Willem Ruska

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Willem Ruska medal table
Wim Ruska (1968)
Wim Ruska (1968)

Judoka

NetherlandsNetherlands Netherlands
Olympic Summer Games
gold 1972 Munich Heavyweight
gold 1972 Munich Open class

Willem (Wim) Ruska (born August 29, 1940 in Amsterdam , Noord-Holland , † February 14, 2015 in Hoorn ) was a Dutch judoka and two-time Olympic champion .

He started his judo career at the age of 20 and traveled to Japan to be taught and trained by the Japanese masters. As the successor to Anton Geesink , he won the heavyweight gold medal twice at the Judo World Championships for the Netherlands , in Salt Lake City in 1967 and in Ludwigshafen in 1971, and won the silver medal in 1969 in Mexico City. He also won seven European championships and ten Dutch titles in his career. In 1970 he surprisingly lost in the final at the European Judo Championships in East Berlin against Klaus Hennig .

At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich , he won two gold medals in the heavyweight division and in the open class. He is the only judoka who could win two gold medals in the same games. After the games, he resigned.

In 2001, Ruska suffered a severe stroke that impaired him physically. He died in February 2015 at the age of 74.

proof

  1. ↑ Willem Ruska overleden ( Memento from February 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), homepage of Judo Bond Nederland from February 14, 2015

Web links

Commons : Wim Ruska  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Ruska, Willem
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ruska, Wim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch judoka
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Amsterdam
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 2015
Place of death Hoorn