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 )