(Milan Blaće, pictured at “Hrvatski olimpijci i odličnici“)

Thanks to a reader of this blog, we were able to solve most of the mystery behind the Yugoslavian reserve rower Milan Blaće, who was born October 14, 1912 and died September 16 of either 1964 or 1984 (two sources list different years). We feel, therefore, that this is a good segue into looking at the mystery competitors from the 1948 London Olympics for whom we lack both a date of birth and confirmation as to whether they are alive or deceased. To begin, therefore, we will look into two competitors from Yugoslavia who fit this description.

The first is Serbian rower Slobodan Jovanović, who represented Yugoslavia in the coxed eights rowing event, where his country was eliminated in the round one repêchage. He was a member of Red Star Beograde but, because he shares his name with a famous writer, we have been unable to uncover more information about him.

(Ruža Vojsk)

The other is Serbian gymnast Draginja Đipalović, whose name is also seen as Dragana/Draga Djipalovic/Dzipalovic, and who is the only woman on this list. She competed in the team all-around event in London, where her nation placed seventh. At least one of her teammates, Slovenian Ruža Vojsk, born March 31, 1930, is still alive, which means that it is possible that Đipalović is as well.

While we are on the topic, we also want to mention the sole mystery Olympian from the 1948 St. Moritz Winter Olympics, bobsledder Ivan Šipajlo of Czechoslovakia. Originally a spectator, he was pulled from the crowd as a replacement in the four-man, with the team finishing 14^th among 15 entrants. He was a student at the time of the Games and thus was likely one of the younger competitors, leaving open the possibility that he may still be alive.

(Shmuel Laviv-Lubin, pictured at The National Library of Israel)

Finally, we wanted to provide two updates from previous blog posts. First, we discovered that Israeli sport shooter Shmuel Laviv-Lubin, born July 13, 1923, whom we had last heard from as living in 2010, died July 17, 2012. Also, Hernan Macchiavello was able to confirm that Salvadoran sport shooter Andrés Amador, born November 22, 1924, died September 12, 2013. We will continue our look into Olympic mysteries from the 1948 London Games in the near future, and we hope that you will join us!

Today on Oldest Olympians, we wanted to provide an update to titleholders among the oldest Olympians. What brought on this blog post was the death of rower Tirso del Junco, who was the oldest living Cuban Olympian.

Del Junco, born April 20, 1925, represented his country in the coxed fours rowing event at the 1948 London Olympics, where his boat was eliminated in the quarterfinals. The following year he moved to the United States and eventually participated in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, before moving to California to work as a surgeon. He was heavily active in Republican Party politics in the state and was a delegate to the national convention from 1968 through 2004. He died September 4 at the age of 98.

We then believed that basketball player Ramón Wiltz, born December 12, 1926, had taken the title of oldest Cuban Olympian. Wiltz represented his country in the tournaments at the 1948 and 1952 Games, placing 13^th both times. He had better luck at the Central American and Caribbean Games, winning silver in 1946 and bronze in 1950. He later moved to Florida, where we believed him to still be living; we learned from a family tree, however, that he died May 27, 2022 in Miami.

The next oldest Cuban Olympian on our lists was swimmer Raúl García, born April 9, 1930. García represented his country in the 100 metres freestyle event at the 1948 London Games, where he was eliminated in round one. He had had better luck at the 1946 Central American and Caribbean Games, where he had won a bronze medal with the 4×200 metres freestyle relay. García later worked as a lawyer in Florida, and while several sources suggested that he was still alive recently, the Florida Bar now lists him as deceased. Connor Mah was then able to locate a post from his niece, showing that he died in August 2020.

We believe, therefore, that sport shooter Enrique Guedes, born July 17, 1932, is now the oldest living Cuban Olympian. Guedes represented his country in the small-bore rifle, prone, 50 metres event at the 1968 Mexico City Games, where he placed 61^st. He had better luck at the 1970 Central American and Caribbean Games, where he took silver with the team and bronze individually in the 50 m small-bore rifle prone English match. He was also a silver medalist with the Cuban team at the 1971 Pan American Games in the small-bore rifle 3 positions.

