French Fashion Model, Fencer, Actress

As a teenager Nadia Boudesoque became a model for a fashion house in Paris. She later met Mexican colonel Antonio Haro (Oliva), who was stationed in Paris, and they married, with Boudesoque returning to Mexico. She continued to fence for sport, but after the 1948 London Olympics, where she represented Mexico, Boudesoque became an actress. She acted under the name Nadia Haro Oliva, appearing in multiple films in Mexico in the 1950s and 60s, notably “Misterios de la magia negra” (1957) and “El ángel exterminador” (1962). In the 1970s and 80s she turned more to acting on stage and television. She and her husband also owned and operated the Teatro Arlequín. Nadia Haro Oliva retired from acting after suffering a fall in 2004.

Olympians are people who have achieved success in their sports at the highest level. Such success often translates to other fields, and it is no surprise that numerous Olympians have succeeded outside of sports. With the name recognition that comes from their sports prowess, it is also no surprise that many Olympians have moved into politics. Many of them have served in their national legislatures.

This is a fairly difficult list to track but following is what we consider a fairly complete list. But we’ll accept additions to this list from anybody who has further information.

Olympic shooter, gold medalist, veterinarian, murderer

Full name       James Howard Snook

Used name    James Snook

Born                   17 September 1879; South Lebanon, Ohio (USA)

Died                   28 February 1930; Columbus, Ohio (USA)

http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/sn/james-snook-1.html

James Snook, twice a shooting gold medalist at the 1920 Olympics, made national headlines in 1929 and 1930, but not for anything to do with his shooting ability. Snook was a 1908 graduate of the Ohio State Veterinary School and in 1920 was a professor of veterinary medicine at Ohio State. In June 1929 he was practicing at the Ohio State rifle range when he was arrested and accused of the murder of Theora K. Hix, a medical student at Ohio State.

It turned out that Snook and Hix had posed as man and wife for three years, sharing an apartment near the school’s campus. On 13 June 1929, Snook claimed that Hix asked him to divorce his wife and marry her, threatening to kill his wife and child if she was refused. Snook confessed to then beating Hix several times with a hammer before severing her jugular vein with a pocket-knife to “relieve her suffering.” On 14 August 1929 a jury deliberated only 28 minutes before finding Snook guilty of first degree murder. A week later he was sentenced to be put to death, and at 7:10 p.m. on 28 February 1930, he died in the electric chair at the Ohio State Penitentiary.

Which Olympians have been heads of state – such as a President, Prime Minister, or King or Queen? We know of this happening 8 times, as follows:

See also http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/friv/lists.cgi

Recently I posted about the United States’ dominance of the all-time Olympic medal lists (hey, I’m a Merkan – give me a break). But there are some things that can be analyzed a bit more closely.

Firstly, the United States is the world’s 3^rd most populous country, after China and India. It would stand to reason that a country with more people would have a larger pool from which to draw great athletes. The US is also the world’s 3^rd (or possibly 4^th) largest country, after Russia and Canada, although not certain if that has any effect. (China and the United States are almost the exact same size and sometimes China is listed the 3^rd largest nation.)

Secondly, the United States is a wealthy country, with the world’s largest gross domestic product (GDP). Again, a country with great wealth has several advantages in terms of producing great athletes and Olympic medalists. Not only is there more money to support the athletes, theoretically, but people from wealthy nations typically have more leisure time allowing them to train more for sports.

So let’s look at the Olympic medal lists in a couple different ways. Remember that North America and Europe/International analyze medal lists differently – in North America the nations are ranked by 1) medals, 2) gold, 3) silver, and 4) bronze; while in Europe they are ranked by 1) gold, 2) silver, and 3) bronze. So we’ll compare lists both by total medals won and gold medals won (we can’t use silver and bronze well in the analysis that will follow).

Second, a caveat is in order. We are going to eliminate any nations that no longer exists – you’ll see why soon.

We will then look at medals won in terms of 1) medals won per capita, or divided by the nation’s population, to eliminate the advantage gained by larger nations; 2) medals won per GDP, to eliminate the advantage gained by wealthier nations; and 3) medals won per GDP per capita, which is probably a better way to measure a nation’s wealth.

Here is the basic top 25 medal list, uncorrected, with ranks on the left both in US system and the European system:

This is as we noted, with the USA on top, in both systems. We will eliminate the Soviet Union, Federal Republic of Germany (West), German Democratic Republic (East), and other non-extant nations, such as Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. The reason now becomes more obvious – we are using current figures for population (2014) and gross domestic product (2013), and those figures don’t exist any more for those nations, and there is no good way to extrapolate to them. Here are the population, GDP, and GDP per capita figures (Source: US CIA Factbook) for the top 25 nations on the “raw” medal list:

NLE=No Longer Exists

Here is what happens if we look at medals and gold medals per million population:

One thing of note above – the top nations are predominately winter sports nations. Liechtenstein, in particular, owes all of its medals to two winter sports families – the Wenzels and the Frommelts. Also, if you look at the two lists above, they are quite similar when using both ranking systems.

