Walter Winans

Walter Winans medal table
Walter Winans, around 1910
Sport shooting
United States
Olympic Summer Games
gold	1908	Running deer, single
silver	1912	Running deer, team
Olympic arts competitions
gold	1912	sculpture

Walter Winans (born April 5, 1852 in Saint Petersburg , † August 12, 1920 in Barking , Greater London ) was an American marksman , horse breeder , sculptor and author . He won a gold medal in shooting at the 1908 Summer Olympics and a silver medal at the 1912 Summer Olympics , in which he also took first place in sculpture in the art competitions . Along with the Hungarian Alfréd Hajós , who was two-time Olympic champion in swimming in 1896 and a silver medal in the field of architecture 28 years later , he is the only Olympic participant to have achieved Olympic medals in both a sporting and an artistic discipline.

Life

Walter Winans, the paternal Dutch and maternal French descended ancestors, was in 1852 in Russian Saint Petersburg born because his father William L. Winans there on the construction of the rail link to Moscow was involved. He lived in Saint Petersburg until he was 18, where he also received his schooling, and then moved to England with his parents . Although he lived in Europe for the rest of his life and only set foot on American soil for a few days ten years before his death while visiting a horse show in New York in 1910 , he retained American citizenship throughout his life .

Since he was financially independent due to his father's work and showed no interest in his own business activities, he was able to devote himself to his sporting and artistic inclinations. He won the English revolver shooting championships twelve times in a row and was also successful in horse breeding and trotting . The English weekly magazine Vanity Fair , published between 1868 and 1914 , which contained a full-page lithographic caricature of a contemporary celebrity in most issues , appeared in 1893 ("The Record Revolver Shot") and 1909 ("Tracks and Triggers") two representations of his person. At the Summer Olympics in London in 1908 , he won a gold medal in shooting in the " running stag double shot " discipline . Four years later at the games in Stockholm he took second place with the American team in the team competition "Running Deer 100m Single Shot". He also won at the art competitions during the Games in 1912 a gold medal in the sculpture for his of bronze -made sculpture "American Trotter" (An American Trotter) , which he after the games the National Olympic Committee of Sweden to the exhibition at the Swedish Sports Museum Malmo left.

Walter Winans also published several books, particularly on shooting sports . He died in London in August 1920 while participating in a harness race in which he suffered a heart attack shortly before the finish line , lost control of the reins , and was found dead after his sulky stopped . The ultimate cause of death was likely a broken neck or head injury as a result of falling from his car. Shortly before his death, he had lost large parts of his fortune, which consisted mainly of Russian securities , due to the political and economic consequences of the Russian October Revolution . However, his previously written will indicated that he was probably unaware of this. The fact that he had always referred to himself to the British tax authorities as an American living only temporarily in England also gave rise to a judicial investigation into his legal residence after his death.

Publications (selection)

• The Art of Revolver Shooting. New York and London 1901
• Practical rifle shooting. New York and London 1906
• The Sporting Rifle. The Shooting of Big and Little Game, Together With a Description of the Principal Classes of Sporting Weapons. New York and London 1908
• Deer Breeding for Fine Heads with Descriptions of Many Varieties and Cross-Breeds. London 1913
• Animal Sculpture, Suggestions for Greater Realism in Modeling and in Pose. New York and London 1914
• Automatic Pistol Shooting, Together With Information on Handling the Duelling Pistol and Revolver. New York and London 1918

literature

• Walter Winans. In: Richard Stanton: The Forgotten Olympic Art Competitions: The Story of the Olympic Art Competitions of the 20th Century. Trafford Publishing, Victoria BC 2001, ISBN 1-55212-606-4 , pp. 324/325
• Walter Winans Dies in a Race. In: The New York Times . Edition of August 13, 1920, p. 9
• Winans' Legal Domicile Puzzles English Court. In: The New York Times . Edition of May 27, 1921, p. 2
• Winan's Poor At Death. In: The New York Times . Edition of July 24, 1921, p. 2

Web links

• Walter Winans in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )