Bernhoff Hansen

Bernhoff Otelius Hansen (born August 17, 1877 in Rognan , Norway , † December 22, 1950 in New York City , New York , USA ) was a Norwegian wrestler who wrestled at the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis , Missouri, the United States and won the gold medal in the heavyweight class (over 158 lb / 71.67 kg) ahead of Frank Kugler (silver) and Fred Warmbold (bronze).

It was not until 2012 that Norwegian historians discovered that Hansen was listed as an alien , i.e. as a permanent foreigner resident in the USA, until 1925 , which led to discussions as to whether he would ever be granted US citizenship at all. This is why these same historians pleaded that the gold medal, which was evaluated for the United States, should be retrospectively evaluated for Norway.

life and career

Hansen was born in 1877 in the village of Rognan, the center of Saltdal Municipality , in Nordland . He was initially very successful as a wrestler in Norway, but made the decision to settle in the United States a year and a half before the 1904 Summer Olympics . Immediately after his arrival in New York City , he joined the Norwegian Gymnastics Club in what was then the second largest district of Brooklyn , which he also represented at the Olympic Games in 1904. At the Olympic Games in the then up-and-coming city of St. Louis , Hansen was able to clearly prevail against the competition. In the heavyweight competition, the Norwegian, who decided to compete for the USA, was able to prevail clearly against Fred Warmbold in the first round and win the fight after just 23 seconds. In the semi-final fight against William Hennessy , who even competed in three different weight classes at these Olympic Games, Hansen also emerged victorious after 5:07 minutes. He was also able to win the final fight against Frank Kugler , who comes from the German Reich , after exactly 2:00 minutes and thus receive the gold medal.

A year later he was able to defend his championship title, which he won in an " AAU tournament" in 1904 . During his active time he fought against other international greats such as Władysław "Władek" Zbyszko , brother of the world champion of professional wrestlers in Greco-Roman and free style, Stanislaus Zbyszko . Other opponents included Aleksander Aberg , Waldemar Kassfeldt , Cyclone Ress , Jack Gedrow , Mike Matalich and Taro Miyake . In a report from 1918, the New York Times describes the 1.73 m tall Bernhoff Hansen as a "light-heavyweight wrestler". After Hansen had been successful as a wrestler for several decades, he settled in his new home in New York City at an advanced age and died there on December 22, 1950 of natural causes. In 2004, 100 years after his success at the Olympic Games, the Saltdal municipality honored Hansen with a memorial in his home town of Rognan.

Web links

• Bernhoff Hansen in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Profile of Bernhoff Hansen at the Institute for Applied Training Science
• Group picture of a tournament from 1915 , Bernhoff Hansen in the 3rd row as 6th from right (PDF; English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Her er beviset som endrer norsk idrettshistorie (Norwegian), accessed on January 19, 2014
2. ↑ Zbyszko to Wrestle Hansen (pdf file; English), accessed on January 19, 2014