Today on Oldest Olympians we wanted to wrap up 2022 by looking at some of the Olympic mysteries that we came across near the end of that year. These are individuals for whom we believe to have information about their deaths, but we either cannot connect it to the Olympian or we cannot confirm it in a reliable source.

Rudolf Procházka  – Art competitor for Czechoslovakia at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, a group of four architects from Czechoslovakia – Hans Ruda, Rudolf Procházka, Karel Martínek, and Egon Plefka – submitted an entry to the architecture competition entitled “Návrhem stadionu v Brně”, which was an urban study of a central sports facility for Greater Brno. It did not win a prize, and we know essentially nothing of the four architects who submitted it. We did find the grave of a Rudolf Procházka, born September 6, 1890 and died June 15, 1972, who is buried in Brno, but we cannot confirm that this is the Olympian.

(Dušan Houdek, pictured at the Slovakian Olympic Committee)

Dušan Houdek – Member of Czechoslovakia’s sport shooting delegation to the 1960 Rome Olympics

Dušan Houdek, born April 2, 1931, represented Czechoslovakia in two small-bore rifle sport shooting events at the 1960 Rome Games. In the prone, 50 metres, competition, he was eliminated in the qualifying round, while in the three positions, 50 metres, he just missed the podium in fourth. We know that he was alive at his 90^th birthday, but someone added a date of death of October 27, 2022 and a place of death of Nezdenice, Czech Republic to his Wikipedia. We have not, however, been able to confirm this.

(Dimitrios Michail, pictured at Gbotinis)

Dimitrios Michail – Member of Greece’s boxing delegation to the 1960 Rome Olympics

Dimitrios Michail, born March 19, 1932, represented Greece in the light-welterweight boxing tournament at the 1960 Rome Games, where he was eliminated in round two. He had had better luck the previous year, where he took bronze as a welterweight at the Mediterranean Games. We know that he was still alive in 2021 and living in Australia, but we are uncertain if this obituary for a Demetrios Michael, who died in July 2022, is for the Olympian.

Věra Drazdíková – Member of Czechoslovakia’s gymnastics team at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics

Věra Drazdíková, born February 1, 1933, represented Czechoslovakia in the gymnastics tournament at the 1956 Melbourne Games, where the nation was fifth in the team all-around and seventh in the team portable apparatus. Individually, Drazdíková’s best finish was 28^th on the balance beam. There is a grave in Prague for a Věra Drazdíková born in 1933 who died in 1983, but we cannot confirm that it is for the Olympian.

One additional Olympic mystery concerns Hermann Lochbühler, who was a member of the German military ski patrol team that placed fifth in the demonstration event at the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Olympics. We found a record for an individual of this name who was born December 21, 1900, but we are not certain if it is for the Olympian. Finally, we wanted to provide a few updates to our posts on Olympians last known living in 2012. Thanks to our readers, we now know that Benny Schmidt was still alive in at least 2014, Milica Rožman in at least 2016, and Daphne Wilkinson as recently as 2021. Thank you to everyone who submitted information!

Today on Oldest Olympians, we are concluding our series on Olympians who were last known living in 2012. First, however, we wanted to thank our readers who provided us with updates from the previous posts: Üner Teoman and Fred Daigle are still living, while Aram Boghossian was still alive in 2015, so he is no longer in immediate danger of being removed from the list.

(Francisco de Andrade on the left)

Francisco de Andrade – Bronze medalist for Portugal in Star class sailing at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics

Francisco de Andrade, born July 15, 1923, represented Portugal in the Star class sailing tournament at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where he won a bronze medal. Although he had taken part in several World Championships prior to the Olympics, Andrade retired after earning this prize, as he wanted to spend more time with his family. He did, however, found and run sailing schools by profession. His partner, Joaquim Fiúza, was at one time Portugal’s oldest living Olympian and, having died at the age of 102 years, 24 days, remains the country’s only centenarian Olympian. Andrade is one of two Olympians that we missed on our list of Olympic “title holders”, as he would be turning 100 this year as the oldest Portuguese Olympian and the oldest Olympic sailing medalist. We have not, however, been able to locate an update on him since 2012.

