Charles Pahud de Mortanges

Charles Pahud de Mortanges (1934)

Plaque

Charles Ferdinand Pahud de Mortanges (born May 13, 1896 in The Hague , † April 8, 1971 in Leiden ) was a Dutch eventing rider , army officer and sports official . With four gold and one silver Olympic medal, he is the most successful rider in this discipline. During the Second World War he fled from German captivity. Later he was chairman and vice-chairman of the National Olympic Committee of the Netherlands and a member of the International Olympic Committee for almost two decades .

Equestrian career

His father was a senior government official in the Colonial Ministry, and his mother came from a respected banking family. In his youth, Pahud was enthusiastic about the military parades that regularly take place in The Hague . In 1915 he entered the Royal Military Academy and was a cadet of the cavalry . Three years later he passed the officer's examination as the best of his class; the instructors particularly noticed his riding talent. In 1920 he was transferred to Tilburg . It was there that Pahud met the director of the Royal Military Sports Federation, who after a short time became his coach and mentor. This gave him the opportunity to take part in numerous equestrian events.

At the Olympic Games in Paris in 1924 , Pahud won the gold medal in the team competition on the horse Johnny Walker , and in the individual competition he came fourth. He was even more successful at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam , when he became Olympic champion in both the individual and team rankings on Marcroix . In Los Angeles he was again individual Olympic champion on Marcroix at the Olympic Games in 1932 . In the team competition he won the silver medal. Four years later he also took part in Berlin , but he missed winning a sixth medal because his horse refused to jump over an obstacle three times during the cross-country ride.

Second World War

In 1938, Pahud suffered a riding accident and sustained a serious injury to his right hand. On the advice of Prince Bernhard zur Lippe-Biesterfeld , he went to Berlin for treatment in 1939. After the conquest of the Netherlands by the German Wehrmacht , the Dutch army was disbanded. Pahud ran a rehabilitation home for war wounded in Aerdenhout ( Bloemendaal municipality ) for two years . In May 1942 he was taken prisoner of war along with other Dutch professional officers .

In the prison camp near Ivano-Frankivsk in Galicia , the condition of Pahud's right hand worsened, so that in the summer of 1943 he was sent back to the Netherlands for rehabilitation. During the return trip he escaped from the train and fled. After hiding for some time, he fled through Belgium, France and Spain to Gibraltar . From there, Pahud was flown to Great Britain in February 1944 . Promoted to major , he was a member of the Royal Dutch Brigade in the invasion of Normandy and the liberation of the Netherlands. In September 1945 he was given the task of forming a mobile division of the Koninklijke Marechaussee .

Sports official

Although he could hardly ride because of his hand injury, Pahud remained committed to the sport. From July 1946 to December 1951 he was chairman of the National Olympic Committee of the Netherlands. Subsequently, until April 1958 was its vice-president and then again until April 1961 as chairman. From September 1946 to October 1964 he was a member of the International Olympic Committee . In the military, Pahud was Inspector General of the Army with Prince Bernhard's support and was promoted to Brigadier General in 1953 .

Web links

Commons : Charles Pahud de Mortanges  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Full biography - Institut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis (Dutch)
• Charles Pahud de Mortanges in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )