Name Luis Subercaseaux Died 1973 | Role Olympic athlete | |
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Luis Subercaseaux Errazuriz (1882–1973) was a Chilean diplomat and athlete. He is claimed to be the first Chilean and Latin American sportsman to have competed in the Olympic Games, at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.
Born in Santiago, he was the second son of Ramon Subercaseaux Vicuna and Amalia Errazuriz Urmeneta, both of them members of well-known and well-off families. And was the brother of Juan Subercaseaux.
According to the Comite Olimpico de Chile, Luis Subercaseaux Errazuriz competed at the age of 15 in the 100, 400 and 800 metres although many Olympic historians dispute this claim and maintain that, although he was entered in these events, he did not take part in any race.
During this period in his life, he studied at the Colegio Benedictino located in the Basque Provinces of France, where he kept his record on the high jump. He was also one of the founding members of the Chilean football team Club de Deportes Santiago Morning and a successful football player.
Through 1928 he was ambassador of Chile in Peru, Spain and the Vatican, in addition to being an attendant of Chilean business in Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Yugoslavia from the consular office in London.
A memorial to Subercaseaux stands in the entrance of the Chilean Olympic Museum.