Dimitri Atanasov – Member of Bulgaria’s alpine skiing delegation to the 1952 Oslo Olympics

Dimitri Atanasov, born August 8, 1927, represented Bulgaria in the slalom at the 1952 Oslo Games, where he was eliminated after the first run. Like Andrade, we missed him in our previous post, as he is a candidate for the oldest living Bulgarian Olympian. We have not had much luck keeping up with Bulgarian Olympians, however, and Atanasov is no different; our last evidence of his being alive comes from his 85^th birthday announcement in 2012.

Klaus von Freesen – Member of Germany’s rowing delegation to the 1956 Melbourne Games

Klaus von Fersen, born March 29, 1931, represented Germany in the single sculls at the 1956 Melbourne Games, where he was eliminated in the semi-finals. At the European Championships, he won four consecutive silver medals from 1956 through 1959, while domestically he won the German title six times from 1955 through 1960, in addition to a double sculls title in the first year. We believe that he is still alive, as he is fairly well-known, but sometimes even medalists die beneath the radar and the last concrete evidence we have comes from 2012.

Paul Maue – Member of Germany’s cycling delegation to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics

Paul Maue, born January 4, 1932, represented Germany in cycling’s road race at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where he was fifth with the team and 48^th individually. He was national champion in 1954 and had a professional career, but he retired after two seasons. His son Michael competed in the 100 kilometers team time trial that finished 12^th at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Again, we suspect that Paul is still alive, but our last piece of definite evidence comes from 2012.

Milica Rožman – Member of Yugoslavia’s gymnastics delegation to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics

Milica Rožman, born August 5, 1932, represented Yugoslavia in the gymnastics tournament at the 1952 Helsinki Games, finishing 11^th in the team all-around and 8^th in the team portable apparatus, and had a best individual result of 44^th on the balance beam. She had been a reserve at the 1948 London Olympics and placed fourth in the team all-around at the 1950 World Championships. Like many Olympians that we have featured recently, we saw an update on her for the 2012 London Games, but nothing since.

Benny Schmidt – Denmark’s lone modern pentathlete at the 1960 Rome Olympics

Benny Schmidt, born June 25, 1929, represented Denmark in the modern pentathlon at the 1960 Rome Games, where he placed 47^th and carried the nation’s flag in the opening ceremony. He won a national title in the 4×100 metres in 1953, and then became the Danish show jumping champion from 1956 through 1959. He was a military officer for his entire career, and while it seems likely that he is still alive, we only have evidence of this from 2012.

Jaroslav Šír – Member of Czechoslovakia’s military ski patrol delegation to the 1948 St. Moritz Olympics

Jaroslav Šír, born November 8, 1923, represented Czechoslovakia in the military ski patrol demonstration event at the 1948 St. Moritz Games, where his nation placed sixth. Serving in the army, he was a member of the national ski team from 1948 through 1955, although he never won an international medal. If he were still alive, he would be turning 100 this year, although we have not heard anything about him since 2012.

Günter Stratmann – Germany’s lone fencer at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics

Günter Stratmann, born January 8, 1931, represented Germany in all three fencing events at the 1956 Melbourne Games, where he was eliminated in the semifinals of the foil and sabre and the second round of the épée. Domestically, he was a four-time German champion and, by career, was a businessman. His son Jörg took part in the sabre tournament at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. We do not know for certain if Günter is still alive, but we do have confirmation from 2012.

This concludes our series on Olympians who were last known living in 2012, which means that for the next blog entry we will be presenting a new topic. We hope that you will join us!

Today on Oldest Olympians, we are keeping up the momentum on reviewing those Olympians who were last known living in 2012. Today’s focus is on the remaining Olympians who competed at the 1948 London Games.

Aram Boghossian – Member of Brazil’s swimming delegations to the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics

Aram Boghossian, born November 19, 1929, represented Brazil in four swimming events across two editions of the Games, 1948 and 1952, but did not reach the podium in any of them. He did, however, win a silver medal as a member of the 4×200 metres freestyle relay at the 1951 Pan American Games. He continued to swim at the masters’ level and, by career, was an engineer. We suspect that he is still alive, but the last official confirmation that we have seen comes from 2012.

