Religion Jewish Name Nickolaus Hirschl | Role Olympic athlete Died October 10, 1991 | |
Known for Austrian Shotput and Discus Junior ChampionAustrian Heavyweight Weightlifting Junior ChampionAustrian Pentathlon Champion (1923–30)Austrian Heavyweight Wrestling Champion (10 years)European Heavyweight Wrestling Champion (1932)Olympic Bronze Medals in Heavyweight Freestyle and Heavyweight Greco-Roman Wrestling (1932) People also search for Jack Riley, Josef Urban, Carl Westergren, Johan Richthoff | ||
Nickolaus "Mickey" Hirschl (March 20, 1906 – October 10, 1991) was an Austrian Olympic-medal-winning wrestler, European Heavyweight Wrestling Champion, and for 10 years held the title of Austrian Heavyweight Wrestling Champion. He was also an Austrian Shotput and Discus Junior Champion, Austrian Heavyweight Weightlifting Junior Champion, and for seven years the Austrian Pentathlon Champion.
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Early life
Hirschl was Jewish, and was born in Vienna, Austria. His parents were kosher butchers, and his father was president of a synagogue.
Sports career
At 15 years of age, he won the Austrian Junior Championship in shotput and discus. At 16 years of age, he won the Austrian Junior Championship in heavyweight weightlifting. At 17 years of age, he became the pentathlon champion of Austria, winning the title in 1923 and holding it for seven years.
At 18 years of age, he won the Austrian heavyweight wrestling championship. He was the Austrian champion for the following 10 years. In 1932, Hirschl won the gold medal in the European Wrestling Championships Heavyweight Championship. He wrestled for the Hakoah Vienna wrestling team, which won 127 international titles from 1929 to 1934.
At the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, he won a bronze medal in heavyweight freestyle, and a bronze medal in heavyweight Greco-Roman.
In 1936, he boycotted the Olympics which were to be held in Berlin, Germany, refusing to participate because of the racial policies of the Nazis.
Life after sports career
Hirschl left Austria to escape the Nazis before the start of World War II. Most of his family was killed in the Holocaust.
He first moved to pre-Israel Palestine. He joined the British Commandos, and served in North Africa. After the war, he married and moved to Australia.
He was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.