No other events in this sport
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| Event type

Individual, Men

Date2 – 6 August 1936
StatusOlympic
LocationTruppenübungsplatz, Döberitz, Brandenburg / Haus des Sports, Kuppelsaal, Reichssportfeld, Berlin / Schießstände, Ruhleben, Berlin / Schwimmstadion, Reichssportfeld, Berlin / Golfplatz, Wannsee, Berlin
Participants42 from 16 countries
FormatPoint-for-place scoring.

With the lack of international competition, it was again very difficult to handicap the event. Sweden had won 13 of the 15 medals awarded in Olympic competition since 1912, so they were expected to be tough. There had been a European Championship in 1935, won by Nándor von Orbán (HUN), but nothing else is known of the competition. The 1928 champion, Sven Thofelt (SWE), was back and also competed in fencing in 1936, in which he won a medal in team épée. Silvano Abba (ITA) took the early lead, winning the horse steeplechase, with Germany’s Gotthardt Handrick and Belgium’s Raoul Mollet tying for second. Handrick then placed second in épée fencing and took a big lead with only 4½ points after two phases. The third phase was rapid-fire pistol shooting and Charles Leonard (USA) scored big here, winning the competition with the first ever possible of 200 in modern pentathlon rapid-fire pistol shooting. This moved him into fourth place overall but Handrick was still well ahead. Handrick maintained his lead after the swim, followed by Thofelt, who moved into second, placing third in the swim. Leonard was sixth in the 300 metre freestyle to move into the bronze medal position after four days of competition. The cross-country run was won by Austria’s Karl Leban, although it only served to move him from 35th to 26th place. Handrick placed 14th in the run, but was not really challenged for the gold medal. Leonard tied for seventh running to move up to a silver medal, followed by Abba, who won the bronze medal, with Thofelt falling to fourth (as in 1932) with a 24th place finish in the run. For the first time ever, no Swede won a medal.

Handrick soon afterwards became a fighter pilot with the “Legion Condor,” a squadron of German volunteers for the Fascist cause in the Spanish Civil War. Between this and WW II he claimed 15 victories in aerial combat. Abba, who won the riding section of the Modern Pentathlon, was killed during the Battle of Izbushensky, where the 700 riders of the Italian Army’s Savoy Cavalry mounted the last successful cavalry charge in military history.

PosCompetitor(s)NOCOrdinals
1Gotthard HandrickGER31.5Gold
2Charles LeonardUSA39.5Silver
3Silvano AbbàITA45.5Bronze
4Sven ThofeltSWE47.0
5Nándor OrbánHUN55.5
6Hermann LempGER67.5
7Dodd StarbirdUSA67.5
8Rezső BarthaHUN76.5
9Frederick WeberUSA79.0
10Georg von BoismanSWE82.5
11Karl WyssSUI83.5
12Herbert BramfeldtGER89.0
13Jeffrey MacDougallGBR91.0
14Lauri KettunenFIN92.0
15Ugo CeccarelliITA93.5
16Ebbe GyllenstiernaSWE93.5
17Édouard Écuyer de le CourtBEL94.5
18Alexander, Jonkheer van GeenNED101.5
19Percy LegardGBR104.5
20Aaro KiviperäFIN108.0
21Lajos Sipeki-BalásHUN108.5
22Franco OrgeraITA109.5
23Ukko HietalaFIN110.5
24André ChrétienFRA111.0
25Raoul MolletBEL116.0
26Karl LebanAUT117.0
27Josephus SerréNED117.5
28Béchir BouazzatFRA117.5
29Johannes van der HorstNED117.5
30Heriberto AnguianoMEX118.5
31Archibald JackGBR119.0
32Willy GrundbacherSUI121.0
33Alfred GuthAUT133.5
34Jean ScheereBEL134.5
35Luis CasíllasMEX134.5
36Guilherme Catramby FilhoBRA159.5
37Ruy DuarteBRA160.0
38Paul LavangaFRA167.5
39Anísio da Silva RochaBRA177.5
DNFHans BaumannSUI
DNFAlexandros Baltatzis-MavrokorlatisGRE
DNFJosé EscribensPER