Bruce Bourke – Member of Australia’s swimming delegation to the 1948 London Olympics

Bruce Bourke, born February 5, 1929, represented Australia in two swimming events at the 1948 London Games and was also a reserve with the 4×200 metres freestyle relay. He was also a member of the water polo team that won the demonstration event at the 1950 British Empire Games. His son Glenn became an Olympic sailor in 1992. Bruce made headlines in 2012 when it was revealed that he had stolen an Olympic flag in 1948, but we have not heard anything from him since.

(Fred Daigle, pictured at his daughter’s blog)

Fred Daigle – Member of Canada’s boxing delegation to the 1948 London Olympics

Fred Daigle, born September 9, 1930, represented Canada in bantamweight boxing at the 1948 London Games, where he was eliminated in his first bout. His daughter posted a blog entry about his Olympic journey in 2012, noting that he was still alive, but we have not had an update since.

(Gerti Fesl, pictured at noe)

Gerti Fesl – Member of Austria’s gymnastics teams at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics

Gerti Fesl, born September 29, 1931, represented Austria in gymnastics at two editions of the Games, finishing sixth and tenth in the team all-around in 1948 and 1952 respectively. Individually, she had her best finish of 66^th in the uneven bars in 1952. She was the national individual all-around champion in 1955 and 1958 and was featured in a 2012 article, but we have not seen any news since.

Cees Gravesteijn – Member of the Netherlands’ canoeing delegation to the 1948 London Olympics

Cees Gravesteijn, born April 21, 1928, represented the Netherlands in canoeing’s K-2 1000 competition, where he finished in sixth. This is all that we know about him, and our last update of his being alive comes from a 2012 article that is no longer available.

(Vivian King, pictured at the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame)

Vivian King – Member of Canada’s swimming delegation to the 1948 London Olympics

Vivian King, born April 4, 1930 (although some sources suggest 1931), represented Canada in two events at the 1948 London Games, being eliminated in the semi-finals of the 400 metres freestyle and the opening round of the 4×100 metres freestyle relay. She won multiple national championships, but turned professional prior to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. We were informed that she was still alive in 2012, but we have not seen any indication that this has been the case since then.

Klara Post – Member of the Dutch gymnastics squad at the 1948 London Olympics

Klara Post, born July 5, 1926, was a member of the Dutch gymnastics team that placed fifth in the all-around event at the 1948 London Games. She was mentioned as still being alive in the same 2012 article that also provided an update for Cees Gravesteijn.

Ilse Steinegger – Member of Austria’s athletics delegation to the 1948 London Olympics

Ilse Steinegger, born August 8, 1925, represented Austria in the high and long jumps at the 1948 London Games, placing seventh and tenth respectively. Domestically, she was the national champion in those events in 1943, 1947, and 1949. She was listed as still being alive in a 2012 update on Austrian Olympians, but we have not heard anything about her since.

Üner Teoman – Member of Turkey’s athletics delegation to the 1948 London Olympics

Üner Teoman, born October 10, 1932, represented Turkey in the 100 metres track event at the 1948 London Games, where she was eliminated in round one. She was a pioneer in Turkish athletics and was still alive in 2012, but we are not certain if that remains the case.

We still have more names to cover, but even with these short biographies, we think that we have done enough for one post. We hope as always, however, that you will join us for the next round!

Today on Oldest Olympians, we are continuing to review those Olympians who were last known living in 2012. Thanks to some great research on our last post from our readers, we learned that Shirley Cawley is still alive, John Strover was still alive in 2016, and Eddie Bowey died in 2016. Today we wanted to continue this energy by focusing on those Olympians who hold a “title” among the oldest Olympians.

Lies Bonnier – Member of the Netherlands’ swimming delegation to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics

Lies Bonnier, born July 8, 1925, 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.

Hong Jong-Oh – Member of South Korea’s athletics delegations to the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics

Hong Jong-Oh, born July 7, 1925, represented South Korea in two editions of the Olympic marathon, placing 25^th 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.

Boonpak Kwancharoen – Member of Thailand’s athletics delegation to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics

Boonpak Kwancharoen, born April 9, 1928, represented Thailand in the 800 metres track event at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where he was eliminated in round one. He was also a reserve with the 4×100 and 4×400 metres relays, but did not compete in those events. Connor Mah provided evidence that he was still alive in 2012, but we do not have anything additional for his being alive beyond that. If he were, however, he would be the oldest living Thai Olympian.

