Fred Oberlander (23 May 1911 – 6 July 1996) was an Austrian,

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

, and

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

wrestler Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat spor ...

. He was born in

Vienna, Austria 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 World Championships in 1935. Oberlander was offered a chance to compete for Austria at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Nazi Germany, but declined. He represented Great Britain as team captain at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

. Oberlander later emigrated to Canada, where he founded the Canadian Maccabi Association. He won a silver medal in wrestling at the

1950 Maccabiah Games The 3rd Maccabiah ( he, המכביה השלישית) took place during Sukkot from September 27 to October 8, 1950, with 17 countries competing. It was the third edition of the Maccabiah Games and the first held since the independence of the Sta ...

, and the heavyweight wrestling title at the

1953 Maccabiah Games Eight hundred ninety athletes representing 23 countries competed in the 1953 4th Maccabiah Games, held September 20 to 29, in 18 branches of sports. Israeli President Itzhak Ben-Zvi opened the Games at Ramat Gan Stadium in Tel Aviv District, in ...

and was named Outstanding Jewish World Athlete.

Hall of Fame

Oberlander was named to the

International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame ( he, יד לאיש הספורט היהודי, translit=Yad Le'ish HaSport HaYehudi) was opened July 7, 1981 in Netanya, Israel. It honors Jewish athletes and their accomplishments from anywhere arou ...

in 1991.

Family

His son Ron served as President and CEO of

Abitibi Consolidated Abitibi Consolidated Inc. was a Canadian pulp and paper company based in Montreal, Quebec. Abitibi-Consolidated was formed from the merger of Abitibi-Price Inc. and Stone Consolidated Corp. on May 29, 1997; the Company merged with Bowater in 2 ...

. His son Philip followed in his father's footsteps, wrestling as a welterweight in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, but did not win a medal.

References

1911 births 1996 deaths Austrian male sport wrestlers British male sport wrestlers Canadian male sport wrestlers Olympic wrestlers of Great Britain Wrestlers at the 1948 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Vienna Austrian Jews English Jews Jewish Canadian sportspeople Jewish wrestlers Maccabiah Games silver medalists for Canada Maccabiah Games gold medalists for Canada World Wrestling Champions Maccabiah Games medalists in wrestling Competitors at the 1950 Maccabiah Games Competitors at the 1953 Maccabiah Games {{UK-wrestling-bio-stub

Hall of Fame

Family

See also

References