ISOH

Yelena Petushkova, Olympic champion in the individual dressage in 1972, passed away on 8 January 2007. Petushkova first competed in the Olympics in Mexico 1968, when she finished 6th in the individual event, and won a silver medal with the Soviet team. Four years later that team performance was repeated, winning her third Olympic medal.

After her active career Petushkova, who was also for some time married to high jump champion Valery Brumel, served as president of the Russian Equestrian Federation (1996-1999) and as vice-president of the USSR National Olympic Committee (1983-1991).

Cuban volleyball player Ernesto Martínez Hernández died 7 January 2007. Martínez competed in three Olympics, winning a bronze medal in Montréal 1976, placing 7th in Munich 1972 and 10th in Moscow 1980. He also won a bronze medal in the 1978 World Championships in Italy.

In the very first issue of the ISOH’s Journal of Olympic History (then still called Citius, Fortius, Altius), Pete Cava gives an overview of the history of baseball in the Olympics up to 1991.

Baseball is the sport with the longest Olympic history without being an actual medal sport, being contested as a demonstration sport in 1912, 1936, 1956, 1964, 1984 and 1988. In addition, the Finnish sport of pesapällo was demonstrated in 1952. In 1992, baseball finally became Olympic, but it will disappear from the programme again after the 2008 games, as was decided by the IOC in 2005.

Read Pete Cava’s full article at AAFLA.

Macedonian football great Blagoja Vidinić passed away on 29 December 2006. A goalkeeper with the Yugoslav football team, he played at the 1956 and 1960 Olympics, reaching the final on both occasions. In Melbourne, Yugoslavia lost to the Yashin-lead USSR, already having lost the Olympic finals of 1948 and 1952. In Rome, they finally won their gold medal, beating Denmark 3-1. In the  same year, Vidinić and Yugoslavia also played the final of the inaugural European Championships, again losing to the USSR.

After his active career, Vidinić became a coach and lead two African teams at the World Cup, Morocco (1970) and Zaire (1974).

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:

• Aleskandr Sunik - Российский спорт и олимпийское движение на рубеже XIX-XX веков (ISBN 5850098534)
• G.S. Demeter - Очерки по истории отечественной физической культуры и олимпийского движения (ISBN 5850099751)
• Conrado Durántez Corral - Las Olimpiadas Modernas (ISBN 8420544027)
• James R. Hines - Figure Skating - A History (ISBN 0252072863)
• Volker Kluge - Turin 2006 - Unser Olympiabuch (ISBN 3360012747)
• L’Alpe - Traces Olympiques (ISBN 2732451720)
• Mike Lee - The Race for the 2012 Olympics (ISBN 0753511525)
• Craig R. Perlow - The Perlow Guide To Olympic Bid Pins
• Guy Walters - Berlin Games: How the Nazis Stole the Olympic Dream (ISBN 0060874120)
• Leni Riefenstahl - Olympia 1+2 & Die Macht der Bilder

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.