| Olympic medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Competitor for Canada | ||
| Men's Wrestling | ||
| Maccabiah Games | ||
| Gold | 1953 Israel | Heavyweight |
Fred Oberlander (May 23, 1911, in Vienna, Austria – 1996) was an Austrian, British, and Canadian wrestler.
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Between 1930 and 1950 he won two Austrian Junior wrestling titles, five French Heavyweight Championships, seven British Heavyweight Championships (1939–45, 1948),[1] and the 1950 Canadian Heavyweight crown.
He also won the 1935 World Exhibition Championship in Brussels, the 1937 Moulin Rouge International Championship, the Allied Championships of 1944, and the Commonwealth Games title in 1948, in addition to several silver and bronze medals.
At the 1935 World Championships, Oberlander was listed as “stateless.” His first match in that competition was against the German champion Kurt Siebert. Recalled Oberlander,
The German coach objected to the Hakoah [of Vienna] emblem on my wrestling attire, claiming that it was a political insignia. I answered that it was my club’s emblem, which it was. Finally, the referee decided that the Swastika on Siebert’s jersey was also a political insignia. On that note, the match began — and finished in my favour.[2]
He won the world championships.
Oberlander was nominated to represent Austria at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, but he wrote, “For obvious reasons, being Jewish, I refused.”
He represented Great Britain in the 1948 Olympic Games (he was team captain at the age of 37).
Oberlander then emigrated to Canada, where he founded the Canadian Maccabi Association.
In 1953, he captured the Maccabiah Games Heavyweight Wrestling Championship and was named Outstanding Jewish World Athlete. The award was presented to him by Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion.[3]
An entire floor in the Pierre Gildesgame (Maccabi) Sport Museum in Ramat Gan, Israel, is named in his honor.
In 1991 he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.[4]
His son Ronald Yehuda Oberlander was CEO of Abitibi-Price Inc., the worlds foremost newsprint producer. He died in 2002.
His son Philip Oberlander followed in his father's footsteps, wrestling as a welter weight in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. He did not medal.