological positioning of the “Großdeutscher­Schachbund GSB” (Greater German Chess Association) the association decided already 1933 to step out of FIDE because of its nationalsocialist ideology and its racist regulations especially against Jews.
FIDE would never have had accepted these restrictions and the GSB
simply acted before getting excluded by the World Chess Federation. Therefore the Chess Olympia 1936 was organised without FIDE,
even though FIDE did not boycott the event and left the decisions for­participation to the member countries. See also Negele 2008, p. 22.
Tal 2008, 103
15 Tal 2008, p. 115.
16 Richter, Vol. 1, 1936, pp. 29, 117.
17 Negele 2008, p. 21. Tal 2008, pp. 92-95.
18 Tal 2008, p. 103.
19 Tal 2008, pp. 100-102, 115. Hungary won most medals and supported
the GSB to return to FIDE in 1939.
20 Richter, Vol. 2, 1937, pp. 68-69. Munich as cultural centre of the­German Reich had been the worthy location for an intellectual fight and an event to serve the peace, following the opening
speech of the mayor of Munich, Karl Tempel. See also Richter, Vol. 1,
1936, pp. 30-31.
21 Post, Erhardt 1933: Erster Kongreß des Großdeutschen Schach­bundes in Pyrmont, p. 9: „Neben dem Wehrsport, der der körperlichen Ertüchtigung dient, wollen wir zur geistigen Schulung undErziehung das den ehrlichen Kampf darstellende Wehrspiel treten
lassen, das uralte Schach.“
22 Negele 2008, p. 21. Tal 2008, p. 95.
23 De Francesco Wacker-Neto – Wacker Christian 2011, Brazil goes
­Olympic, (2nd edition) pp. 134-144. Tal 2008, p. 105. Wacker Christian2007, „Brasilien und Berlin. Die brasilianische Beteiligung an den
Olympischen Sommerspielen in Berlin 1936“, in: ISHPES-Studies 13,
2, pp. 228-233.
24 Costa.
25 Nine Brazilian chess players participated at Chess Olympia 1936 in
Munich: João Souza Mendes Júnior, Walter Oswaldo Cruz, Oswaldo
Cruz Filho, Raul Herman Charlier, Ademar da Silva Rocha, Otávio
Figueira Trompowsky, Cauby Pulcherio and Heitor Alberto Carlos. The
ninth player is called J. Cruz in the Official Report, See Richter. Vol. 1
1936, p. 33 and cannot be identified with certainty.

Olympic stamps of 1936
with the special stampof the Munich “Chess
Olympia”.
Photo: Dieter Germann­Collection27

Willy Seewald and the1924 Olympic Games in Paris*
By Janice Zarpellon Mazo and Alice Beatriz Assmann

The Brazilian Trackand Field team which
attended the 1924
­Olympic Games, inParis. From left:­Alfredo Gomes,
Narciso Valadares,
Hogarty (US coach­under ­contract),
Willy ­Seewald,Álvaro de ­Oliveira
Ribeiro, ­Alberto­Jackson ­Byington Jr.,
Eurico Teixeira de­Freitas, ­Octávio Zani
and José Galimbert.
Photo: CEME collection.

Willy Richard Franz Seewald could be described asa typical example of a Brazilian Olympic athlete. He
improvised and innovated to improve his performanceeven though resources were scarce. Willy was descended
from German immigrants, who occupied land andcreated small industries in the State of Rio Grande doSul. His father Karl Robert Seewald 1 had arrived in Brazil
in June 1896 and settled near the city of São Leopoldo
with his wife Augusta Feistauer Seewald 2 (Müller, 1986).
Willy was born in 1900, in Taquara, in the south of Brazil
and had a sister and four brothers. Since childhood Willyand his brothers had taken part in sport. The Seewaldfamily’s property in São Leopoldo was close to the Sinos
River, which made it easy for them to swim and row.
Willy did well in regional and state track and fieldcompetitions especially in the javelin. His performancesbrought him to the notice of national selectors and he
was selected for the Brazilian team at the 1924 Olympics
in Paris. It should be noted that he was the only athlete
from Rio Grande do Sul to take part in the Games, theothers came from the states of São Paulo or Rio de28

Janeiro. Willy stood out by reflecting in his athletic
career, the values inherent in his socio-cultural grouptrying to survive an adopted country.
Surviving family members have offered a valuable
insight into his Olympic career and this has been
supplemented by documentary sources. We therefore
interviewed brother Erich Seewald and his daughter
Simone Seewald Albrecht, Willy’s niece, whoremembered her uncle’s memories her mother andfather passed on about the “Olympic Hero” 3.
A Brazilian team first took part in the 1920 Olympic
Games, in Antwerp, Belgium. This should not be
Janice Zarpellon Mazo
Alice Assmann |They are ­researchers from the Sports
and Physical Education History Groupin the Federal University of Rio Grande
do Sul, who are dedicated to­reconstructing the historical and­socio-cultural scenario of sports in Brazil and Rio Grande do Sul, including
memories of athletes who participated in past Olympic Games.

forgotten because for the team. They got there byindividual efforts and family support. In the case ofpioneering athletes such as Willy Seewald, the obstacles
they faced were very difficult to overcome, for in the early
decades of the twentieth century, sport did not have thenecessary financial support and management assistancefrom local or national governments in Brazil. Those who
took part were symbolically important. Willy Seewald did
not win but he did receive a participation medal in the
1924 Olympic Games and this was accepted by the family
as reward for his dedication and persistence.

championship for the first time. This took place on 24th
February 1919 (Silva, 1997) was held at the Turnerbund.
Later that year, teachers Georg Black 9 and Ernest Graefforganised the Turnerbund Athletics Department of andstarted to provide training sessions for athletes. During
the following year, in 1920, an athletic track was built
there. This really helped the growth of the sport. Known
today as the Estádio José Carlos Daudt, it has one of
the four athletic tracks approved by the International
Athletics Federation in Brazil (CBAT, 2009).
The Brazilian teamWilly Seewald’s initiation in sportmarched into the1924 Olympic Stadium

Willy Seewald, followed in the footsteps of his brother
Erich. At the age of eight, he began to attend the Clube
Esportivo Nacional de São Leopoldo 4 (National Sports
Club of São Leopoldo) and, later, to attend nightly
sessions at the Leopoldenser Turnverein (Leopoldenser
Gymnastic Society). From the age of 16, Erich used toplay football at the same club and practice German
gymnastics, referred by him in an interview as“gymnastics apparatus” (rings, bar, pommel horse,
parallel and soil).
The physical training and sports activities at
Leopoldenser Turnverein were provided by the GermanBrazilian instructors. Nestor Bir, Ervino Felipe Mohr andRaul Scherer all did their coaching in Germany said Erich
Seewald (Seewald, 2001, p. 2).
It was at the São Leopoldo Gymnastics Society 5 that
Willy got to know about track-and-field events. As an
18 year old in 1918 he took up pole vault, high jump,
shot put, discus and javelin. However, he continued toplay football. This lasted four years when he eventually
gave up playing and devoted himself to athletics.
This contributed to his results in local and regional
competitions.
The Leopoldenser Turnverein was one of the key
centres of athletics in the state of Rio Grande doSul, however the pioneers clubs were Turnerbund 6(Gymnastic Society), the YMCA (ACM) 7 and Grêmio FootBall Porto Alegrense club (GFPA); which were all in Porto
Alegre 8. According to the journalist Tulio De Rose (Amaro
Junior, 1949, p. 137), athletics “was born in our state in
the years 1912 or 1913”. Some three years later, on 2nd
April 1916, the first official athletics competition took
place in Porto Alegre. Competitors included those from
Uruguay. At that time, athletics was barely recognizable
as the sport today and many people associated it withGerman gymnastics, and, for this reason. As a result thecompetition was described as a “Gymnastics Festival”.
Apart from athletics, football, tennis and volleyball was
also included on the programme.
Athletics clubs were on the increase in February
1919, it was possible to hold an inter club athletics

JOH 2 | 2016

in Colombes.
Photo: Official Report of 1924

Willy’s first experiences with the javelin of sorts had
been in his childhood, when he improvised withbamboo sticks in the vast lands surrounding his family
residence. It is worth noting that, at that time, there
was a shortage of sports equipment and the facilities of
Leopoldenser Turnverein were also limited.
The wooden javelins were made in the family’s
furniture factory. Willy learned the trade of carpentry
from his father and worked with him and his brothersin the production of wooden sculptures for churches,
homes and other buildings. Some of these sculptures
can still be seen in the Visconde de São Leopoldo
Museum.
When he tried the wooden javelin he realized it
performed better than the bamboo staff, which
vibrated during its flight through the air. From thenon, he started producing javelins by glueing two pieces
of wood together to make a perfect unit. His brother
Erich recalled that Willy had chosen wood found in
the region where he lived. This he cut into three parts
glued together in order to reduce vibration. Apart fromthis “other secrets to the javelin that he did not tell“(Seewald, 2001, p. 7).

• Willy Seewald and the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris

29

Willy Seewald­practising javelin
throwing at the­National Sports Club
field in São Leopoldo
1921.
Photo: Collection Simone­Seewald Albrecht.

Willy’s handmade javelins were tested on the football
field of the National Sports Club in São Leopoldo. Overtime, he improved the equipment, “making javelins
with three laths with perfect finishing” (Seewald, 2001,
p. 7). The manufactured javelins were tested by him
in competitions. In time, he started accepting orders
to produce the equipment for sports associations andeven military units.

The reinvention of the javelin throw

Willy Richard Seewald,
the “remarkable
thrower” and­“Olympic Hero”­according to his home
town’s newspapers.
Photo: Collection Simone
Seewald Albrecht

30

The local newspapers described Willy Seewald as the“remarkable thrower” (Iuguenfritz, 1929, p. 1). This was
because his technical performance and the distances
he achieved in competitions in the early twenties. At
the 1921 Brazilian Track and Field Championship, Willy“shattered the national record by more than three
metres with a throw of 44.5 m“ (Contra Relógio, 1997,
p. 27).
In September the following year, Willy Seewald wasselected for an eight-man state team which took partin the sports event staged to help commemorate theCentenary of Brazilian Independence. This took place in
Rio de Janeiro, which was then capital city of Brazil. In
addition to sporting and cultural activities in the federal
capital, there were sporting events in other Brazilian
cities, as in the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre(Vicari; Mazo, 2011; Vicari; Silva, 2014).

At the so-called Latin American Olympics (Jogos
Sudamericanos) in Rio 1922, Willy Seewald threw 54.515
metres, surpassing the Chilean Arturo Medina, who until
then had held the South American record with 50.3 m(O Imparcial supplement sports, 16th September 1922;
Contra Relógio, 1997, p. 27).
To get to this point, Willy Seewald had travelled
through a difficult path in overcoming financial
difficulties. When traveling to competitions he used
to stay in family homes, because “accommodation
didn’t exist, that sort of thing; sometimes we camped
in a lounge of the club and we all slept on the floor”(Seewald, 2000, p. 3). His brother insisted that
athletes never received any financial allowances whencompeting. “No, no money, money was never involved,
in any way.” (Seewald, 2000, p. 5)
At the time Brazilian sport was strictly amateur, so
athletes had never entertained the possibility of getting
money, especially those from the gymnastic societies,
which strongly defended the concept of amateurism. A
newspaper in his home town described Willy Seewald
as a sportsman, i.e. a “physical giant, by his steel
muscles, a moral giant, by his education as a correct
and loyal opponent” (Iuguenfritz, 1929, p. 1). This tributerefers not only to his sporting performance, but because
he had the attitudes expected from an Olympic athlete.
It suggest the local newspaper had a notion of sporting
behaviour and the moral code which went with it.
In these circumstances it should be noted that Willy
Seewald had surpassed the symbolic boundaries that
separated the “simple man” from the gentleman. To berecognised as a sportsman in his times, he had to follow
a certain ethos, that of sportsmanship.
Willy Seewald also faced other problems because of
his ethnic identity. As a result of the First World War,German-Brazilians were harassed in several cities of
Rio Grande do Sul (Gertz, 2005). Many had encounteredhostility in schools, churches, gymnastic societies,
sports clubs, among other places. During this period,
many gymnastic societies and clubs gave way to thepressure of the Brazilian government and unleashed anationalisation process, also called “Brazilianization”
of sports. This involved changing the original name andadopting Portuguese as the official language used inclub regulations and administration (Mazo, 2003; 2007;
Kilpp, Assmann, Mazo, 2012).
In addition to the conflicts of identity, it is surprising
how the athlete in question was able to get that
far considering the financial difficulties, training
conditions and the incipient organisation of athleticcompetitions in the 1920s in Brazil. With his javelins,
Willy began to break regional, national and SouthAmericans records, but the greatest surprise was thecall for the Brazilian team at the 1924. Only eleven men
travelled to Paris and he was among athletes from the
major Brazilian cities, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
The cabinetmaker, the wood artisan, who lived in
the interior of Rio Grande do Sul, was therefore theonly athlete from the South of Brazil to win a seat toparticipate at Games which had then been dominated by
Europeans. They too regarded themselves as reinforcing
their social position through pure sport with a strong
amateur ethic.

Willy Seewald at the 1924 Olympics
Seewald was invited by the Athletics Federation of São
Paulo, to participate in the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris.
His brother Erich, believes the influence of São Paulobusinessman and sportsman Alberto Jackson Byngton
also played an important role. A friend of the Seewaldfamily, Byngton was also of immigrant stock (Nicolini,
2016, Seewald, 2001, p. 12). Erich even confirmed that
his brother’s participation was only achieved due to thefinancial help of the Byngton family as his father did nothave enough funds to pay for the trip (Seewald, 2001, p.
12.). Nicolini (2016) has uncovered evidence of a public
fund-raising campaign to supplement the contribution
by Byngton.
At first the Brazilian government had planned
to make 350 million Reis available for preparationand travel (Rubio, 2006, p. 105). However, the funds
were withdrawn and the registration of the Braziliandelegation was official removed as a result of problems
at the Brazilian Sports Confederation (CBD). The directorsof the CBD, based in Rio de Janeiro, had no interest in
taking part in the Games (Nicolini, 2016). It should be
noted that, at that time, athletes were already facing
problems as a result of internal conflicts among theBrazilian sports governing bodies.
With the situation as it was, the “Athletics Federationof São Paulo conducted a campaign to raise money(sponsored by the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo) tocover expenses of travel and accommodation” (Rubio,
2006, p. 105). The Brazilian Olympic team was made up
of Willy Seewald from the south, two rowers from Rio

JOH 2 | 2016de Janeiro 10 and athletes from São Paulo. The team
numbered eleven, headed by the journalist Americo
Neto, who had coordinated the financial fundraising
campaign. On 28th May 1924, Willy Seewald joined his
team mates on the Dutch steamship “Orania” to travel
to participate in the Olympic Games. Expectations werehigh.
After all at the previous Games in 1920 Brazil’s shooters
had enjoyed unexpected success. Guilherme Paraense
won the first gold 30 metres pistol. Afrânio Costa from
Rio Grande de Sul took silver in 50 metres pistol andthere was also a team bronze.
The success of 1920 was not repeated at the 1924
Games, in which Brazil did not win any medals. Willyfinished 18th place with a throw of 49.39 metres. The
winner Jonni Myyrä (FIN) recorded a distance of 62.96
m. Silver went to Gunnar Lindström (SWE) 60.92 m andEugene Oberst (USA) made sure of bronze with 58.35 m.
After the 1924 Games, Willy Seewald traveled to the cityof Cologne, Germany in order to visit relatives. During his
stay in the city he was invited to take part in an athletics
meeting at what he called “the most Modern European
Stadium for sports practices, with the possibility to hostmany different modalities, and a capacity for 80,000
people”. He threw over 56 metres.
The report also reveals that Willy was the Brazilian andSouth American javelin champion. This information
appeared in a newspaper clipping of the city of Cologne,
which was translated from German to Portuguese by
Erich Seewald. The newspaper belonged to Willy’s
cousin, resident in Germany, according to testimony• Willy Seewald and the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris

Training during thecrossing to France on
the “Orania” in the“three-legged race” –a non-Olympic­athletics discipline of
the early years.
Brazil’s team of 1924
consisted of only
­eleven participants:
eight athletes, twooarsmen and one
marksman. The­oarsmen, the brothers
Edmundo and Carlos
Castello Branco,­travelled alone. Their
fourth place in the
double sculls was thebest Brazilian result.
Photo: 100 Years Brazil Olympic
Committee 1914–2014

31

The Brazilian team
took part in the­Olympics for the firsttime at Antwerp in
1920. The crossing
was made on a coffee
freighter. It was amode of transport
which also had­re­sonance in 1932.
To ­finance the journey
to Los Angeles, the“Itaquicê” had toberth in Trinidad andPanama and sell­coffee. When the­Brazilians arrived at
San Pedro’s Port in
California, they wereunable to pay one­dollar per head tax.
Only Maria Lenk wasallowed to disembark.
The men were forced
to go on to San­Francisco and sellmore coffee.
Photo: 100 Years Brazil Olympic
Committee 1914-201432

of Erich Seewald (Seewald, 2001, p. 15). In fact, someGerman-Brazilians kept in touch with relatives inGermany through letters, as was the case of the Seewaldfamily. When he returned to Brazil, after the short period
in Germany, Willy was welcomed in São Leopoldo as
an “Olympic Hero”. According to his aunt Martha, hecaught the eye of the city girls, trying to imitate his stylefor throwing the javelin. But others also wanted to get toknow the athlete, who became famous for participatingin the Olympics.
Willy continued his training and in the following
year he won the javelin in the ‘First Brazilian Track and
Field Championship’ in São Paulo, with a throw of 54.11
m. It should be observed, that it was a better distancehe achieved at the Olympics, but still not far enough tohave earned him a medal. Even so it was the first ratified
Brazilian mark for the javelin (CBAT, 2010). In the two years
that followed he was consecrated champion, always“maintaining the same technical level” (De Rose, 1949,
p. 138). In 1926 he won the Brazilian championship again
improving to 56.17 m. In 1927, he won a third national title
in the IIIrd Brazilian Athletics Championships, with themark of 54.90 m (Contra Relógio, 1997, p. 27).
With that distance, he would not have been far shortof the 1924 bronze medallist. His performance in thenational and South American competitions would
probably have earned him selection for the 1928 Olympic
Games. In fact an economic crisis made it impossible fora Brazilian team to send a team to Amsterdam for the
Games.
In 1928, the IVth Brazilian Athletics Championships took
place in Rio de Janeiro but Willy did not take part. It is
possible that he was suffering from illness but he wasunaware of this. By February 1929, he was dead at theage of only 28 (Brendemeir, 2009; CECL, 15th May 2009).

His passing was marked at sporting events held in
1929. There were tributes at the opening ceremony of
the VIIth Athletics Tournament, promoted by the Liga dasSociedades de Ginástica do Rio Grande do Sul (League of
Gymnastic Societies of Rio Grande do Sul), at the stadiumof Turnerbund, and also during the opening ceremonyof the 5th State Athletics Championship, promoted by the
Liga Atlética Rio-Grandense (LARG) (Athletic League RioGrandense).
The late athlete was also honored at the 5th Brazilian
Athletics Championship, held between late August andearly September 1929 in Rio de Janeiro. At the event’s
opening ceremony at the stadium of the Vasco da Gama
Regattas Club, those present were to asked to observe “amoment of remembrance for Willy Seewald” (newspaper
clipping of Rio de Janeiro not identified, 12th September
1929). In the same vein, the sports pages of O Imparcial
newspaper, reproduced in São Leopoldo, Seewald’s
hometown: “Today, where the eyes of all sporting Brazil
are turned to our city because it will be the theater of thegreatest event of the year, which is the Track and Field
Championships of Brazil, we cannot forget the nameof Willy Seewald, the great athlete that on 2nd February
this year was snatched by death” (Iuguenfritz, 1929, p.
1). It was to be another 20 years before Willy’s record was
finally surpassed. It was beaten by Nicanor Missaglia,
from the Grêmio Foot Ball club Porto Alegrense, whorecorded a distance of 58.02 m in 1949.
Seewald was an Olympic athlete from the provinces at
a time when most top sportsmen came either from Riode Janeiro or São Paulo. His struggles are indicative of
the many obstacles faced by the first Brazilian amateur
sportsmen. His path from São Leopoldo to Paris issignificant in the historical-cultural context of the 1920s.
He was an athlete who represented Brazil at the Olympic
Games at a time when there was a lack of Brazilian
sports policies. He ascended quickly in athletics, and inless than 10 years he held regional, national and SouthAmerican records, demonstrating a significant sporting
performance.
Willy Seewald did not win a medal in Paris but
he did become an Olympian. In his home region
he came to symbolize the values of dedication and
excellence embodied by Olympic athletes. In addition,
Willy contributed to the spreading of athletics in Rio
Grande do Sul, his home state. The story of his exploits
appeared in the local press, arousing the admiration of
his compatriots. At the same time, it contributed to therecognition of the state as a pillar of national athletics.
The initiative of private clubs, as well as the actions ofsome lovers of the sport, enabled those who took part inathletics to progress from the grass roots to international
competition.
Seewald’s journey also reflected prominence of theGerman immigrants and their descendants in stateBrazil’s first Olympic
champion was the­pistol marksman­Guilherme Paraense(second from left).
In the free pistol theteam, which included
Sebastião (Sebastian)Wolf, a German immigrant, won bronze.
Photo: Volker Kluge Archiveand national sport. In particular, sources showed thegymnastics societies acting decisively in the introduction
and spread of various sports across Rio Grande do Sul
and Brazil. Not only the training of athletes, but also
promoting sports as one of the pillars for physical andmoral education of citizens. Moreover, the case of Willy
Seewald reveals that being a sportsman was part of theidentity of Germans making their way in Brazil. 

References
Bacellar, C., Fontes documentais: uso e mau uso dos arquivos. In: C.
­Pinski (Org.), Fontes históricas, São Paulo, Contexto, 2 ed., 2010, p. 2380.
Brendemeir, Friedrich Willy, interview 18th June 2009, São Leopoldo, RS.
Burke, P., O que é história cultural?, Rio de Janeiro, Jorge Zahar (Ed.),2008.
de Rose, Tulio, Campeonato de Atletismo, in: J. Amaro Jr., AlmanaqueEsportivo do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Tipografia Esperança, 8oano, 1949.
Gertz, René, O perigo alemão, Porto Alegre, Editora da UFRGS, 1991.
Guttman, Allen, From Ritual to Record – the nature of modern sports,
Columbia University Press, New York 1978.
História do Atletismo Gaúcho. http://www.atletismors.hpg.com.br,
access 15th January 2009.
IECLB, Comunidade Evangélica de Confissão Luterana em São Leopoldo.
Declaração de falecimento de Willy Richard Franz Seewald. Livro deRegistro de Óbitos, Vol. III, 1863-1941, p. 63 sob o nº 05. São Leopoldo,
15th May 2009.
Iuguenfritz, Álvaro, Um minuto de lembrança para Willy Sewald, in:
Jornal União Orgam Republicano, São Leopoldo, n. 279, segunda-feira,21st October 1929 and 11th February 1929.
Kilpp, Cecília; Assmann, Alice; Mazo, Janice; Turnverein Estrela: ginástica e esportes (1907-1930), in: Revista Contemporânea – dossiê história& esporte, ano 4, n° 4, v. 2, pp. 1-18, 2014.
Ibid, “abrasileiramento” das associações esportivas de Teutônia/­
Estrela no Rio Grande do Sul, in: Revista Brasileira de Educação Física e
Esporte, v. 26, n.1, pp.77-85, 2012.
Levien, A.L.A., Histórias do Turnen na Leopoldenser Turnverein (Sociedade de Ginástica de São Leopoldo), Dissertação Mestrado em ­Educação
Física, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas, 2011.
Mazo, Janice; Maduro, Paula; A trajetória de um atleta olímpico­gaúcho: Willy Seewald, o admirável lançador, In: Alberto Reppold­Filho; Leila Pinto: Rejane Rodrigues; Selda Engelman (orgs.), ­Olimpismoe educação Olímpica no Brasil, Editora da UFRGS, Porto Alegre 2009.
Mazo, Janice; Lyra, Vanessa; Nos rastros da memória de um “Mestre deGinástica”, Motriz, Rio Claro, v. 16, n. 4, pp. 967-976, out./dez. 2010.
Mazo, Janice; Maduro, Paula; Pereira, Ester; A prática do atletismo nas
associações desportivas da cidade de Porto Alegre/Rio Grande do Sul
nas primeiras décadas do século XX, Primeiros Indícios, in: Revista

JOH 2 | 2016

­Arquivos em Movimentos, Rio de Janeiro, v. 6, n. 2, p. 42-56, 2010.
Mazo, Janice; Frosi, Tiago; Maduro, Paula; O Atleta Olímpico ­Brasileiro
Willy Seewald: memórias do primeiro recordista nacional do lançamento de dardo, in: Revista Brasileira de Ciências do Esporte,­Florianópolis, v. 34, n. 3, p. 537-555, jul./set. 2012.
Mazo, Janice & colaboradores, Associações Esportivas no Rio Grande
do Sul: lugares e memórias, Livro Digital, Novo Hamburgo, RS: Editora
Feevale, 2012.
Mazo, Janice; Olimpiadas, História e Memória: esportistas sul-riograndenses nos Jogos Olímpicos (1920 a 1960), CHELEF, Londrina/
Paraná, 2014.
Migotto, Boca; Documentário O admirável lançador de dardos, 20th
March 2012.
Müller, Telmo; Sociedade Ginástica cem anos de história, São Leopoldo,
RS: Rotermund, 1986.
Nicolini, Henrique; Jogos Olímpicos de Paris – 1924. Blog Gazeta­Esportiva: alem dos fatos. 04/09/2015.
O Imparcial, Supplemento Semanal Illustrado, Rio de Janeiro, 16th­
September 1922.
Ibid, Anno 3, Num 116, Rio de Janeiro, 8th September 1928.
Ramos, Eloísa; O teatro da sociabilidade: os clubes sociais como espaço
de representação das elites urbanas alemãs e teuto-brasileiras – São
Leopoldo 1858-1930, Tese (Doutorado em História). Universidade Federal
do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, 2000.
Revista do Globo, n. 17, 1929, p. 37. In: Mazo, Janice. Catálogo do Esportee da Educação Física na Revista do Globo, Porto Alegre, PUCRS, 2004.
Revista Contra Relógio, n. 47, agosto 1997, p. 26-27.
Ribeiro, J.R.; Guilherme Paraense: O herói esquecido, In: Revista­Magnum, São Leopoldo, ano II, n. 39, jun/jul. 1994.
Seewald Albrecht, Simone, interview 15th May 2009, São Leopoldo, RS.
Seewald, Erich Luis; interviews, 2000, São Leopoldo, RS, 2000.
Seewald, Ligia; interviews, 25th October 2000, São Leopoldo, RS.
Seyferth, G.; Etnicidade e cultura: a constituição da identidade teutobrasileira. In: G.C.L. Zarrur (org.). Etnia y Nación en América Latina,
INTERAMER, n.45, vol.II, 1992.
Seyferth, G.; A identidade teuto-brasileira numa perspectiva histórica.
In: C. Mauch; N. Vasconcellos, Os Alemães no sul do Brasil: cultura, etnicidade, história, Canoas, Ulbra, 1994.
Teixeira, Maurício; Manarin, Roger; História do atletismo gaucho,­Portal Atletismo RS. 2003. http://www.atletismors.hpg.com.br, access15th January 2009.
Torres, Cesar; The Latin American “Olympic Explosion"of the 1920s:
Causes and Consequences, In: The International Journal of the History
of Sport, Vol. 23, n. 7, 2006.
Vicari, Paulo Renato; Mazo, Janice; Comemorações do Centenário da­Independência do Brasil (1922): Jogos Latino-Americanos no Rio deJ­aneiro e Jogos Olímpicos no Rio Grande do Sul, Anais do XVII Congresso
Brasileiro de Ciências do Esporte, 2011.
Vicari, Paulo Renato; Silva, Carolina Fernandes; Mazo, Janice ­Zarpellon;
Manifestações esportivas nas comemorações do centenário da independência do Brasil (1822-1922) no Rio Grande do Sul, In: Pensar a
Prática, v. 17, n. 2, 2014, pp. 485-502.
1• Willy Seewald and the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris

Karl Robert Seewald was born on 27th December 1874 in Sprottau,
Germany. He died in São Leopoldo, Brazil on 8th December 1948.