Finally, earlier this month we covered Swedish athlete Bo Åhlen, born March 18, 1931, who was a reserve in the 100 metres and the 4×400 metres relay at the 1952 Helsinki Games. We were informed subsequently by Carl-Johan Johansson that Åhlen died August 23, 2023 in Älvsjö.

Today on Oldest Olympians, we wanted to finish wrapping up our coverage of eisstockschießen, or “ice stock sport” at the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Olympics. We have covered this tournament haphazardly, but we wanted be a little more organized and touch upon the remaining mystery competitors that we have not yet mentioned. Today, we are going to finish looking at all those that we have not discussed previously.

In the event for Germans only, we have not mentioned that the team from Eissportverein Weilheim also included Xaver Bauer, Anton Kranner, and Roman Ostermeier, none of whom we know anything about. The same can be said of the remaining members of eighth-placed Eisstock-Club Mittenwald – Johann Fichtl, Georg Müller, and Franz Wörndl – and the ninth-placed team of Eis- und Rollschuhsportverein Passau: Hans Bauer, Alois Haider, and Heinrich Wurst.

For the tenth-placed Eissport-Club Oberstdorf, we missed only one individual: Franz Dürr. Just as with the two remaining members of 11^th-placed Gießener Eisverein, Willi Mohr and Walter Schonebohm, we have been unable to uncover any concrete information about him. From 12^th-placed Altonaer Schlittschuhläuferverein, from Hamburg, we have not covered Herrmann Jeddicke and Otto Kolzen. There are two Otto Kolzens buried in Hamburg, but we do not know if either were the Olympian: one was born January 3, 1880 and died November 17, 1954, while the other was born November 9, 1913 and died June 13, 1979. Given the wide range of ages in the tournament, either could be the player, but for Jeddicke we have no leads.

The final two players, Wilhelm Kadel and Karl Möser, were members of the Frankfurter Tennis-Club 1914 club that finished 14^th and last, and we again have no information on either. They do, however, wrap up our coverage of mystery competitors for the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Olympics, although for completeness on pre-war Olympians without dates of birth or death, we need to mention two rowers from the Berlin Games: Milan Blace and Branko Karadjole. Both were reserves with the Yugoslavian coxed fours squad, but neither saw any playing time and we have no biographical details on either of them.

That is what we have for today, but we hope to soon move to the 1948 St. Moritz and London Olympics There are many Olympians who took part in the Games for whom we lack information on their dates of birth. Now that most, if not all, of those individuals would be over the age of 90, we are hoping to delve into these Games in more detail in the hopes of bringing their contributions to global sport to a greater audience and maybe even solving a few Olympic mysteries. We hope that you will join us!

Today on this blog, we wanted to provide some updates on new titleholders among the oldest Olympians. Recently, two Olympians have died, which has led to three titles changing hands, and we wanted to ensure that we have acknowledged all of them.

First, Oldest Olympians is saddened to learn that Iranian weightlifter Hassan Rahnavardi, born May 10, 1927, died September 4 at the age of 96. Rahnavardi represented his country at the 1952 and 1956 Summer Games, but just missed the podium in fourth both times. He was more successful at the Asian Games, winning gold medals in 1951 and 1958, and silver at the World Championships in 1957 and three bronze medals between 1949 and 1955. By career, he earned a doctorate of public health from Tulane University and later worked as a politician, before being forced to flee the country following the Iranian Revolution, eventually settling in the United States.