Marija Radosavljević – Member of Yugoslavia’s athletics delegations to the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics

Marija Radosavljević, born July 18, 1927, represented Yugoslavia in the shot put at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Games, placing seventh both times. She also competed at the 1950 and 1954 European Championships and was Yugoslav Sportswoman of the Year in 1952. She was noted as being alive in 2012, and would be the oldest person to have represented Yugoslavia at the Olympics if still living, but we have not had an update since.

(Anna Van Marcke, pictured at Kortrijk)

Anna Van Marcke – Member of Belgium’s canoeing delegation to the 1948 London Olympics

Anna Van Marcke, born April 18, 1924, represented Belgium in canoeing’s K-1 500 event at the 1948 London Games, where she placed seventh. She married another canoeing Olympian, Jozef Massy, and was still alive in 2012, shortly after his death, but we have not seen any further information. If alive, she would be the oldest living Belgian Olympian.

(Suhas Chatterjee, left, pictured at The Telegraph)

Suhas Chatterjee – Member of India’s water polo team at the 1948 London Olympics

Suhas Chatterjee, born in 1925, represented India in the water polo tournament at the 1948 London Games, where his country was eliminated in round two. He later became a physician and was last covered in the media (as far as we have seen) in 2012. We currently list Amit Singh Bakshi, born September 17, 1925, as the oldest living Indian Olympian and thus, depending on his exact date of birth, Chatterjee might be older if he were still alive.

Those are enough names for today, but we will be continuing this series in the coming days, as we have many more Olympians to cover. We hope that you will join us!

At the beginning of last year, we listed eight individuals for whom we last had information on their being alive in 2011: François Fug, Geoff Heskett, Ivan Jacob, Lazar Hristov, Guy McGregor, Merv Moy, Eino Oksanen, and Erwin Vogt. Since then, we have learned that Ivan Jacob died in 2009, Oksanen was still alive but died several months ago, and Heskett, McGregor, and Vogt are still alive. This means that Fug, Hristov, and Moy will unfortunately have to be removed from our tables and placed on the “possibly living” category list. This brings us to our next task, reviewing those who were last known living since 2012, although this year there are far more names than usual to cover. This is in significant part due to English-language media covering many competitors for the London Olympics that year and reflecting on the last time it was held in the city, in 1948. As such, we have to break this entry into several posts, and it seems apt to begin with the five competitors who represented Great Britain.

(Eddie Bowey, pictured at The Telegraph)

Eddie Bowey – Member of Great Britain’s wrestling delegation to the 1948 London Olympics

Eddie Bowey, born January 5, 1926, represented Great Britain in the middleweight, freestyle wrestling event at the 1948 London Games, where he survived until round three. He just missed the podium in that event at the 1950 British Empire Games by finishing fourth. He later moved to New Zealand to work as a lumberjack, before returning to London. Like many survivors who competed at the 1948 Olympics, he was interviewed and photographed in the lead-up to the 2012 London Games, but we have not seen anything about him since.

Shirley Cawley – Bronze medalist for Great Britain in the long jump at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics

Shirley Cawley, born April 26, 1932, represented Great Britain in the long jump at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where she won a bronze medal. She also competed at the 1954 European Championships, where she placed seventh. We know that her married name is Berry, but we have not been able to confirm that she has been alive since 2012.

(Robert Collins, pictured in a video by Saga Magazine)

Robert Collins – Member of Great Britain’s coxed fours rowing squad at the 1948 London Olympics

Robert Collins, born April 18, 1924, represented Great Britain in coxed fours rowing at the 1948 London Games, where the crew was eliminated in the quarterfinals. A graduate of the University of Oxford, he was interviewed for the 2012 London Olympics and we have not had an update on him since.

John Strover – Member of Great Britain’s field hockey team at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics

John Strover, born February 2, 1931, represented Great Britain in the field hockey tournament at the 1956 Melbourne Games, where the team lost the bronze medal match against Germany and placed fourth. We do not know much else about him, but records indicate that he was still alive in 2012, which is the last update that we have for him.

