An Olympic gold medal for aeronautics was awarded in conjunction with the 1936 Summer Olympics for the greatest aeronautic achievement in the preceding four years.
| Aeronautics at the Games of the XI Olympiad | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | 1936 | ||||
| Medalists | |||||
| |||||
The winner was Swiss pilot Hermann Schreiber,[1] who won for becoming the first person to fly over the Alps in a glider.[2] Most sources report his flight taking place in 1935,[3][4][5][6] though Thomas Lippert of the Journal of Sports Philately stated it was on August 4, 1933.[2] Schreiber received his medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics closing ceremony.[7]
A prize for aeronautics had been considered by the International Olympic Committee as early as the 1920s,[7][8] though it remained unused until 1936. The aeronautics prize was not awarded again and was officially discontinued in 1946, along with the prize for alpinism.[2]
References
edit- ^ Grasso, J.; Mallon, B.; Heijmans, J. (2015). Historical Dictionary of the Olympic Movement. Historical Dictionaries of Sports. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-4422-4860-1. Retrieved 2024-01-28.
- ^ a b c Lippert, Thomas (September 1999). "Over the Clouds: Aeronautic Achievements Focused on by Olympic and Sports Philatelists" (PDF). Journal of Sports Philately. 38 (1): 17-22. Retrieved 2024-01-28.
- ^ Hansen, Peter (2023-03-01). "Wildest dreams of Everest and modern mountaineering". Les Sports Modernes (PDF). p. 63. Retrieved 2024-01-28.
- ^ Borja, Elizabeth (2016-08-05). "The Year Aeronautics Was an Olympic Event". National Air and Space Museum. Retrieved 2024-01-28.
- ^ "Olympedia – Aeronautics, Open". Olympedia – Main Page. 1936-08-16. Retrieved 2024-01-28.
- ^ Steffen, Daniel (2017-08-04). "Die Segelflieger erobern die Alpen". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2024-08-08.
- ^ a b Kluge, Volker; Lippert, Thomas (2013). "The Olympic Alpinism Prize and a promise redeemed" (PDF). International Society of Olympic Historians. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-01-27. Retrieved 2024-01-27.
- ^ "Olympedia – Aeronautics at the 1936 Summer Olympics". Olympedia – Main Page. 1936-08-16. Retrieved 2024-01-28.