At the time of Rahnavardi’s death, he was the oldest living Iranian Olympian. This distinction now goes to a wrestler, Mahmoud Mollaghasemi, born April 5, 1929, who was already the oldest living Iranian Olympic medalist. Mollaghasemi represented his country in the flyweight, freestyle wrestling competition at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where he won a bronze medal. He also earned a silver medal in that event at the 1951 World Championships. He later turned to coaching and was a judge at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Next, Argentine sailor Guillermo Julio Calegari, born September 13, 1924, died July 21 at the age of 98. Calegari represented his country in sailing’s Star class event at the 1972 Munich Games, where he placed 18th and last. He later became world champion in that event at the master’s level in 2005 and his son, Guillermo Jr., represented Argentina in that category at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. By career, he took part in the family real estate business. At the time of his death, he was the oldest living Argentinian Olympian and oldest survivor of the 1972 Munich Olympics.

The oldest living Argentinian Olympian is now basketball player Ricardo González, born May 12, 1925. González represented Argentina at the 1948 and 1952 Olympic basketball tournaments, finishing 15th and 4th respectively. He had more luck at other international events, winning gold at the 1950 World Championships and silver at the 1951 and 1955 Pan American Games. In 1980 he was named one of the five best basketball players in Argentina’s history and in 2009 he became a member of the FIBA Hall of Fame.

Finally, the oldest survivor of the 1972 Munich Games is now British equestrian Domini Lawrence, born May 8, 1925. Lawrence represented Great Britain in two Olympic dressage tournaments: in 1968 she was fifth with the team and 11th individually, while in 1972 she was 10th with the team and 33rd individually. She later became a distinguished judge with the International Federation for Equestrian Sports, serving until her retirement in 1998.

Today on Oldest Olympians, we wanted to continue wrapping up our coverage of eisstockschießen, or “ice stock sport” at the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Olympics. We have covered this tournament haphazardly, but we wanted be a little more organized and touch upon the remaining mystery competitors that we have not yet mentioned. Today, we are going to take a quick look at those who were ranked highly in the tournament, but we have not yet covered.

In particular, we have missed mentioning a few of the members of the team from Miesbach that placed second in the team event that was open to international clubs. For one of them, Alois Dirnberger, we know of an individual of this name who was born June 15, 1891 in Bavaria and died October 19, 1981 in Indio, California, but we cannot confirm that he was the competitor. About the other two, Johann Elbach and Josef Lenz, we know nothing.

Just missing the podium in fourth in that event was the team from Straubing. Of those individuals, we have not mentioned Franz Xaver Bachl or Albert Karl, but that is largely because we have been unable to uncover nothing about them. The same goes for two of the members of the fifth-placed team from Zwiesel: Hermann Fuchs and Wolfgang Röck. In the latter case, however, it is possible that he is connected to the manufacturing company of the same name that based in Zwiesel.

Finally, in our discussion of those who competed exclusively in individual events, we missed one: Karl Möbus of FTC 1914 Palmengarten, Frankfurt am Main, who did not make a mark in the German-only target shooting event. As before, we wanted to review this topic in the hopes that, by getting their names out there a little more, we might one day learn more about them and their contributions to the world of sport.

Yesterday we had two important birthdays to celebrate and the one that we did not choose to feature was Dimitri Atanasov, born August 8, 1927. Atanasov represented Bulgaria at the 1952 Oslo Games, where he failed to advance beyond the first run in the slalom event. Although this is all that we know about him, we current list him as the oldest living Bulgarian Olympian.

Our last evidence of his being alive, however, comes from his 85th birthday announcement in 2012, which means that if we do not get any updates by the end of the year, we will have to remove him from our tables. That would leave Stoyanka Angelova, born May 28, 1928, as the oldest living Bulgaria Olympian. Angelova represented her country in the gymnastics tournament at the 1952 Helsinki Games, and later moved to Mexico.

