This is the sixth volume in the Series Olympics at War, and the third volume detailing Olympic Athletes serving in the Second World War. Some were soldiers and sailors who competed as athletes. Some were athletes who served in the military during wartime. All of them were extraordinary athletes whose talents raised them to Olympic heights. Some competed in several Olympics, some only once. Many set records and were awarded Olympic Medals. Others earned medals of a different sort on the battlefields of Europe, Africa, Asia ...
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This is the sixth volume in the Series Olympics at War, and the third volume detailing Olympic Athletes serving in the Second World War. Some were soldiers and sailors who competed as athletes. Some were athletes who served in the military during wartime. All of them were extraordinary athletes whose talents raised them to Olympic heights. Some competed in several Olympics, some only once. Many set records and were awarded Olympic Medals. Others earned medals of a different sort on the battlefields of Europe, Africa, Asia and at sea. Some survived the war, some didn't. The stories include an Olympian who saved the Lipizzaner white stallions from the Russians, the subject of a Walt Disney Movie, a Bulgarian cavalry commander, a canoeist who won Canada's only Gold Medal at the 1936 Games, A Finnish ski champion, a German General and Corps Commander, and the American who shot a perfect score in the Pentathlon. They also include the German equestrian who competed in the jumping event with his arm in a sling, to later be murdered by the NKVD, the British polo player who later became Commandant of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, a founder of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a Hungarian who coached the British Olympian Equestrian team to a Gold Medal, A Dutch field hockey player murdered by the Japanese, a Philippine graduate of the US Naval Academy, killed by guerrillas, and a Polish riding instructor killed in the "Katyn Massacre", as were a number of Polish Olympians. Some names will be well-known, others are more obscure, but all have stories to tell.
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