Friedrich Issak (20 November 1915,

Petrograd Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

– 11 May 1991) was an

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

n sportsman and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

. As a

javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's decathlon and the ...

er, he won gold and bronze medals at the International University Games and was national champion of

and later the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. In addition, he played

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

, winning national championship medals in both. He later became

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of the culture magazine ''

Kultuur ja Elu ''Kultuur ja Elu'' (meaning "Culture and Life" in English) is an Estonian magazine dedicated to culture. History and profile ''Kultuur ja Elu'' has been issued since 1958. In the 21st century, the journal developed into an almost exclusively m ...

''.

Sports career

At the

1937 International University Games The 1937 International University Games were organised by the Confederation Internationale des Etudiants (CIE) and held in Paris, France. Held from 21–29 August, 22 nations competed in fourteen sports. Boxing, cycling, field hockey, handball, a ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Issak won gold in the javelin with a throw of 70.25 m, a meeting record that was only broken twenty years later. His best throw that year, 70.56 m, placed him sixth on the annual world list. Issak placed fifth at the 1938 European Championships, also in Paris, and recorded his personal best (72.07 m) in

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...

in July 1939. At that year's International University Games in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

he won the bronze medal with 66.79 m. He was Estonian champion in the javelin in 1940, 1946 and 1947 and Soviet champion in 1943, 1944 and 1947. Additionally, he was Estonian basketball champion three times from 1938 to 1940 with Tartu EASK. He also won national championship medals in volleyball.

Outside sports

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Issak served in the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

and the

destruction battalions Destruction battalions,, uk, Винищувальні батальйони, be, Zniszczalnyja batalëny, , et, hävituspataljonid, lt, Naikintojų batalionai, lv, Iznīcinātāju bataljoni, group=nb colloquially istrebitels (истреби� ...

. In 1944 he became editor of the sports magazine ''Kehakultuur'', a post he held until 1951. From 1958 to 1978 he worked for the culture magazine ''Kultuur ja Elu'', eventually becoming its editor-in-chief. His

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

''Nood rohtunud rajad'' was published in 1988.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Issak, Friedrich 1915 births 1991 deaths People from Saint Petersburg People from Sankt-Peterburgsky Uyezd Estonian male javelin throwers Estonian journalists Estonian men's basketball players Estonian men's volleyball players 20th-century journalists University of Tartu basketball team players University of Tartu alumni 8th Estonian Rifle Corps personnel