British middle and long distance runner Sydney Wooderson died at age 92 on 21 December 2006. At his only Olympic appearance, he was hampered by an ankle injury and didn’t progress past the first round of the 1500 m. Two years later he improved world records in the 800 m, 880 y and the mile, setting it at 4.06,4. He also won the European Championships in the 1500 m. After the war he won another European title in the 5000 m.
U.S. Olympian Johnny Gibson passed away at the age of 101 on 29 December. New York-born Gibson competed in the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, where he competed in the 400 m hurdles, failing to qualify for the final. A year earlier he had set a new world record in the event (52,6) and beaten the 1928 champion, the British Lord Burghley.
After retiring, he turned to coaching, and lead sprinter Andy Stanfield to two Olympic medals in the 1950s.
Austrian Minister of the Interior and former Olympic medallist Liese Prokop passed away on New Year’s Eve 2006. She competed in three Olympics, first in 1964 as Elisabeth “Liese” Sykora, when she didn’t make the final in the high jump. She then married her coach Gunnar Prokop and became mother, before returning to competitive sport.
As Liese Prokop she started in Mexico City, where she won a silver medal in the pentathlon. The folowing year she broke the world record in that event, and won the European title. She returned to the Olympics in 1972, but had to forfeit after three events (placed 8th).
By then, she had already become involved in politics, being elected in the parliament of the state of Lower Austria (Niederösterreich) for the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP). From 1992 to 2004 she was deputy governer, before being asked to fill in as interior minister when her predecessor Ernst Strasser quit unexpectedly.
Prokop’s sister and nephew are also Olympians. Maria Sykora competed at the Munich Olympics in the 400 m, 800 m and 4 x 400 m relay. After missing the Montréal Olympics, she switched to handball, and eventually competed in the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Thomas Sykora, the son of their brother Ernst, participated in two Olympics as an alpine skier. In Nagano 1998, he won a bronze medal in the slalom.
The latest issue of the Journal of Olympic History features reviews of the following Olympic books and DVDs:
Former Olympic water polo champion Mirko Sandić passed away at 64 in Belgrade (Serbia) on 24 December. With the Yugoslav team, he competed in four Olympics (1960-1972). He won a silver medal in the 1964 Tokyo Games, and the Olympic title four years later in Mexico. With the national team, he also won two bronze medals in the European Championships.
In club competition, he played for Partizan Beograd, and won 11 national championships, 7 national cups and 5 times the European Club Championship. After his active career, he became a coach, and was inducted in the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1999.
The last 2006 issue of the Journal of Olympic History was published in December. It is dedicated to the 1906 Olympics in Athens. ISOH members of 14 countries contributed an article about their nation’s participation in these Games, while ISOH president Karl Lennartz discusses the remaining teams.
In addition, three articles are published from ISOH Scholarship students, as well as a discussion of the Olympic status of curling and the military patrol at the 1924 Winter Olympics.
Ivar Formo, Olympic champion in the 50 km cross country at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck drowned on 26 December. He was skating on the Store Sandungen lake in Nordmarka (near Oslo) when the ice broke.
Formo (55) first competed in the Olympics in Sapporo, when he won a bronze medal in the 15 km, and a silver with the Norwegian relay team. In Innsbruck he repeated his silver in the 4 x 10 km event, and took a bronze in the 1974 Orienteering World Championships.
Mexican ex-wrestler Alberto Bremauntz Monge died 16 December. He competed in the 1972 Olympics, losing both his matches in the Greco-Roman lightweight division. Bremauntz later became the president of the Mexican Olympians Association, and a member of the Mexican Olympic Committee.