33

5

2

Communal training
at the Leopoldenser
Turnverein in 1921

3

­organised by GermanBrazilian instructors
with the participationof Willy Seewald.
Photo: Collection Simone­Seewald Albrecht

4

Augusta Feistauer Seewald, born on 4 th December 1876 in­ ontenegro/RS and died on 27th January 1931 in São Leopoldo. HerMparents migrated from Bohemia to Brazil in the second half of the
19th century.
The participants signed a written informed consent form authorizing
the publication of their names and declarations.
The football club was founded in 1915 by a group of members of
the Orpheus Society (Sociedade de Canto São Leopoldo). When they
were not playing football, club members took part in athletics.
This ­continued until the end of the 1920s. Then the club came to an
end and the football field was replaced by a residential area of the­Independência Street in São Leopoldo.

News

The Olympic medals for Rio 2016
have been made from extra special
materials. Produced by the Brazilian
Mint, the 5130 medals for the 2016
Olympic and Paralympic Games
will be symbols of sustainability
and accessibility as well as sporting
excellence. The coveted prizes, whichweigh 500 g each, comprise 30 per
cent recycled silver and bronze while
the ribbons are made from 50 per centrecycled PET. Meanwhile, the gold
medals are completely free of mercury.
They are purer than ever, meeting34

São Leopoldo is considered the cradle of German settlement in thestate. The first German arrived in Rio Grande do Sul were sent to theregion in 1824 (Seyferth, 1994). In this locality the second gymnastic
association was created in the state: the Leopoldenser Turnverein(São Leopoldo Gymnastic Society), founded by immigrants and descendants of Germans on 1st September 1885, after an unsuccessfulattempt in 1880 (Ramos, 2002). This association aimed not only tooffer sports practice but to bring together the local community.
6 The Turnerbund, current “Sociedade de Ginástica Porto Alegre 1867,”
known as SOGIPA, was founded in 1867 by an initiative of German
immigrants in Porto Alegre. This society was the first in Brazil and thesecond in Latin America, followed by the Society of Joinville. Afterthe founding of the Turnerbund other gymnastic societies were set
up in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in cities where there was a sizeable German immigrant community (Mazo, 2003, Silva, 1997; Tesche,
1996).
7 YMCA Porto Alegre was founded in 1901. The club encouraged thedevelopment of athletics in the city of Porto Alegre (Buono, 2001).
8 At the turn of the century, running, jumping and throwing eventswere considered part of the gymnastic family and were reported
as such by newspapers. All these events are now described under
the umbrella of athletics or track and field (Mazo; Maduro; Pereira,2010).
9 Georg Black, a German immigrant and instructor of German­gymnastics, practiced, taught and propagated the ideals of theTurnen (gimanstic) movement in clubs of Porto Alegre and Rio
Grande do Sul. He was also an important figure in the spreading of
new sports such as the football and cycling. Black helped to spread
gymnastics and other sports in schools, public squares and parks(Lyra; Mazo, 2010).
10 Brothers Edmund and Carlos Castello Branco, finished fourth ind­ouble sculls in a time of 6 minutes 38 seconds. They paid their own
way to the Games.

sustainability criteria from extraction
to refining, as well as meeting strict
environmental and labour laws. The
recycled raw silver is 92.5 per cent pureand comes from discarded mirrors
unwanted solder and X ray plates.
40 per cent of the copper used in thebronze medals came from waste at theMint itself. The substance was melted
and decontaminated to provide
material for the medals.

The IOC Executive Board will propose
to the 129th IOC Session (2nd to 4th August,21st August) in Rio de Janeiro to accept
five new sports into the programmeof the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
These are karate, skateboarding,sports climbing, surfing and baseball/softball. Discussions on the event
programme in the existing 28 Olympic
sports are ongoing and will be finalisedby the IOC Executive Board in mid-2017.

(IOC/JOH)(IOC/JOH)

Gold is not the only Prize. Greek
President Prokopis Pavlopoulos haspresented a stone from Ancient
Olympia to IOC President Thomas Bach.
This will be used in the new Olympic
Laurel award which will be inaugurated
this summer in Rio de Janeiro. “Thestone from Ancient Olympia will be astrong symbolic link for the Olympic
laurel award connecting it forever
with the birthplace of the Games.”
The award will ‘honour outstanding
individuals in education culture andpeace through sport’.
(PB)

The vest of the New Zealander Peter
Snell, which he wore for his Olympic
victories over over 800 m and 1500 m
in Tokyo, was auctioned in Aucklandfor 122,500 NZD (ca. 86,000 USD). It
was acquired by the National Museum“Te Papa Tongarewa” in Wellington.
Snell – now 77 – has lived since 1971
in the USA, where he studied exercise
physiology and took his doctorate.
For a long time he was director of the
Human Performance Center in Dallas,
Texas.
(JOH)

The Miracle of Wienerwald
By Erik Eggers		

Whoever thinks only of Brazil in terms of football has
been asleep. In Olympic terms, beach volleyball andsailing have been the most successful sports, folllowedby martial arts, swimming, volleyball, basketball,athletics, equestrianism and gymnastics. Perhaps
handball can be added to that list in 2016.
***
The first winter was hard says Alexandra do Nascimento.
In any case it was an almighty leap from São Paolo,
the pulsating million-strong metropolis, to Maria
Enzersdorf, the picturesque market town (8000
inhabitants), on the edge of the Wienerwald. Especially
the Viennese dialect (Schmäh)! “The language! That wasvery bad”, she recalls. “I wept almost every day because
I understood nothing and also spoke no English.”
But the Brazilian handball player stayed on. She wasdetermined to practise her sport at a high level.
That was in 2003. Ten years later, in December 2013,
do Nascimento won the XXI World Championship with
Brazil. The Brazilians won by 22-20 goals against Serbia
in front of 20,000 fanatical fans in the Belgrade Arena.
It was an historic triumph, the first title for a PanAmerican team at a world tournament. “My God, Brazil
are world handball champions”, groaned the Danish
team coach, Morten Soubak. “That is hard to credit.”
The cradle of this sporting miracle can be found in Maria
Enzerdorf. In 2013, when do Nascimento wore the vest of
the highly successful local club Hypo Niederösterreich,
she was joined by another seven Brazilians among themgoalkeeper Barbara Arenhart.
The basis for this Brazilian ‘colony’ was an agreement
between eight times Champions League winners Hypo
and the Confederacao Brasileira de Handebol (CBH).
Launched in 2011, its goal was the handball tournament
at Rio 2016. “We are proud that Brazil has selected us andthat we share our know-how with the country”, said
Hypo club manager Dieter Heger at that time.
Since 2011 in any case half the Brazilian national team
had trained together in the club under professional
conditions. “In Brazil I only trained once a day, in
Vienna twice. After the third day I was almost dead.
I thought I could never do it”, reports do Nascimentoon the increased training intensity. The South Americans
acquired the necessary competitive toughness in the

JOH 2 | 2016

• The Miracle of Wienerwald

Champions League (not in the Austrian league – it has
been dominated since 1977 by serial champions Hypo.)
Brazil’s fifth place at the 2012 Games in London had
made people sit up. In the summer of 2013 the last pieceof the puzzle was added, when national coach Morten
Soubak, who has been working in Brazil since 2005, also
took over as club coach at Hypo.
Hypo collaborated certainly in 2014 and could nolonger finance the Brazilians. But most players foundnew employers after that in Europe.
Two of them, goalkeeper Mayssa Pessoa and Ana Paula
Rodrigues Belo, won the Champions League in May 2016
with CKM Bucharest. “I hope we win a medal. These willprobably be my last Games for the national team: says
do Nascimento, who in 2012 was chosen as the world’s
best handball player (her compatriot Eduarda Amorim
followed her in 2014).
Together with the coach of the men’s national team,
the Spaniard Jordi Ribeira, and with the CBH, Soubak isplanning the future of Brazilian handball beyond Rio
2016. A large modern training centre is to be built in São
Bernado in the federal state of São Paulo. It will be in thespirit of Maria Enzersdorf. A boost for the Brazil
women’s handballteam: Alexandra do
Nascimento, was­selected in for the­Allstar team at the2012 Games in London.
Photo: Erik Eggers Archive

35

The CIA, the IOC, and Efforts to Establish
a Refugee Olympic Team*
By Toby C. Rider		

The Union of Free
­Eastern European
Sportsmen (UFEES),
which had its headquarters in New York,demanded in a letterof 20th May 1952 the“participation ofstateless athletes” in
the Olympic Gamesin Helsinki. The initiator – with the supportof the CIA – was the
Hungarian Count­Anthony (Antal)
S­zápáry (1905-1973),
who in 1949 had­married the greatgranddaughter of­railroad magnate­Cornelius Vanderbilt.

36

In an address delivered to the United Nations General
Assembly on 26th October 2015, the President of theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas
Bach, explained that athletes of the highest calibre
were among the millions of refugees swept up in
the unfolding humanitarian disaster across Europe,
Africa, and the Middle East. “At present, none of theseathletes would have the chance to participate in the
Olympic Games even if qualified,” he said, “with theirrefugee status, they are left without a home country andNational Olympic Committee to represent.”
In response to this tragic set of circumstances, Bachannounced that the IOC planned to allow a small numberof these men and women to participate at the 2016 Rio
Olympic Games. “[H]aving no national team to belong
to, having no flag to march behind, having no national
anthem to be played, these refugee athletes will bewelcomed to the Olympic Games with the Olympic flagand the Olympic anthem,” he told the assembly. “Thiswill be a symbol of hope for all the refugees in our world,
and will make the world better aware of the magnitudeof this crisis.”1 In March the following year, the IOC
Executive Board established and recognised a Refugee
Olympic Team (ROT) for the first time in the history of themodern Games.2

As far back as 1952, however, a different refugee teamwas not given the same vote of approval. The Union ofFree Eastern European Sportsmen (UFEES), a consortiumof stateless athletes that had fled from behind the ‘Iron
Curtain’ and sought to compete at the Helsinki Summer
Games, roundly failed in its bid to receive official
Olympic recognition. In many ways, the decision was
fully justified. Recent research has revealed that the
UFEES was connected to the Central Intelligence Agency(CIA), the clearing house for the US government’s early
Cold War covert operations.3 These secret links, forgedas part of America’s strategy to defeat the Soviet Union,
gave the IOC’s Members a simple reason to deny theUnion’s application.
After all, the IOC is an organisation that opposes thepolitical interference of governments with the Olympics.
Yet the available sources do not suggest that Olympic
authorities had any inkling of the involvement ofAmerica’s intelligence community in the activities of
the Union. They made a decision, and a decisive one
at that, based upon the merits of the case. Exploring
the IOC’s approach to the Union therefore reveals theorganisation’s change of policy with respect to theparticipation of stateless athletes in the twenty first
century.

The Secret Behind the UFEES

Latvian Jãnis Dikmanis(1882-1969) was the

There existed, quite clearly, a fundamental difference
between the Union and the newly coined Refugee
Olympic Team. One was organised by the IOC, the otherby a clandestine organ of state. Indeed, tracing theorigins of the Union reveals the evolution of America’s
covert Cold War apparatus. The formation of the Union
was, in essence, inspired by the US government’s
strategy of “political warfare” to counter the threat ofcommunist expansion in the early Cold War years. US
officials argued that only through political warfare, the“employment of all means at a nation’s command,
short of war, to achieve its national objectives,” could
America effectively respond to the apparent success ofSoviet propaganda following the defeat of Hitler.4 In
1948, this realisation was quickly made policy when thegovernment created the machinery for secret operations
and placed it under the umbrella of the Central
Intelligence Agency.5
Armed with a massive budget and a cast of Second
World War intelligence veterans, the US soon embarked
upon a wide scope of covert operations in a global
assault on communism. Moreover, this worldwide
crusade was further driven and galvanized by the cooption of private actors to the cause. US policymakers
determined that foreign audiences would be far more
responsive to the message of American propaganda if itappeared that the message had not come from official
government sources. As a result, they launched an
unprecedented peace time commitment to support US
foreign policy objectives by working with and throughprivate groups or, in more extreme examples, creating“private” organisations from scratch.6
The National Committee for a Free Europe (NCFE) fit
into the latter category of this “state-private network.”
This émigré group provided a voice for Eastern European
refugees who had fled either the Nazi invasion or thesubsequent Soviet presence in their respective countries.
Covert operators in Washington recognised that theexiles possessed the necessary lines of contact to breach
Stalin’s ‘Iron Curtain’, and spread propaganda that might
disrupt and encourage revolt against Soviet communist
ideology. More still, the State Department reasoned that
if they controlled the refugees in an unofficial capacity,
the US government could not be held accountable.
And so in response to Soviet foreign policy and in light
Toby C. Rider | *1978. Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the
Department of Kinesiology at the California State University,
Fullerton. His work includes Cold War Games: Propaganda,
the Olympics, and U.S. Foreign Policy. Urbana: The University
of Illinois Press, 2016; “Political Warfare in Helsinki: American
Covert Strategy and the Union of Free Eastern European
Sportsmen”, in: International Journal of the History of Sport,
Vol. 30, No.13 (2013), pp. 1493-1507.

JOH 2 | 2016

Vice-Chairman of the
UFEES and an IOC­member from 1926 to
1947. In the wake of
the Red Army invasionof 1944 he fled to­Germany and fromthere to ­England andto the USA. Far left: the­committee was also
supported by theof the potential of the exiled community, the National
Committee for a Free Europe was formed by the American
intelligence community in 1949. The organisation’s firstpress release stated that it would aid the exiles in their“stand against communism” and, of course, made no
mention of where its funding came from. To anyone
in the public that might be interested, the committee
simply appeared to be a private philanthropic group led
by prominent American citizens. In reality, however, it
received millions of CIA dollars to fund Soviet bloc émigrés
in an astounding breadth of activities. The most famous
branch of the organisation’s propaganda machine,
Radio Free Europe, started to broadcast in 1950, but thecommittee also poured money into research centers,
publications, “freedom” rallies, a Free Europe University
in Exile, and a plethora of other exiled groups andindividuals living in the West.7
One such benefactor, crucial to the story of the Union,
was the Hungarian National Sports Federation (HNSF).
Formed in December 1949, the Federation sought to “dealthe greatest possible blows whenever and wherever
possible to the communists in the field of sports.”8 Ledby a Hungarian exile named Count Anthony Szápáry, thegroup endeavored to help athletes to defect from Eastern
Europe and aided those that had defected to start a newlife on “free soil.” As many of these refugees desired tocontinue competing in sporting competitions, the HNSF
expelled a considerable amount of energy attempting topersuade international sports bodies such as the IOC toallow stateless athletes to enter their events. One of the
HNSF’s first major attempts to press this agenda resulted
in the creation of the Union of Free Eastern European
Sportsmen.9
The scheme developed throughout the middle portionof 1951. Realizing that many athletes from Soviet bloc
countries were among the people in flight from the ‘Iron
Curtain’, the HNSF and NCFE concocted a plan to createa refugee Olympic team for the 1952 Summer Gamesin Helsinki.10 It coincided, rather aptly, with anothersignificant event. While the creators of the UFEES plottedabout how to get Olympic recognition, the Soviet Union
got it. At Helsinki, the Soviet Union’s athletes competed• The CIA, the IOC, and Efforts to Establish a Refugee Olympic TeamB­riton Tufton Beamish(1917-1989), from 1945
to 1974 conservative
member of Parliament
and thereafter Baron
Chelwood of Lewes in
East Sussex.
Photos: Volker Kluge Archive37

Count Szápáry spoke inparticular Hungarian
athletes living in exile
In 1949 Kornél Pajor,
became the only
­Hungarian to win aWorld Championshipin speed-skating.
He settled in Sweden
after the 1951 WorldChampionships.
­Adjacent: the fencer
Imre Rajczy, who
had won Olympic
gold in 1936 with the
Hungarian sabre teamand had emigrated toArgentina after theSecond World War.

for the first time in Olympic history, further drawing theMovement into the global ideological struggle for the“hearts and minds” of the world.11 ­For this reason, too,
the timing of the Union’s operation was perfect. Stalin
may have had expectations that Soviet athletes would
promote communism on an international platform bydominating in Finland, but a group of exiles competingin defiance of communist control in Eastern Europe wassure to raise a few eyebrows in the Kremlin. Officials
in the NCFE certainly believed that “tremendous
propaganda” could be “derived” from getting a refugeeteam on the programme for Helsinki. 12
In May 1952, the Union applied to the IOC for official
recognition. A list of potential athletes for the team,compiled by the UFEES, included rowers, gymnasts,
swimmers, boxers, wrestlers, over forty soccer players
and a further twenty five basketballers. Notable stars
on the list included the world champion speed-skater,
Kornél Pajor, Olympic gold medallist fencer, Imre Rajczy,
and the entire silver medal winning water polo teamfrom the 1948 Games.13 Although the final number ofathletes that would comprise the team was never fully
established – ROT, incidentally, would have ten – one
newspaper reported that it could contain, “16 Olympic,
20 world and 35 former intercollegiate champions.”14
There is no doubt, however, about the Union’s politicalobjectives. Szápáry, who served as the chairman for thegroup, declared that it represented refugee athletes
from “ten nations enslaved by the Kremlin.” 15

38

An Appeal to Olympic Principles
In 2016, the IOC reacted to a human crisis of immense
proportions. For this reason, no doubt, the creation of
the Refugee Olympic Team has been warmly greeted by
the public and media. Yet the refugee situation in the
post-World War Two years was also catastrophic. The
bloody course of the confrontation shook and uprooted
communities around the world. The European theater ofbattle alone, the main focus of Hitler’s attention, led tothe displacement of millions. Once the war was over, analready dire refugee situation was further complicatedby the exodus of people from the newly establishedcommunist regimes in Eastern Europe. 16
This turn events, coupled with the hardening anticommunist sentiments of many in the West after 1945,
certainly made the case for refugee sportsmen all themore compelling to those who were aware of it. “There
must be athletes of considerable ability among wellover a million refugees from the Russian-dominatedcountries, and perhaps even among exiles from theSoviet Union itself,” wrote the British politician, Major
Tufton Beamish, in a plea to his fellow countrymen and
IOC Member, Lord David Burghley. “I am myself verymuch in favour of trying to enable these people andtheir offspring to compete in the Olympic Games. It
would be a small gesture that could have considerable
effect on the morale of the people in the occupied
countries.” 17

Representatives of the UFEES harnessed these attitudes
and this political atmosphere to spark their campaign
into life. In letters to members of the IOC, and intrenchant statements to the media, they charged thatrefugee athletes were victims of ruthless communist
forces in Eastern Europe. “In these countries,” Szápáry
wrote in a missive to the IOC, athletes“are selected ona political basis, those with different political opinions
are considered unreliable and therefore cannot practicesports and are prosecuted or imprisoned.” Having been
essentially forced to leave their homelands, Szápáry
added, these athletes were then “barred from the mostnoble festival” of “youth” in the world. “The Union
of Free Eastern European Sportsmen, considers as its
prime duty to obtain the necessary recognition for thestateless athletes in order to help them in reaching theultimate goal of every athlete, that of taking part in the
Olympics,” he explained. 18
The primary obstacle for supporters of refugee athletes
in general, and the UFEES in particular, was the IOC’s
rules on national representation. As Lord Burghley
succinctly put it, “we deal essentially with National
Olympic Committees, and not with individuals, and we
can only have one national team from each country.” 19Thus, without a national committee to compete for, anindividual refugee could not compete at the Olympics,
and a team of refugees clearly could not represent
any one country. Moreover, if a refugee had alreadyparticipated for their nation of birth at the Olympics,
as many had done before defecting, the IOC’s rules
prevented the individual from wearing the colours of asecond country at the Games. Refugee athletes, then,simply did not fit anywhere within the organisationalframework of the Olympic system. 20
To overcome the incompatibility of the Union with
the IOC’s edicts, the case Szápáry and others made, inpublic announcements and private correspondence,
mainly tackled the issue from two perspectives. First,
advocates of the Union combatted the IOC’s rulesby pointing to another, the first to be found in the
Olympic Charter: “The Olympic Games are held every
four years and assemble amateurs of all nations in fairand equal competition under conditions which are to
be as perfect as possible. No discrimination is allowed
against any country or person on grounds of colour,
religion or politics.” 21 This famous rule, so often recitedby both friends and enemies of the Games to attack or
defend them, encapsulated the inclusive philosophy
that underpinned the Movement. In appealing to thisregulation, the UFEES argued that many athletes had nochoice but to flee from Eastern Europe; their way of life
had been attacked and their freedom compromised.22
Szápáry reasoned, therefore, that “the non-admittanceof stateless athletes to the Games is in every sense a
political discrimination.”23

JOH 2 | 2016

After the Hungarian
uprising of 1956 thesubject of refugees
became a hot topic.
Among those athletes
who did not return totheir country was­László Tábori, who had
been fourth in the1500 m in Melbourne
and sixth over 5000 m.
Together with coach
Mihály Igloi (19081998) he emigrated to
the USA. As a “statelessathlete” he had nochance of taking partin the 1960 Games in
Rome.

In a second argument, one that apparently transcended
the first, supporters of the UFEES invoked the virtuous
ideals of Olympism. As such, they asked that the IOC
make a decision based upon the lofty “principles” offair play and good sportsmanship, important featuresof the festival’s peaceful aims. Though not denying
the centrality of regulations to the functioning of
the Games, Szápáry called upon the IOC to follow the“spirit” if not the “strict wording” of its rules.24 To press
this point, and to lure their audience into feelings of
guilt no doubt, multiple times officials from the Union
paid homage to the historical origins of the Games andthe musings of Baron Pierre de Coubertin. “After all,”noted Peter Zerkowitz, the Union’s secretary, the Baron“meant to assist mutual understanding among theyouth of the world, without regard to politics. The rules
were made to further international sportsmanship,
but the refugee problem didn’t exist then. Now thosesame rules are working against those very same aims ofsportsmanship.”25
Throughout months of lobbying, the Union’s mainarguments were made and remade on numerous
occasions. Yet the leaders of the group do not appear
to have harbored any misplaced confidence. They
accepted that their cause might be doomed to fail.
They remained optimistic. In a letter to American
Olympic officials, the President of the NCFE, Charles
Douglas Jackson, noted that while the “consideration”
of a refugee team would “raise some questions” for• The CIA, the IOC, and Efforts to Establish a Refugee Olympic Team

39

The 1952 Olympics in
Helsinki saw the entryof the Soviet Union asa new global player
Their team and thosefrom other ‘Iron­curtain’ stayed in asecond Olympic Village
in Otaniemi. They
were kept apart fromcompetitors from
Western nations.
A picture of Stalin was
intended to “beautify”
the accomodation.

the IOC, he believed that such questions “may not befound insoluble.”26 In reality, though, Jackson and hiscolleagues hoped rather than expected for goodnews.