Now let’s look at how the nations do if we compare medals won per GDP, in million $:

Again, the lists are similar, although Jamaica leads in terms of medals won per capita while Hungary leads in terms of gold medals won per capita. But Jamaica, Bulgaria, Cuba, and Hungary are in the top 5 on both systems.

Finally, looking at the medal lists in terms of GDP per $1,000 per capita:

Again, many of the “standard” powerful Olympic nations come out on top by this analysis – with China 1^st and the United States 2^nd. The main reason for this is that while population and GDP differ by several magnitudes among nations, there is not the same magnitude of difference in terms of GDP per capita, which varies from $102,100 per person for Qatar, down to about $1,000 for the very poor nations. But many of those nations have never won an Olympic medal.

(Note: The below is from Paul Tchir, aka Canadian Paul, one of our group of OlyMADMen. Paul’s specialty is looking at the oldest Olympians, by sport, by medals, by nation, and almost every permutation thereof, and he is absolutely the world’s expert on this topic. You can find his specific page related to this at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Canadian_Paul/Olympics.)

The recent death of American sport shooter Walter Walsh, the longest-lived Olympian, meant that the mantle of “oldest living Olympian” passed to a new title-holder. This distinction went, almost certainly, to Swiss artist Hans Erni, who competed in the art competitions at the 1948 Summer Olympics. Born on 21 February 1909 in Lucrene, Erni achieved international fame as a painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and ceramist and is, as of 9 July 2014, the third longest-lived Olympian of all time, behind Walsh (who was less than a week shy of his 107^th birthday at his death) and American gymnast Rudolf Schrader, the latter of whom competed at the 1904 Summer Olympics and died in January 1981 at the age of 105 years, 307 days. Although there are a handful of Olympians older than Erni whose death has not been confirmed, it seems unlikely that someone would have reached 105 years of age in the era of the internet and escaped any notice whatsoever.

As art competitions were removed from the program after 1948, however, this answer may not satisfy everyone. The oldest Olympian from an athletic competition known to be living is Guo Jie of China, who took part in the men’s discus throw at the 1936 Summer Olympics. Guo, born 16 January 1912 in Dalian, is his nation’s longest-lived competitor, the last member of its delegation to the 1936 Games, and was still physically active at his 102^nd birthday. He is one of seven Olympic centenarians known to be living, a list that includes:

• Swedish diver Ingeborg Sjöqvist, born 19 April 1912, who took part in the 1932 and 1936 Summer Olympics and was runner-up in platform diving at the 1931 and 1934 European Championships.
• American athlete Simone Schaller, born 22 August 1912, who participated in the 80 m hurdles tournament in 1932 and 1936 and is the longest-lived American female Olympian.
• Baron Eduard von Falz-Fein, born 14 September 1912, who represented Liechtenstein in bobsled at the 1936 Winter Olympics and is second behind Norway’s Hans Kleppen, who died in April 2009 at the age of 102 years, 27 days, among the longest-lived Winter Olympians.
• Sándor Tarics, born 23 September 1913, who was a member of Hungary’s gold medal-winning water polo team in 1936 and is confirmed as the oldest living Olympic champion (the longest-lived Olympic champion is James Stillman Rockefeller, who died in August 2004 at the age of 102 years, 63 days).
• Evelyn Furtsch, born 17 April 1914, who earned a gold medal with the United States’ 4x100m relay team in 1932 and, earlier this year, surpassed Britain’s Godfrey Rampling as the longest-lived Olympic track and field gold medalist.

Three more Olympians will hopefully join them by the end of 2014: Olga Tőrös (born 4 August 1914), who won a bronze medal for Hungary in women’s team gymnastics in 1936, American John Lysak (born 16 August 1914), who competed in canoeing that same year, and Helen Johns (born 25 September 1914), who won a gold medal with the American team in the 4×100 m freestyle swimming event in 1932. Also worthy of mention is athlete Mien Klaver, born 26 February 1911, who was an alternate for the Dutch team in Furtsch’s event.

