Juan Reccius

A graduate of the Colegio Alemán de Valdivia in Chile, Juan Reccius spent the last two years of the 1920s in the army before pursuing a degree in mine engineering from the University of Chile, where he graduated from in 1934. He held a lifelong interest in athletics, which was sparked at the age of eight when his older brother Adolfo became the South American Champion in the triple jump. Juan himself became the Chilean record holder in the event in 1932, with a jump of 14.58 meters, a mark that stood for fifteen years. Three years later he won the event at the South American Championships (with a jump of 14.13 meters), paving his way to participation at the 1936 Summer Olympics. He fell ill on the journey to the Games and was eliminated in the qualifying round, failing to reach the standard of 14 meters.

After this Reccius focused on his professional career, which began at the “Madre de Dios” gold mine in 1935. From 1937 through 1938 he was occupied in coal development, and then joined the Caja de Crédito Minero as an engineer, eventually rising to become the Head of the Department of Coal. From 1953 through 1960 he served as Chief Engineer of the State Mines of Chile. For the next three years he worked as an engineer with Kloeckner-Humboldt-Deutz before taking a position at the Instituto de Investigaciones Geológicas until his 1982 retirement. The author of numerous publications on geology, he was a member of the Chilean delegation to the International Hydrological Decade conference in 1970.

Personal Best: TJ – 14.64 (1932).