Judging the Case
The creation of ROT, of course, required no such labors.
The IOC’s Members merely had to convince themselvesthat such a team could be admitted into the Games.
They evidently decided that it could. But how did the
IOC react to the Union’s campaign? The IOC first discussed
the subject at length during its February Session in
1952. In a record of the debate, held in Oslo before thesame city hosted the Winter Games, the minutes of themeeting note that several members expressed theiropinion on stateless athletes. Yet the same minutes
only provide greater detail on the viewpoints of two
participants. Both were negative.

40

The British delegate, Lord Aberdare, called the idea ofa refugee team “purely fanciful” and demanded thatit be rebuffed, “without delay,” in a statement to themedia. Erik von Frenckell, the Finnish delegate, offereda different reason to deny the proposal. He statedthat the request from the refugees had come far toolate for Helsinki, and added that in the long-term,
the athletes would be too old to compete at the 1956
Games in Melbourne. Von Frenckell reasoned that the
problem was short term, and convinced many that it
would disappear with time.27 His comments appear tohave made an impression on others in the room. Sigfrid
Edström, the IOC President, wrote a month later that the“fugitive question” was “a passing problem that wemust not pay too much attention to.”28
The discussion offered little promise for the Union. Yet
the matter was certainly not dismissed by everyone in
the IOC. Some clearly sympathized with the situation
faced by refugee athletes. The evidence suggests, forinstance, that the Vice-President of the IOC, Avery
Brundage, was sensitive to the cause. “They have avery impressive list of ex-national, international andOlympic champions,” he told a colleague. “As a matterof fact, since the Olympic Games are supposed toassemble the youth of the world, perhaps there reallyshould be some way of allowing them to compete.”29
It was this collective sympathy that probably led to
the Union receiving space on the IOC’s agenda at its next
Session in Helsinki. The NCFE, in one final push, paid
for a Hungarian exile living in England named Thomasde Márffy-Mantuano to travel to Finland and speak on
the issue.30 He made the usual appeals based upon theinterpretation of Olympic rules and Olympic principles.
These contentions were, by this point, synonymouswith the case. But he also added a few more. To prevent
the“plight” of stateless athletes, Márffy suggested
that the IOC could instruct the International Sports
Federations to recognise the refugee athletes, an act
that might clear the path to full Olympic recognition.
He proposed, as an alternative, that refugees could
compete under the flag of the International Red Cross,or the Olympic rings, or as part of teams from countries
such as Switzerland or Greece. He asked, as well, thatthe “question be studied with leniency.” It changed nota thing. Once the Hungarian had finished his oration,
the IOC voted to deny the proposal for a refugee Olympic
team. 31
If some of the IOC delegates clearly sympathizedwith the refugees, what stopped them from making
the alternative choice? The Union’s connection to
the CIA might have offered a plausible explanation,
but the available sources simply do not support thisclaim. Interestingly, too, the IOC was not evidently
bothered about the political aims of the UFEES. It
was unequivocally clear that a key component of theUnion’s mission was based around the propaganda that
Eastern European exiles competing at the Games might
generate. The Union made no secret whatsoever of its
anti-communist agenda. This goal, however, was not a
factor, or at least does not appear to have been, in the
IOC’s decision to block the group’s proposal.
In a published statement condemning the ruling,
Szápáry accused the communist IOC Members ofsabotaging the entire request for recognition.32 Thisappears to be a reasonable assumption. Escapees
from the Soviet bloc were a considerable problem
for the communist regimes, hidden if at all possibleor empathically criticized if necessary. “These men
are deserters, traitors,” the Soviet IOC Member,
Alexey Romanov, told Brundage.33 For the Soviet bloc
representatives in the room, listening to Márffy’s orationmust have been awkward. They would surely have been
given orders by communist authorities about how to
act if the Union’s proposal gained traction. But it did
not. Once again, moreover, the sources remain silent.
And even if the communist delegates were against the
refugees from Eastern Europe, which is highly likely, theeffort to squash the proposal was also backed by the IOC
membership, and this included the anti-communist
Brundage and Edström.34
One more explanation is left: the rules apparently
presented the IOC with an insurmountable wall. There
seemed to be a general, albeit weak, desire in the IOC
to work out a solution but none of the suggestions put
forward by exiles or interested parties were deemed
acceptable when weighed against the structure andspirit of the organisation’s rules. The IOC was dedicatedto promoting peace through sporting competition
between national teams. A refugee team, the IOC
replied, was impractical for an Olympic system basedon national sports federations and National Olympic
Committees. In fairness, this was not a justification
wheeled out at the last moment by the IOC; its members
consistently told emigres throughout 1951 and 1952 thata refugee Olympic team would probably fail. Rightly or
wrongly, the IOC acted in precisely the same manner
as it said it would. The IOC’s Members understood that
there should be no “discrimination” at the Games, but,as Edström explained, it was “fundamental” that theathletes “belong to a nation.” 35

the issue.36 Slowly, though, the IOC began to rewrite its
rules and to display a modicum of flexibility. In 1956, it
voted to allow women the opportunity to compete fora second country of citizenship, that being the countryof the man that they married.37 Nearly a decade later,in 1964, the IOC ruled that it would allow any athlete,
man or woman, to enter under the colours of a second
country of citizenship after the individual had been anaturalized citizen of that country for three years.38
These alterations to the Charter allowed for many
refugee athletes to secure Olympic eligibility, yet thechanges still only worked around the Movement’s
structure of National Olympic Committees. A refugeeremained in a state of limbo until citizenship was
secured, a process that could take years.
In an effort to accommodate the unfortunate people
that remained in transition between countries, theIOC began to allow some athletes to enter the Games
as independent participants under the Olympic flag.
In 1992, for instance, the IOC handled the breakup
of Yugoslavia in just this way. While the war torn
Yugoslavian nation splintered into separate states, it
was hit with United Nations Security Council sanctions
that included a ban on participation in sports events.
The IOC carefully listened to international calls forintervention and invited Yugoslavian athletes to enter
the Barcelona Games as individuals. William Hybl,
the President of the United States Olympic Committee,
called the arrangement “the Olympic ideal at its best.”39
More recently, too, the IOC granted four athletes from
East Timor (2000), three athletes of the dissolved NOCof the Netherlands Antilles and one athlete from South
Sudan (2012) permission to compete under the Olympic
flag as each country awaited official recognition in the
Movement.40

Concluding Remarks: The Path to ROT

For cox Róbert ­Zimonyi(1918-2004) there

After its request for recognition had been refused,
the Union gradually stopped sending letters to theIOC. Within a few years, the group appears to havedisappeared. Yet the problem of refugee athletes did
not “pass” as the leaders of the Movement thoughtthat it would. The IOC remained the target of public
criticism, some of quite vehement, for its approach to

was a sixteen year

JOH 2 | 201641

• The CIA, the IOC, and Efforts to Establish a Refugee Olympic Teamgap ­between 1948
bronze medal for the­Hungarian coxed pairs
and a gold medal with
the American eightin 1964 in Tokyo.

Behind the Olympic
flag and the desig­
nation ­“Independent
Olympic Athletes”,
three ­participants ofthe dissolved NOCof the Netherlands­Antilles, as well as asportsman from South
Sudan, marched in 2012
in London. There was asimilar solution in 1992
for the sportsmen and-women from Serbia,
Montenegro and­Macedonia as well as
in 2000 for four­athletes from Timor
Leste.
At the 2014 ­WinterGames three Indians
initially had this­status. But during theGames, as the ­Indian
NOC, which had beensuspended, was again
recognised, they couldin the end take part
under their own flag.
Photo: picture-allianceWith far greater financial resources and global influencethan in the early Cold War, the IOC has also become far
more engaged with the broader refugee problem.
Since 2004, for example, the IOC has worked with theUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees toprovide thousands of refugees with sports equipment
and clothing. In 2015, the IOC went a step further andannounced that it would create a two million dollar
refugee fund for National Olympic Committees to
distribute to selected projects and programmes.41 On
the back of this initiative came the formation of the
Refugee Olympic Team.“Through the [ROT], we candemonstrate that sport has values, which these days are
sometimes put in doubt for various reasons,” said IOC
official, Pere Meró.“By bringing these athletes back to
the Games, back to sport, back to life, and by bringing
sport to the refugee camps to improve the quality of
everyday life, we believe we are going back to our roots
and really demonstrating that sport can serve society.”42
In comparison to 1952, then, the IOC of 2016 has adopted
an entirely different approach to refugee athletes. Itelected to privilege the principles of Olympism over therules as written in the Olympic Charter. 

1

2

3

4

5

42

UN General Assembly Approves Olympic Truce For Olympic Games Rio
De Janeiro 2016, 26 October 2015, https://www.olympic.org/news/
un-general-assembly-approves-olympic-truce-for-olympicgames-rio-de-janeiro-2016.
Team of Refugee Olympic Athletes (ROA) created by the IOC, 2 March
2016, http://www.olympic.org/news/team-of-refugee-olympicathletes-roa-created-by-the-ioc/248766.
Toby C. Rider, Cold War Games: Propaganda, the Olympics, and U.S.
Foreign Policy (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2016),
pp. 67-82.
The inauguration of organized political warfare, Policy Planning Staff
Memorandum, 4 May 1948, Foreign Relations of the United States,
1945-1950: Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment (Washington D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1996), 668-72.
Sarah-Jane Corke, “George Kennan and the Inauguration of Political

6

7

8

9

10
11

12

13
14
15

16

Warfare,” Journal of Conflict Studies 26, no. 1 (2006): 101-120; Wilson
D. Miscamble, George F. Kennan and the Making of American Foreign
Policy, 1947-1950 (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press,
1992), pp. 199-203.
For superb work on government fronts and state-private operations
see Scott Lucas, Freedom’s War: The American Crusade Against theSoviet Union (New York, NY: New York University Press, 1999); andHugh Wilford, The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America(Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2008).
New Group Formed To Assist Refugees, New York Times, 2 June 1949,
quote on 29; Katalin Kádár-Lynn, At War While at Peace: ­United States
Cold War Policy and the National Committee for a Free ­Europe, Inc.,
in: The Inauguration of Organized Political Warfare: Cold War Organizations Sponsored by the National Committee for a Free ­Europe/
Free Europe Committee, ed. Katalin Kádár-Lynn ­(California: Helena
History Press, 2013), pp. 7-70; A. Ross Johnson, Radio Free Europe
and Radio Liberty: The CIA Years and Beyond (Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press, 2010); Larry D. Collins, The Free Europe Committee:
An American Weapon Of The Cold War (Ph.D diss., Carelton University,1973).
Count Anthony Szápáry to C.D. Jackson, 2 February 1962, C.D. Jackson
Papers, 1931–67, Series II Time INC. File, 1933–64, Subseries A. Alphabetical File, 1933–64, Box 53, “Free Europe Committee, 1962,” Dwight
D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kansas.
Toby C. Rider, The Cold War Activities of the Hungarian National Sports
Federation, in: The Inauguration of Organized Political ­Warfare: Cold
War Organizations Sponsored by the National Committee for a Free
Europe/Free Europe Committee, ed. Katalin Kádár Lynn (Saint Helena,
CA: Helena History Press, 2013), pp. 515-46.
Rider, Cold War Games, pp. 73-77.
For more on the Soviet entrance into the Olympics see Jenifer Parks,
Verbal Gymnastics: sports, bureaucracy, and the Soviet Union’s­Entrance into the Olympic Games, 1946-1952, in: Stephen Wagg &David L. Andrews, eds.,East Plays West: Sport and the Cold War (NewYork: Routledge, 2007), pp. 27-44.
A. Gellért to Robert Cutler, April 1951, RFE/RL INC. Corporate Records(hereafter referred to as RFE/RL), Box 245, (4) Olympic Games­General, 1951-1959, Hoover Institution Archives (hereafter referred
to as HA), Stanford University, California.
List attached to note from Peter Zerkowitz to Wright, 23 May 1951,
RFE/RL, Box 245, (4) Olympic Games General, 1951-1959, HA.
Self-Exiled European Athletes Seek To Compete As A Unit In­Olympics, The Portsmouth Times, 20 June 1952, p. 24.
Szápáry to Avery Brundage, 14 May 1952, Avery Brundage Collection,
1908-75 (hereafter referred to as ABC), Box 116, Reel 63, Inter­national
Centre for Olympic Studies Archives (hereafter referred to as ICOSA),The University Of Western Ontario, London, Canada.
Malcolm J. Proudfoot, European Refugees: 1939-52: A Study in Forced
Population Movement (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University
Press, 1956), 21, 32-54; Michael R. Marrus, The Unwanted: ­Euro­pean
Refugees in the Twentieth Century (New York: Oxford ­University Press,

1985), pp. 348-54. See also Mark Wyman, DP: Europe’s Displaced­Persons, 1945-1951 (London: Associated University Press, 1989).
17 Major Tufton Beamish to Lord David Burghley, 13 May 1952, BOA/IOC/
ADM/10-11, British Olympic Association Archives (hereafter referred
to as BOA Archives), University of East London Archives, London,
England.
18 Szápáry to Executive Committee of the International Olympic Committee, 20 May 1952, BOA/IOC/ADM/10-11, BOA Archives.
19 Lord David Burghley to Sigfrid Edström, 27 March 1952, BOA/IOC/
ADM/10-11, BOA Archives.
20 For more on the historical development of these rules see Toby C.
Rider, Eastern Europe’s Unwanted: Exiled Athletes and the Olympic
Games, 1948-1964, in: Journal of Sport History 40, no. 3 (2013): pp.
435-453.
21 International Olympic Committee, Olympic Rules (Lausanne: International Olympic Committee, 1949), p. 5.
22 See for example Gerhard Wettig, Stalin and the Cold War in Europe:
The Emergence and Development of East-West Conflict, 1939-1953(Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2008),
148-49; Anne Applebaum, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern­Europe, 1944-1956 (New York: Doubleday, 2012), pp. 88-115.
23 Szápáry to Executive Committee of the International Olympic­Committee, 20 May 1952, BOA/IOC/ADM/10-11, BOA Archives.
24 Szápáry to Executive Committee of the International Olympic­Committee, 20 May 1952, BOA/IOC/ADM/10-11, BOA Archives.
25 Exiled Athletes Seek To Enter Olympic Play, in: The Charleston­Gazette, 29 April 1952, 9.
26 Jackson to Brundage, 30 January 1952, ABC, Box 116, Reel 63, ICOSA.
27 Minutes of the International Olympic Committee 46th Session, Oslo,
12-13 February 1952, International Olympic Committee Archives(hereafter referred to as IOC Archives), Lausanne, Switzerland.
28 Edström to Members of the IOC Executive Committee, 18 March 1952,
ABC, Box 43, Reel 25, ICOSA.
29 Brundage to John T. McGovern, 15 May 1952, ABC, Box 116, Reel 63,
ICOSA.
30 Wright to Miller, 3 July 1952, RFE/RL, Box 245, (4) Olympic Games
General, 1951-1959, HA; Zerkowitz to Miller, 10 July 1952, RFE/RL, Box245, (4) “Olympic Games General, 1951-1959,” HA.
31 “Minutes of the International Olympic Committee 47th Session,”
Helsinki, 16 July 1952, IOC Archives.
32 “Olympic Ban Queried,” New York Times, 20 July 1952, sec. E, p. 8.
33 “I Must Admit – Russian Athletes Are Great!” Saturday Evening Post,
30 April 1955, p. 29.
34 For an example of Edström’s anti-Communist beliefs seeEdström
to Friends and Family, 8 August 1950, Biography, Press Cuttings,­Circulars, and Speeches of Sigfrid Edström, Box 4, IOC Archives.For
more on Brundage’s personal politics see Allen Guttmann, The
Games Must Go On: Avery Brundage And The Olympic Movement(New York: Columbia University Press, 1984).
35 Edström to Otto Mayer, 29 May 1952, Correspondence of Sigfrid­Edström, April 1952-1953, Box 3, IOC Archives.
36 See for instance “No Discrimination,” Times, 21 July 1960, p. 13.
37 Extract of the Minutes of the 51st Session of the International ­Olympic
Committee, Cortina d’Ampezzo, 24-25 January 1956, ­Olympic R­eview
54 (May, 1956), p. 47.
38 IOC Executive Board Meeting, Lausanne, 26-27 June 1964, IOC­Archives; Minutes of the International Olympic Committee 62nd Session, Annex 10, Tokyo, 6-8 October 1964, IOC Archives.
39 Decisions of the 99th Session, Olympic Review 299 (­September, 1992),
416; “Yugoslavia Agrees to Terms of restricted Entry in Games,” NewYork Times, 23 July 1992, sec. B, 11; “Bosnian Delegation ­Certified,”
New York Times, 24 July 1992, sec. B, 13; “Yugoslavs Will Go To Games,”
New York Times, 11 July 1992, quote on p. 29.
40 Philip Hersh, “Four Participants in Sydney Wear ‘Individual­Olympic Athletes’ Badges,” 9 September 2000, http://articles.
chicagotribune.com/2000-09-09/sports/0009090087_1_frankfowlie-aguida-amaral-east-timorese; “London 2012 Olympics:
South Sudan’s GuorMarial allowed to compete under Olympic flag in
London,” 21 July 2012, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/
athletics/9417428/London-2012-Olympics-South-Sudans-GuorMarial-allowed-to-compete-under-Olympic-flag-in-London.html
41 “IOC announces emergency two million dollar fund to help ­refugees,”
4 September 2015, www.olympic.org/news/ioc-­a nnouncesemergency-two-million-dollar-fund-to-help-refugees
42 “The inspirational Olympic Journey of refugee swimmer Yusra­Mardini,” 18 March 2016, https://www.olympic.org/news/theinspirational-olympic-journey-of-refugee-swimmer-yusra-­
mardini

JOH 2 | 20162016 Refugee Olympic TeamTen athletes will compete for the Refugee Olympic
Team (ROT) and march with the Olympic flag
immediately before host nation Brazil at the opening
ceremony. The athletes were named by the IOC
Executive Board. Olympian and former marathon
world record-holder Tegla Loroupe (Kenya) was
named the team’s Chef de Mission. The athletes are:
Rami Anis: Country oforigin – Syria; host NOC –Belgium; swimming

Syrian swimmer
Yusra Mardini trainedin ­Berlin to preparefor Rio.

Yiech Pur Biel: South
Sudan; host NOC –Kenya; athletics, 800 m
James Nyang
Chiengjiek: South
Sudan; host NOC –Kenya; athletics, 400 m
Yonas Kinde: Ethiopia;
host NOC – Luxembourg;
athletics, marathon
Anjelina Nada Lohalith:
South Sudan; host NOC –Kenya; athletics, 1500 m
Rose Nathike Lokonyen:
South Sudan; host NOC –Kenya; athletics, 800 m• The CIA, the IOC, and Efforts to Establish a Refugee Olympic Team

Below: The Rio 2016
flame was carriedPaulo Amotun Lokoro:
South Sudan; host NOC –Kenya; athletics, 1500 m

by Syrian refugee
Swimmer ­Ibrahim Al
Hussein at the Eleonas
Reception Centre in

Yolande Bukasa
Mabika: Democratic
Republic of the Congo;
host NOC – Brazil; judo,-70 kgAthens as part of a
joint initiative between the IOC, HOC
and UNHCR. Ibrahim
Al Hussein, 27, had lostpart of a leg as a result

Yusra Mardini : Syria;
host NOC – Germany;
swimming
Popole Misenga:
Democratic Republic of
the Congo; host NOC –Brazil; judo, -90 kg

of a bomb in 2012 andhad sought asylum in
Greece two years ago.
Photos: picture-alliance43

Where Have All theSummer Olympic Cauldrons Gone?
By Myles A. Garcia

For the first time the
IOC appeared in public
at the opening of the
Olympic Games in1912 in Stockholm.
Whether a flame also
burned on the twostadium towers canonly be guessed at.
When else, if not on
this occasion?
Far right: the­Marathon Tower inthe Amsterdam­Olympic Stadium.
Photos: Myles Garcia Archive,
Volker Kluge Archive

After his investigation into what became of the cauldrons
at Winter Olympic Games (JOH, Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 16-19),
Myles Garcia now turns the spotlight on the Summer
Games.

Stockholm 1912. Stadium architect Torben Grut had
fire baskets installed. According to the researches of
ISOH member Ansgar Molzberger, these still exist today.
However no photographic evidence has yet emerged toprove once and for all that an “Olympic Fire” burned
during the 1912 Games. The cauldrons may well havedone so. Molzberger believes he can detect a “weakcolumn of smoke” (JOH, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 44-45), ina photo in the 1912 Official Report (p. 817). This photo
was taken during the presentations by the boy scouts.
In addition, he draws attention to the “Great Festival”
on 14th July 1912, when a firework was set alight on thetowers.On the diploma designer Olle Hjortzberg also
depicted the towers with a burning fire.

44

Amsterdam 1928. The first authentic cauldron of themodern games. It sits atop the Marathon Tower which,
together with the Olympic Stadium and the Olympic
park, were all designed by architect Jan Wils. ISOH
General Secretary Anthony Th. Bijkerk has discoveredthat originally Wils planned to use a searchlight for his“fire”. Wils was also a freemason and later opted toreplace the searchlight with a burning flame.
The cauldron was designed to show a flame during
daylight, but the flame was extinguished over night.
On one occasion, they did leave it burning after dark, inorder to take a photograph. The panels sticking out aresound baffles for the loudspeakers installed at the topof the tower.
Employees of the Amsterdam Utility Company lit thefirst Olympic Flame in the morning by climbing the stairs
to the top of the Marathon Tower. They had to climb
them again after the sun had gone down to extinguish
the flame. Today the cauldron remains in its original
location at the renovated Amsterdam Stadium.

Los Angeles 1932 and 1984. The cauldron is still in placeat its original site. It formed part of the overall design of
the Coliseum designed by John and Donald Parkinson,
a father and son architectural team originally from
Lancashire in the North of England. The stadium was inturn inspired by that in Stockholm. The ‘cauldron’ stood
45.72 metres high. It is unusual in that it did not feature
a bowl or dish. In 1932 the flame was lit by an unknownstagehand. In 1984 by contrast, the great decathlon
champion Rafer Johnson lit a fire in the Olympic rings
through which the flames passed to ignite the cauldron.
It might yet burn once again if Los Angeles is successful
in winning the bid for 2024.

Berlin 1936. As Volker Kluge writes in his book Berlin’s
Olympic Stadium (Das Neue Berlin, 2009), Organising
Committee General Secretary, Carl Diem, intended
initially to erect a tower at the Western end of theGerman Sports Forum. This would have followed theexample of Amsterdam 1928. It was from this tower thatthe fire was to burn during the Games.
After Hitler’s coming to power or “Machtergreifung“,
he ordered the building of a new stadium for 100,000
spectators. To this a “Temple” in honour of the German

fallen was to be added. Architect Werner March devised
a bell tower 76 metres in height.
As a result, another place had to be found for the
Olympic Fire. March finally located his cauldron above
the centre of the Marathon Gate. His concept was basedon the altars of antiquity: According to legend, a tripod
which stood in the temple of Apollo in Delphi was theseat of the soothsaying priestess Pythia.
In 1936 an Olympic Flame was brought to the host cityby relay from Ancient Olympia for the first time.
The tripod stands 2.2 m high and bears the cauldron,made of sheet iron and designed with fireclay grit. The
flame burnt to a height of some three metres. It was fed
with propane gas. This was supplied in steel cylinders
which were placed in a small storage area under the
tripod. Some 90 of these were needed. They contained
approximately 22 kilo of propane which was needed
every day to keep the flame burning.
The cauldron survived the Second World War
undamaged. The Olympic Fire burned most recently on
the occasion on 31st July 2004, when the stadium was
re-opened after modernization in preparation for the2006 World Cup.
It is not widely known that there were two further
torch relays in 1936. On the 7th August the fire was carried
by a relay to the rowing and canoeing venue at Grünau,37 kilometres away from Berlin. No fewer than 573 young
men took part. They ran in threes and were changed
every 200 metres. The “qualification” for the runners
was to have blonde hair and blue eyes.
Officially the cauldron there was lit by the National
Socialist local mayor Karl Matzow, but a film clip shows ayoung man as the last runner.
The third torch relay on 2nd and 3rd August 1936 took theflame to Kiel. This relay ended in curious fashion. The
last runner was sailor Peter Hansohm who lit the fire in
the crows nest of a replica cog, a traditional boat usedin the time of the Hanseatic League. A storm blew up
during the night and the cog capsized. The fire went out
and was discreetly relit the following day, after the ship
had been righted. Neither the Kiel cauldron nor that of
Grünau survived.
A young oarsman lit
the Olympic Fire in 1936
at the regatta courseof Berlin-Grünau.
­Adjacent: the tripodin the 1936 Olympic
Stadium, whose flameis still fed today withpropane gas from aroom under the­cauldron. Photos: Peter
Frenkel, Volker Kluge Archive

JOH 2 | 2016

Where Have All the Summer Olympic Cauldrons Gone?