(Erna Herbers)

Additionally, a few days ago we posted about the death of Marianne Werner, born January 4, 1924, who was the oldest living German Olympian and Olympic medalist in track and field athletics. The oldest living German Olympian is now Erna Herbers, born May 2, 1925, who represented her country in the 100 metres backstroke swimming event at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where she was 18^th. George Rhoden, meanwhile, who represented Jamaica at the 1948 and 1952 Games, was already the oldest living Olympic track and field champion, having won the 400 metres and the 4×400 metres relay at the latter edition, and is now the oldest living medalist in the sport overall.

Finally, we wanted to address one recent removal from our lists that is also an Olympic mystery. We had previously listed British speed skater Patricia Devries, born July 6, 1930, as alive, but according to an article titled “Off the Beaten Track” on page 14 of the November 5, 2022 issue of Speedway Star, she died a few years prior to publication. We know, therefore, that she is deceased, but do not have an exact date, or even a year.

Today on Oldest Olympians, we wanted to begin wrapping up a topic that we started to discuss some time ago, but never covered in full: eisstockschießen, or “ice stock sport” at the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Olympics. We have covered this tournament haphazardly over the past while, but we wanted be a little more organized now and touch upon the remaining mystery competitors that we have not yet mentioned. Today, we are going to take a quick look at those who competed in individual events.

There is only one individual that we have not mentioned who competed in both individual distance and target shooting events: Georg Lüftiger of Wintersportverein Holzkirchen. Lüftiger was fifth and sixth in target and distance shooting respectively, and was also third in the German-only team event. Despite his being relatively more prolific in the sport, we know nothing about him or his third-placed team: Englbert Kigele, Josef Raufer, Hans Schwimmbeck, and Ernst Vogler.

Three of the remaining individuals just missed the podium in fourth: Ferdinand Erb in international distance shooting, Franz Klarl in German distance shooting, and Johann Ostler in German target shooting. Josef Seilmaier was sixth in target shooting, while Werner Niemeyer Matthias Enzersberger and Otto Reisinger were seventh, ninth, and 11^th in distance shooting, all of which were the German-only events. Josef Körner and Franz Zauner also competed in the target shooting competition, but were not ranked.

Aside from assuming that Otto Enzersberger was somehow related to Matthias, as they were both members of the 1. Eisstock-Club Bad Reichenhall club that placed sixth in the German-only team event with Seilmaier, we know nothing about any of these men. We wanted to review this topic only in the hopes that, by getting their names out there a little more, we might one day learn more about them and their contributions to the world of sport.

Over the next two days, we have birthdays of two Olympians who hold titles among the Oldest Olympians. Both of these individuals, however, were last known living in 2012 and were featured in a blog entry earlier this year as such. Because of this, we wanted to mention them both in another blog post to discuss who will be their successors should we have to remove them from our tables at the end of the year due to a lack of updates.

(Im Gyeong-Sun, pictured at Korea JoongAng Daily)

The first is Hong Jong-Oh, born July 7, 1925, who would be turning 98 today. Hong represented South Korea in two editions of the Olympic marathon, placing 25th in 1948 and failing to finish in 1952. He was mentioned in 2012 as being one of the few local survivors of the 1948 London Games, which would now make him the oldest living South Korean Olympian, but we have not seen an update since then. If he were deceased, alpine skier Im Gyeong-Sun, born in 1929, would be the oldest living South Korean Olympian.

(Lies Bonnier)

The second is Lies Bonnier, born July 8, 1925, who would be turning 98 tomorrow. She represented the Netherlands in the 200 metres breaststroke event at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where she was eliminated in the semi-finals. After winning her first and only national title a few months after the Olympics, she retired from active competition, although she later participated in masters-level tournaments. She was known to be alive in 2012 and, if she is still alive today, then she is the oldest living Dutch Olympian. If not, then that title goes to canoeist Cees Koch, born December 30, 1925.

Oldest Olympians is saddened to learn that Norwegian swimmer Bea Ballintijn, born May 9, 1923, died June 29 at the age of 100. Ballintijn represented her country in the 100 metres backstroke at the 1948 London Games, where she was eliminated in round one. Domestically, she was champion in that event in 1938 and 1939 and from 1946 through 1951. When we featured her recently, we noted that she was the oldest living Norwegian Olympian, and thus we wanted to cover her successor in that regard in this blog.

