Silver in Montreal

[Double R Bar]

Our birthday boy today (Monday) won a silver medal in the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games. He turns 52 years old this day. An American won the gold in this field event. The silver medalist later wrote a book with the word "Free" in the title of the book. Who is our birthday subject today?

[Rob]

..

[Pego]

Wolfgang Schmidt?

[Double R Bar]

Wolfgang Schmidt is 52 today. You got it.

[Atanvarno]

He is also the only athlete (I can think of) who has competed separately for both the DDR and (subsequently) the BRD (GDR and FRG).

Remember Jürgen May ?

[Rob]

..

[eldrick]

Forgot about him!

Probably because when he first competed in Tokyo, it was still a combined German Team (no separate GDR & FRG teams)

how on earth did west & east germany manage to agree upon the composition of a "3 competitor/event" team as late as '64 ???

i'da thought they woudn't have been able to agree upon a team for '48 let alone '64 !!!

[Double R Bar]

I believe North and South Korea will field one team for the Beijing Olympics in two years.

[richh]

silver in Montreal

As a corollary to Rob's note on Jurgen May - he DID compete for the GDR - at the 1966 Europeans. He would have competed for FRG in the 1969 Europeans, but the GDR complained - May was barred from competing, and the entire FRG team withdrew in protest !

[Powell]

i'da thought they woudn't have been able to agree upon a team for '48 let alone '64 !!!

GDR and FRG didn't even exist in 1948 - Germany was still under the allies' occupation at that time. And Germany was banned from international competition at that time. I imagine the concept of one German team competing without national flags or anthems wasn't their own idea, either.