Daphne Wilkinson – Member of Great Britain’s swimming delegation to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics

Daphne Wilkinson, born April 17, 1932, represented Great Britain in the 400 metres freestyle swimming event at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where she was eliminated in the semifinals and placed 11^th overall. She had better luck at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, where she took bronze as part of the 4×110 yard freestyle relay. Domestically, she earned three titles in the 440 yards and one in the 220 yards freestyle. As with Bowey and Collins, she was interviewed in 2012 and we have not had any updates since.

There are many more names for us to cover, but we think that this is enough for today, so we will stop here. We will be back soon, however, so we wish you a Happy New Year and hope that will join us once again!

At the end of the year it’s been a tradition for Olympstats to post something to mark the holidays. This time we’ll focus on sportspeople and people who have other Olympic connections who were born at this time of year.

December 24 – Christmas Eve.

King George of Greece

The first person to mention was no Olympian in the standard sense but instead an important figure in the revival of the Games and whose family connections with Olympism span over three centuries.

Christian Wilhelm Ferdinand Adolf Georg  von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg was a prince of Denmark who was offered the Greek throne as a 17-year-old after the overthrow of the unpopular King Otto. As King George he offered his royal patronage to the 1896 Olympic Games and, later, the 1906 Intercalated Games, both of which increased his stature with the Greek public. In the fiftieth year of his reign, despite Greek successes in the first Balkan War, he lost his life to a gunman’s bullet. The assassin was variously described as an anarchist or mentally disturbed.

George’s son Constantine (Konstantinos) served as president of the Olympic Organizing Committees in 1896 and 1906 and his grandson, also George, served as president of the Greek Olympic Committee.

Another grandson, Prince Phillip of Great Britain, emulated his grandfather by officially opening the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne while a great-grandson, Prince Crown Prince Konstantinos (Constantine) was an Olympic champion in sailing. If you add in his links to the British and Spanish royal families, his bloodline links the first Olympic Games to the present day of 2022.

Anton Heida

In contrast, Anton Heida was not born into an aristocratic family. In fact after his competitive gymnastics career was over he performed in vaudeville as part of an acrobatic act called “The Olympic Trio”.

His unusual Olympic claim to fame is that he could be credited to have competed at the same Olympic Games for two different nations.  He was an Austrian native and when he won the team and individual all-around gold medal in the July turnverein competition, he was still an Austrian citizen. But he became a US citizen (which required that he renounce Austrian nationality) on 17 October 1904, so he was an American at the time of the late October gymnastics events

Alexis McAllister

Moving forward by more than a decade, Alexis McAllister was perhaps the outstanding performer in the 2022 FIFA football World Cup final. Unfortunately for him, Argentina were knocked out of the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games in the group stage after a surprise loss to Australia

December 25 – Christmas Day

Freydoun Malcolm Khan

It’s an odd thought that the first Olympian produced by Iran was actually born on the holiest of Christianity’s holy days. Freydoun Malcolm Khan was born into Armenian-Persian aristocracy in London where his father was serving in London as minister plenipotentiary and later as ambassador.  His Olympic career saw him qualify for the second round of the Épée competition in 1900 but progress no further.

Noël Delberghe

An Olympic champion born on Christmas Day and with the given name Noël probably  fits the criteria to be mentioned in this post as well as anybody ever could be. Previously Great Britain had won all four Olympic water polo tournaments they had competed in but in 1924 they were defeated by the Hungarians by the odd goal in thirteen in their first round match. The Hungarians themselves were routed by Belgium in their next match and this led to a France versus Belgium final.

The French team, which included Delberghe from the Belgian border town of Tourcoing as one of their defenders, shut out their opponents for a memorable gold medal win.

Emanoul Aghasi

The second Iranian Olympian we mention to have been born on Christmas Day was also an ethnic Armenian. Better known as father to tennis superstar Andre Agassi, Emanoul competed at the London Olympics of 1948 and also four years later in Helsinki but lost his first boxing bout on both occasions. Aghasi retired from active competition after the 1952 Games and moved to Chicago to join his brother, renaming himself “Mike”.

Christ Noël Yarafa

To move things up a notch, it seems Christ Noël Yarafa of the Central African Republic is the ultimate in aptly named Olympians.  His Olympic performance was not outstanding as his national team finished 29^th of 30 teams in the teams time trial in 1992, one team did not complete the course, but as president of his country’s national cycling federation he is credited with almost single-handedly keeping the sport alive amid all the violence in the country, coaching and inspiring many young cyclists in Central Africa despite a chronic lack of funding for the sport.