45

The 1952 Helsinki­cauldron disappeared,
but a replica has beenin place on the roof of
the Sports Museum of
Finland since 1994.
Far right : the fire on
the stadium tower was
lit by the 1912 Olympic
champion, Hannes
Kolehmainen.

London 1948. According to Philip Barker this was
originally located at the tunnel end of the old stadium.
It was installed barely ten days before the 1948 Games atthe same time the cinder track was being laid.
The choice of the final runner fell on John Mark, aCambridge University athlete. He took part in rehearsals
alongside reserve runner Angus Scott. Officials cabled an
update to flame relay organiser Bill Collins who had justarrived in Greece to witness the lighting of the flame.
‘We had a run at Wembley with the final runner. It isessential that the gas is not turned on too early because
in windy conditions like yesterday, the gas get blown
about and the runner may get burnt.”
The cauldron was later relocated on an open terrace
under the twin towers. When the old stadium wasdemolished in 2002, it was stored until the new building
was completed in 2007. Since then the cauldron has
greeted visitors in the hallway.
In 1948, separate relay began from Wembley and took
a flame to Torbay for the sailing competitions wherea cauldron was lit. Archivists at Torquay library haveconfirmed that remains at Torre Abbey to this day.

flame where it burned throughout the Games. Yet theabiding image is of Paavo Nurmi who played the main
ceremonial role by lighting the fire before the eyes of
the world. As ‘Nurmi’s cauldron’ was used again for
the extinguishing ceremony it could be argued that hiscauldron was the principal one and Kolehmainen’scauldron only a temporary repository of the Olympic
fire.”
Vesa Tikander has informed us that the 1952 cauldron
no longer exists. The structure was probably dismantled
immediately after the Games. “In 1994 the Helsinki
Olympic Stadium Foundation tried to locate the original
cauldron when Lillehammer’s torch relay visited
Helsinki, but no trace of it was found. Instead, a replicaof the cauldron was made and placed for a while on theroof of the Sports Museum of Finland (adjacent to the
Olympic Stadium). The replica might still be found but
the original, of course, is sadly lost.”

After Wembley wascompletely rebuilt,
the 1948 cauldron was
re-positioned in theentrance hall.
Photos: Philip Barker, Sports
Museum of Finland

Helsinki 1952. The question of the last torchbearer ofthe 1952 Olympic Games is an interesting one and open
to interpretation according to Vesa Tikander of theSports Museum of Finland. “Paavo Nurmi lit the flamein the cauldron on the infield of the stadium in frontof the crowd and the cameras of the world. He thencarried the torch inside the stadium and handed it to
the first of four young athletes who brought it in relay
up the stairs to the top of the tower, where 62 year old
Hannes Kolehmainen was waiting. No longer, the slim
athletic figure of his youth, Kolehmainen had ascended
by elevator. He used a long stick to light the flame on top

46of the tower. A Finnish film cameraman recorded themoment.
The fire lit by Nurmi on the infield was extinguishedafter the opening ceremony, whereas up in the tower
the flame burned all through the Olympic Games. The
cauldron on the infield was lit again on the closingday (presumably from the fire in the tower) and thenextinguished during the ceremony.
So Hannes Kolehmainen was the last person to handle
the fire on the opening day and the one who lit the

Stockholm 1956. The
Stockholm stadium was
the first in which two­O lympic Games took
place. In 1956, the riding
events were held there
when quarantine regulations made it impossible for horse to travel to­Melbourne.
There was also an­O lympic Torch Relay,

which ­began on 2nd June 1956 in Olympia. Eight days later, on 10th June, the relay reached Stockholm, where the­Swedish dressage rider Hans Wikne (1914-1996) lit thecauldron on horseback
That was not the end of the ceremony. Wikne passedon the flame to 1952 Olympic gymnastics champion,
Karin Lindberg, from whose torch the gold medallist in
the 1948 1500 m, Henry Eriksson, lit a third torch. Next
both of the climbed the stadium towers, where theyraised their torches to show the crowd (see p. 46).
Enquiries by ISOH member Ove Karlsson revealed
that the 1956 cauldron has disappeared. He believes it
may well be in a storeroom at stadium and has alerted
the manager of the Swedish Sports Museum to thispossibility. The hope remains that this cauldron might
one day be found and returned to public display
Melbourne 1956. The
cauldron was built by­colleagues and students
in the sheet-metal shopof the Brunswick Technical School and dismantled after the Olympic
Games. It disappeared formany years into a storeroom at the Melbourne­Cricket Ground (MCG). It
was erected again put up
in its original form after
the demolition of the athletic facilities. Further modernisation of the stadium was carried out before the 2006
­Commonwealth Games. Today the cauldron is in the­National Sports Museum at the MCG.
Rome 1960. The cauldron in which 18 year old­Giancarlo Peris from Civi­
tavecchia lit the fire on
25 th ­A ugust 1960, stood
above the far straight inthe ­Stadio Olimpico. This
was also where the flagsof the medallists wereraised. During the reconstruction of the stadium
before the 1990 World Cup
the cauldron was dismantled. All enquiries as to its whereabouts have so far beenun­successful. A cauldron also burned on the jetty at therowing regatta.
Tokyo 1964. On 8th September 2013, this cauldron burnedfor one final time to celebrate the announcement thatTokyo had been awarded the 2020 Games. The following

JOH 2 | 2016

Where Have All the Summer Olympic Cauldrons Gone?

The Swedish Cavalry
Captain Hans Wikne
lit the bowl at theEquestrian Games ofStockholm in 1956.
Left: gymnastic­Olympic champion­Karin Lindberg­awaiting the flame,
which then burned on
both stadium towers.

year, the old area was torn down to make way for a new
National Stadium on the same site.
In 1964, the cauldron had been lit by Yoshinori Sakai a“boy from Hiroshima”. He had been chosen because he
was born on 6th August 1945 on the day of the dropping of
the atom bomb.
The cauldron stood 2.1 m high and and weighed 2.6
tonnes. It had been built in 1958 by Mannosuke Suzuki,
and his son Bunge who maintained it each year.
In 2014, the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Olympic
Games had been celebrated in the same stadium.
Sadly Yoshinori Sakai, who had lit the Olympic Fire on
10th October 1964, did not live to see those festivities. He
died in September 2014.
After the festivities the cauldron was dismantled. On
the final occasion 2004 Olympic hammer champion Kōji
Murofushi, helped him with the cleaning.
The 1964 cauldron
went on its travels two
years ago to promote
the 2020 Tokyo Games .
Adjacent: the 1960
cauldron was disassembled during thereconstruction of
the Rome Olympic­Stadium. Nothing is
known of its where­
abouts.

In 2013 the Japanese sports ministry had decided thatthe cauldron would be used for promotional purposesso the giant was sent on its travels to publicise the2020 Games. The first stop was the City of Ishinomaki
in Miyagi Prefecture, an area that was severely affectedby the tsunami in March 2011. In three years the 1964
cauldron is set to return to the new National Stadium

Photos: Official Report Stockholm 1956, courtesy of the Melbourne Cricket Club, Volker Kluge
Archive47

which will be built according to plans made by the late
Zaha Hadid. It is not yet known where the cauldron will
be positioned.
Mexico City 1968. The first to be lit by a female athlete:
Norma Enriqueta Basilio. She also carried the torchwhen the Olympic Flame passed through the Mexican
capital in 2004.

The 1968 cauldron stands in its old place above the main
entrance at the eastern side of the Estadio Olímpico
Universitario, which had been opened in November
1952 as the University Stadium.
Below the cauldron can be seen a relief by Diego
Rivera, executed in natural coloured stones. It depicts a“Mexican family”, represented by a father and mother,passing their son a dove of peace.
Rivera had intended to decorate all the external wallsof the stadium with reliefs and thus present the historyof Mexican sport. But unfortunately only the central
piece of the front side was finished, because the project
failed through lack of finance. Rivera himself died in1957 and never did see the conclusion of his work.
Munic h 19 7 2. At theGames, the Munich cauldron was lit by 18 year old
Günther Zahn.
Twenty years later it was
moved to a hillside westof the stadium. The arena
was the home ground for
FC Bayern until 2005 but
is now used for concerts
and other cultural andsocial events.
As the cauldron is nolonger intact in its original form, a temporary site wasbuilt to welcome the flame en route to the 2004 Athens
Games. Günther Zahn lit the cauldron just as he haddone for the 1972 Games.

48

Montreal 1976. In 1976,
the cauldron was lit bySandra Henderson andStéphane Préfontaine,chosen to reflect the
English and Francophone
speaking communities
in Canada. The cauldron
had been placed in thecentre of the stadium on
a temporary scaffolding
p l a t fo r m . A f t e r t h e
opening ceremony it was
repositioned before theathletics competitions
began. The flame was also famously extinguished by afreak shower and hastily re-lit by a workman’s lighter.
The cauldron can now be seen outside the Montreal
Stadium with the finally completed tower in the
background. This was to have held the cables for a
retractable canvas roof but this was not completed intime for the Games in 1976.

Moscow 1980. The cauldron sits today in the Olympic
Park close to what is now known as the Luzhniki
Stadium. Alongside it, as if for company, it has a statueof the popular 1980 mascot Misha the Bear (even though
Misha memorably “flew” away at the 1980 closing
ceremony into the great beyond).
At the 1980 opening ceremony there had been no
obvious route for the final runner, basketball player
Sergey Belov to reach the cauldron. As he reached theperimeter of the track, soldiers in the crowd created apathway above their heads.
There was a second cauldron at Tallinn, Estonia, venue
for the Sailing events (photo). It is still the only secondary
venue to have its own
mascot, Vigri, a harbour
seal. The sailing gold
medallists’ names are
emblazoned on a central
plaque.

Seoul 1988. The cauldron
was manufactured at asmall factory by the Samsung Industrial Company
at Kochok-Dong, a suburb of Seoul. For start ofthe opening ceremony,
the Organising Committee
disguised the cauldron
tower with balloons.
The Korean Olympic
Committee has confirmedthat it remains in the stadium. Perhaps it will play a partin the torch relay for PyeongChang in 2018.
Barcelona 1992. Still at
Montjuïc Stadium, by the
Marathon Gate. Its design
is in the exaggerated styleof a ship’s rudder.
Only a few metres fromthe stadium is the ­Olympic
and Sports Museum Joan
Antoni Samaranch, managed by the ­Barcelona­O l ym p i c Fo un da ti on(FBO), which also has its
headquarters there.
Among the pieces exhibited in the museum are thebow and arrow with which Paralympic archer Antoni
Rebollo lit the Olympic Fire on 28th July 1992 with a shotfrom the interior of the stadium.
Atlanta 1996. The­Centennial cauldron (designed by Siad ­Armajani),
now detached from thestadium sits presently ina corner of the ­Turner Field
parking lot.
Turner Field is set to
be demolished in a year
or two, and the ­future
location of the cauldron
has not yet been decided.
Perhaps an appropriate location would be at Centennial
Olympic Park. As seen today outside the ANZ Stadium.

Sydney, a cauldron, or something resembling it, wasnowhere to be seen. That was because it was hidden
under a platform and would revealed only when the
final lighter, Cathy Freeman, lit the emerging cauldron
from the waters.
The cauldron was lit up again on 16th September 2010
for the 10th anniversary celebration of the Sydney Games.
The idea of a cascade/waterfall starting from thecauldron area had first been considered for Los Angeles
1984. A 1933 rendering by San Francisco architect Bernard
Maybeck of a monument and illuminated water effects/
cascade for Twin Peaks in San Francisco may well haveprovided inspiration for Ric Birch when he settled on
this method for the lighting of the cauldron at Sydney
Water games in the
Sydney Olympic Park.
Photo: courtesy of the Sydney
Olympic Park Authority

2000? While the idea of a cascade down a mountain/
hillside is nothing new, this would seem to be the first
known rendering that shows a fully illuminated cascade(from under the water).
Athens 2004. Although the many of the facilities at
the Athens 2004 complex have fallen into disrepair
the cauldron is still there. Oddly, with the return of themodern Olympics to Greece, Athens 2004 is the first
known instance in Games’ history where the ceremonial
pyro components of the Games were created by parties
outside the host country.
The cauldron was designed by Spanish architect
Santiago Calatrava while the 2004 torches, designed
by Greek industrial designer Andreas Varotsos, were
manufactured in Australia.

Sydney 2000. As the first Olympic cauldron of the newMillennium, Sydney’s cauldron was also the first one
infused with water; and the first hidden completelyfrom the sight of spectators entering the Olympic
Stadium. Previously, spectators entering the Olympic
Stadium would look around and spot the cauldron thatwould be lit at the end of the ceremony. However, for

JOH 2 | 2016

Where Have All the Summer Olympic Cauldrons Gone?

49

The Olympic cauldron
as it was during­London 2012.
Adjacent: The petal
on display at the­British Olympic­Association in London.
Photos: Philip Barker

50

Beijing 2008. For the
first time both the cauldron and torch were­c oordinated from thesame design concept. This
was a ­traditional ­Chinese
scroll based on the ‘Lucky
Clouds’. This scroll ­motif
was a major ­componentof the opening ­ceremony.
But today, the ­remainsof the massive cauldron,
now removed from the
Bird’s Nest roof seems a little out of ­context. Will this beused again for the Beijing 2022 ­Winter Games?

around the world in Adelaide, Australia – the farthest
geographic distance the development of an Olympic
cauldron has been assigned. But that still didn’t
insulate it from a lawsuit and charges of plagiarism — afirst for an Olympic cauldron.
In 2013 the New York-based design firm Atopia
international, claimed that LOCOG and designer Thomas
Heatherwick had not only plagiarised the cauldron
design but all the pre- and post-lighting protocol
surrounding the 2012 cauldron as well
They had an office in London and claimed to havesubmitted plans in 2007. Eventually in 2014, LOCOG madean out of court settlement with Atopia. Heatherwick’s
prototype was later put on display at the Museum ofLondon.

London 2012. Certainly the most original, innovative andexclusive cauldron ever created for an Olympic Games. It
was the third time that London had hosted the Games.
They chose to go with an ephemeral cauldron – one thatwas not intended to remain in one piece after the Games.
Instead all that remain are the petals (or “cauldronettes”
as I called them). The petals were slightly larger for the
Olympic cauldron. Each of the 204 Olympic-petals were
given to a participating National Olympic Committee.
The same gesture was made for the Paralympic cauldron
formed of 164 smaller petals.
The trend of disguising the location of the cauldron
from Sydney has been followed by Vancouver andLondon. These appeared as complete surprises whenthe moment came for the lighting of the cauldron.
In London the cauldron was lit by young athletes eachnominated by a British Olympic champion. The cauldron
was positioned centre field for the opening ceremony.
It was moved to the end of the finishing straight before
the athletics competitions began.
So extreme were the measures taken to ensure theLondon cauldron’s secrecy that R&D and testing stages
were contracted to the FCT Flames Company halfway

Summary
Of the 21 cauldrons which have burned since 1912 inmain stadia of the Olympic Games, only 18 are present
in their original form. The Helsinki – exists as a copy.
Those for Stockholm 1956 and Rome 1960 have not been
located.
What can be expected of Rio de Janeiro in 2016? The
Organising Committee has until now remained silent as
to the design.
The opening and closing ceremonies are planned for
the Maracanã Stadium. This will not then see action
until the eleventh day when men’s and women’sfootball semi-finals are held there.
In the meantime the athletics, the centre piece of the
Olympic Games take place in the Estádio Olímpico JoãoHavelange. It seems inconceivable that these events willtake place without an Olympic Flame as the backdrop.
Organisers have suggested that the cauldron may besited ‘downtown’ but have not yet revealed the location.
Might there also be a flame that moves around? Whatever
happens, the world looks forward eagerly to the magic
moment when the cauldron is lit. The infamous 1936 Games in Berlin
By Richard Schoonderwoert (NOC*NSF)		

His father reached the age of 99 and his sister is still
alive. And she is two years older! Hans Maier was bornin July 1916 in Madioen, a city on the island of Java, inwhat was then called the Dutch East Indies, the country
nowadays known as Indonesia. His father was an officer
in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (Koninklijk
Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger, KNIL). Maier Senior was oneof the founders of swimming club ­Malangse Zwemclub
in Malang in 1924. Of course the young Hans also joined
the club. “We had a 25 metres pool where we played ourgames.”
Maier, who revisited the place eight years ago at the ageof 91, still remembers it very well. “Our rivals came from
Surabaya. One swimming club was only for men and wascalled “De Krokodillen” (the Crocodiles, RS). The club for
women was called “De Waterjuffers” (the Dragonflies,
RS). Surabaya was a two hours ride from Malang. That’s
why we sometimes met halfway, in the city of Trètès.
There was a small swimming pool, called Het Nimfenbad(the Nymph pool, RS). The water in the pool streamed
directly from the mountains, so it was quite cold.”

Water polo player
Hans Maier, whoturned 100 on
11th July, is the lasts­urviving Dutch­Olympic ­participantfrom 1936.
Photo: NOC*NSF

A leather footballThis August it will be 80 years since the Olympic Games
were held in Berlin. They turned out to be infamousGames, because Chancellor Hitler used the event for
propaganda purposes, to glorify his ideals of racial
supremacy. Hans Maier played seven matches for the
Dutch water polo team at the Olympics in 1936. He is the
only Dutch competitor who is still alive.
Despite celebrating his hundreth birthday this month,
Hans Maier still lives independently in an apartment in
The Hague. His body has some limitations – he uses awalker and his hearing is not what it used to be – but
mentally he is still in good condition. Maier is eveninvolved with a website, www.humandutiesnetwork.
com, where people can debate the unique andessential role of man in conserving our planet. The
secret of his age? “Stay interested”, he answers. This
becomes apparent during the interview. Regularly
Maier is the one who asks the questions. “How do the
Dutch water polo women play these days? What kind of
material are these new balls made of?” And he admits:“His genes were to his advantage as well.”

JOH 2 | 2016

The infamous 1936 Games in Berlin

Water polo in the past was not the same as the game weknow nowadays. “It looks quite easy this days”, Maier
states. “In our time we had to swim back to the baseline
after every score. It was not permitted to move during
dead game moments. We wore caps without earmuffs.
1936 Olympic participants who are still alive
Years
104
102
101
100

98
97
96

95
94
93

Name
SportsBirthdate
Schaller, Simone (USA)		 ATH22 AUG 1912
Lysak, John (USA)		 CAN16 AUG 1914
Romsersa, Jos (LUX)		 GYM		 1 NOV 1915
Olszewski, Alfons (POL)		 SAI		 5 APR 1916
Havelange, João (BRA)		 SWI		8 MAY 1916
Maier, Hans (NED)		 WAT		11 JUL 1916
Kiefer, Adolph (USA)		 SWI		27 JUN 1918
Tunçalp, Talat (TUR)		 CYC		 1 AUG 1919
v. Hartungen (Heinze), 		 DIV		25 MAY 1920
Susanne (GER)
Cummings, Iris (USA)		 SWI		21 DEC 1920
Cividino, Elda (ITA)		 GYM		13 DEC 1921
Langdon, Joan (CAN)		 SWI		 2 DEC 1922
Vandernotte, Noël (FRA)		 ROW		25 DEC 1923

According to information from Paul Tchir, OlyMADMen

51

You could turn them around and then they had adifferent colour. And the ball was completely different.
We simply played with a leather football. During thematch it became heavier and heavier, because of thewater. These modern balls seem very light.”
Later Maier moved to Bandung, where he playedfor “Neptunus”. “Our swimming pool was called
Tjihampelas. In 2008 I went back there again. It had
hardly changed. We played against clubs from Batavia,
the city we now know as Jakarta.”
There were about five more places on Java like thiswhere people played water polo at a reasonable level.
This turned out to be the foundation for a strong groupof swimmers, which turned out to be fortuitous for the
Dutch. From the ten Dutch water polo players at the 1936
Olympic Games, five were raised in the East Indies. “Wewere good swimmers”, Maier remembers with a smile.
“In 1936 a swimming event was held in The Hague:
Holland against the Indies. Well, the Indies won thatevent.”

Netherlands competed for the first time at a European
Championship, but the performance was far fromsuccessful. The squad ended up last in the group stage
and finished level with Italy in ninth place overall. The
failure of the water polo team was in stark contrast to thesuccesses of the Dutch female swimmers, who collectednumerous international titles in those days. The Dutch
Swimming Association KNZB saw the appointment oftrainer Ma Braun, who coached her daughter Marie in
1928 to the Olympic title in the 100 m backstroke, as the
key to the success.
The KNZB felt that the water polo squad should havea permanent trainer as well. Coach Frans Kuyper was
appointed to lead the Dutch men on their way to the top.
Hans Maier was selected for the central training, twice aweek in the Sportfondsenbad in Amsterdam, the sameplace he studied. “It was tough”, he tells. “I rememberthat between colleges we went by bike to the swimming
pool, to swim for half an hour. On Fridays we slept on
camp beds and in the weekends we trained very hard.”

Discrimination

The Dutch water polo
team in Amsterdam
before their departurein 1936.
Photo: Anthony Th. Bijkerk Archive

At that time Maier already lived in the Netherlands.
Two years earlier he moved to Amsterdam to study
at the Higher Civic School. Via Piet Metman, a friend
he knew from the East-Indies, Maier joined the club
“Het Y”. The trainer was Fritz Grossmann, a German.
Maier: “Grossmann was Jewish and had fled from
Hitler. But at that time we weren’t aware of that at all.”Central training“Do you know what pleased me a lot? The achievementsof the water polo players, who have performed
honorably with their fifth place.” Karel Lotsy Chef deMission of the Dutch team at the 1936 Games in Berlin
was very positive in his reaction to the performanceof the Dutch seven when he spoke to the Leeuwarder
Nieuwsblad.
How different the situation was two years earlier, at theEuropean Water Polo Championship in Magdeburg. The

52

The squad was training for their next big event - theOlympic Games in Berlin. Soon after the first reports
about the prosecution and discrimination of Jews,
political opponents and others appeared in the media.
Discussions were held about moving the Games
away from Germany, but it didn’t get any further than
discussions.
Some individual athletes decided not to participate.
Among them were some well-known Dutch sportsmen
and -women, like boxing champion Ben Bril andathletes Tollien Schuurman and Wim Peters. Water polo
goalie Hans Paerl – from Jewish origin – withdrew for thesame reason. He was replaced by Joop van Woerkom. It
didn’t cause any concerns for the other players. Maier:“It wasn’t an issue. At that time I didn’t even know thatHans Paerl didn’t want to go because of the anti-Semitic
attitude of the German government. We were simply
informed: Hans cannot go.”Three swimming suits
The Dutch water polo squad for the Olympic Games
consisted of Kees van Aelst (center forward, player of
HZ & PC), Lex Franken (left forward, Zwemlust), Ru de
Hamer (defender, HZ&PC), Jan van Heteren (defender,
HZ & PC), Hans Maier (right forward,’tIJ), Soesoe van
OostromSoede (defender, ‘t IJ), Gerard Regter (defender,
RZC), Hans Stam (defender, HZ&PC), Herman Veenstra(goalie, Het Y) and Joop van Woerkom (goalie, ZIAN).
The team traveled to Berlin in an optimistic mood.
A clear victory in Amsterdam over Belgium, one month
before the tournament, contributed to this state of mind.

“Before we speak about the value of this triumph, let
us acknowledge that this fine result is a well-deserved
reward for our players and trainer. Thanks to the drastic
and significant change in training from Frans Kuyper,
our national team made great progress. It was questionof time before we would reap the rewards … Well, here
they are: a 5-1 victory over the strong Belgians!”
This is how the magazine Sport in Beeld/De Revueder Sporten commented in the edition of 6th July 1936.
“Belgium always had a better team than we had”, Maierremembers. “And now we beat them with 5-1. That wasquite extraordinary!” And with a smile he adds: “By theway: that match costed me three swimming suits … We
didn’t have swimming trunks at that time.”
In Berlin the Belgian team was again one of the
opponents of the Dutch. The clash ended in 1-1. The
matches against Uruguay and Great Britain ended ina draw as well. The Dutch beat Team USA, Austria andSweden and lost to Hungary, a few days later the winnerof the gold medal. The Netherlands ended at the fifth
place.

