Kārlis Kļava (9 March 1907 – 1941) was a Latvian military officer and sports shooter. He placed 23rd in the

25 m rapid fire pistol 25 meter rapid fire pistol is one of the ISSF shooting events and is shot with .22 LR pistols. The event has been a part of the Olympic program ever since the beginning in 1896, although its rules changed greatly before World War II, after which ...

event at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

. Next year he won that event at the 1937 World Championships, becoming the first Latvian athlete to win a world title, and was selected as Latvian Sportspersonality of the year. After graduating from the Liepāja State Technical College in 1928, Kļava served in the Latvian army. In 1931, he graduated from the Latvian War School, and from 1932 to 1940 he was a lieutenant of the Riga Infantry Regiment. In parallel with his military career, in the late 1930s he studied engineering at the Faculty of Mechanics of the University of Latvia. Kļava died in 1941 in a Soviet

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. P ...

.Latvian encyclopedia. Vol. 3. Riga: Valerija Belokonis publishing house. 2005. p. 404. .

References

1907 births 1941 deaths Latvian male sport shooters Olympic shooters for Latvia Shooters at the 1936 Summer Olympics People from Saldus Municipality Latvian people who died in Soviet detention {{Latvia-sportshooting-bio-stub