Oleksiy Sereda

Oleksiy Sereda was born in 2005 and, as such, is still only 15 at the time of me writing this.

Already the Ukrainian has proved to be a stellar talent in the world of diving and has won medals in both the World and European championships and finished in the top six at the Olympic  Games on Tokyo. He has the potential to be a leading light for both his sport and trouble torn country for many years to come.

Today on Oldest Olympians, we wanted to cover a few British mysteries from the 1920 Antwerp Olympics that were forwarded to us by Connor Mah. As you can imagine, there is not much information on these cases, but we wanted to share them in the hopes that perhaps someone out there can identify these individuals.

(The 1920 British Olympic gymnastics squad: Harris is third from the left in the back row, Page is first on the left on the second row down, and Taylor is second from the left in the front, seated row)

Three of the individuals were members of the gymnastic team that came fifth and last in the tournament: A. E. Page, H. W. Taylor, and J. Harris. A possibly candidate for Page is Alfred Elliot Page, born January 20, 1892 and died in January 1980, as he was from Ipswich, which would align with his club of the East Anglian Amateur Gymnastics Association, but we cannot verify this. Unfortunately, Taylor and Harris have names that are far too common to have even suggested candidates, although we do know that Taylor was a reserve with the Northampton Polytechnic Institute that won the Adams Shield in 1925.

For the other three, we at least have full names, although featherweight boxer Fred Adams was generally referred to only as “F Adams” or “F. T. Adams”, so we cannot be certain that his name is accurate. He competed in the national championships for the entirety of the 1920s, although he never won a title. At the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, he was eliminated in round two. Non-finishing road cyclist Edward Newell, meanwhile, might have been Edward Albert Newell, born September 28, 1901 and died in 1978, although we cannot be certain because the only other information that we have on his career is that he was a reserve with the English team at the inaugural 1921 World Championships. Finally, George F. Piper, who was 29^th in the marathon, had an extensive career that lasted over two decades, and he might have been George Frederick Piper, born September 5, 1883 and died December 1966 in London. We have not, however, been able to confirm this.

Today on Oldest Olympians we wanted to continue highlighting Connor Mah’s excellent recent research, as he has expanded our biographical data on Swiss, Austrian, and Belgian Olympians significantly. Just as in a previous entry on this subject, we wanted to note some of those updates that involve past Olympic mysteries that were featured on this blog.

(Fritz Weinzinger)

Three of these updates involve confirmation of Austrian data that we suspected previously, but could not prove. First, track athlete Emil Hübscher, born September 3, 1912, who competed in two events in 1936, did die on February 25, 1958. Another athlete, Fritz Weinzinger, born July 14, 1890, who competed in two events in 1912, has been confirmed as the individual who died May 22, 1963. Finally, Mah was able not only to demonstrate that 1948 sport shooter Andreas Krapf died in 2000, as claimed on Wikipedia, but to provide a full date of death of February 7, 2000.

(Grete Neumann)

Not all of his updates were confirmatory, however. We suspected that another 1936 athlete, Grete Neumann, might have been the individual of the same name who died February 8, 1996, although we admitted that it was unlikely due to differences in the month of birth between the two. We were right to be skeptical, as the Olympian actually died nearly a half century earlier on September 14, 1946. Mah also discovered, however, that her listed year of birth was incorrect, and that she was born June 19, 1912. Moving to Switzerland, he also found that we knew nothing about 1928 Swiss Olympic cyclist Erich Fäs because we had the wrong name – the competitor was actually Ernst Fäs, born 1909, who died in August 1980.

(Ivan Jacob, pictured at The Hindu)

Finally, as might be considered fitting for an end-of-the-year type blog post, Mah was able to provide an update on one of the Olympians that was last known to be alive in 2011: Indian athlete Ivan Jacob, who we believed was born January 1, 1928. It turns out that this was a placeholder date, as he was actually born July 15, 1925, and died February 5, 2009.