When looking up information on the Olympian that we believed to be her successor, however, track athlete Viktor Olsen, born February 5, 1924, we learned that he died April 21 at the age of 99. Olsen represented his country in the marathon at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where he finished 16^th. Domestically, he was a five-time national champion (1954 1956-1959) and also won the 25 kilometer road race from 1953 through 1957. By career, he was a gardener.

This makes Ingrid Wigernæs, born February 22, 1928, the new oldest living Norwegian Olympian. Wigernæs took part in three cross-country skiing events across two editions of the Winter Olympics, finishing 27th in the 10 km in 1956 and joint-15th and 12th in the 5 and 10 km events respectively in 1964. She won several national titles over the course of her career, but her biggest international success came at the 1966 World Championships, where she was a member of the 3×5 km relay squad that took silver. She later turned to coaching, with her most notable success in that realm coming from her mentorship over the 3×5 km relay team that took gold at the 1968 Grenoble Games. Wigernæs was already the oldest living Olympian to have competed at the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics and now resides in Oslo.

Finally, we have some additional updates on previous cases, including two of our Austrian Olympic mysteries that are now solved. Fencer Richard Brünner has been confirmed as the individual born November 18, 1888 and died November 25, 1962, while figure skater Fritz Wächtler did die on July 26, 1963. Finally, we learned the French gymnast previously known as Antoine Chatelaine, and then André Chatelaine, was actually André Chatelain, born March 31, 1902 and died January 14, 1968.

Oldest Olympians is saddened to learn that German equestrian Willi Büsing, born March 2, 1921, died June 25 at the age of 102. Büsing represented his country in eventing at the 1952 Helsinki Games, winning silver with the team and bronze individually. He also won a silver medal in the team event at the 1954 European Championships and later became involved in sports administration. Most notably, he acted as team coach and veterinarian at the 1956, 1960, and 1964 Summer Games. At the time of his death, he was the oldest living Olympic equestrian and the oldest living German Olympian. As we have done in the past, we wanted to provide an update on who now holds those titles.

The oldest living German Olympian is now track and field athlete Marianne Werner, born January 4, 1924. Werner represented her country in the shot put and the discus throw at the 1952 and 1956 Summer Olympics, winning silver and bronze in the shot put in those years respectively. In 1958 she won the European Championships in that event and did not retire until the 1960s, after which she became involved in the teaching of sport science.

(Maud von Rosen)

The oldest living Olympic equestrian is now William de Rham, born August 22, 1922, who represented Switzerland in the show jumping tournament at the 1956 Stockholm equestrian Olympics, where he finished joint-19th individually and 9th overall with his team. The oldest living medalist in equestrian, meanwhile, is Sweden’s Maud von Rosen, born December 24, 1925. Van Rosen represented her country in the dressage tournament at the 1972 Munich Games, finishing eighth individually, which helped Sweden take a bronze medal in the team competition. She also earned bronze with the Swedish dressage team a year earlier, at the 1971 European Championships.

(Marjorie Jackson)

Finally, a few days ago, on June 22, we celebrated the 92^nd birthday of Australian cyclist Ian Browne, who was the oldest living Australian Olympic champion, having won gold in the tandem sprint, 2000 metres event at the 1956 Melbourne Games. Unfortunately, we have learned that he died two days later, on June 24. This makes Marjorie Jackson, born September 13, 1931, the oldest living Australian Olympic champion. Jackson represented her country in three events at the 1952 Helsinki Games, winning gold in the 100 and 200 metres and placing fifth in the 4×100 metres relay. She also won seven gold medals at the British Empire Games in 1950 and 1954. She later became involved in politics and was appointed governor of South Australia in 2001, serving until 2007.