Sports Physician - Athlete 1940
1940
Alain Calmat (1940-) became five times French figure skating champion, won three European titles, the world title of 1965 and the silver medal at the 1964 Olympics in Innsbruck. At the age of 24 he shelved his skates and became chairman of the Iceskating Committee of the French federation. He graduated as a medical doctor and specialized in Surgery. In 1967 as an assistant in Paris he helped to place the first cardiac grafts. Then he became Head of Abdominal Surgery at l'hôpital de Montfermeil. In 1983 he was appointed Professor at the Collège hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière. The following year, Prime Minister Laurent Fabius (1946) appointed him as Minister of Youth and Sport in his government.
1940
Mauro Di Pasquale (1940-) became world champion powerlifting and Canadian champion several times, but he also competed in bodybuilding. In 1971 he graduated from the University of Toronto where he became assistant professor from 1988 to 1998. He taught and researched athletic performance, nutritional supplements and drug use in sport. As expert bodybuilding, he published over a thousand articles in several magazines, such as Muscle & Fitness and Iron Man. In the wake of the WWF Steroid Scandal, he was hired as an expert to monitor the drug program of the World Wrestling Federation, which earned him the nickname "Mr. Steroid Hunter'.
1940
Ilija Jorga (1940-) was a Serbian master of martial art and in 1980 founder of Fudokan karate style. He achieved the tenth dan, once became European champion in the kata discipline and thirteen times in Kumite. He was the first non-Japanese to win the kata world championship in Tokyo. In total he collected 65 medals in international competitions and he became European and world champion twelve times. He received his medical degree from the University of Belgrade and specialized in sports medicine. He became full-time professor of physiology at the medical faculty of Belgrade and Professor of Sports Medicine at the same University,
1940
Wilfried Kindermann (1940-) won the gold medal with the German relay team 4 x 100m at the 1962 European Championship in Belgrade. He graduated as a medical doctor and specialized in sports medicine. In Saarbrücken he led the Sports Medical Institute of the Universität des Saarlandes, and at several Olympics he accompanied the German athletics team and he was also the team physician of the German football team.
1940
At the 1960 Olympics in Rome, American Dallas Long (1940) won the bronze medal in shot put. Four years later in Tokyo he was the best in that event with a pitch of 20m33. That same year in Los Angeles with a 20m68 put, he pegged a new world record on the tables. He graduated as a dentist at the University of Southern California, practiced that profession for two years, but then went to study Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and specialized in Emergency Medicine.
1940
Rolf Sperling (1940-) dominated the 10m tower diving in the GDR from 1958 to 1965. In that period he was affiliated with SC Chemie Halle, but in 1967 he moved to Berliner TSC and for that club he won a new East German title. The following year he reached his peak with the outdoor titles of the tower and 3m-board and the indoor titles of the 1- and 3m-board. At that last height he was the only to manage one and a half somersault with triple propeller, at that moment the most difficult jump in the world with a difficulty level of 2.9. The expectations were high when he traveled to the Olympics in Mexico that year, but the twentieth place was the worst ranking of his three Olympic participations. In 1960 he finished fifth, in 1964 seventh. At the European Championships in 1962 he took silver. After completing his studies in Medicine at the Universität Leipzig in 1969, he established himself as a general practitioner in Berlin.
1940
From 1958 to 1961 American gynecologist John Tidwell (1940 -) played in the basketteam of the University of Michigan. He scored 441 points in the 1961 season, an average of 19.6 points per game. That same year he scored 43 points against the University of Minnesota. The Philadelphia 76ers drafted him for a career in the NBA, but he opted for a medical career. He graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School and specialized in Gynecology.
1940
Theo van Vroonhoven (1940-), hockey player with first division club SCHC Bilthoven, was selected for the Dutch team for the 1960 Olympics in Rome, the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo and the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. In total he scored 87 national selections. He graduated as a medical doctor and specialized in surgery in Rotterdam. He settled in Tilburg, but was appointed Professor of Surgery at the University of Utrecht in 1988.