Today on Oldest Olympians we want to return to eisstockschießen, or “ice stock sport”, at the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Olympics. Since we last posted on this topic, Ralf Regnitter has uncovered some of the biographical details of these unknown players, beginning with Therese Ryhiner. Ryhiner was one of the few that we had a full date of birth for, April 3, 1887, because we had a picture of her Olympic ID card. From this, Regnitter was able to find her date of death: September 30, 1947.

He did not stop there, however, and was able to locate biographical data for some of the individuals that we had mentioned previously on this blog: Maria Clausing, Gertrud Großberger, and Mathilde Seyffarth. Additionally, he solved a few cases that we had not yet gotten to: Ludwig Fruth, Alois Kneitinger, Lorenz Kollmannsberger, and Korbinian Witting. All the new data is viewable from the pages at Olympedia’s coverage of ice stock sport in 1936.

In that spirit, we wanted to throw out a few additional names from the tournament that we have yet to cover. Kollmannsberger competed exclusively in individual events, but the other three took part in the team event as members of Eisstock-Club Partenkirchen, where they placed seventh. We are still missing data on two of their teammates: Sebastian Groeß and Josef Neuner.

Kollmannsberger, meanwhile, came in second in the distance shooting event that was limited to Germans. The winner of that event was Hans Hacker of Eisschützen-Verein Gotteszell, while third place went to Josef Wirt of Eissportverein Bad Aibling. The Bad Aibling club also came second in the German team event, with Wirt, Ludwig Retzer, Martin Geisenhofer, Josef Kreitmeier, and Josef Lechner. Gotteszell, with Hacker, Hans Hackl, August Brunner, Anton Bilmeier, and Karl Weber, settled for fourth.

(Anton Bielmeier, pictured at Bayerischer Landtag)

Anton Bilmeier might have been Anton Bielmeier, born September 1, 1901 and died January 6, 1958, who was a politician from the same region as Gotteszell, but we have no proof. We also do not know if he is any relation to Hans Bielmeier, who represented Straubing in the international team event. For the rest of those that we have mentioned, we have no leads at all. For now, we do not want to overwhelm, so we will stop here, but we will certainly pick up this tournament again in the future!

Today on Oldest Olympians we wanted to highlight some great recent research from Connor Mah, who has expanded our biographical data on Swiss and Austrian Olympians significantly. While there are far too many names to cover in a single post, we wanted to highlight some of the updates that involve past Olympic mysteries that were featured on this blog.

(Maurice Chollet, pictured on the right at Getty Images)

Starting with Switzerland, back in June Mah was able to confirm that the Hugo Vonlanthen who was listed as dying on April 28, 2009 was in fact the Olympic field hockey player. Then, earlier this month, he verified that the obituary for a Maurice Chollet who died February 22, 2017 was for the two-time Olympic basketball player. Most recently, he was able to confirm that the Kurt Bryner who died in Cape Verde in February 1984 was the two-time Olympic sailor.

(Adolf Müller, with the moustache in the background)

In-between, Mah was also able to solve several other Swiss Olympic mysteries. Firstly, 1936 Olympic canoeist Rudolf Vilim did die in February 1959. The Wikipedia date of death of August 28, 2005 for field hockey player Roland Annen was also confirmed as correct. He also proved that the January 2017 obituary for a René Wohler was for the 1952 Olympic basketball player. Finally, he discovered that Adolf Müller, a wrestler who was one of our Olympic medal mysteries, died July 7, 2005.

(John O’Connor, pictured in the Northern Whig, June 18, 1951)

We also have a handful of non-Swiss updates. From Austria, Mah was able to confirm that water polo player Sebastian Ploner, born May 27, 1907, did die in December 1981 as suggested by the Vienna cemetery index. From Ireland, with some help from Emma Edwards, we learned that athlete John O’Connor died October 10, 1977. From Italy, Adriano Brunelli verified that Wikipedia’s date of death for Amedeo Banci, December 24, 2013, is correct. From El Salvador, we learned that sport shooter Tomás Vilanova did die in July 2007.

(Rosella Thorne pictured in “A Sporting Chance: Achievements of African-Canadian Athletes” by William Humber)

Finally, a few days ago we featured Canadian track and field athlete Rosella Thorne, a previous Olympic mystery born December 11, 1930, as our Olympian of the day based on information that she was still alive. Sadly, it turns out that she died April 16 at the age of 91.