1948 Summer Olympics / Participant (South African Union)
RSA
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The South African Union took part in the 1948 Summer Olympics in London with a delegation of 35 athletes (34 men and one woman) in 34 competitions in ten sports.
The South African athletes won two gold medals as well as one silver and one bronze medal. Olympic champions were boxers Gerald Dreyer in the lightweight and George Hunter in the light heavyweight division. Boxers also secured the other two medals: Dennis Shepherd won silver in the featherweight division and bronze was won by John Arthur in the heavyweight division. Ernst van Heerden received the silver medal in the “Lyric Works” competition in the art competitions that were not included in the medal table for the Games.
Participants by sport
Boxing
-
The Williams
- Flyweight: eliminated in the round of 16
-
Vic Toweel
- Bantamweight: eliminated in the 1st round
-
Dennis Shepherd
- Featherweight: silver
-
Gerald Dreyer
- Lightweight: gold
-
Douglas du Preez
- Welterweight: 4th place
-
Ken La Grange
- Middleweight: eliminated in the 1st round
-
George Hunter
- Light Heavyweight: Gold
-
John Arthur
- Heavyweight: bronze
Weightlifting
-
Issy Bloomberg
- Middleweight: 14th place
-
Piet Taljaard
- Heavyweight: 8th place
Art competitions
- George Pilkington
- Walter Battiss
-
Ernst van Heerden
- Lyric works: silver
athletics
- Men
-
Abram van Heerden
- 100 m: eliminated in the preliminary run
- 200 m: eliminated in the semi-finals
-
Denis Shore
- 200 m: eliminated in the semi-finals
- 400 m: eliminated in the semi-finals
-
John Coleman
- Marathon: 4th place
-
Syd Luyt
- Marathon: 6th place
-
Kallie Reyneke
- 10 km walking: eliminated in the preliminary run
- Women
-
Daphne Hasenjager
- 100 m: eliminated in the semi-finals
- 200 m: 6th place
Cycling
-
Dirk Binneman
- Road Race: Race not finished
- Team classification: race not finished
-
George Estman
- Road Race: Race not finished
- Team classification: race not finished
-
Walter Rivers
- Road Race: Race not finished
- Team classification: race not finished
Wrestling
-
Anthony Ries
- Lightweight, freestyle: eliminated in the 3rd round
-
Calie Reitz
- Middleweight, freestyle: 4th place
-
Patrick Morton
- Light heavyweight, freestyle: 6th place
rowing
-
Ian Stephen
- One: eliminated in the semifinals
-
Edgar Ramsay
- Four without a helmsman: eliminated in the semi-finals
-
Austin Ikin
- Four without a helmsman: eliminated in the semi-finals
-
Desmond Mayberry
- Four without a helmsman: eliminated in the semi-finals
-
Claude Kietzman
- Four without a helmsman: eliminated in the semi-finals
swim
- Men
-
Donald Johnston
- 400 m freestyle: eliminated in the semi-finals
- 1500 m freestyle: eliminated in the preliminary run
-
Jackie Wiid
- 100 m back: 6th place
-
Desmond Cohen
- 200 m chest: eliminated in the preliminary run
sailing
-
Herbert McWilliams
- Firefly: 20th place
Diving
- Men
-
Geoff Mandy
- 10 m high diving: 21st place
Web links
- South African Olympic team from 1948 in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )