Khalil Taha
Khalil Taha (born June 5, 1932 in Beirut , † July 27, 2020 in Venice , Florida ) was a Lebanese wrestler .
He won at the 1952 Olympics , a bronze medal in Greco-Roman wrestling in the welterweight division .
Career
Immediately after the Second World War , a strong wrestling team developed in Lebanon , which won several medals at international championships in the Greco-Roman style. Khalil Taha was one of them. In his first participation in an international championship, the Mediterranean Games in 1951 in Alexandria , he finished second in welterweight behind the Egyptian Moustapha.
In 1952 he also took part in the Summer Olympics in Helsinki . Only 20 years old he defeated Henry Freylinger from Luxembourg , Gottfried Angelberger from Austria and the experienced Frenchman René Chesneau . He was thus in the finals, in which he was unsuccessful against Miklós Szilvási from Hungary and against Gösta Andersson from Sweden . But he surprisingly won an Olympic bronze medal .
In 1953 he also competed in the Greco-Roman style at the World Cup in Naples . He came there in the welterweight division but only to one victory over the Israeli Moshe Artzi. Against Bekür Büke from Turkey and René Chesneau he lost and finished tenth.
Immediately after these world championships, Khalik Taha emigrated to the United States with his cousin Safi Taha . Both settled in Detroit and became members of the FORD Motor Wrestling Club Detroit and the FORD Recreation Club Dearborn , Michigan . Khalil Taha even managed to become American welterweight champion in the Greco-Roman style in 1956 and 1957. His talent as a coach had already been discovered beforehand, so that he was a coach of the US wrestling team at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne.
In the following years, in which he was wrestling coach at the Michigan Wrestling Club , he repeatedly coached American senior and junior teams that competed at the Olympic Games or World Championships until the late 1980s .
Khalil Taha, who made great contributions to the development of Greco-Roman wrestling in the United States, was inducted into the American Athletes Union (AAU) Hall of Fame.
International successes (Greco-Roman style)
| year | space | competition | Weight class | course |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | 2. | Mediterranean Games in Alexandria | Welter (up to 73 kg body weight) | behind Moustapha ( Egypt ), in front of Halaby ( Syria ) |
| 1952 | 3. / bronze | Summer Olympics in Helsinki | Victories over Henry Frey Linger ( Luxembourg ), Gottfried Angel Berger ( Austria ) and René Chesneau ( France ). Defeats to Miklós Szilvási ( Hungary ) and Gösta Andersson (Sweden) | |
| 1953 | 10. | World wrestling championships in Naples | Victory over Moshe Artzi ( Israel ). Losses against Bekir Büke ( Turkey ) and René Chesneau |
swell
- Website of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig,
- Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Championships, 1976,
- Trade journal athletics,
- Image.aausports.org website
Web links
- Profile of Khalil Taha at the Institute for Applied Training Science
- Khalil Taha in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
- Khalil Taha in the AAU Wrestling Hall of Fame (pdf)
Individual evidence
- ^ Obituary for Khalil Taha. Retrieved August 6, 2020 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Taha, Khalil |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Lebanese wrestler |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 5, 1932 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Beirut |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 27, 2020 |
| Place of death | Venice , Florida |