Search lights

In Amsterdam a strong
campaign groupagainst the Berlin
Games was formed­under the name
“De Schijnwerper”(headlights). This wasa front for the refugee
assistance group“Rode Hulp” (RedHelp).
It sent postcards toTokio!’ (I call the youth of the world to Tokyo, RS). That
is where in 1940 the next Olympic Games should havebeen held. But because of the war they were of course
cancelled.”“The show was beautifully directed by the Germans.
Big search lights had been positioned around thestadium, with the lamps focused like bars in the air.
Slowly the beams moved towards each other, that gave
the impression that you were standing in a huge dome oflight. But actually it was military equipment, later usedby the Wehrmacht to track English bombers in the air.”Dutch Olympic­participants. These
contained the namesof German working
class sportsman who
had been sentenced tolong prison sentencesby the Nazis. Thiswording on this card,
sent to Martinus­Osendarp, said “Do you
still believe that theDuring the Games Maier hardly noticed that the event
took place in a country with a dictatorial regime. “Forus it was just a great sports celebration. It was very wellorganised; you can leave that to the Germans. The total
focus was on sports. The Nazi’s took advantage of this.
They promoted their country as a strong and modern
nation. We didn’t know that this was their underlying
objective.”
Maier remembers how they distorted the facts. “Since
ancient Greece there has been an Olympic salute. It isdone with your arms sideways stretched to the public.
The Nazi salute is with your arms stretched forward.
At the opening ceremony of the Games the French
team did the Olympic salute, but the Nazi’s called it ‘aGermanic salute’. The Americans held their hats in frontof their hearts when they entered the stadium. Thatwasn’t appreciated.”
The Dutch water polo team did not attend the opening
ceremony. The swimming events were in the second
week of the Games. The athletes were housed at the
Olympic Village, which they had to pay for. The Dutch
found it too expansive to keep the swimmers for a week
in the village without competition, so they decided toarrive later.
Maier does remember the closing ceremony. “Thatwas very impressive. It started with the Awards
Ceremony, the Germans called it ‘die Siegerehrung’.
Then followed a speech of IOC President de BailletLatour. At the end an enormous bronze bell that hungat the stadium was tolled. Enormous speakers sounded
the announcement: ‘Ich rufe die Jugend der Welt nach

JOH 2 | 2016

The infamous 1936 Games in Berlin

Great success

Olympic Games in­Berlin can be a free andAfter the Games, as the train with the Dutch teamreturned to the Netherlands, an enthusiastic crowd
welcomed the athletes. The magazine Sport in Beeld/De
Revue der Sporten looked back on the Olympic Games inthe edition of 17th August 1936. The magazine praised theorganisation of the event: “Apart from sympathies andantipathies, the organisational and sportive success of
the Germans must be avowedly recognised. This greatorganisation, this huge harvest of prizes unmistakably
show the strength and tremendous energy of our youth.
Germany has to take care for the Olympic hangover,
but at this moment the honest and objective reviewer
should acknowledge the great success of the Germans.”
Critical questions about their participation at the
Olympic Games in Berlin came later. Maier: “Afterwards
people spoke about the ‘Hitler Games’. But before … ?
People should be aware that Mussolini had by this time
been dictator of Italy for ten years longer than Hitler.
Hungary was governed by Admiral Horthy and the Soviet
Union by Stalin. So we were familiar with an autocratic
form of government. The strange thing is that at thattime we didn’t see the true face of the German regime.
Off course we only had radio and newspapers to inform
us. And further to the East, was the dark power of theSoviet Union. Hitler was against communism. I will
not say that because of that he had our sympathy in
the Netherlands, but the people were more afraid ofcommunism. We never foresaw that we would become
victim of the Nazi’s ourselves as well.” democratic coming­together of all sportsmen?” But only in a
few cases did the postcards reach their intended targets. Many
were intercepted by
the Gestapo.
Illustration: German
Bundes­archiv R 58/2320

53

The Centaur from Warendorf
By Volker Kluge		Half man – half horse:the centaur (represented here in the­Metopen relief at theParthenon in Athens).
This people was­considered a savage
race, but among them
there were also wise
and kind centaurs suchas Zeus’s son Chiron.
Right: Hans Günter
Winkler and “Halla”.
Photos: Volker Kluge Archive,
Wikipedia

Warendorf in Westphalia is Germany’s number one
horse town. One of its main streets is named in honour
of Dr. Gustav Rau, the well-known hippologist. In 1912
he called into life the German Olympic Committee forHorseriding (DOKR) in preparation for the 1916 Games tobe held in Berlin. Since 1950 the federation has had its
headquarters in Warendorf.
The town has produced many well-known riders, but
none quite as revered as Hans Günter Winkler. With fivegold medals and one silver and one bronze, he is still
the most successful showjumper in the world fully 60
years after his first triumph. This idol of German sport isoften spoken in the same breath as “Halla”, the brownmare with whom Winkler won gold at the 1956 Olympic
Equestrian Games in Stockholm. He had previously
become world champion twice on her back.
In fact both names could be spoken in a single breath.
Der Spiegel once used the concept “centaur”. This was
the name in Greek mythology for the extraordinary
creatures who were half man and half horse.1 The
magazine referred to the Tattersall theory of the poet
prince Goethe. In 1801 he visited a hippodrome in
Göttingen and observed: “human beings and animals
merge here to such an extent into one that it is impossible
to say who in fact is training whom.” 2

A guest in the “Birkenhof”
As befits his status, Winkler lives opposite the Olympic
Committee in Dr. Rau Allee (Avenue). His extensive
property “Birkenhof” lies hidden behind walls and talltrees . There is no nameplate. He was once highly tuned
to the needs of public relations but no longer values
inquisitive gawkers.
The books that have appeared about him and his
horses could fill a small bookcase. Winkler himself has
written extensively on his career. And yet “HGW” , as he isalso known, is willing to receive visitors.
His appearance on this particular morning was delayedso there was an opportunity to admire the well-tended
garden with a pond in which 24 colourful kois splash
about. Each of these are estimated at 70,000 EUR. Birds ofprey, we learn, are held off by an electronic barrier.
Now the horseman himself is approaching – with shortsteps and bent with age, but nonetheless friendly and54

with a lively gaze. His employers had revealed earlier that
he was in good form. Herr Winkler – how else could he be
addressed? – will be 90 years on 24th July. He is last of aline whose names echo like thunder: d’Inzeo, Jonquèresd’Oriola, Goyoaga, Thiedemann …
A decade ago Winkler was described as “unbelievablyfit”.3 But for some time his health has not been of thebest. He speaks softly, but in clear sentences. To enquiries
about his health he tells of a visit to the circus, where hesat in the front row. There was an act with an elephant,
which let its leg hover over his head, without touchinghim. Good training, he thought, reliant on the fact thattamer and animal like each other. And so to his training
and career.

All his dreams were destroyed
Winkler was born into an age when horses, not petrol
vehicles dominated in the streets whether in front
carriages or with a rider on their back. Apart fromprofessional horse-racing, most riding was done by thearmy, provided one was an officer. The ordinary soldierscame from the mounted artillery. This had been forced todisband as one of the conditions imposed on Germanyby the victorious powers after the First World War. This
was time of great crisis for Warmblood breeding. Dr. Rau
did his best to solve this by introducing new incentives
for breeders in 1919.
In civilian life, the horse was first and foremost aworking animal without any higher calling. It had toearn its fodder by its own efforts. The farmhands rodeespecially fond of Brinckmann of whom it was said
that he had always sat best on his horse. The Second
World War deprived Brinckmann of possible Olympic
successes, but later on, he made his name as a
showjumping course builder and trainer to the German
team.
In 1939, Winkler moved to Frankfurt on Main, where
his father managed a private competition stable in the
hippodrome. From then on, he dreamed of becoming
The ‘’treasure house’’in the “Birkenhof”:
in a riding career of
38 years, Hans Günter
Winkler won over1000 prizes.
Photo: Peter Frenkel

mostly for pleasure at the most at country fairs. The
nobility and the super-rich preferred English or Irish
horses. They could afford to ride for sport.
Winkler did not belong in either category. And yet fatetreated him well. When he was six years old, he moved
with his parents to Dortmund, where he lived on a farmestate. His father, Paul Winkler did not inherit a farmin his East German homeland because it was always
the eldest son of the family who inherited. Instead hefound a job as a riding instructor, and thus free training
was guaranteed for his only child.
“Hansi”, as he was called by his parents, grew up
amongst rich people. He was a well brought-up boy
who could hold his own in polite society. This brought
him his first contact with horse-riding. It came at theWestfalenhalle in Dortmund, where the celebrities ofthe Hanover Cavalry School appeared. Under Hitler, they
had risen in prestige.
One of the “fill-in acts” was the young Winkler, who
was allowed to ride in on his pony. After that he called
the animal “Micky”. This name the cavalry officers
had given Hans-Heinrich Brinckmann. Winkler was

JOH 2 | 2016

The Centaur from Warendorf

on of these proud cavalry officers. But instead he wascalled up and trained as an anti-aircraft auxiliary.
He saw out the war in Thurinigia. His squad was justundergoing instruction on the subject “behaviour
towards superiors”, when American tank grenades
landed in close proximity. Two days later he became aprisoner of war, but managed to escape. Dishevelled
and suffering from serious jaundice, he made his way toFrankfurt, where he found his mother and a bombedout apartment. His father had been killed on theWestern front in the last weeks of the war.
Until then Winkler had enjoyed a wonderful childhood
and adolescence. There was Hitler, but the dictator had
appeared to him like a Fata Morgana. Now all his dreams
were destroyed – he was 19 and unemployed. “I shouldhave known all that”, he says, looking back.

Stableboy for the Americans
Yet someone like him, well built and in love with life,
was not to be subdued. Ambition always remained hisstrongest motivating force. His first post-war location

55

Hans Günter Winkler,
who turned 90 on
24th July, in the gardenof the “Birkenhof”,
where there is also amemorial to “Halla”.
Photos: Peter Frenkel

was the destroyed racetrack in Frankfurt-Niederrad.
Restored by August 1948, the American military
government permitted galloping and trotting races.
Otto Wehe, a well-known trainer, employed Winkler
a starving returnee from the war as a groom andoccasional jockey.
The horses belonged either to American officers or
black marketeers, sometimes these were one and thesame. The new currency of the time was Chesterfield
cigarettes. But Winkler still had the image of the smart
cavalry officers in his head and imagined greater things.
He wanted to ride for the country that lay in ruins – forGermany.
To begin with it was about survival. Rescue camenearer with the silhouette of the upmarket climatic spaof Kronberg in the Taunus mountains, where a widow’s
seat had once been built for the German empress
Victoria – Schloss Friedrichshof. After the end of the
war the Americans had taken over this distinguishedresidence and installed a officers’ casino there. It wasalso used on occasions as the residence of the Supreme
Commander in Europe. A large number of German staff
were needed to help run the place.
But mowing lawns was not to the taste of theoutspoken young man. A position of stableboy however
would be better. Chance helped Winkler, for the royalstables were managed by an acquaintance of his father.
Herr Eckhardt, former head groom of the Countess of
Hessen, had kept together a large proportion of theequine stock and handed it over to the Americans.
With this job Winkler not only earned his grocery
ration card, but also received his baptism in the worldof equestrianism. He cleaned out the stables, fed,
saddled and generally looked after the animals – anautodidactic practice, which was cultivated by him
more and more. Almost without guidance – purely
through observation of other riders – he taught himself
the most important dressage lessons. He was always thefirst into the stable and the last to leave.

56

As the horses were supposed to move about, he received
permission to ride them out. These included the twohorses which stood ready at 9 o’clock every morning
for the Military Governor Dwight D. Eisenhower. To be
sure Winkler still had no reputation, but always wellpolished shoes and a decent haircut. After four weeks
he was therefore allowed to accompany the generalwhen he rode out into the country without an escort.
From then on he was no longer called “Hey you!” but“Herr Winkler”.
Seven years later, in October 1954 he was received in the
Oval Office for Eisenhower had now become President of
the United States. “That was a wonderful time”, recalled
the President. But when he offered Winkler adoption, he
refused with thanks, thinking of his mother.
To ensure his daily bread on a permanent basis, in1948 Winkler completed his training as a merchantin a textile wholesale firm in Frankfurt. He bought achestnut gelding called “Falkner” for 500 Reichsmarks
with the company owner’s daughter. The two of themrode out each evening. At the weekends they travelledfrom arena to arena with the horse. At last on 10 th
October 1948 Winkler ‘harvested’ his first success.
In his last book he listed “Some of my most importanthorses” – the list contains no fewer than 37 names.
Among others the gelding “Lausbub”, which heacquired from an American. Others were entrusted tohim, including the Holstein gelding “Orient” in 1948.
This soon became a top class mount, on which Winkler
won the “Grand Prix of Aachen” in 1954.

Plebeian but temperamental
Although he won medals on seven different horses
at six Olympic Games, two World and five European
Championhips, even now everyone speaks only about“Halla”, even though this horse died 37 years ago.
In Warendorf a way was named after her, and alifesize statue created by the Berlin animal sculptor Hans

Joachim Ihle stands in front of the Olympic Committee
offices. The model, whose height is given as 1.71 metres(17.5 hands), survived the inauguration.
The statue in bronze depicts the wonder mare inelegant pose, head erect and ears attentively prickedas was her wont when she approached a fence with
Winkler. The Hessian mare conveys the impressionof sovereign elegance, on the other hand she stands
pleasantly unpretentiously and modestly. This is wellknown as the sign of true greatness.
History knows monuments to many horses, whichwere mostly ridden by kings and emperors. In the
Berlin boulevard Unter den Linden it is still possible toencounter the favourite horse of Frederick the Great,
which answered to the name “Condé”. It was cast in
bronze by Christian Daniel Rauch in 1851. The original
mare, a fleabitten grey gelding, which died in 1804 at
the age of 38 (and survived “Old Fritz” by 18 years) was
then stuffed. The cadaver was destroyed by fire during
the Second World War. Only the bones now remain.
By contrast “Halla” is of plebeian origin. Of her mother“Helene” it is only known that she was a “booty horse”,
ridden in the war by a German officer. Why he letallowed her to remain in the stable of Darmstadt farmer
Gustav Vierling is unknown.
Vierling gave the horse to his son. At country
tournaments the son demonstrated that the lady,
although getting on in years, could still jump
respectably. As Vierling thought it a shame to harness
her to the plough, he wished for a foal from her, a duty
entrusted to the trotting stallion “Oberst”. After elevenmonths, on 16th May 1945, a ‘peace baby’ came into
the world, entered in the studbook under the name“Halla”.
The temperamental little horse began her career on
the trotting track at Frankfurt-Niederrad, where she
performed creditably. But it soon became clear thatthe mare, despite her speed, could not keep up withthoroughbreds. At the Helsinki Olympics of 1952, theGermans were readmitted to the Olympic fold. As theGames approached, a call for fresh equine material rangout, Vierling offered the Olympic Committee the chance
to take over “Halla”.
Meantime Dr. Rau, the Oberland head groom, had
asked Winkler if he would like to come to Warendorf,
with the prospect of a job. Thereupon Winkler made aquick decision and to transported his three tournament
horses and his small amount of luggage to Warendorf.
When he arrived, he discovered he was not welcome.
The job had been given to a former officer.
Before he travelled back to Frankfurt in disappointment, he was generously permitted to accommodate
his horses in the former German Army stables, where
there was not a single piece of wood left. Friends helped
him out of the fix.

JOH 2 | 2016

The Centaur from Warendorf“Do you want the mare?”In those days, anyone who wanted to achieve anythingin equestrianism had to be versatile. People like
Winkler were referred to disparagingly as “bush riders”
or “all over the place riders”. In reality they alreadyincorporated the attributes of the modern sports rider.
While others regarded themselves as legitimate only
through their aristocratic origins, for people like him
striving after records was a thoroughly honourable
target.
Winkler contested races, and he was just as much athome in the military as in showjumping. He travelled
the country with a chestnut gelding called “Rebell”
and collected awards but these were not recognised in
Warendorf.
Even if he was a nobody there, people rememberedthat he had been on his first meeting with “Halla”
he had got along with her, the only one to do so.
Three months later, on 13th July 1950, Winkler received
a telegram, in which Dr. Rau asked if he could ride
“Halla” at a three-day-event. Winkler was willing,
but afterwards he had to return the horse back to the
Military rider Otto Rothe, who had been selected for
Helsinki.
But Winkler remained on the list. In 1951 he wascalled to a four week long Olympic course where which
he received instruction for the first and only time. His
trainer was Marten von Barnekow who had been the
instructor at the main SS riding school in Munich-Riem.

A memorial to the“wonder mare” stands
in front of the German
Olympic Committee
for Horseriding’sbuilding in Warendorf.
Photo: Peter Frenkel

57

The colourful openingof the Equestrian
Games on 10th June
1956 in the Stockholm
Olympic Stadium.
Photos: Volker Kluge Archive

In 1936 von Barkenow was a member of the gold medal
winning German squad in the Olympic Team Grand Prix.
Once Winkler had found a job in the joinery, he
was allowed to back to the ‘riders’ town’. In time, Dr.
Rau became accustomed to his presence. Yet for the
gentlemen rider he remained an intruder. For all hiscompetitive successes, second and third finishes had
had qualified him for Helsinki – what he lacked was thereal smell of the stable.
It was only a question of time until he was reported
to the Olympic Committee, although he himself had
previously informed them that in Kronberg he had been
active for the Americans as “assistant riding instructor”.
Without being interviewed he had to give up his
international riding permit. Suddenly he was classed asa “professional”, ineligible for the Olympic Games. To be
sure the officers rode there, but they were “amateurs”.
“Halla’s” career seemed to be ended prematurely in asimilarly ignominious fashion. On 16th October 1951 she
was ridden by an unfamiliar rider with the intention ofcompeting in the Military competition. But the result
was devastating. In dressage she showed herself to bea total disaster. In jumping she lacked feeling for the
obstacles and then she bolted with her rider. It was a
bitter blow for farmer Vierling when Dr. Rau telephoned
to ask him to collect his animal, because nothingsensible could be done with her.
Some time later Vierling came to Warendorf to takepart in a breeders’ conference. He met Winkler in the

58

street, where he spoke a few words, but they were toprove decisive ones for man and animal: “Herr Winkler,
you were the only one who came to terms with thehorse. Do you want the mare?”Winkler was rather short of money that is certain, but
he remained determined to finally own a horse that
he would not have to give back on the next occasion tosomeone else. The deal was sealed with a handshake.
Winkler worked with “Halla” for a year and a half. By
this time she understood what he wanted from her. He
watched her for hours and came to the verdict that she
was a mixture of “crazy goat” and “genius”. Der Spiegel
concluded: “She is a real child of the post-war period”. 4
But then everything came good. At a country
tournament Winkler had got to know Inge Fellgiebel,
who was ten months older than him. She was thedaughter of Bad Harzburg-Bündheim‘s regional headgroom, Hans Fellgiebel. His elder brother General Erwin
Fellgiebel, chief of the Wehrmacht’s Communications
Troops, had been hanged by the Nazis as a ­c oconspirator in Stauffenberg’s plot to assassinate Hitler
on 20th July 1944. As a family member the brother was
imprisoned as a “Sippenhaft”.
Hans Günter Winkler and Inge were not yet a couple,
but they agreed that they would found a “private
stables” to make themselves independent from the
Olympic Committee. Inge moved with her horses toWarendorf, and everything became easier. She took over
the administration and conducted the correspondence,
which later took on unexpected dimensions.
Good news came from Helsinki as well. Fritz
Thiedemann, a down-to-earth farmer from Holstein
who had emerged from the tournament stable of theSupreme SA Leadership (OSAF) in Potsdam-Krampnitz
had surprisingly won Olympic bronze on “Meteor”.
“Fatty”, as “Fritze” called the brown gelding, was later
also cast in bronze. 5
For Winkler, the most important target was a place atthe next Olympic Games. To achieve that goal, he had
first to regain his amateur status. The President of theGerman Sports Federation (DSB), Willi Daume, had put
in a good word for him. The pair knew one anotherfrom their days in Dortmund when Daume had been ahandball goalkeeper.
After that, Winkler’s first foreign competition led him
to Bilbao in Spain, and it ended in fiasco when he fellhead over heels from his horse. And yet the year ended
well. With 18 victories he topped the rankings and wasregarded as “German champion”.
Winkler’s main horse at that time was “Rebell”, withwhom he rode the first international prize. Soon afterthat the horse was sold by its owner. “Halla”, now sevenyears old, was still considered a newcomer. She was also
regarded as ‘’difficult’’. And yet it was clear: her future
lay in jumping.

“Halla” was the diva
When it comes to the question of animal intelligence,
there are usually more questions than answers.
Generally the chimpanzee is thought to be our cleverest
relative.
Although horses are not ranked in the top ten, Winkler
remains convinced that “Halla” was very intelligent. Asa foal, she was often alone on the farm. A wire fence
1.30 metres high separated the land from a railway
embankment. Twice a day, the express thundered by.
“Halla” was unmoved. The train raced, she grazed.
In Warendorf there arose then a sporting partnership,
in which “Halla” was the diva, who knew what she
could do. Like an actress she wanted to be left in peace
an hour before performing. Then she approached
her task professionally. And yet, like a real star, sheremained unpredictable. If previously she was calm andconcentrated, she could also freak out, for instance whenthe victory wreath was to be hung round her neck.
Winkler accepted this character and developed his
own style. It was barely visible to any one watching butwhen he rode her, he used only his thighs and his knees
and spread his bodyweight forwards, which became
known as the “Winkler style”. Otherwise “Halla” knew
neither whip nor spurs nor loud commands. On thecourse, looking at the last obstacle, the rider spoke toher: “Watch out!”, “Make an effort!”, “Don’t let me
down!”. They merged like a mythical centaur.

mishap had no lasting effect apart from a bruise on thefront leg.
Before the decisive fourth round Winkler and 1952
Olympic champion d’Oriola were in front. The four faults
each of them had were due to “Pagoro”, the gelding of
the Italian Salvatore Oppes. While Winkler succeeded inmanoeuvring the Spanish “Quoniam” over the course
without fault, the Frenchman had to ride “Halla”, andwas obviously trying to copy the German.
Jonquères d’Oriola led the horse slowly up to the
obstacles, but in the triple combination his temperament
let him down. In the third last jump he estimated the
distance wrongly, so that “Halla” had the bar down andWinkler gained his first title. People were inclined tobelieve it was a conspiracy.
Anyone who still doubted Winkler’s ability had to bedisabused of that a year later, on 7th July 1955, in Aachen.
Again he reached the final, in which he again met
d’Oriola as well as the Italian Raimondo d’Inzeo and the
Briton Ronnie Dalles.
As Winkler still had the shock of Madrid in his bones,
this time he left “Halla” in the stable. Instead hesaddled up “Orient”. His competitors supposed that hewanted to make things especially hard for them, for thegelding was considered to be even more “complicated”.
Before the last round d’Inzeo led with four faults. To
finish with he had to “Voulette”, the Frenchman’s horse
and added a further four faults. After that d’Inzeo’s“Merano”, with which he had gone clear was waiting
for Winkler who had eight faults at this stage.

Lifelong friendship with Raimondo d’Inzeo
Stockholm 1956:

Slowly the German riding world realied what had they
had been missing by expelling Winkler. In Rome in 1953
came his first international victory on “Halla” after an
intense contest. He later said that no other victory had
given him as much pleasure.
Highlight followed upon highlight, especially at theWorld Championships. These had only been introducedby the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) in
1953. For that they had announced the rule that only
four riders – one per country – could reach the final,
which had as a consequence that the second best was
excluded, even if he was superior to the representativesof other teams. Criticism was also levelled at the methodof arranging the competition, that not only had therider to ride his own horse, but the finalist had also to
get on terms with being in the saddles of his opponents.
The ruling had shadowy sides. At the 2 nd WorldChampionship, which was held on 9th June 1954 in
Madrid, Winkler’s heart bled at having to watch as his
sensitive “Halla” was ridden by the Spaniard Jaime
Garcia Cruz. After a failed test jump over the barrier, heheld her so firmly that she took off much too early andlanded in the middle of the barrier. Fortunately theJOH 2 | 2016

The Centaur from Warendorf­“Halla” at the sixth
barrier – a water
jump with stationary
objects: height 1.50 m,
width 2.15 m

The competition went to a jump off between d’Inzeo
and Winkler. As required by the rules, it was the turn of
the second string horses. D’Inzeo rode well on “Nadir”,
but at the double rick a bar fell off – four faults and atime of 76.6 seconds. Next came Winkler on “Halla” who
had been short of exercise. He also had four faults, but afaster time 66.5 s.

59

Half dazed, Winkler
lost control for a­moment in the firstround, whereupon“Halla” knocked down
the last obstacle –four faults, and yet
still in first place.
­Adjacent: lots of coffee
was needed to revive
the injured rider,
Fritz Thiedemann (left)
and Alfons Lütke
Westhues (behind)
were still worried
about the team gold
medal.
Photos: Official ReportS­tockholm 1956,
Volker Kluge Archive

Another change of horses. Winkler had good control of“Nadir” a clear round in 72.7 s. Now d’Inzeo had to stakeeverything on one card. So as not to lose by having aslower time, he started so fast that he could no longer
brake. Finally “Halla” even jumped into the wall, at
which none of the horses had failed. Despite the defeatd’Inzeo fell into Winkler’s arms, beaming with joy.
On that 7th July 1955 a friendship was sealed. It was tolast all their lives. In November 2013 the telephone rang
in Winkler’s house, from which he heard of the deathof the Italian. D’Inzeo had not wanted him receive thenews through the media.

