Glen Brand

Glen Brand (born November 3, 1923 in Clarion , Iowa , † November 15, 2008 in Omaha , Nebraska ) was an American wrestler and Olympic champion .

Career

Glen Brand attended high school in Clarion during the Second World War, where he had first contacts with the sport of wrestling under the guidance of his cousin Dale Brand . After graduating from high school, he joined the United States Marine Corps for four years . After the war he began at Iowa State University to study engineering, which he successfully completed. In 1946 he began wrestling under the direction of the university's trainer, Hugo Otopalik. It was immediately very successful and achieved excellent placements in the years 1946, 1947 and 1948 at the NCAA Collegiate Championships (NCAA = Sports Association of All American Universities). In 1948 he also won the Amateur Athletic Union eliminations for the London Olympics . There he became Olympic champion in freestyle wrestling in the class up to 79 kg body weight (middle weight). After that he wrestled in university competitions until 1950, but no longer took part in championships.

The wrestling career of Glen Brands was one of the typical American careers, as they were then. Above all, there was a struggle for the university at which one studied. One took part in the Olympic Games, the participation in world championships was no longer so popular, whereby from 1923 to 1949 there were no world championships in wrestling. There were also no Pan-American games or championships during Brands' wrestling times. The international starting opportunities were therefore very limited.

He founded his own company in Omaha, “Brand Hydraulics”, which he successfully operated for many decades. In Omaha, Brand trained young wrestlers at the YMCA for 14 years and then organized youth wrestling tournaments there. In 1978 he was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for his services to wrestling .

He is the older brother of wrestler Daniel Brand , who won a bronze medal at the 1964 Olympic Games .

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, M = middleweight, S = heavyweight, F = freestyle)

• 1948, gold medal , OS in London , M, F, with victories over Abbas Hariri, Iran , R. Arthur, Australia , Adil Candemir , Turkey and Erik Lindén, Sweden

National successes

• 1946, 3rd place, S, F, NCAA Collegiate Championships,
• 1947, 2nd place, M, F, NCAA Collegiate Championships,
• 1948, 1st place, M, F, NCAA Collegiate Championships,
• 1948, 1st place, M, F, AAU Olympic elimination

Web links

• Profile of Glen Brand at the Institute of Applied Exercise Science
• Glen Brand in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Short biography in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame (English)
• Statistics in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame (English)