Sports Physician - Athlete 1883
1883
Marc Bellin du Côteau (1883-1938), a member of a French aristocratic family, started playing hockey at the age of 16 with the Parisian team Racing Club de France. He also did athletics and in 1903, 1904 and 1907, he was crowned national champion 400 m, of which he was the national record holder with a 50-second best time. In 1906 he finished eighth in the 400m final at the unofficial Athens Olympic Games. In 1910 he graduated as a doctor and from 1912 on he published many scientific works on physical education and sport. His most famous are 'L'entraînement sportif' from 1924, in which he developed a physical efficiency index based on speed, dexterity, resistance and strength and 'Traité d'éducation physique'. Because it turned out during World War I that there was a huge difference between the physical possibilities of the German and French troops on the battlefield, in which many French soldiers died due to shortness of breath and lack of sports training, Marc Bellin du Côteau urged the government to give gymnastics in primary school. He was elected president of the Fédération Française de Hockey and from 1932 until his death he held the same position at the Fédération internationale de hockey sur gazon.
1883
In 1908 at the Olympic Games in London, Scottish Arthur Downes (1883-1956) won the sailing number in the 12 meter class. He graduated from Glasgow University and settled for 40 years as general practitioner in the Scottish town of Helensburgh.
1883
In the summer of 1912, the fifth modern Olympic Games were contested in Stockholm. The German sports doctor Emil Ketterer (1883-1959) was not only medical coach of the German team but also participated in the 100m. On July 9, 1911, at a competition in Karlsruhe, he broke the world record of 100 meters with 10.5 seconds and a relay world record the following year. Later as a fervent Nazi adept he was appointed to SA-Obergruppenfuehrer and under the Nazi regime he was involved in the approval and promotion of euthanasia.
1883
Dutchman Lou Otten (1883-1946) played defender at Quick Den Haag football club, with whom he became champion in 1908. He was selected twelve times for the Dutch national team, in which four times with the captains band. At the 1908 Olympics in London, he took third place with that team. After graduating, he went to the Dutch East Indies as a bacteriologist, where he developed a vaccine against bubonic plague.
