![]() By the time Girardelli joined the Olympics, he was already a world-class competitive skier. He would start competing for the Luxembourgish skiing association. Born in the Austrian Alps in 1963, the athlete started skiing at five years old and started competing in regional championships at only eight years old. The third and final Luxembourgish medallist is the Austro-Luxembourgish alpine ski racer Marc Girardelli. Josy Barthel on a commemorative stamp for his 25th death anniversar / © Once again, do read more about the life of Josy Barthel in Thomas’ series. Being an influential sportsman in Luxembourg’s sports scene, the modernisation of sports in Luxembourg and bringing it into the international scene would remain one of his dearest projects until his passing in 1992. After that, Barthel continued taking opportunities in both the sports world by presiding over the Luxembourgish Athletics Federation and Luxembourgish politics. During his second Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952, he would then win the gold medal in the Men’s 1500m race with a record time of 3:45:2. Born in Mamer in 1927, Barthel started competitive races at the age of 16, but would not be internationally noticed until the Military World Championships in 19, where he won three races. Much more well-known is Josy Barthel, the only Luxembourgish track and field athlete to win an Olympic gold medal. However, Alzin generally goes down in Luxembourgish Olympic history as the first contestant to win Luxembourg a medal. Alzin competed at the 1924 Games in Paris, but would not win any further medals. He would, later on, set a world record in press lifting 120 kg. The first official Luxembourgish silver medallist was weightlifter Joseph Alzin, who came second in the men’s super-heavyweight category by lifting a total of 260 kg, while gold medallist Filippo Bottino lifted 265 kg. ![]() You can read all about the running champion in Thomas Tutton’s Luxembourgish history series. Even though his birth certificate clearly proves his Luxembourgish identity, the medal remains with France. However, the Luxembourger Michael Théato won a gold medal for France in the 1900 Paris Olympic marathon, given Luxembourg was not an officially recognised competing nation yet. Since then, Luxembourg has won one gold and three silver medals throughout its 28 appearances. Two athletes competed that year, namely Paul Fournelle (long jump) and Marcel Pelletier (shot put and discus throw), with the best rank being 17 th place. This included Chile, Egypt, Iceland, Japan, Portugal, Serbia, and Luxembourg. In 1912, the fifth Olympiad in Stockholm saw 28 nations competing in fifteen sports, seven of which were making their debuts. At the time, this included speed skating, figure skating, and ice hockey, which were all shown at the 1924 Chamonix Games. ![]() To accommodate for sports that were impossible to organise during the Summer Games, the Winter Games were created in 1921. This also came during a period of stagnation, as fewer participants and spectators alike would attend the events. ![]() Over the course of the twentieth century, the IOC sought to accommodate more disciplines as well as the variety of competitors. Six years later, the first international Olympics were held with fourteen competing nations, and have been held every four years since – with the exceptions of the outbreaks of World War One and Two, and the postponement of the 2020 Olympics due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was while attending the latter event that Coubertin hoped to elevate the games to an international level. Indeed, with the help of Greek aristocrats, the first Olympic Games were held in 1859, and a further three took place in 1870, 1875, and 1890. Inspired by the Olympic Games of Ancient Greece, the French baron Pierre de Coubertin established the International Olympic Committee (IOC), a non-governmental sports organisation in 1894 that, well you guessed it, organises both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games every four years.Īlthough he was dubbed the father of the modern Olympics, interest in reviving the games had already begun to materialise as early as 1821, when Greece sought to liberate itself from the Ottoman Empire in the Greek Wars of Independence.
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