| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
Momčilo Tapavica (Hungarian: Momcsilló Tapavicza), the first ethnic Serb that won an Olympic medal as well as the winner of Kingdom of Hungary's only Olympic medal in Tennis. [1] |
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| Men's Tennis | ||
| Competitor for Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary | ||
| Olympic Games | ||
| Bronze | 1896 Athens | Singles |
Momčilo Tapavica (Serbian Cyrillic name: Момчило Тапавица, Hungarian: Momcsilló Tapavicza; born October 14, 1872 in Nadalj village (then officially called Nádalja) near Srbobran (then officially called Szenttamás), Austria–Hungary (now Serbia), died January 10, 1949 in Pula, FPR Yugoslavia) was a native Serb tennis player, weightlifter, wrestler and architect who in his youth competed under the flag of Kingdom of Hungary whose citizen he was at the time, at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.
Tapavica is the first Serb to win an Olympic medal. He won a bronze medal in the singles tennis tournament. In the first round, he defeated D. Frangopoulos of Greece. The second round gave him a bye. Dionysios Kasdaglis of Egypt beat Tapavica in the semifinal, and with no playoff for third place he shared bronze medal honors with the Greek Konstantinos Paspatis. Tapavica was the only participant for the Kingdom of Hungary in the 1896 Olympic Tennis competition, [2] he participated at 23 years and 177 days old.
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Tapavica began to practise sports in Novi Sad, continuing his practise in Budapest where he studied architecture and civil engineering at the Higher Technical School.
At the Olympics Tapavica won a bronze medal in the singles tennis tournament. In the first round, he defeated D. Frangopoulos of Greece. The second round gave him a bye. Dionysios Kasdaglis of Egypt beat Tapavica in the semifinal, and with no playoff for third place he shared bronze medal honors with the Greek Konstantinos Paspatis. [3]
Tapavica did not compete in the doubles tournament.
He finished last of the six competitors in the two-handed weightlifting event, now known as the clean and jerk. The weight Tapavica lifted is unknown, but was less than 90.0 kilograms.
In the wrestling competition, Tapavica was defeated in the first round by Stephanos Christopoulos. The two were nearly evenly matched, but Tapavica tired first and conceded.
Having returned from Budapest to Novi Sad in 1904 he joined the rowing club “Danubijus”.
In 1908, Tapavica went to Montenegro, where he designed several buildings. During the First World War, he lived in Morocco, but later returned to Novi Sad, where he run his own architectural design company. He died in 1949 and was buried in cemetery in Pula.
Working as architect, Momčilo Tapavica designed the building of Matica Srpska in Novi Sad, the buildings of the German Consulate and National Bank in Cetinje, and the building of Boka Hotel in Herceg Novi, which was destroyed in the earthquake of 1977.