Sports Physician - Athlete 1937

1937

At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico and  the1972 Olympics in Munich, Jeno Kamuti (1937-) won the silver medal in foil. In 1957 he had also become world champion with the Hungarian team. He graduated in 1963 and specialized in Neurosurgery, after which he started a practice at the Semmelweis Hospital in Budapest. Afterwards he became head surgeon at the Hungarian Railways.

1937

As an undersea medical researcher Canadian Joseph MacInnis (1937-) was the first scientist to dive beneath the North Pole. He kept the Canadian record 200m breaststroke but could not qualify for the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. He graduated from the University of Toronto and, through his deep-sea diving hobby, he was particularly interested in diving medicine. Thanks to this interest, he was recruited as a full-time doctor for the Man-in-Sea project of American entrepreneur Edwin Link (1901-1984), who invented the flight simulator, among other things. MacInnis followed the diving medicine course at Christian Lambertsen (1917-2011), who was a physician at the Navy and who invented the SCUBA. In 1964 MacInnis was appointed medical director of the Man-In-Sea and the following year as medical director of the new company Ocean Systems Inc, which Edwin Link had established to conduct research under sea level. In 1969, the Navy asked him as a medical consultant for the Sealab III project. After he met Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (1919-2000) for the first time that year, he went diving fifty times in the following years and asked him to get launch the first Canadian ocean project. MacInnis started ten research expeditions for the development of working techniques under the Arctic Ocean and founded the James Allister MacInnis Foundation for underwater research and education in Canada. His further career was focused on research and development of new diving techniques and he made a lot of underwater films.

1937

Dutchman Frank Moerman (1937-) was the fourth rower in the coxed four at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. After graduating from the University of Leiden, he became a general practitioner in Rotterdam.

1937

Charles Snelling (1937-) represented Canada in figure skating at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo and those of 1964 in Innsbruck. His best result was the bronze medal at the 1957 World Cup. In 1962 he graduated from the University of Toronto and specialized in Plastic Surgery with special interest in burns. He started a practice in Vancouver.

1937

American Ron Taylor (1937-) was pitcher with the Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Astros, New York Mets and San Diego Padres for eleven seasons in the National Baseball League. In 1964 he won the World Series with St. Louis and in 1969 he did the same with the New York Mets. He graduated as a medical doctor, specialized in sports medicine and became a team physician with the baseball team Toronto Blue Jays.

1937

At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico, American Tom Waddell (1937-1987) finished sixth in the decathlon. In 1972 he injured himself at the knee at the high jump which meant the early end of his sporting career. In 1965 he graduated from New Jersey College of Medicine and one year year he became a prevention physician in the US Army. After his military service, he investigated viruses at Washington DC's Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He moved to San Francisco where he started a general practice. But traveling was in his blood and from 1974 to 1981 he was medical director of the Whittaker Corporation in the Middle East. Part of his job also involved becoming a physician of a Saudi prince and a Saudi businessman and eventually became a team doctor for the Olympic selection of Saudi Arabia at the 1976 Olympics in Montréal. In 1985 Waddell was told that he had AIDS. The years before he had outed himself as a homosexual and in 1986 he organized the second Gay Games, in which he himself participated in the javelin. In July 1987 he died at the age of 47 from the consequences of AIDS, his fight against this disease was the subject of the documentary 'Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt'. Together with compatriot Dick Schaap (1934-2001) he also wrote his autobiography 'Gay Olympian'.