The showjumping
medallists ride
through the Marathon
Gate: from left:­Raimondo d’Inzeo­(silver), Hans Günter
Winkler (gold), Pierod’Inzeo (bronze).
Photo: Official Report
Stockholm 1956

60

“Interlude Games” with royal ambience
A North American tour in autumn 1954, when the horses
travelled by plane, brought with it many imponderables.
These would have been even greater when it cameto transporting them two years later to the Games in
Melbourne.
At the 1953 IOC Session in Mexico, Australian organisers
made it clear that foreign horse would he subject to a six
month quarantine period. The IOC now had to decide
whether to withdraw the Games from Melbourne orcancel the equestrian events. An alternative would be toseek a different location.
In the end the IOC Executive Committee resolved toinvite bids to stage Equestrian Games separate from therest of the Games held in Melbourne.6 This decision wasreached in Athens in 1954. The result read: Stockholm 25
votes, Paris 10, Rio de Janeiro 8, Berlin and Los Angeles 2each. Although London and Dublin had also expressedinterest, they withdrew before the final vote. 7
And so for the first and only time Olympic “Interlude
Games” took place In Stockholm. They were held
between the 10th and 17th June 1956. They took place
between the Winter Games, which ended in Cortina on
5th February and the Summer Games which began on
22nd November.
What looked initially like a faux pas of the Olympic
programme proved to be a fortunate stroke of fate.
Held at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium, which looked
more like a castle than a sports arena, the competitions
had a beautiful atmosphere, which was enhanced by asplended opening ceremony. After King Gustav VI Adolf
had driven in with the young British Queen in a ­fourin-hand coach, a parade of noble steeds began, whoseriders wore black or red coats or uniforms, as tradition
demanded.
The showjumpers, whose individual results were also

taken into consideration for the Team Grand Prix (thedivision took place in Rome in 1960), had to be patientto the last. A course 775 m in length awaited them. It
had 14 barriers and 17 jumps and contained many
concealed difficulties. When after the first round 18 of
the 66 participants were already eliminated, voices
were raised describing the course as too difficult. In
fact cavalry captain Greger Lewenhaupt had made asuperb job of its construction, but not a few riders had
underestimated its demands. In addition – unlike
other competitions – there was no opportunity ofgetting used to it. After the days of waiting immediate
performance was required.
Winkler entered the competition on “Halla” asfavourite. He possessed that cool concentration to trackdown the ideal line envisaged by the course designer.
His ride seemed the summit of perfection, when “Halla”
at the 13th barrier, a 1.60 m high garden fence, gave a jerk
during the jump, to avoid making mistakes. “In order
not to be thrown out of the saddle, I pressed my knees
togther as quick as lightning, and at that moment I felt astabbling pain in the lumbar region, as if someone had
stabbed a dagger into my body”, Winkler recalled.8
Half numbed, he lost control for a moment and “Halla”
knocked down the last obstacle, a 1.60 m high and 80
cm wide park wall. Four faults, and yet but he still led
from d’Oriola who had seven faults. Thiedemann, thed’Inzeo brothers and the Britons Patricia Smythe andWilfrid White, each with eight. In the team competition
Germany (28) led from Great Britain (32) and Italy (39).

“Halla” – a myth is born

A second suppository did reduce the pain, but left
the rider so dazed that he could hardly recognise the
obstacles. They poured strong coffee down him to
reduce the pain-numbing effects. There seemed no
possibility of a victory in the individual contest.
However as the British and Italians had made more
mistakes than expected points and the two other
Germans, Thiedemann and Lütke Westhues, had done agood job, the chances for the team suddenly increased.
The Italians had been well placed but were now 26
points back, so that “Halla” could even have afforded tomiss out on six obstacles.
In his own words, Winkler “hobbled in”, through theMarathon Gate and saluted in front of the Royal box,
he looked remarkably different. The bell sounded thestarting signal, whereupon “Halla” began to gallop –more cautiously and slower than usual, but thoroughly
experienced. The rider only showed her the direction.
He could be heard occasionally crying out – cries of pain,
which spurred “Halla” on to jump even higher.
Because this time the usual assistance was missing,she sought out her line alone. The fears that she mightstop at the triple combination proved unfounded. She
measured it exactly and carried her injured rider safely
across. This time it was not Winkler riding “Halla”, but
the mare riding him. Weeping with joy, Inge Fellgiebel
hugged the horse’s neck beyond finishing line.
The result was sensational. Despite his own personal
torment Winkler had managed a tournament round.
That meant gold in the individual and in the teamFor the rider there
was a gold medal,

Winkler’s injury was worse than it had seemed. Itturned out to be a serious groin strain, so there were
worries Winkler would not be able to start in thesecond round, fixed for 4 p.m. The injury also put the
chances of German victory in the team competition injeopardy. The German camp was despondent. Winkler
was handed a suppository by team veterinarian Dr. Willi
Büsing himself an eventing bronze medallist in 1952.
This brought short term relief.
After the jury had rejected the application to allow
Winkler to start later in the competition, there began arace against time. Every delay was invoked in the hopethat the medicines would finally work in Winkler’sbody. The Swedish organisers had also understood. They
slowed their tempo. Cavalry captain Dag Nätterqvist,
responsible for obstacle 5 a/b, which was hit mostfrequently, applied the measuring stick again and again
when rebuilding the obstacle, in order to gain time forthe world champion, for whom he had a high regard.
Winkler had to be lifted into the saddle for a practice
jump in the paddock but this showed however that
“Halla” would not be able to obey him consistently.

for the horse a

JOH 2 | 2016

61

The Centaur from Warendorf­winner’s ribbon.
Photo: Official Report
Stockholm 1956

The medal case in the“Birkenhof”: with fivegolds, a silver andbronze Hans Günter
Winkler is the mostsuccessful Olympic
showjumper.
Photo: Peter Frenkel

championship. Even the time – 97.4 s – was worthy ofnote. Silver medallist Raimondo d’Inzeo, had also goneclear but the eight penalties from his first round had cost
him dear. Bronze went to his brother Piero.
At the end of that 17th June 1956 all were agreed: sucha great event can never be repeated. Voices were raised
demanding that independent Olympic Equestrian
Games be staged in future. These calls were rejected by
IOC President Avery Brundage. The showjumping GrandPrix was to remain as the grand final of the Olympic
Games until 1980.
With the help of the mass media, a myth wasborn in Stockholm. On German radio Hans-Heinrich
Isenbart gave an impressive report, in which he lent
human qualities to the animal: “And Halla laughs, as
if she knew what it’s about.”9 TV reporter Hans Steiner
dared to go a step further: “Halla speaks to Winkler
and laughs as she does so: leave me in peace. I can doit.”10 This more informal reporting had consequences:
Winkler received fanmail by the sackful and thousandsof requests for autographs. Many letters were also
addressed to “Halla”. She received parcels with fodder
and a large amount of cube sugar.
The pair remained faithful to each other for anotherfour years. At the 1960 Games in Rome both received
their third gold medal in the Team Grand Prix. On 25th
October 1960 came “Halla”’s farewell after 128 victories.
After that she brought eight foals into the world. She
spent her declining years on the “Lindenhof” stud near
Warendorf, where Winkler regularly visited her. Whenthe mare died on 19th May 1979 at the age of 34, it worth
a mention on the television news programme.

“HGW” – the maximalist
Winkler as a competitive rider had a long career. He
did not take his leave until July 1986 at the WorldChampionships in Aachen. In this time he had won
more than a thousand prizes. For Germany he rode62

105 Grand Prix competitions, of which he won 41, came
second 28 times, and third 21 times.
Professionally Winkler had provided for himself
early on: From the mid 1950s he was employed in theadvertising department of a pharmaceutical company.
He wrote books, delivered horse-riding sports reports
and edited a magazine. He was team leader of theGerman showjumpers and advertised for an American
mail-order firm. In 1991 he founded a sports and event
marketing firm under the abbreviation “HGW”. His
motto is: “Anyone who has starved in their life knows
how to value prosperity.”
Yet he allows others to share in his prosperity. Winkler
has a special affection for up and coming riders, whom
he promotes as best he can. The town of Warendorf
is also grateful to its honorary citizen. When the timecomes it will inherit all his trophies.
Winkler loved variety in his private life. In 1957
married Inge Fellgiebel, the union lasted only until
1960. The following year she wed the dressage rider
George Theodorescu, who had fled from Romania.
Their daughter Monica became Olympic dressage teamchampion three times – from 1988 to 1996.
Winkler is the father of two children, bestowed on
him by the Danish Countess Marianne von Moltke, withwhom he lived from 1962 to 1970. His son Jørn lives inDenmark, his daughter Jytte in Belgium. This marriage
was followed by one with a millionaire’s daughter from
Venezuela. As a result Winkler acquired an IOC Member
as mother-in-law, Flor Isava Fonseca.
In 1994 he married for the fourth time. American
Debby Malloy was 33 years his junior. Her death in ariding accident in 2011 was a terrible blow for him. His
love for her has endured. In the house her beautiful
portrait can be seen; the grave is in the garden.
The centaur of Warendorf is unmistakably aging – hehas no connection to that, as he says. With his companies
he has just concluded an agreement for the next five
years. Even in his optimism for life “HGW” does allow
himself to be surpassed by anybody. 1Winkler. “Der Kentaur”, in: Der Spiegel, No. 34, 17 th August 1955, pp.
20-27.
2 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Tag- und Jahreshefte 1749-1806, in:
Goethe’s Werke, Vol. 31, Cotta, Stuttgart und Tübingen 1930, p. 98.
3 Karl Morgenstern, “Keine Langeweile mit 80”, in: Hans Günter
Winkler, Halla, meine Pferde und ich, FNverlag, Warendorf 2007,
p 11.
4 Der Spiegel, No. 34, 1955.
5 The statue, created in 1959 by sculptor Hans Kock (1920-2007) , still
stands in front of the regional chancellery in Kiel.
6 Minutes, IOC EC-Meeting, Lausanne, 17 th January 1954, OSC
7 Minutes, IOC Session, Athens 1954, p. 21, OSC
8 Winkler, Halla, meine Pferde und ich, p. 112
9 Hans-Heinrich Isenbart, Reportage, Olympische Reiterspiele, 17 thJune 1956, Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv (DRA)
10 Hans Steiner, Reportage, Olympische Reiterspiele, 18th June 1956,
DOK 2734/3, WDR Archives

A Ploughhorse becomesan Olympic champion
By Franz Josef Bomert

When the talk is of losses in war, the animals killed
are rarely mentioned. Yet in the Second World War, 2.8
million horses “served”on the German side alone,
1.6 million of which died between 22nd June 1941 – theattack on the Soviet Union – and the end of 1944.
What the war had started, the motorisation ofagriculture completed. In Germany, the number oftractors rose from 75,000 (1949) to 350,000 (1954), while
the number of horses was reduced from 3.8 million(1936) to around 1.2 million. The development in othercountries was similar.
With the beginning of the 1950s, however, young
farmers turned their love for the horse into an
instrument of sport. During the week, the animals
pulled carts or ploughs, and on Sunday they took part in
the numerous countryside competitions.
Among these working animals was the chestnut mare“Aula”, which belonged to the farmer Josef Holtermann
from Waltrop in Westphalia. At one of the fairs heentrusted her to the rider Theo Wulhorst, who recognised
her astonishing talent as a jumper. On 16th January
1954, he competed with her in a moderately difficult
showjumping contest in Münster, where she finishedin fifth place ahead of “Halla”, on whom Hans Günter
Winkler was to become world champion that year.
A short time later, representatives of the German
Olympic Committee for Horseriding (DOKR) appearedat the owner’s house to buy the horse from him, but
he had already agreed a contract for 2,500 DM to sell
the horse to Wulhorst and two other riders. When the
Olympic officials offered twice the price, he succeeded incancelling the sale. In compensation, an invitation was
extended to Wulhorst to come to Warendorf to develop
the horse further. But that was forbidden to him by his
father, who managed the family’s farm.
The mare, who from then on was called “Ala” (her realname having been discovered in the studbook), washanded over to 24-year-old Alfons Lütke Westhues, who
had been brought to Warendorf in 1953 to train him, likehis older brother August, as a Military rider.
But the horse was unsuited to the military. She
belonged, rather, to that phlegmatic half-breed typewhose best representative had been “Tora”, on whom
Lieutenant Kurt Hasse had become Olympic champion in1936 in Berlin. The Holstein mare, whose sire had been

JOH 2 | 2016

A Ploughhorse becomes an Olympic champion

a trotting stallion, received her last food and lodging in
Warendorf, where she had to be put to sleep in 1953 at
the age of 29.
Although “Ala’s” father had been called “Allerletzter”(Last of All), this name did not prove to be a bad omen.
Clearing 1.90 m, she was first in a record jumping
competition. However, like her rider, she lacked thetalent of the duo Winkler/Halla, which even Fritz
Thiedemann (who could claim to notable successesof his own) recognised without envy. He claimed for
himself the role of an artisan, while he regarded Winkler
as an artist.
Despite that, “Ala” performed outstandingly with
Lütke Westhues in the saddle. In 1955, the pair contested
no fewer than 36 tournaments. Their moment of glory,
however, came in 1956 at the Olympic Equestrian Gamesin Stockholm with team gold and the very respectable
11th place in the individual rankings. With brotherAugust having won two silver medals in the Military, thefamily’s happiness was complete.
As second son, Lütke Westhues (born Alfons
Hohenbrink, but in 1947 the family took the nameof the mother) could not inherit the parental farmin Westbevern, so he dedicated himself completely
after the Olympic Games to showjumping. In 1957, hecompeted 66 times with “Ala”, 22 of those abroad,which produced a profit of over 20,000 DM. A high point
followed in 1958 with a North American competition
and the winning of three international Grand Prix, as
well as a victory in showjumping in New York’s Madison
Square Garden.
Although only 30 years old, Lütke Westhues retired in1960 from competitive sport. On his departure he wasgiven “Ala”, whom he installed with his brother, who
had now taken over the farm. The hope of breedingfrom her was, however, unsuccessful. She had only one
foal, which died at birth. The mare lived only two more
years and in 1963 died of a twisted bowel.
Lütke Westhues remained in Warendorf and built up
an insurance agency. In 1977, he returned to equestrian
sport and became manager of the Federal Performance
Centre and a highly regarded course constructor. ‘’Aula’’ pulled theplough and cart forWestphalian farmer
Holtermann fromthe “town of theship canal lifts”.
With ­Alfons Lütke
Westhues in the saddle“Ala” managed an­Olympic victory in
Stockholm.
Photos: Franz Josef BomertC­ollection, Official Report­Stockholm 1956

63

The Biographies of all IOC Members
Part XXI
By Ian Buchanan (†), Wolf Lyberg (†) and Volker Kluge

375. | Fernando Ferreira Lima Bello | Portugal
A civil engineering graduate from Lisbon University, he worked mainly inthe public sector of the construction industry. He was Director of a road
construction company, member of the Registration Committee for Public
Works Contractors and Constructors, Director of the Regional Associationof Contractors and Constructors and formerly Director of the Construction
Department of the Ministry of Employment.
As a yachtsman, he competed in the Olympic Games of 1968 (17th place)and 1972 (21st) in the Dragon Class, was world champion in the Snipe Class in1953 and was runner-up at the European Championships in Star Class.
He held high office with a variety of sailing organisations and, after joining
the Portuguese Olympic Committee in 1975, he served on the Executive
Committee (1977-1980) and then as Chairman from 1981 to 1989. He was Chefde Mission of the Portuguese Olympic team in Moscow 1980.
Lima Bello was an IOC Member until 2009 and served on the Cultural
Commission, the Commission for the International Olympic Academy andOlympic Education, and on the Eligibility Commission.

Born: 27 November
1931, Santos-oVelho, Lisbon
Co-opted:
1 September 1989
Resigned:
31 December 2009
Honorary Member
from 2010
Attendance at
Sessions: Present 27,
Absent 0377. | Philippe Chatrier | France
Born: 2 February 1928,
Créteil
Died: 23 June 2000,
DinardCo-opted:
1 September 1989,
replacing Count deBeaumont
Resigned: 19 July 1996
Attendance at
Sessions: Present 8,
Absent 1

64

Chatrier was President of the French Tennis Federation from 1972 to 1993
and the International Tennis Federation from 1977 to 1991. He also served as
Chairman of the Men’s International Professional Tennis Council from 1979
to 1985.
Under his direction, tennis was reintroduced to the Olympic programme in1981, firstly as a demonstration sport at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles andthen from 1988 as a full medal sport in Seoul.
As a player, he was the French junior champion in 1945 and a member ofthe Davis Cup team (1948-1950) after which he became non-playing captainof the team (1969-1972). He was the proprietor of the publication Tennis deFrance, which he founded in 1953.
He was married to the British tennis player Sue Partridge, winnerof the 1951 British Covered Court Championships and the 1952 Italian
championship. After their divorce, he married the French golfer Claudine
Cros.
Chatrier was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1992.
A year after his death, the Centre Court of the French Open – until then called‘Roland Garros’ – was named after him.

376. | Walther Tröger | Germany
Walther Tröger’s youth was no bed of roses. His father was killed in the lastdays of the Second World War, and, when his mother died four years later,as the eldest he had to look after his three brothers. And yet he successfullycompleted his law studies at the University of Erlangen. From 1951 to 1953 he
was active as a court assistant.
As a middle-distance runner, handball and basketball player, he came incontact with student sport, where his career as an official also began. From
1954 to 1961 he served as General Secretary of the Allgemeiner Deutscher
Hochschulsport-Verband (ADH).
His path then led him to the headquarters of German sport in Frankfurt,
where, in 1961, he began in the international department, staying on until
1970. At the same time as General Secretary from then on he led the businessof the NOC for Germany for 31 years until 1992.
Tröger quickly acquired a reputation as an expert. He was Chef de Missionof German teams at eight Olympic Winter Games (1976-2002). At the requestof IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, in January 1983 he took on the roleof IOC Sports Director – initially standing in for the Hungarian Árpad Csánadi
and, after the latter’s death on 9th March 1983, for the next seven years.
He was not spared the blows of fate. In 1972, as Mayor of the Olympic Village
in Munich, he had to accept his greatest defeat when he was unable toprotect the Israeli men’s team from the assassination attempt of a Palestinian
terror commando. He was one of the four people who led the ultimately
unsuccessful negotiations with the hostage-takers.
After the Barcelona Games, Tröger succeeded Willi Daume as NOC President.
Daume had, in fact, favoured the Opel manager Hans-Wilhelm Gäb, who
dropped out through illness. In the following year Tröger was confirmedin post. He was unanimously re-elected in 1997, but in 2002 experienced
a second great disappointment when he lost the NOC Presidential election
to the Olympic swimming medallist Dr. Klaus Steinbach. Steinbach’s
candidature had been backed by supporters of a fusion of NOC and Deutscher
Sportbund (DSB), which was not promoted by him. Walther Tröger, who has
been Honorary Professor of the University of Potsdam since 1994, became
Honorary President, until 2006, when the office ceased with foundation of
the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB).
Nor were his ambitions to become a member of the IOC Executive fulfilled.
Having lost the election in 1992, in 1996 he thought he would have a fresh
opportunity. But he gave up in favour of Thomas Bach, with whom he enjoyeda subtle rivalry. Despite this Tröger, was highly regarded in the IOC because of
his great knowledge. Until his departure, he acted as Chairman of the Sport
for All Commission from 1990, and as IOC delegate for handicapped sport from1985.

Eight candidates have been pro­
posed for election to the IOC by
the Member Election Commission
chaired by HRH the Princess Royal at
the 129th Session in Rio de Janeiro.
The nominations were: Sari Essayah(FIN), racewalker, Chair of the Finnish
Christian Democratic Party; Ivo

JOH 2 | 2016

The Biographies of all IOC Members

Ferriani (ITA), bobsleigher, Presidentof the International Bobsleigh andSkeleton Federation, representing
an IF; Luis Moreno (COL), Presidentof the Inter-American Development
Bank; Auvita Rapilla (PNG), General
Secretary of the Papua New Guinea
OC; Anant Singh (RSA), film producer;

Born: 4 February
1929, Wunsiedel
Co-opted:
1 September 1989,
replacing
Berthold Beitz
Resigned:
31 December 2009
Honorary Member
from 2010
Attendance at
Sessions: Present 27,
Absent 0

Karl Stoss (AUT), Chairman of theManaging Board of Casinos Austria
AG, President of the Austrian OC;
Nita Ambani (IND), Founder andChair of the Reliance Foundation.
The addition of eight new Members
would bring the total number to 99.
(IOC/JOH)

65

378. | Carol Anne Letheren | Canada
Carol Anne Letheren was born to an unwed mother and was adopted by the
Wood Family. She studied for a BA in Physical Education at the Universityof Toronto, where she played volleyball. She graduated in 1963 and taught
at the university until 1970, when she accepted a teaching job at York
University. In 1977, she earned a Master of Business Administration. Later, shebecame a senior partner of a marketing and consulting company in Toronto.
She had a wide range of sporting interests include archery, badmintonand volleyball. But her major ambition was gymnastics and she served asa judge at the Olympic Games from 1976 to 1984, five World Championships,
two Commonwealth Games and three Pan-American Games. She was VicePresident of the Canadian Gymnastics Federation (1970-1977) and a memberof the Women’s Technical Committee of the International Gymnastics
Federation (FIG) from 1976 to 1990.
In the early 1980s she became a member of the Canadian Olympic
Association (COA). She was Canada’s first female Chef de Mission, at the 1988
Olympics in Seoul, when the 100-metres winner Ben Johnson failed thedrug test. Her deft handling of this scandal paved the way to her selection
as President of the COA in 1990. Later in the year she became a member of
the IOC.
Carol Anne Letheren collapsed while speaking to the business school
alumni of York University and died two days later of a brain aneurysm.
She was a member of the Board of Directors for Toronto’s bid for the 2008
Olympics, until her untimely death in 2001.

Born: 27 July 1942,
Owen Sound, Ontario
Died: 2 February 2001,
TorontoCo-opted:
20 September 1990
(until her death),
replacing
James Worrall
Attendance at
Sessions: Present 15,
Absent 0379. | Shun-Ichiro Okano | Japan
Born: 28 August 1931,
Tokyo
Co-opted:
20 September 1990,
replacing Masaji
Kiyokawa
Resigned:
31 December 2011
Honorary Member
from 2012
Attendance at
Sessions: Present 27,
Absent 0

66

A graduate of Tokyo University, Okano twice played international football for
Japan in 1955. He was co-trainer of Ken Nagamura, who, in 1964 in Tokyoand 1968 in Mexico City, looked after the Japanese Olympic selection. In
Mexico, the team won a bronze medal. From 1970 to 1971 Okano was the
successor of Nagamura.
He was President of Okano Eisen Co. Ltd, part-time lecturer at Tsukuba
University (1975-1976) and Director of the Japan Amateur Sports Association(1975-1991). From 1977 to 1991 he served as General Secretary of the JapaneseOlympic Committee, then as member of the Executive Board.
An active educationalist on sports-related matters, he was Director of the
Drug Abuse Prevention Centre since 1987, member of the National Councilof Educational Reform (1984-1987), member of the 14th Central Council for
Education (1989-1991) and of the National Taxation Council (1993-2004).
The many sporting administrative posts he held included President of theJapanese Football Association (1998-2002), then Honorary President (20022008), Supreme Advisor (from 2008) and President of the East Asian Football
Federation (2002-2004). He was also a Council Member of the Association of
National Olympic Committees (1979-2007) and Vice-President of the General
Association of Asian Sports Federations (1985-1990).

380. | Richard L. Carrión | Puerto Rico
Richard L. Carrión, is a scion of a financial dynasty and, like all citizens of
the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, has American citizenship. The dynasty’s
patriarch was his grandfather, Rafael Carrión Pacheco (1891-1964), who
was able to attend the American public school system. After the death of
his half-brother, who had successfully represented the Baldwin Locomotive
Company in San Juan, he took charge of the business.
After Carrión Sr. had invested in sugar, real estate and other industries, he
had dealings with the American Colonial Bank in Puerto Rico, which led to adesire to purchase a local bank. In 1893, the island was still a Spanish colony,
but in 1923 he and his elder brother founded the Banco Popular de Puerto
Rico (BPPR), which developed into the biggest and most popular bank of thefree state. He presided and led it until 1956.
The grandson was educated in the United States. He received his BA
from the Wharten School of Finance and Commerce at the University ofPennsylvania in 1974 and his MA in Management Information Systems from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976. He then joined Banco
Popular and, after his father’s death, he became the leader of that banking
corporation.
Since 1989 Carrión has been Chief Executive Officer and since 1993
Chairman of Popular Inc. and Banco Popular de Puerto Rico. He is also amember of the Board of Directors of Verizon, Director of the Federal Reserve
Bank of New York, and Chairman of the Board of Banco Popular Foundation.
Since 1992, he has been involved in producing music videos.
Under his leadership, the Banco Popular grew to become to the largest
Hispanic-owned bank in North America and one of the 30 most importantfinancial institutions in the Americas. Among other activities, he oversaw
the implementation of the ATM system throughout the branch network in
Puerto Rico and many other Latin American countries. He also spearheaded
the migration from paper to electronic transactions.
After his acceptance into the IOC, in 1991 he became a member of the
Finance Commission, in 1999 Vice-Chair and two years later its Chairman,
a position he held until 2014. From 2002 to 2014 he was a member of theTV Rights and New Media Commission. From 2006 to 2014 he led its Audit
Committee. Since 1997 he has been a member of the Marketing Commission.
He was President of the Puerto Rican Bidding Commission for the Olympic
Games in San Juan in 2004.
When Carrión stood for the IOC Presidency in 2013, he claimed in a press
statement that through his negotiations with the TV companies in Northand South America, Asia, Africa and Australia he had brought in to the IOCa total of more than eight billion dollars with sale of television rights. In his
application, he emphasised the financial stability of the IOC, whose reserves
since the start of Jacques Rogge’s period in office had risen from 86.5 to 460
million Euros. As expected, in the election on 10th September 2013 in Buenos
Aires, Carrión reached the final round, but lost by 29-49 votes to ThomasBach.

