Henry Wittenberg

Henry Wittenberg (born September 18, 1918 in Jersey City , New Jersey , † March 9, 2010 in Somers , New York ) was an American wrestler .

Career

Henry Wittenberg learned wrestling in college and university. In 1939 he was US college champion ( NCAA champion) in middleweight (freestyle). From 1939 to the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Wittenberg did not lose a single fight. Only the Swede Viking Palm defeated him in the fight for the gold medal. Wittenberg had already become Olympic light heavyweight (freestyle) champion in London in 1948, so he could get over winning "only" the silver medal in Helsinki.

In 1950 he took part in the Maccabiade and won a gold medal. At the next Maccabiade in 1953 he was able to repeat this success.

After his active time, Wittenberg was a wrestler trainer at Yeshiva University in New York and from 1967 to 1979 he trained the offspring at the City College of New York . In 1969 he was also the head coach of the US Olympic wrestling team.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, F = freestyle, Wed = middleweight, HS = light heavyweight)

• 1948, gold medal , OS in London , F, HS, with victories over József Tarányi ( Hungary ), John Sullivan ( Great Britain ), Pekka Mellavuo ( Finland ), Muharrem Candaş ( Turkey ), Bengt Fahlkvist ( Sweden ) and Fritz Stöckli ( Switzerland )
• 1952, silver medal , OS in Helsinki , F, HS, with victories over Rodolfo Padron ( Venezuela ), Willy Lardon (Switzerland), August Englas (USSR) , Adil Atan (Turkey) and one defeat against Viking Palm (Sweden)

National successes

• 1939, 1st place, US University Championship (NCAA Championship), F, Wed
• 1940 and 1941, American champion ( AAU -Champion), F, Wed
• 1943, 1944, 1946, 1947, 1948 and 1952, American Champion (AAU Champion), F, HS

Honors

In 1977 Henry Wittenberg was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and in 1979 into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame . Four years later, he was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Henry Wittenberg in the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
2. ↑ Henry Wittenberg in the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame ( Memento of the original from September 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Web links

• Profile of Henry Wittenberg at the Institute for Applied Training Science
• Henry Wittenberg in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Olympic Games 1948: Henry Wittenberg (above) tries to push in the bridge by Bengt Fahlquist (Sweden)
• Short biography in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame (English)
• Statistics in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame (English)