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| Olympic medal record | |||
Competitor for  Austria |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Men's Swimming | |||
| Silver | 1896 Athens | 100m freestyle | |
| Men's Fencing | |||
| Silver | 1912 Stockholm | Team sabre | |
Dr. Otto Herschmann (January 4, 1877 – June 14, 1942) was a Jewish Austrian swimmer, fencer, lawyer, and sport official. He is one of only three athletes to have won Olympic medals in different sports.[1]
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Olympic swimming career
Born in Vienna, Herschmann first competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, in the 100 metres freestyle event. He placed 2nd with a time of 1:22.8, barely .6 seconds behind the winner Alfréd Hajós.
Olympic fencing career
Herschmann returned to Olympic competition at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden competing as a member of Austria's fencing team. A sabre fencer, he won a silver medal in the team competition, and was eliminated in the first round of the individual event.
At that time he was serving as president of the Austrian Olympic Committee. He is the only president of a National Olympic Committee to win a medal while holding office.[2]
Concentration camp and death
Herschmann was arrested in Vienna by the Nazis, and deported on January 14, 1942, to the Sobibór extermination camp. He died in the Izbica transit camp in German-occupied Poland later that year.
Hall of Fame
Herschmann, who is Jewish, was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
On November 7, 2001 his hometown Vienna named a lane Otto-Herschmann-Gasse in Simmering.
References
- Olympic results
- Jews in Sports
- Jewish Sports bio
- Holocaust Museum bio
- "The Olympics and the Holocaust"
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