Born: 26 November

JOH 2 | 201667

The Biographies of all IOC Members

1952, San Juan
Co-opted:
20 September 1990,
replacing German
Rieckehoff
Attendance at
Sessions: Present 33,
Absent 0
Executive Board
Member No. 79
Elected Member
11 August 2004–
7 August 2008
Second term:
7 August 2008–
26 July 2012

381. | Nat Indrapana | Thailand
Born: 6 March 1938,
Bangkok
Co-opted:
20 September 1990,
replacing Dawee
Chullasapya
Attendance at
Sessions: Present 33,
Absent 0

Trained as a physical educationalist in Australia, Canada and the USA, he
was Dean of the Faculty of Physical Education at Srinakharinwirot University(1975-1977) before becoming Vice-Governor of the Sports Authority ofThailand from 1989 to 1996. He was a member of Mahidol University Council(1990-1994), a member of the Thammasat University Council (1995-1997),
Vice-President of Singha Corporation (1996-2007) and Vice-Minister ofTourism and Sports (2007-2008). Since 2007 he has also been a member of
Srinakharinwirot University.
Dr. Indrapana began his career in sports administration in variousorganisations of university sport, and, since 1978, has been a Council
member of the Asian Games Federation and of the Olympic Council of
Asia (OCA). He was Chairman of the Technical Committee of the Organising
Committee of the VIII Asian Games in Bangkok in 1978. In 1984, he became
Deputy General Secretary of the NOC of Thailand.
When he was elected to the Council of the World Taekwondo Federation(WTF) in 1996, he began to take a more serious interest in this sport. From1999 to 2009 he was Vice-President, and from 2004 Chairman, of the Reform
Committee. His other passion is trap and skeet shooting. He is Presidentof the National Association and since 2006 President of the Asian Trap and
Skeet Shooting Federation.

382. | Charles Nderitu Mukora | Kenya
Born: 18 October 1934,
Nyeri,
Central Province
Co-opted:
20 September 1990,
replacing Reginald
Alexander
Expelled:
27 January 1999
Attendance at
Sessions: Present 11,
Absent 0

68

A qualified physical education teacher from Loughborough College inEngland, he coached the highly successful Kenyan athletics teams at the1968 and 1972 Olympics. Initially a teacher and headmaster, he then went
into Government service before becoming Director of External Affairs for
Coca-Cola in Africa. From 1992, he was a Member of Parliament.
A member of the Council of the International Amateur Athletic Federation(IAAF) since 1976, he was Chairman of the Kenya National Sports Council
from 1979 to 1989. After that he was elected President of the Kenya Olympic
Association. In addition, he was 1st Vice-Chairman of the CommonwealthGames Federation.
Mukora’s career ended abruptly in early 1999, when it became known
that he had received nearly $70,000 in bribes: $35,000 from Sydney for his
vote in the choice of the host city for the Games of 2000, as well as $34,650
from Salt Lake City, which had been a candidate for the Winter Games of1998 and 2002. Mukora stated in justification that would not have accepted
any money for himself, but that rather it would have been used for ‘sports
development in Kenya’ and ‘world youth sports activities’.
Before investigations could be started against him, he followed the adviceof IOC President Samaranch and resigned as a member, so that his case nolonger required to be dealt with at the 108th Session on 17th and 18th March
1999. After that Mukora was involved in the Non-Olympic Committee (INOC),
whose Vice-President for Africa he became in 2003.

383. | Colonel Antonio Rodriguez | Argentina
An Army colonel, he was a national fencing champion in the team epée in1952 and 1957 and was the South American individual champion in 1957. He
was also the Army pistol shooting champion in 1963 and, not surprisingly,
he was an outstanding modern pentathlete. A reserve on the 1948 Olympic
team, he won a bronze medal in the team event at the 1951 Pan-American
Games in Buenos Aires.
Rodriguez moved into sports administration via the Argentinean
Fencing Federation, becoming President in 1970. He played a major rolein promoting the sports throughout his career as President of the Comité
Olímpico Argentino (COA) from 1977 to 2005 and as founder of his country’s
Olympic Academy in 1982.
He also served as President of the Organising Committee for the first PanAmerican Winter Games in La Lena in 1990, as General Secretary and thenfirst Vice-President of the Pan-American Sports Organization (PASO) and as
President of the South American Sports Organization (ODESUR).

Born: 17 March 1926,
Rosario
Died: 14 May 2007,
Buenos Aires
Co-opted:
20 September 1990,
replacing
Roberto Peper
Resigned:
31 December 2006
Honorary Member
from 2006
Attendance at
Sessions: Present 22,
Absent 0384. | Denis Oswald | Switzerland
A law graduate of the Universities of Neuchâtel, Zürich and Cambridge, he
was the winner of five national rowing titles in the single sculls and eighttitles in other events. He represented Switzerland in three successive
Olympic Games (1968-1976). In Mexico City, he won a bronze medal in thecoxed fours. In Munich, he was eighth in coxed fours as in the quadruple
sculls at the Games in Montreal.
In the meantime, he had qualified as a lawyer in 1973. He worked at aleading law firm in Neuchâtel as a partner, and some years later opened
his own practice. In 1977, he received his doctorate from the University of
Neuchâtel.
Oswald served as General Secretary of the International Rowing Federation(FISA) from 1978 to 1989 and Deputy Secretary-General of the Swiss Olympic
Association (1985-1996). In 1989, he succeded his compatriot Thomas Keller(1924-1989), who had led FISA since 1958.
From 1990 to 1993 he was President of the Bar in the Canton of Neuchâtel.
As a former athlete, he was particularly interested in sports law. He
published numerous articles about it and gave lectures at the Universities of
Neuchâtel and Lausanne. He became a judge at the Court of Arbitration forSport (CAS), Legal Consultant und 2000 Director of the International Centre
for Sports Studies (CIES) in Neuchâtel.
As President of the Association of Summer Olympic International
Federations (ASOIF), Oswald joined the IOC Executive Committee in 2000,
to which he belonged until 2012. He was Chairman of the Coordination
Commission for the Games of 2004 and 2012, Vice-Chair of the Eligibility
Commission (1992-1998) as well as a member of further IOC Commissions.
In a bid to become President of the IOC, Oswald, then aged 66, agreed tostand down as FISA President shortly before the election in Buenos Aires, but
his hopes were dashed. After receiving seven votes in the first round, he lostin the final round with only five votes.

Born: 9 May 1947,

JOH 2 | 2016

69

The Biographies of all IOC Members

Neuchâtel
Co-opted: 16 June
1991, replacing
Raymond Gafner
Attendance at
Sessions: Present 32,
Absent 0
Executive Board
Member No. 70
Elected Member:
13 September 2000–
11 August 2004
Second term:
11 August 2004–
7 August 2008
Third term: 7 August
2008–26 July 2012

Muhammad Ali* 17th January 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky† 3rd June 2016 in Scottsdale, Arizona

As Cassius Clay, he­became Olympic
champion in 1960.
In 1996 Ali lit the­Olympic Fire. Far right:
In Louisville 100,000
people formed a guardof honour for the­funeral procession of
30 km. The Olympic
flag was raised. Thenwith his immediatefamily close by,­Muhammad Ali waslaid to rest in Cave Hill
Cemetery.
Photos: picture-alliance,­O fficial Report 1960 and 1996,
Volker Kluge Archive70

The story goes that Muhammad Ali, at that time still
known as Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., ran throughthe Olympic Village at the 1960 Games in Rome andproclaimed “I am the Greatest”. Although some felt he
was a braggart, he lived up to the claim for as a boxer hewas indeed “The Greatest”.
He achieved his first successes in 1959 and 1960 atthe “Golden Gloves” and then won at the 1960 AAU
Championships. Aged only 18, he boxed at the Rome
Olympics as a light heavyweight. He beat Yvon Becaus(BEL) by technical knockout, Gennady Shatkov (URS) andTony Madigan (AUS) both on points (5-0). In the final
he defeated Poland’s European champion Zbigniew
Pietrzykowski again clearly on points (5-0).
Back home Clay and a friend were thrown out of a“whites-only” restaurant. He told of throwing his
Olympic gold medal into the Ohio river in dismay. Other
sources say that he had lost it a year after Rome. Whatever
the truth, IOC President Samaranch (photo right) presented
him with a replacement at the Centennial Games in 1996.
Ali had lit the Olympic Fire at those Games.
Clay had turned professional in October 1960. He
fought 61 bouts, of which he won 56 (37 by KO). On 25th
February 1964 he became world heavyweight champion
against Sonny Liston. Then he converted to Islam andadopted the name “Muhammad Ali”.
After nine successful defences, he was stripped of his
title in 1967 by the New York Boxing Commission because
he refused to do military service during the Vietnam
War. On 25th June 1967 Ali was sentenced to five years
imprisonment, but remained free on bail.

In 1970 the courts reversed his conviction and he wasable to continue his career. On 8th March 1971 at Madison
Square Garden, he faced the 1964 heavyweight Olympic
champion Joe Frazier but lost for the first time in his
career. Ali did beat Frazier in 1974 and then regained theworld title later that year. On 30th October he beat 1968
Olympic gold medallist George Foreman in what became
known as the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’.
In a defence of his title he beat Frazier again in 1975
in another epic encounter the ‘Thrilla in Manila’. Aftera shock reverse against another Olympic champion,
1976 light heavyweight gold medallist Leon Spinks, heregained the title a third time in 1978. Ali lost his last
fight on 11th December 1981 against the Canadian Trevor
Berbick, but many felt his previous defeat by Larry
Holmes had been even more damaging.
In 1984 it became known that Ali was suffering from
Parkinson’s disease. He struggled against the disease forthe rest of his life. He was 74 when he died. (VK/PB)

Obituaries

Iolanda Balaş, married Söter (ROU),*12 December 1936 in Timişoara, †11March 2016 in Bucharest. The twotime Olympic champion in high jumpof 1960 and 1964, whose father was
Romanian, her mother Hungarian
and a grandmother German, beganwith athletics in Timişoara andmoved to Bucharest in 1951. There,
the equally active high jumper Ion
Söter (1927-1987) became her coach –to start with unofficially and from1957 on a more formal basis. As a 17
year old, Balaş was runner-up in theEuropean Championships behind
Thelma Hopkins (GBR).
Extraordinarily slim and 1.85 mtall, she set the first of her 14 world
records on 14 th July 1956 with an
old-fashioned-looking scissors
technique and cleared 1.75 m
in Bucharest. Her last and best
performance (1.91 m in 1961) was
not improved on until 1971 when theAustrian Ilona Gusenbauer betteredit by one centimetre.
Although she spent a good five
weeks in Australia before the startof the 1956 Games, Bala ş had toaccept unexpected defeat andcame only fifth. The absence of Ion
Söter contributed to this. In 1952,
he was sixth in the Helsinki Games,
and despite setting a national
record (2.055 m) in 1956, he was not

JOH 2 | 2016

Obituaries

nominated for the Romanian teamfor political reasons.
In 1957, soon after Bala ş had
equalled the world record of theAmerican Olympic champion
Mildred McDaniel (1.76 m), she lostit to the Chinese Chen Feng-jung(1.77 m), whose performance sheout-jumped the following year by acentimetre. From then on, she wasregarded as unbeatable. During
the next eight years, she won 140
competitions consecutively, as wellas triumphing at the Olympic Gamesin Rome and Tokyo and the European
Championships of 1958 and 1962.
Surprisingly, she was missing in
1966 at the European Championships
in Budapest, having just become
the Romanian champion with
1.84 m. The official reason given
was a problem with her Achilles
tendon. But as the IAAF introduced
feminity checks at the same time,
this gave rise to speculation, as in
Budapest the coach and not Balaş
had appeared before the medical
commission, only to inform themthat she would not compete. She
competed for the last time on 10th
June 1967 at the International
Romanian Championships (1.68 m,
second place).
Bala ş, who had married Ion
Söter in 1958, worked for a while
as lecturer at Bucharest University.
After that she was a sports teacher
at a children’s and youth sports
school and from 1973 was a trainer
with Steaua Bucharest. In 1970, her
son Doru-Franky (in the photographwith his parents) was born. From1988 to 2005 Iolanda Söter-Bala şwas President of the RomanianAthletics Federation. (VK)
Klaus Siebert (GDR), *29 April
1955 in Schlettau; †24 April 2016
in Altenberg/Erzgebirge. “Sieb”,
as he was called, grew up in the
Erzgebirge, where he was accepted
into the biathlon training centre of
the East German police. His first big
year was 1975, when he came third in
the World Championships over 10 km

and at the Olympic trial races in
Seefeld where he defeated the entire
world top class.
Siebert’s time did not, however,come until the introduction of thesmall calibre rifle: in 1978 world
champion in the relay, in 1978/79
winner in the composite world cup,in 1979 world champion over 20
km and in the relay. At the Olympic
Winter Games in 1980 in Lake Placid,he achieved silver in the relay andwas fourth over 10 km.
A mechanical engineer and later
police officer, Siebert worked withyoung athletes from 1984. Among
his protégés was Ricco Gross, winnerof four Olympic gold, three silver
and two bronze medals from 1992 to2006.
From 1994 to 1998 he was trainer
at the Federal Performance Centreof Altenberg and co-trainer of the
men’s national team from 1998 to
2002. Between 2002 and 2005, he
was responsible for the shooting
training of the Austrian biathletes.
After a period as chief coach in
the People’s Republic of China, hewent to Belarus, where he coached
Darya Domracheva, the triple
Olympic champion of Sochi 2014.
Shortly before his 61st birthday hesuccumbed to cancer. (VK)Sarah Tait, née Outhwaite (AUS),*23 January 1983 in Perth, Western
Australia (AUS), †3 March 2016 in
Melbourne. She began rowing
when only nine years old. She
studied environmental science andagriculture at school, but continued
to row, making her first international
appearance at the 2000 World
Juniors, where she won a silver inthe junior women’s coxless four.
She competed at three Olympics(2004-12), the first as Sarah
Outhwaite, then as Sarah Tait,
finally winning an Olympic medal
at London with a silver in the coxless
pairs. At the senior international
level, her greatest victory came inwinning a gold medal in the eights atthe 2005 World Championships. She71

added a silver medal in the coxless
pairs at that event and returned
to add a bronze in coxless pairs at
the 2011 Worlds. During her second
pregnancy she was diagnosed withcervical (uterine) cancer. Sandra
Tait retired from rowing in February
2014 to concentrate on fighting thedisease, but it took her life when she
was only 33 years old. (BM)72

Yumin also tried to qualify for the1980 Soviet Olympic team, butfinished only third at the 1980 Soviet
Championships. After finishinghis sporting career, he worked
as a trainer, coaching the Turkish
national team. He was inducted into
the FILA International Wrestling Hallof Fame in 2009. (TK)

Sándor Tarics (HUN), *23 September
1913 in Budapest; †21 May 2016 inBelvedere, California. Sándor, also
called Alex Tarics, competed for
Hungary in water polo at the 1936
Olympics, helping his team to a gold
medal. He played on the nationalteam through 1939, once scoring
seven goals to help Hungary defeat
Germany at the (unofficial) World
Student Games in Vienna, which
made him a national hero.
In 1948 he moved to the USA toteach engineering, moving to the
Bay Area of California. There, he became a professor of architectural
engineering. He was also an earthquake specialist, helping develop
a revolutionary method of implementing seismic “base isolation”
shock absorbers under large buildings, which was used on the city
halls of both San Francisco and Oakland. He was the oldest living Olympic champion until his death at theage of 102 years. See also JOH, Vol. 20,
No. 1/2013, pp. 70-72. (PT)

Clyde Lovellette (USA), *7 September 1929 in Petersburg, Indiana; †9March 2016 in North Manchester, Indiana. Lovellette won championshipbasketball titles at every major levelof competition – NCAA, ­Olympic andNBA. During 2016, he was the only
college player to lead the nation inscoring while leading his team to theNCAA title.
After his Olympic success in 1952,
he was drafted by the Minneapolis
Lakers in 1953 and he had four goodyears for them. He subsequently
played for both Cincinnati and St.
Louis, playing in three NBA All-Star
games and making second team AllNBA one year. He finished his careerwith the Boston Celtics, as a reserve
center to Bill Russell, and it was withthem, in 1963 and 1964, that heplayed on NBA championship teams.
Lovellette was a burly fellow on
the court and was known as a bit ofan enforcer. He apparently took the
reputation with him after his playing
days – he served several years as
sheriff of his hometown. (BM/WR)

Vladimir Yumin (URS), *18 December
1951 in Omsk; †4 March 2016 in
Kaspiysk, Dagestan/RUS. The
wrestler was considered one of theworld’s best bantamweight, andlater featherweight, freestylers
in the 1970s. As a bantamweight
he won Olympic gold in 1976,
was world champion in 1974 andEuropean champion in 1975-76. Healso won silver at the 1975 WorldChampionships and bronze at the
1973 Worlds. After the 1976 Olympics,
Yumin switched to featherweight
and was world champion from 197779 and European champion in 1977.

Paul Lange (FRG), *6 February 1931
in Oberhausen; †15 March 2016 in
Oberhausen. Lange was a bricklayer
by profession. In 1960 in Rome, he
won Olympic gold in the K-1 4x500
m relay (held for the only time atthese Olympics) with Dieter Krause
and Günter Perleberg, who bothcame from East Germany, and theWest German Friedhelm Wentzke.
This was the only gold medal won bya truly unified Olympic team of thethen separate two German states.
Even before the Olympics, Lange
was K-1 4x500 m relay world champion and third in the K-2 500 m(with Miltenberger) at the 1958
championships. In the 4 x 500 m­relay, Lange also won European titles in 1959 and 1961 and a silver atthe 1957. He ended his active careerin 1963 and died after a long and­serious illness. (RR)
Zoltán Szarka (HUN), *12 August 1942
in Csorna; †18 April 2016 in Szombathely. Goalie Szarka played mostof his career from 1960-89 with one
club, Szombathelyi Haladás, except for the last seasons of his career,when he played with Sabaria SE from
1983-85 and with SC Nikitsch in Austria in 1988-89. With Szombathelyi,
Szarka won a runners-up medal in
the 1975 Hungarian Cup.
He never earned a full inter­national cap but was selected for
the Olympic squad as a reserve tofirst choice keeper Károly Fatér. At
the Olympics, Szarka played only
13 minutes, when he was subbed
in during the semi-final matchagainst Japan, which Hungary
won 5-0. His team also won the
final. After finishing his sporting
career, Szarka worked as the longtime goalkeeping coach with
Szombathelyi Haladás . (TK)
Andries Cornelis Dirk “André”
Boestra (NED), *11 December 1924 inBandoeng, Dutch East Indies; †17
March 2016 in The Hague. Boestra
was a member of the four-times
national championship team
H.H.Y.C, which later became Klein
Zwitserland in Wassenaar/The
Hague. He qualified as an engineer
and worked first for the Royal Dutch
Shell Company, then for the Lucas
Bols Company.
Boerstra played as inside rightwing in the national team at the1948 Games, where he won a
bronze medal. The Dutch teambeat Belgium (4–1), Denmark (4–1)
and France (2–0). The last groupgame was lost to Pakistan (1–6).
Nevertheless, the team made it to
the semi-final against India but
again lost, this time 1–2. For the thebronze medal, the team had to playtheir former opponent, Pakistan.
This match took place in the Empire
Stadium, Wembley, and the Dutch
team now knew their adversaries
well and the final result was 1–1.
This meant a replay was required,
which took place at Lyons’ Groundand the Dutch team emerged thewinners with a score of 4–1. Boerstra
scored one of the goals.
He was again part of the Dutch
team at the 1952 Games. However,the International Federation had
decided to change the competitionschedule. The k.o. system meant
the losing team was immediately
eliminated (with exception of thebronze medal play-off, of course).
The Dutch team beat Germany (1–0)
and won the semi-final against
Pakistan (1–0). The final was won by
India with 6–1; which brought theNetherlands a silver medal. (AB)
Tapio Mäkelä (FIN), *12 October 1926
in Nastola; †12 May 2016 in Jämsä.
Mäkelä made his international débutat the 1950 World Championships,
where he was 12th in the 18 km. At
the 1952 Winter Olympics, he won
gold with the Finnish relay team, but
lost to Norwegian Hallgeir Brenden
by 35 s in the 18 km and had tosettle for a silver. At the 1954 WorldChampionships, he again won agold in the relay and was fifth at 15
km. Mäkelä was an office worker andwas the President of the sports club
Kaipolan Vire from 1965-70. (WR)Luděk Macela (TCH), *3 October 1950
in Černolice/CZE; †16 June 2016 in
Prague. Macela started his footballcareer in his youth for SK Černoliceand Tatran Všenory. At the age of 16,
he moved to Dukla Prague, winning
the national title in 1977, 1979,
and 1982. In 1982, he moved to SV
Darmstadt 98 to play in the German
Bundesliga for three seasons,and then retired. He returned
to Czechoslovakia and becamea youth coach at SK Černolice.
Internationally, he earned 17 caps

JOH 2 | 2016

Obituaries

and scored one goal. At the 1980
Olympics he won the gold medal
with Czechoslovakia.
Between 1997 and 2001 he wasGeneral Secretary of the Czech
Football Association, and headed
the Referee Commission. He wasrelieved from his duties in 2001 andtook over the training center for
Sparta Prague. (WR)Müzahir Sille (TUR), *21 September 1931 in Istanbul; †17 May 2016
in Istanbul. Sille was a three-time­Olympian Greco-Roman featherweight wrestler, placing fourth in
1956, ­winning the gold ­medal in1960, he also took part in 1964 but
did not reach the third round. He also
won silver at the 1955 and 1958 WorldChampionships, and won a bronze
at the 1959 Balkan Champion­ships.
In 1961, he moved to later German
Bundesliga club KSV Witten 07.
After his wrestling career ended,
he returned to Istanbul to start
several non-profit organisations
mainly targeted towards helping
the homeless. (WR)Anatoly Grishin (URS), *8 July 1939
† 14 June 2016 in Moscow. Anatoly
Grishin was a sprint canoeist,
winning the gold medal with theSoviet K-4 in 1964. Two years later,
he also became world champion
with the K-4, and in 1963 he won
a bronze with the K-2 over 1000 m.
In 1967 he was European champion
with the K-4, and also won a silver
medal in 1961 and 1967, and a bronze
in 1963, all with the K-4. He also
earned 15 national titles. After his
active career he became a canoeing,rowing and sailing coach, as well as
an international referee. (WR)Oh Se-jong (KOR), *9 October 1982
in Seoul; †27 June 2016 in Seoul. In
2006 this South Korean short track
speed skater won Olympic gold in
the 5000 m relay. He had also twice
been world champion (in 2003 and2006). He lost his life in a motorcycle
accident.

Tommy Kono (USA), *27 June 1930
in Sacramento, California; †24 April
2016 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Poundfor pound, Kono (shown at the 1956
Games in the photo) is probably thegreatest lifter produced by the USA.
Between 1953 and 1959 he was undefeated in world and Olympic competition, adding six straight world­titles to his two Olympic gold medals.
He also won three consecutive gold
medals at the Pan-American Games,in 1955, 1959, and 1963.
Kono was capable of lifting at almost any bodyweight, witnessed by
his Olympic medals in three different
classes. He is the only man to ever set
world records in four different classes
and won 11 AAU Championships – inthree different weight classes. During his career he set 27 world records.
Kono was a very rare weightlifter
who also competed successfully asa body builder, winning the AAU Mr.
Universe title in 1954, 1955, and 1957.
He later coached the national
teams of Mexico and West Germany
and was the USA weightlifting
coach in the 1970s and at the 1976
Olympics. Kono was inducted into
the Weightlifting Hall of Fame in 1993
and is a member of the US Olympic
Hall of Fame and the Association of
Oldetime Barbell and Strongmen Hallof Fame. (BM)Markku Siukonen (FIN), *2 February1948 in Helsinki; †14 May 2016 in
Muurame. A long time member ofISOH, he was author or editor of morethan 140 books on sports in a career
spanning five decades, including theessential reference works on Finnish
Olympic history. He was known
as the Grand Old Man of Finnish
Olympic literature.
Markku Siukonen graduated in
sports sciences at the University of
Jyväskylä in 1970. In 1971 he became
an editor of Urheilummekasvot(Faces of Our Sport), a compilationof biographical facts on Finnish
sportspeople that grew into a seriesof 14 volumes. Before long Siukonen
put his diligence and thorough73

attention to detail to the serviceof Olympic history. The first twovolumes of Suuri Olympiateos (Great
Olympic Book) were publishedin 1978 and followed by a newvolume after each Olympic Games
until 2000. The 13th and last part ofthe series was published in 2012,
bringing the story up to date up to
and including the London Games.
Editor-in-chief and later soleauthor of the monumental work,
Siukonen became the leadinginterpreter of all things Olympic
for generations of Finnish sports
enthusiasts.
Writing on sports was not only
­Siukonen’s passion but also his
liveli­hood. He became a full-time
author of sports books, the only oneof his kind in Finland. In addition to
Suuri Olympiateos, the cornerstoneof his work was Urheilunvuosi­kirja,
yearbook of Finnish sports inaugurated in 1979. He authored 35 editions of the yearbook before retiringfrom active duty in 2014.
Markku Siukonen was an active
member and recognised Finnish
correspondent of the international
network of Olympic historians eversince his early correspondencewith Erich Kamper in the 1970’s. He
became a member of ISOH in 1996.
He received an Olympic Movement
Unity award from the IOC in 1995.
Siukonen spent his retirement
years at his home on the shore of
Lake Päijänne in Central Finland,­attending to music, nature, photo­graphy and to his family of five children and ten grandchildren. (VT)Jacobus Adrianus “Jaco” Treurniet(NED), *8 Dec. 1933 in Rotterdam; †17
May 2016 in Ermelo. After his basic
and further education, he joined
the SHELL Company and worked
his whole life for this company. He
became famous for his collection ofmemorabilia from the 1928 Olympic
Games in Amsterdam.
He originally started with collecting
books on sport, but later sold mostof them. He then changed over to74

collecting anything available about
the Amsterdam 1928 Olympic Games.
Visited flea markets, auctions
and digital websites and bought
anything available that fitted in hiscollection.
After his pension, he moved to a
new house in Harderwijk, where hecould show his collection in a special
room; his private museum. A coupleof years ago, Parkinson’s disease wasdiscovered, which made him think
about what to do with his collection.
From 2008 onwards, he tried to sell
it to several Dutch organisations,
including the Netherlands Olympic
Committee, but not one of them wasinterested.
Last year, 2015, he finally decided
to auction the collection by MPO
Auctions in Nieuwegein. Many
collectors attended the auction andmost of the important items were

sold. Several Dutch orga­nisations likethe Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam,
the City of Amsterdam, the Amster­
dam Museum and NOC*NSF, com­bined to make a joined effort insecuring important items, which
indeed succeeded in attainingsome of the most important items.
Unfortunately, Jaco ­Treurniet himself
did not have the benefit from thissale for long. We will r­emember him
as a friend. (AB)(AB = Anthony Th. Bijkerk,
BM = Bill Mallon, PB = Philip Barker,
PT = Paul Tchir, RR = Ralf Regnitter,
TK = Taavi Kalju, VK – Volker Kluge,
VT = Vesa Tikander, WR = Wolf Reinhardt)

The ISOH offers the familiesof the deceased its sincere
condolences.

