Willy Lardon

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Willy Lardon (* 1916 ; † 1992 ) was a Swiss freestyle wrestler and wrestler.

Career

Willy Lardon came from Court bei Moutier in Switzerland . He began in Court as a youth with the Swiss national sport of wrestling and a little later with freestyle wrestling, which he also practiced very seriously. He benefited from the fact that freestyle wrestling and swinging are related sports that allow both leg attacks.

While he took part in wrestling competitions that only take place in Switzerland, he also did freestyle wrestling on the international wrestling mat. As early as 1937, at the age of 21, he started at the European heavyweight championship in Munich . He defeated, among other things, the Czech silver medalist of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin Josef Klapuch and was only defeated in the final by the German champion Kurt Hornfischer from Nuremberg , who won his fourth European title in Munich.

In 1937 there was an international match in freestyle wrestling between Switzerland and Germany. Willy Lardon lost there in the heavyweight division against Kurt Hornfischer on points. In another international match between Germany and Switzerland in Mannheim in 1939, Willy Lardon succeeded in taking revenge with a points victory over Kurt Hornfischer.

Willy Lardon then had the bad luck that in 1938 and 1939 as a result of the unstable political situation and from 1940 onwards as a result of the Second World War, there were no more European championships in freestyle wrestling. It was only nine years after his debut at international championships that he was able to take part in a European championship again in Stockholm in 1946 . In Stockholm he had two wins over very tough opponents. In the final battle he was defeated by the new Swedish wrestling star Bertil Antonsson and was again runner-up European champion.

Lardon also hoped for a medal at the 1948 Olympic Games in London . But he did not get by there, lost both fights he had to contest and only ended up in 9th place.

Things went better for him again at the 1951 World Championships in Helsinki , the first world championship held for amateur wrestlers in free style. In Helsinki Lardon defeated the strong Iranian Ahmet Vafadar and the Finnish champion Pauli Riihimäki, but was then surprisingly defeated by the Italian Natale Vecchi and again against Bertil Antonsson and came in a good 4th place.

In 1952, Willy Lardon took part in the Olympic Games for the second time. He had trained in the light heavyweight division. But the effort was not worth it, because after defeating the Canadian Robert Steckle, Lardon injured himself in his fight against the later Olympic champion Henry Wittenberg from the USA and could not continue the tournament.

In 1954 Willy Lardon showed his skills again in an international match between Switzerland and Turkey when he clearly defeated the silver medalist from Helsinki in the light heavyweight division Adil Atan .

International success as a wrestler

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, F = free style, Hs = light heavyweight, S = heavyweight, at that time up to 87 kg or over 87 kg body weight)

Success as a wrestler

Willy Lardon has won over twenty wrestling tournaments in Switzerland in his career. His greatest victories were those of 1937 in Lausanne (king of wrestling) and 1943 in Zug (king of wrestling). In 1945 in Bern he was first crowned together with Peter Vogt .

swell

  • Olle Larsson, Peter Irdén: Documentation of International Wrestling Championships 1896–1976. FILA, Lausanne 1976.
  • various issues of the professional journal Athletik from 1937 to 1954.

Web links