1948 Winter Olympics / military patrol

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Military patrol run at the
IV Winter Olympics
Olympic rings without rims.svg
Military patrol pictogram.svg
information
venue SwitzerlandSwitzerland St. Moritz
Nations 8th
Athletes 32 (32 men)
date February 8, 1948
decisions 1
← Garmisch 1936

At the 5th Winter Olympics in St. Moritz in 1948 , a military patrol run was held as a demonstration competition. The military patrol run is considered the predecessor of today's biathlon and today's ski mountaineering competitions and was carried out as a cross-country team with shooting. Eight nations put together a team.

As in the Winter Pentathlon , the field of participants in the military patrol consisted exclusively of military personnel. The Winter Pentathlon fought in direct competition with the military patrol run for inclusion in the official program of the Olympic Winter Games, but was unable to convince either the officials or the audience. In the following years, the military patrol run was also opened to non-military athletes and began to develop into a purely sporting biathlon sport. The IOC recognized biathlon as a sport in its own right in 1954 and dropped all plans for a modified winter pentathlon.

Medal table

space country gold silver bronze total
1 SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland 1 - - 1
2 FinlandFinland Finland - 1 - 1
3 SwedenSweden Sweden - - 1 1

Military patrol run

The military patrol run was a team competition. One team completed a cross-country skiing course with a target practice, one team consisted of four runners.

The total running time was counted minus a time credit for successful shooting. When shooting, the three-man team of a nation was always together, each participant shot his series individually, u. between lying down, with the carabiner still on. The total weight of the rifles with ammunition was 30 kg, which meant 10 kg per man, but this could be freely distributed. Each shooter had three shots and was able to get a credit of 9 minutes, because there were 3 minutes of credit for a hit with the first shot, which was reduced to 2 minutes for the second and one minute for the third shot (thus no credit if there were only rivets gave). The aim was to hit a red balloon 30 cm in diameter from 150 m. This is why all the patrols gave a lot of time to shooting during training.

The final report of the Swiss Olympic Committee said: “The patrol run was subsequently included in the program of the 5th Winter Olympic Games against the will of the IOC Congress in autumn 1946. This did not happen until June 1947 in Stockholm. In Switzerland you would never have understood it if this traditional military sport test had not figured in the St. Moritz program. The relationship among the eight military teams was really comradely and downright cordial. If the Olympic spirit was expressed in one discipline, it was really in the patrol run. "

space country athlete Running time (h) Bonus End time (h)
1 SwitzerlandSwitzerland SUI Robert Zurbriggen , Heinrich Zurbriggen ,
Vital Vouardoux , Arnold Andenmatten 		2: 39.25 5 min. 2: 34.25
2 FinlandFinland FIN Eero Naapuri , Vilho Ylönen ,
Mikko Meriläinen , Tauno Honkanen 		2: 46.23 9 min. 2: 37.23
3 SwedenSweden SWE Edor Hjukström , Holger Borgh ,
Karl Gustav Ljungquist , Fride Larsson 		2: 45.03 4 min. 2: 41.03
4th ItalyItaly ITA Costanzo Picco , Aristide Compagnoni ,
Giacinto De Cassan , Antenore Cuel 		2: 52.03 2 min. 2: 50.03
5 FranceFrance FRA Émile Paganon , Marc Benoît-Lizon ,
Ulysse Bozonnet , Gilbert Morand 		3: 01.35 7 min. 2: 54.35
6th CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia TCH Vojtech Pavelica , Karel Dvořák ,
Jaroslav Šír , Otou Skrbek 		3: 16.26 6 min. 3: 10.26
7th Romania kingdomRomania ROME Ștefan Ionescu , Constantin Vlădea ,
Niculae-Cornel Crăciun , Ion Kasky 		3: 24.24 8 min. 3: 16.24
8th United States 48United States United States Donald Weihs , Stanley Walker ,
Henry Dunlap , Lorentz Eide 		4: 38.58 3 min. 4: 35.58

Date: February 8, 1948, 8:00 a.m.

For the Swiss, Walter Imseng, a fusiller who was ill with mumps, had to be replaced at the last moment by Private Vital Vouardoux, who, however, fitted in perfectly with the patrol. They were the first at the shooting range. A message came up that instead of the expected 9 minutes, only 5 were credited. After them the French arrived; two men needed two shots, one was successful at the first. With their maximum time credit, the Finns were able to get close to Switzerland in 43 seconds. The Italians only hit the first soldier in the second shot. With the Czechoslovaks a balloon stopped, but the good shooting performance of the two comrades brought a 6 minute bonus. Then the Swedes: the first shooter only succeeded in the third shot, the next in the first attempt, while the last one did not hit, leaving them only 4 minutes. Romania came as a surprise with a credit of 8, while the USA arrived late and very tired and only hit one in the first shot. Switzerland was ahead of Finland, Sweden, Italy and France. In the final 10 km, the Swiss performed well; Gold was expected (from the point of view of the organizers and the Swiss fan base). Even the greatest optimist would not have dared to predict that the running performance would be so superior to the northerners. Finland was satisfied with the silver medal because it still had a young team, and one of the runners had fallen on the last downhill and a comrade drove into it. The great gap between the American team was due to the fact that Donald Weihs suffered a broken ski during the race and covered the last eight kilometers on the broken ski.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Military patrol run with eight nations". In: Sport Zürich, February 6, 1948, p. 7.
  2. ↑ Report Général sur les V es Jeux Olympiques d'hiver St-Moritz 1948 (PDF, French; 3.9 MB)
  3. ↑ incorrectly stated as Xavier Vouardoux in the official Olympic report .
  4. ↑ a b Werner Imseng: Ski history: Highest downhill race in the world. (e-doc) In: Der Schneehase, 31st yearbook of the Swiss Academic Ski Club. Swiss Academic Ski Club (SAS), 1980, p. 83 , accessed on January 11, 2020 (German / French, editor: Dr. Raoul Imseng).
  5. ↑ in other sources also given as Ion Koschi.
  6. ↑ Thomas Lüthi: Olympia: Arnold Andenmatten died at 96 - view. September 12, 2018, accessed February 3, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Le Nouvelliste. (PDF) Obituary and death notices. Sion: Nouvelliste valaisan N ° 245, October 21, 1977, pp. 17, 45 and 46 , accessed on January 11, 2020 (French, 110 MB).
  8. ^ "Valuable Swiss triumph in the military patrol run". In: Sport Zürich, February 9, 1948, pp. 1 to 2.
  9. ↑ Donald Weihs. OlyMADMen, accessed January 11, 2020 .