Solko Johannes van den Bergh (4 June 1854 in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

– 25 December 1916 in The Hague) was a Dutch

sport shooter Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms (firearms and airguns, in forms such a ...

. Van den Bergh was a notary by profession who on 6 June 1880 married the noble Sophia Emma Nicoletta van Limburg Brouwer in

Zeist Zeist () is the capital and largest town of the municipality of Zeist. The town is located in the Utrecht province of the Netherlands, east of the city of Utrecht. History The town of "Seist" was first mentioned in a charter in the year 83 ...

. Together with his friend

Henrik Sillem Hendrik "Henrik" Sillem (12 August 1866 in Amsterdam – 13 July 1907 in Courmayeur, Italy) was a Dutch jurist, mountaineer and sport shooter. Personal life and education Henrik Sillem was the son of Johann Gottlieb Sillem, banker with H ...

and the Frenchman François Monod he initiated the first "international shooting matches" (world championships in shooting) in 1897 in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

. These were the forerunners of the

matches A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matc ...

that were held in

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 ...

in 1900, now considered to have been part of the Olympics. Van den Bergh participated in these and won a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

with the Dutch pistol team.

References

External links

*
Article in Journal of Olympic History
Dutch male sport shooters Olympic bronze medalists for the Netherlands Olympic shooters of the Netherlands Shooters at the 1900 Summer Olympics 1854 births 1916 deaths Sportspeople from The Hague Olympic medalists in shooting Presidents of the Organising Committees for the Olympic Games Medalists at the 1900 Summer Olympics {{Netherlands-sportshooting-bio-stub