Outside of centenarians, Carla Marangoni (born 13 November 1915) is notable as the last known survivor of the 1928 Summer Olympics: she won a silver medal for Italy in the team gymnastics competition that year. Moreover, due to the increased attention that they receive, it is also possible to produce a definitive list of the seven oldest Olympic champions:

Notes:

• Durward Knowles also won bronze in 1956 and competed in 1948, 1952, 1960, 1968, 1972, and 1988. He originally competed for GBR in 1948.
• Martin Lundström won two golds in 1948 and also bronze in 1952.
• Jack Günthard also won a silver in 1952.

(Note: This is a difficult topic because it is always hard to know if somebody is definitely alive. If any astute readers have information on Olympians over 90 years old, or older Olympians who have recently died, please contact us via this blog.)

Olympic cycling is popular but the greatest race in cycling is considered to be the Tour de France, held every July over 3 weeks, and being held at the moment. A number of top cyclists competed in both the Olympics and Tour de France in the amateur era (1896-1992), and now that professional cyclists are allowed in the Olympics, many of them also compete in the Tour.

Until 1996, among the top professional cyclists who have starred in the Tour de France, only a few had Olympic experience.  Three-time winner Philippe Thys (BEL-1913/14/20) never competed in the Olympics, nor did Fausto Coppi (ITA-1949/52), Louison Bobet (FRA-1953/54/55), nor Bernard Hinault (FRA-1978/79/81/82/85).

The first Olympic medalist to win the Tour was Octave Lapize, who won a bronze medal in the 1908 Olympics 100 km race, and then won the 1910 Tour. Lapize is best known from comments he made in the 1910 Tour. While ascending the Col du Tourmalet, one of the first epic climbs included in the race, he shouted at race organizers, “Vous êtes des assassins! Oui, des assassins!” That stage was over 300 km with 7 difficult climbs, all raced in a single fixed-gear. Lapize was later killed in World War I.

Eddy Merckx (BEL-1969/70/71/72/74), usually considered the greatest cyclist ever, did compete in the 1964 Olympics in the individual road race, finishing 12^th, which was won by Italian Mario Zanin. His son, Axel, later competed in the 2000 and 2004 road race, winning an Olympic bronze medal in 2004, but he never featured at the Tour.

Jacques Anquetil (FRA-1957/61/62/63/64), whose record of five wins was later equalled by Merckx, Hinault, and Miguel Induráin (and initially bettered by Lance Armstrong), competed in the 1952 Olympic individual road race, oddly also finishing 12th.  But Anquetil did win an Olympic medal, having been a member of the French team in the road race, which finished third in the overall team event.

The first Olympic gold medalist to have also won the Tour de France is Joop Zoetemelk (NED).  Zoetemelk won his gold medal in the 1968 104 kilometre team time trial as a member of the Dutch team.  At 34 years of age, he won his Tour de France in 1980 and, amazingly, in 1985, aged 39 years, he won the world professional road race championship, the oldest ever to achieve that feat.

The feat of winning the Olympic individual road race and the world professional road race was first achieved by Hennie Kuiper (NED), who won his Olympic gold in 1972 and took the world professional title in 1975.  Kuiper also finished second in the Tour de France twice. This was later done by Italian Paolo Bettini, who won gold in the 2004 Olympic road race and won the World Road Race Championship in 2006-07.

Greg LeMond (USA-1986/89/90), the first American to win the Tour de France and the world professional road race championship (1983/89), qualified for the United States Olympic team in 1980, but as a member of that ill-fated 1980 team, did not compete in the Olympics. Based on his performance at the 1979 World Amateur Championships, winning 3 medals, including the U23 road race gold medal, he was expected to be co-favorite in the road race with Soviet rider Sergey Sukhoruchenkov, but in LeMond’s absence, Sukhoruchenkov won the gold medal.

The following Olympic cycling medalists also won the Tour de France:

The United States’ first government came into being 240 years ago – in September 1774, with the formation of the 1^st Continental Congress. But Americans celebrate the nations’ birthday on July 4^th, the day chosen to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, although it is well known that the signing actually occurred on July 2, 1776. Nonetheless this is what we consider the United States’ birthday – so Happy Birthday, USA. (Yes, I am a USA-ian, and I approved this post)

The United States has also competed at every Olympic Games except for, sadly, the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. During that time, the USA has dominated the medal lists and the medal standings more than any other nation, mainly at the Summer Olympics. There have been pretenders to attempt to usurp that dominance – the USSR from 1952-88, the GDR from 1972-88, and now China threatens to lead the medal standings. But overall, from 1896-2014, Summer alone, Summer and Winter, men, women, it matters not. The USA has been the dominant nation at the Olympic Games in terms of medals won.