Letters to the Editor
Re: Journal of Olympic History, Vol. 24, No. 1/2016
The last edition was one of the best you made so far. I really enjoyed the Herr
Meyer-case. It was interesting as well as funny. It was a kind of cabaret! What adifficulty one had to overcome to make just a picture in those days. Compare thatto what we can do today!
The story of Kahanamoku reminds us once again that there always was trouble
with the amateur rules. I did not know that Duke almost missed the freestyle
final in the 1920 Olympics. Life was simple then: he got a second chance in thesemifinal. In the same circumstances the American sprinters Hart and Robinson
were not so lucky in 1972! (Is this perhaps a story for one of the next volumes?)
It is amazing that so much could be found of the not very impressive 1900
Olympic football tournament. I noticed from Berlin ice with Black Forest Snow thatperhaps we could have had Winter Games earlier than 1924 if the 1916 Berlin Games
had not been cancelled because of the war. Xaxa’ lost gold medal (never heardof him) and the Lost Artwork were also very interesting. The hypocrisy of politics
appeared clearly from the Saarland Olympic team in 1952. The West Germans
would not recognise the GDR but did not protest at all that Saarland under its own
name participated in the Helsinki Games. All in all it was great reading.
As to the biographies of the IOC Members: About Jean Claude Ganga, Wallwork
and some others it is mentioned that they were expelled. Geesink was not expelled
but as far as I know got a warning for accepting 5000 dollars for his so-called
Olympic Academy. But I did not find trace of it in his biography. He was a great
athlete, one of the greatest we had in the Netherlands, but as an administrator he
was a disaster. He had a row with everybody of the NOC and that went on for years.
Ruud Paauw, Leiden, Netherlands

The Editor reserves the right to abbreviate reader’s letters.

Book Reviews	

Luke Harris
BRITAIN AND THE OLYMPIC GAMES 1908-1920
Perspectives on Participation and Identity
Palgrave Macmillan London 2015
pp. 289, 63.00 £, ISBN 978-1-137-49861-8
Reviewed by Philip Barker

The anniversary of the first London
Olympics in 1908 a few years backsaw a number of books appear on
the subject but most concentrated
on the organisation of those Games
alone. This is an in depth analysis of
the experiences of the Great Britain
in the Olympic arena in a decade that
saw the world plunged into war.
Although this is a study of one nation it is also very useful examinationof Olympic history in a critical period
for the movement as a whole.
Although British competitors hadtaken part in all previous modern­Olympics Harris asserts that 1908
represented Great Britain’s “first­serious entry into the festival”. In
medal winning terms, it was statis­
tically their most successful, although it should be rememberedthat in many sports, the entrants
were predominantly or even ex­
clusively British.
The makeup of the British Isles
means that even the question ofnational identity is not straightforward. For example, separate homenation teams participated in theh­ockey tournament. Harris ­examines­Scottish, Welsh and particularly theJOH 2 | 2016

Book Reviews

Irish participants at a time whenHome rule for Ireland was a burning
political issue.
Much of the text and statisticalsupport concentrates on Britain’s
achievements or otherwise on the
track.
Harris also contrasts the relatively
poor crowds with the great interest
shown in the print media. There arealso some fascinating glimpses ofcontemporary attitudes, not leastfrom the great CB Fry, an outstanding
sportsman in his time.
Although Great Britain won ten
gold medals in Stockholm at the1912 this was a disappointing returnin comparison with London. There
were calls for British Empire team tobe formed. Others wanted Britain
to cease participation in the Games
altogether.
There’s a fascinating look at British
preparations for the 1916 Gamesin Berlin. This includes details ofa ‘talent identification’ scheme,
long before this concept became
fashionable.
The study concludes with anassessment of Britain’s attitude to
the return of the Games after the FirstWorld War.
The book ends with 1920. Theremight just be a fascinating sequel
to be done on British attitudes
to amateurism, in particular tothe question of ‘Broken Time’ orcompensation for time lost fromwork. A full index makes themes
easy to navigate and there are somewell chosen cartoon illustrations
which capture the mood of theperiod.
Harris quotes extensively fromother sources, although it is notalways immediately clear which aremodern scholastic interpretations
and which the much more valuable
primary source material. Even so thisis a worthy winner of the ISOH Prize
for book of 2015.
The only sadness is that therelatively high cost of the volume
will put make it beyond the range ofall but libraries.

Ilija Trojanow
My Olympiad
One Amateur, four Years, 80 Disciplines
S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2016
pp. 335, 22.00 EUR, ISBN: 978-3-10-080007-7
in German
Reviewed by Volker Kluge

In May 2013 I received an email from“a German speaking Bulgarian
writer, who was embarking on
a project called ’My Olympiad’,
an attempt to get to know allindividual disciplines between
two Olympic Summer Games andas far as possible to train and takepart”. His was name: Ilija Trojanow.
Unfortunately it was not possible
to meet him at the time and by thetime I sought to arrange a date, theglobetrotter had already moved on.
What I took to be a crazy ideafrom a 48 year old author with toohigh an opinion of himself, who
described himself as a lifelong
sports fan has now become aprinted report. To preempt theverdict: I have rarely read such anamusing and honest sports book,that perhaps touches a raw nervein everyone. For, as Trojanow writes
in his introduction: “The truth isthat one is often weaker than one
thinks, and that one fails again andagain at the hurdles which fate or
one’s own cockiness places in one’s
path.”
Even at the start of his Olympic
experiment on himself, Trojanow
had to realise that he would beunable to train for all individual
disciplines in four years. He learned75

of the existence of many of them
only during the TV broadcasts from
London, during the course of which
his frustration grew, because sport
was presented to him only as asmooth, unblemished product.
To free himself from his disappointment, Trojanow saw only one
reaction: “I had to abandon the passive role of watching and revive thesportsman in myself. From voyeurto actor!” Like every convert he engrossed himself in firstly in the “holyscriptures” of training science, theabundance of which confused morethan instructed him.
Trojanow only found out what
was hidden behind the perfectperformance which he had enjoyedon television when he put on the
sports gear himself and even then
only as snippets, since he only had
enough time to undertake quick
courses. He therefore restricted
himself to 80 disciplines from 23
sports, spread over three years.
Concerned about efficiency, he
set up groups for his training, which
are read as chapter headings: “In
the water (pool)”, “On the water”,“Small ball, big ball”, “Quiet shooting, noisy shooting”, “Hacking andstabbing”, “In the saddle”, “On myknees”, “Air jumping”, and finally“Athletics” in all its variations.
To give himself a tangible objective, Trojanow set himself thetarget of reaching half the level of­performance that had been needed
for Olympic victory in 2012. In others
however impossible, for instancein diving. He experienced a large
number of demoralising defeats,
but also moments of happiness. In
gratitude he thought back to his numerous trainers. Many of whom had
initially regarded the project suspiciously, of whom not a few sooncaught fire, ultimately in order todevelop the clueless amateur into
something approaching an elitesportsman.
With the exception of Australia,
Trojanow spared none of the inhabited continents from his per-76

formance. He contested a triathlon
in Cape Town, in which as last man
home he received as much applause than the winner. He played­tennis in Nairobi and Mumbai, andin Tehran stepped onto the wrestling mat. In Tokyo it was Judo andin Zürich taekwondo. He playedbeach volleyball in Rio, boxed in­Brooklyn, fenced and shot in his
adopted home town of Vienna. In
London he took part in a cycle race,
sailed and swam in Sri Lanka, rowedon the Danube, did gymnastics in
Stuttgart, and in Berlin he took partin diving. He learned the basics ofriding in a village, but did not get
what he ­described as an “active impression”, so that his participationin modern pentathlon failed.
Finally Trojanow dared to join
the “Kings of the Athletes”, thedecathletes. He took part in theannual open competition in
Vienna. He describes the extensive
preparations in great detail andthe diverse considerations, whichstood in crass contradiction to theperformances he achieved. For the
100 m he needed a time of 16.22 s,
the shot almost fell on his foot, andhe felt ashamed of his high jumpclearance of 1.16 metres. He did notdetail his other performances. In
the 110 m hurdles he felt he was in a“comedy of errors”, joking against
himself. Even if the final result of1214 points came out on the thinside – in the meantime he had
lowered his expectations –, he kept
going and in the two days enjoyedthe comradeship of his fellowcompetitors.
The book has a classical end.
Trojanow had never run more thanten kilometres, dared for the firsttime in his life, along with 15,000
others to take on the marathon
distance over the authentic course.
En route he several times thoughtof giving up, he admits, yet all
the pains in his knees and joints
were forgotten when after 38
kilometres he reached the centreof Athens. After he crossed the linein the 1896 Olympic Stadium in
5:50:30. Of this Trojanow writes:“I had expected deeper feelings.
The city, the stadium, the many
helpers, the other runners do notshow themselves impressed by myperformance. That waters down theeuphoria.”
Over the four years when he trained
daily or competed, he learned agreat deal about himself. He writes
about his senses and longings,
about his ambitions and illusions,about the relationship of body andmind and about growing older. What
he is left with is rather more thancupboard full of sports equipment.
An intelligent, splendidly written
book.

James McNeish
SEELENBINDER
the Olympian who defied Hitler
Steele Roberts Aotearoa, Wellington 2016
pp. 242, $34.95, ISBN 978-0-947493-01-1
Reviewed by Volker Kluge

New Zealander Sir James McNeishmust have a well developed senseof irony. He chose Hitler’s birthday
on 20th April to launch his novelladedicated to the only German
Olympian who took an active partin the resistance to Hitler. The event
was held at the German GoetheInstitut in Wellington. The day thatwas once ‘’The Führer’s birthday’’is still considered a very sensitive
date in Germany . In 1994 a footballinternational against Englandscheduled for the day was cancelled
although 50,000 tickets had alreadybeen sold.
Sir James chose the day deliberately to highlight the story ­Werner
Seelenbinder, a wrestler who­finished fourth in 1936 and becamea member of the resistance. On 24th
October 1944 he was executed.
McNeish, a highly acclaimed
author, had already dared to enter
Olympic territory once before.
In 1986 he wrote LOVELOCK, inwhich he tells the life story of his
fellow-countryman. The work was
republished in 2009. Lovelock at
a new world record to win 1500 m
Olympic gold at the 1936 Games but
was tragically killed thirteen years
later when he fell in front of a New
York underground train.
For his research, McNeish visited
Berlin in 1983. Then it was still a citywhich was split in two. There was notjust a wall dividing the city into Eastand West, but also different ideas
on how to commemorate Germans
who had fought against Hitler. These
appeared alien to him.
McNeish began to take an interestin Seelenbinder, whose grave layin the western sector and who was
fanatically worshipped in the East. At
this point a journalist friend advised
him against it. Seelenbinder, said
the friend, was “on the wrong side“.
Was there a right and a wrong side in
the resistance to Hitler?
For a long time that was the case.
In the East, books were published
about Seelenbinder’s life, and a
wrestling competition was named in
his honour. His name also adorned
sports stadia and halls, schools,
kindergartens, work collectives andeven a ship. A film told his life story
and countless streets bore his name.
Yet at the same time in the West he
was considered an ‘’un-person’’ notworthy of honour.
What Germans hardly understoodmust have been extremely confusing
for a foreigner. After the Cold War
was over, McNeish decided to write abook about this man, who in death

JOH 2 | 2016

Book Reviews

divided an entire country. To do that,in 2010 he returned to spend several
months in the now reunited Berlin tofathom the mystery.
Now McNeish has presented
his novel, in which he took theliterary liberty of reconstructing
the action as fiction. Yet a glanceat the acknowledgements, inwhich he names no fewer than 50
individuals with whom he spokeor corresponded, shows how
intensively and thoroughly heapplied himself to the subject.
Even some names in the book areunfamiliar, the book is accurate inhistorical detail. The use of original
documents add authenticity. Someare published in full and he quotes
from others. Among these are thearrest warrant signed Reinhard
Heydrich the leading architect of the
Holocaust. There are letters which
Seelenbinder wrote to his family
and his girlfriend from behind bars,
and the records of execution itself
which the hangman – scrupulously
noted – required eight seconds.
The book is a compelling readbecause McNeish, has chosen totell the story in the first person,
which gives it a much more apersonal tone. He takes the reader
by the hand and leads him down
the paths that Seelenbinder hadgone. As a result, he tells the storyof a young worker who through his
successes in wrestling became an
idol of the Berlin proletariat and thus
politicised himself. We read of thepolitical split in working class sport at
the time. It was divided along social
democratic and communistic lines.
They were forcibly reunited in 1933 –in Hitler’s jails. Seelenbinder, who
had joined the Communist Party in
1928, was interred for a short timein one of SA’s prisons, where torture
was commonplace.
How did Seelenbinder comeout the other side to reach thesupposedly safe bank? This remains
a question for historians today – did
he achieve this through compromiseor camouflage or both? What is

undisputed that the wrestler, who
until then had been ostracised bybourgeois sport, was welcomedby the Nazi regime as a medal
candidate for the Olympics and had
supporters in brown uniforms.
Here the questions begin. McNeish
did not want to give definitive
answers, indeed could not, because
the conspiracies took place in secret,a secrecy not even the Gestapo could
penetrate. They could only provethat Seelenbinder had provided a
communist courier with a hiding
place and food. Nonethelessthat was enough to condemn
him to death after 33 months ofimprisonment.
But did Seelenbinder really havethe suicidal plan, after narrowly
missing out on an Olympic medal,
to expose the true character of the
Hitler dictatorship in the usual radio
interview? Did he use his numerous
competitions abroad to smuggleout secret news items and illegal
writings? What role did he play inthe resistance during the war? And
how does that fit with the story thata stubborn hero like him should
plead to Hitler for mercy after his
sentence, a plea which some of his
proofreaders would like to holdagainst him from the security of theirpresent day existence?
McNeish refrains from any
heroisation. His report, which also
led him to the execution room in
Brandenburg prison, is objective andin parts even sober. He describes theactors very vividly. And with eachchapter it is possible to sense theauthor’s growing sympathy for asignificant athlete and extraordinary
human – a man for whom even thecity of Berlin could finally no longer
refuse recognition.
Finally in commemoration of
the 100th anniversary of his birth in
2004, a stadium in Berlin-Neukölln
was once again named in hishonour, just as it had been, from1945 to 1949. Four years later Werner
Seelenbinder was also inducted into
the Hall of Fame of German Sport.

77

athlete, Hanns Braun, a 1908 bronze
medallist over 800 m who also won
silver over 400 metres in 1912. He
became a pilot and lost his life inan air collision. He is buried at theGerman war cemetery in Vladslo.
The book contains 82 pictures,among them some of present day
Belgian Olympic athletes, whocomment on the bravery of theirancestors of a century ago.
Herwig Reynaert / Bart Vangrysperre
Olympiërs in Flanders Fields(Olympians in Flanders Fields)
Vanden Broele, Brugge 2014, in Dutch
pp. 127, 29.00 EUR, ISBN 978-9049611163
Reviewed by Roland Renson

Reynaert and Vangrysperre havefocused their research on Olympic
athletes from the 1908 London
Olympics and 1912 Stockholm Games
who were killed and buried in oneof the war cemeteries ‘In Flanders
Fields’ (Near Ypres in Belgium). They
have identified sixteen Olympians.
Among these were twelve Britons.
These included 400 m runner Noel
Chavasse who was awarded thehighest British award for gallantry
the Victoria Cross to which he added
a bar, Ronald Harcourt Sanderson amember of the eight who won gold
in 1908 and the crew’s cox coxswain
Gilchrist Stanley Maclagan. There isalso Duncan Mackinnon a memberof the gold medal winning coxlessfour in 1908, hurdler Gerard ‘Laurie’Anderson, Kenneth Powell whocompeted in both tennis and on
the track, Edward Radcliffe Nashfrom equestrian sport, fencer Ralph
Chalmers, Harcourt Ommundson
won back to back silver medals in
the military rifle team event, rugby
silver medallist Arthur James Wilson,
and two further athletes sprinterGeorge Hawkins and miler George
Butterfield. The three Canadians
were: marathon runner James Duffy,
Alexander Wuttunee Decoteau, aCree Indian who competed in the5000 m in 1912 and rower Geoffrey
Barron Taylor. One German Olympic

78

Auke Kok
1936 – WIJ GINGEN NAAR BERLIJN
Thomas Rap, Amsterdam 2016
pp. 288, 19.99 EUR, ISBN 978-94-004-0452-6
Reviewed by Anthony Th. Bijkerk

This book is a “human interest”
story based on the lives of threeparticipants in the 1936 Olympics.
The three are Hendrika Wilhelmina“Rie”Mastenbroek (1919-2003)
in Rotterdam), dubbed “Empressof Berlin” by Willi Daume at the
memorial meeting in Munich in1972; Martinus Bernardus “Tinus”
Osendarp (1916-2002); the fastest
white man in Berlin; and Hans Maier(born 1916); waterpolo-player andcurrently the last surviving Dutch
participant from those Games. The
life story of all three is told in detail.
Otto Mastenbroek, the youngest
son of Rie spoke of his memories ofhis mother, and how he scatteredsome of her ashes at the ancientarena in Olympia, Greece. A few
biographies were written about
Rie Mastenbroek, but only a few
received her approval. When I

wrote her obituary for the Journal of
Olympic History it was based on the
biography written with her personalauthorization.
At 99 years, Hans Maier’s memoryis still fantastic and he was able totell most of his own story, startingwith his life in the former Dutch
East Indies and his move to theNetherlands to pursue a career.
F i n a l l y t h e re i s t h e m o recontroversial story of “Tinus”
Osendarp. As most older people in
the Netherlands will remember,
Osendarp was considered a traitor,
who collaborated with the German
occupation of the low countries
during Second World War.
T h e a u t h o r, h o w eve r, h a s
succeeded in showing that Osendarp
could be regarded as a victim of thattime. He was more a “follower”
than one taking the initiative. In any
case, he was punished after the war
ended, and later expressed his regret
about what happened in this time.
This is a good and readable book,which brings to light what our
subjects went through in one of themost hectic times in their lives!

Conrado Durántez
Olympism
Sclay Print, Madrid 2015, in English, pp. 309

Reviewed by Pablo GalánThe prolific Olympic author Conrado
Durántez’s latest work is entitledsimply “Olympism”. It is now
available in Spanish and English. It
is aimed at Olympic Studies Centres
and Academic Chairs and members

of the Pan-Iberian Association of
Olympic Academies.
The objective of this publication isto provide a handbook for under­
standing the fascinating world of
the Olympic Movement. Throughits ­pages we learn about the ­origin
of Olympism, its philosophy andsymbols, as well the history of the­Ancient and Modern Games.
A special section is dedicated to thecharacter of Pierre de Coubertin, “themost famous unknown in history”,
according to the author.
In addition, the book presents a
succinct exploration of the threecomponents which make up thebasic structure of the Olympic
Movement (IOC, NOCs and IFs) andoffers a brief look at the Olympic
Charter. As a longstanding Presidentof the Spanish Olympic Academy,
Durantez is particularly well placed
to examine the Olympic Academy asa school of Olympism.
The author provides some very
interesting thoughts about the
future of Olympism and the dangers
it faces. Amongst these are excessivecommercialisation, gigantism,jingoistic nationalism, and doping.
These must be fought relentlessly inorder allow the Games to continue
to be the most magnificent event,where every four years the youth of
the world gather without any kindof social, linguistic, politic, culturalor racial discrimination.
The book is completed by interesting bibliographic and onomastici­ndexes, as well as a glossary of terms
related to olympism. Dr. ­Durántez

Carlo Pedersoli (alias: Bud Spencer)(ITA), *31 October 1929 in Naples; †27 June
2016 in Rome. With his family Pedersoli
went to South America after the Second
World War, where among other things heworked as an assembly line worker in Riode Janeiro. In 1948 he returned to Italy to
study law. On 19th September 1950 he was
the first Italian to swim the 100 m free inunder a minute. After he had won a silverat the Mediterranean Games in 1951, he

JOH 2 | 2016

Book Reviews

has written 28 books on ­Olympic
themes and many magazines besides. This latest work is a pleasing
and entertaining reading, which will
delight all those interested in the­Olympic world.

In this remarkable contribution,
Vanmeerbeek has identified no
fewer than 43 Belgian Olympic medal
winners, who served in the Great
War. Some became war heroes, suchas volunteer pilot Victor Boin, who
won water polo silver in 1908 andbronze in 1912 and later a fencing
silver medal in 1920 and Herman
Donners who played in the samewater polo teams was mortallywounded at the front in 1915.
Furthermore, 42 Belgian militarymen, who participated in Olympic
Games either before or after thewar, are also noted. A remarkablefact is that fifteen of them competedin equestrian events, nine as army
officers and six as team membersin the ‘voltige’ event in 1920, whichallowed regular soldiers to perform
spectacular vaults over horses.
92 elite sportsmen from elevendifferent disciplines fought in
the war. The footballers were thelargest contingent numbering 30.
Among the 23 airplane ‘daredevils’,
ten volunteered as war pilots, fiveeven had their own planes. Sixteen
cyclists were identified.
Football teams were created in thevarious regiments and matches wereorganised behind the front lines,
with the patronage of Belgian King
Albert I. The ‘Front Wanderers’ were
the Belgian national army footballteam. They played matches against
Italy and France and became very
popular during their tour of Englandin November 1917.
The major part of this outstanding
piece of research is a section
comprising more than 150
biographies. These range froma single line to several pages
with the service records of thesesoldiers, non-commissioned
officers and officers, who fought‘In Flanders Fields …’ Many diedothers were wounded and someremained handicapped for life. The
publication is richly illustrated with
129 photographs.

took part in the Olympics in 1952 and1956. Through his marriage to thedaughter of a well-known Italian film
producer, Pedersoli came into contact
with showbusiness. After the death of

his father-in-law he founded his own
production company. In 1967 he received
an offer to act in a “spaghetti western”.
That was the birth of “Bud Spencer”(named after his favourite actor Spencer
Tracy), a hardhitting, stubborn but
good-hearted roughneck. Together with
“Terence Hill” (also an Italian swimmer
called Mario Girotti) he made up acongenial duo in 16 film comedies whichcelebrated triumphs. (VK)

Roger Vanmeerbeek
Van het sportveld naar het slagveld:
Belgische sportmannen in de Groote Oorlog(From the sports ground to the battleground:
Belgian sportsmen in the Great War)s.l.: Fonds Baillet Latour, 2016, in Dutch
pp. 149, available via Sportimonium, Hofstade;shipping costs 25.00 EUR (Europe),
40.00 EUR (overseas); ISBN: 978-9082531602
Reviewed by Roland Renson

79The Museum on a Hill
Lillehammer's Olympic heritage will be splendidly
cared for in the new Olympic Museum which forms
part of a Norwegian history centre at Maihaugenabove the town centre.
It was opened with no little humour by HM
Queen Sonja on the eve of the Youth Olympic WinterGames in February. She recalled her early Olympic
experiences with her husband King Harald. “I spent
my honeymoon at the Mexico Games. He was in the
Olympic Village, I was in a hotel with his family’’ shesaid with mock indignation.

80

The galleries tell the story of the Olympic Movementfrom ancient times with clever animated displays
and imaginative presentation. The Nordic Games
which preceded the Olympic Winter Games are also
reflected.
The designers have clearly invested a lot of time
and thought and it shows in a very well appointed
museum. The explanatory text is in Norwegian andEnglish and does not shy away from controversy.
The 1952 and 1994 Games form the centerpiece ofthe display with a video wall offering the highlights of
those latter Games as part of a major exhibit.
Visitors would be well advised to come by vehicle asPhilip Barker
the museum is on a steep hill.