1936 Winter Olympics / military patrol

Military patrol run at the IV Winter Olympics
information
venue	Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Competition venue	Olympic ski stadium
Nations	9
Athletes	36 (36 men)
date	February 14, 1936
decisions	1
← St. Moritz 1928 St. Moritz 1948 →

At the IV Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936 , a military patrol took place as a demonstration sport . The International Olympic Committee had decided to deny this competition entry into the official Olympic program, which made further evaluation as a demonstration competition obsolete. At the express request of Adolf Hitler , the military patrol run, which is regarded as the forerunner of today's biathlon , was nevertheless allowed as a demonstration competition for the 1936 Winter Games.

Medal table

space	country				total
1	Italy	1	-	-	1
2	Finland	-	1	-	1
3	Sweden	-	-	1	1

Military patrol run

space	country	athlete	Time (h)
1	ITA	Enrico Silvestri , Luigi Perenni , Stefano Sertorelli , Sisto Scilligo	2: 28,35.0
2	FIN	Eino Kuvaja , Olavi Remes , Kalle Arantola , Olli Huttunen	2: 28.49.0
3	SWE	Gunnar Wåhlberg , Seth Olofsson , Johan Wiksten , John Westbergh	2: 35, 24.0
4th	AUT	Albert Bach , Edwin Hartmann , Franz Hiermann , Eugen Tschurtschentaler	2: 36, 19.0
5	GER	Herbert Leupold , Johann Hieble , Hermann Lochbühler , Michael Kirchmann	2: 36, 24.0
6th	FRA	Jacques Faure , Marcel Cohendoz , Eugène Sibué , Jean Morand	2: 40.55.0
7th	SUI	Arnold Käch , Josef Jauch , Eduard Waser , Josef Lindauer	2: 43.39.0
8th	TCH	Karel Šteiner , Josef Mateasko Bohuslav Musil , Bohumil Kosour	2: 50.08.8
9	POLE	Władysław Żytkowicz , Jan Pydych , Józef Zubek , Adam Rzepka	2: 52.27.0

Date: February 14, 1936

The race started at 8:30 a.m. with a start interval of three minutes in the Olympic ski stadium . Finland was the first team to leave the stadium, the next starting order was Poland, Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, ČSSR, Switzerland, Austria.

The route led over 25 km from the ski stadium via Rappenschroffen, Wamberg and Schönau back to the stadium and on to Kochelberg, where the shooting ranges were set up. Then it went on via Petersbad, Rießer Moos, Kreuzeckbahn and Rießersee to the ski jump on the Hausberg and back to the ski stadium. The lowest point was 735 meters, the highest at 1100 meters at the "Tonihütte". The snow conditions were ideal, even if there were some icy spots. The route was laid out fairly, there were hardly any falls and there was only one ski break in the Swedes. The temperature was between −3 and +4 degrees Celsius. In the target practice, each shooter had 5 shots to fight three balloons at a distance of 150 m from the target.

In order to inform the numerous spectators, 10,000 people were already present in the ski stadium at the start, during the patrol run of the current race events, checkpoints were set up along the entire route, which could continuously announce the intermediate results using telephones connected to the loudspeaker system . Of the nine teams that started, all reached the finish. The Swiss military patrol received a penalty of three minutes into the actual running time because they did not hit one of the three balloons while shooting on Kachelberg. Overall, however, in view of the consistently very good results so far, their performance (even without the shooting error, it would only have been sixth), was a disappointment. On the other hand, the Austrians surprised, who classified themselves in 4th place and, to the dissatisfaction of the audience, displaced the home team that had already reached the finish.

The Italian success was widely recognized in the home country, as it was Italy's first Olympic gold medal win in Nordic skiing . The Alpini soldiers led by 40-year-old Capitano Silvestri, an experienced patrolur and two-time winner of the difficult high mountain patrol run “Trofeo Mezzalama” in the Monte Rosa area, made an excellent impression. Benito Mussolini awarded all team members with 30,000 lire each .

Web links

• Military patrol run at the 1936 Winter Olympics in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Official report of the 1936 Winter Olympics (PDF; 29.6 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Scilligo Sisto ( Memento from July 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (Italian).
2. ^ "Italy's military patrol off Finland and Sweden". In: Sport Zürich, February 15, 1936, pp. 1 to 3.