Here are the top 5 nations in terms of all medals won, actually listing 6 nations, because North American and Europe tend to count the medal lists differently, and there is a discrepancy, even at the top of the lists (USA uses totals, gold, silver, bronze for the rankings; Europe / International uses gold, silver, bronze for the rankings) (Note: these numbers are all per the IOC standards, meaning they do not include the 1906 Olympics):

So skipping the Soviet Union, which no longer exists, the USA has won more gold medals than the next 4 best nations that are still extant, and more medals than the next 3 best nations, however you rank them.

Just looking at the Summer Olympics, that dominance becomes even more impressive.

Again, skipping the USSR, the United States has won more gold medals than the next best 4 nations, and more medals than the next best 3 nations. Including the Soviet Union, the USA has won more gold medals and medals than the next best 3 nations at the Summer Olympics.

If we try to split this up by gender, the dominance remains. Here are the lists for men, women, and mixed medals:

Men

Women

Mixed

The male dominance for the USA is as complete, with more gold medals than the next 4 remaining nations, and more medals than the 3 next nations still extant. The female dominance is less so, as the Soviet Union and German Democratic Republic (GDR – East Germany) emphasized women’s medals during their existence. And it is even less dramatic for mixed events, where it is approached by several other nations, but the USA still leads the mixed medal lists, both in terms of medals won and gold medals won.

Now at the Winter Olympics, the USA is not #1, that honor still going to Norway, with the United States 2^nd, Germany 3^rd, and Austria 4^th. But if we look only at the Summer Olympics, here is how the medal standings have ended up at each Games:

So of the above 32 leaders (by either system), the USA has been the leading nation at the Summer Olympics 17 times, or more than all other nations combined. However, if one looks at 1956-88, you can see that the Soviet Union was quite dominant in that era. What if they had competed before 1952 or since 1988?

One can argue that Russia, China, and Germany have not existed for as long as the United States, in Olympic terms. So let’s compare numbers against Pan-Soviet (USSR 1952-88 and all former Soviet republics prior to 1952 and since 1992) and Pan-Germania (Germany, East and West Germany) (Note: The Saar also competed in 1952 but did not win any medals.). We really can’t do the same for China. And this tabulation will give an advantage to Pan-Soviet counts, because since 1992 they can have far more than 3 competitors, or 1 team, in an event. The same was true for East and West Germany from 1968-88.

Here are the numbers for all Olympic medals:

So even with the advantage Pan-Soviet and Pan-Germania get from extra competitors and teams, the USA still leads the medal lists comfortably. Of course, Pan-Soviet had only a few competitors from 1912-36 – Russia in 1912 and the Baltics from 1924-36 – but given how much fewer events there were in that era, the USA would still lead the lists.

Happy Birthday, America. We have a national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, which I’ve considered like our alma mater, but I much prefer what could be considered similar to our college fight song – The Stars and Stripes Forever (officially the USA National March since 1987). Here’s one of my favorite versions of it:

Olympic distance runner, War hero, Prison camp survivor, Legend

Games	Sport	Event	Status	Team	Pos		Details
1936 (summer)	Athletics	5,000 metres	Olympic		8

Fencer, Soldier, Resistance fighter, Martyr, Sachsenhausen

Richard Schoemaker studied at the Royal Netherlands Military Academy, beginning there as a cadet in 1905. In the year he graduated he competed at the Olympic Games in London. Schoemaker then left for the Dutch East Indies as a second lieutenant, being promoted to captain 1915. He left the Army just after World War I, and became a professor of constructional engineering at the Technical Academy in Bandoeng, before returning to the Netherlands where he served as a professor of architecture on the faculty of bouwkunde (architecture/structural engineering) at the Technical University in Delft. He continued as a reserve major in the Army and over the next 20 years helped design and construct several Army barracks. Schoemaker’s brother, Wolff, was a noted Dutch architect often called the Frank Lloyd Wright of Indonesia.

At the start of World War II Schoemaker was called to serve with the Technical Corps of Engineering but was not involved in combat. After the Dutch Army surrendered to the Germans he joined the Dutch Underground, later becoming part of the Ordedienst (OD), a fusion of several underground groups. On 2 May 1941 Schoemaker was arrested after being found to be a member of the OD. He and several other OD members were kept in the state prison in Scheveningen, later called the Oranjehotel. In March-April 1942 Schoemaker and many of his compatriots were tried in Amersfoort, and all were found guilty, with the sentence being death.

On 1 May 1942 the convicted OD members, among whom was included Pierre Versteegh, a Dutch equestrian Olympian, were taken by train to Oranienburg, near Berlin, and then transported by truck to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. On 3 May 1942 all of the convicts were executed by firing squad, in groups of 12 each. Richard Schoemaker was among them. On 3 May 1946 a monument was erected in the Netherlands in the group’s honor. Schoemaker posthumously was given the Resistance Cross for his efforts.