Holger Louis Nielsen (18 December 1866 in Copenhagen – 26 January 1955 in Hellerup) was a Danish fencer, sport shooter, and athlete.[1] He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.[2] He is probably best known for drawing up the first set of rules for the game of handball.[3]
| Olympic medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
Representing  Denmark
| ||
| Men's Fencing | ||
 |
1896 Athens | Sabre |
| Men's Shooting | ||
 |
1896 Athens | Free pistol |
|
1896 Athens | 25 metre rapid fire pistol |
Fencing
editNielsen's main sport was fencing, in which he competed in the sabre. At Athens, Nielsen placed third in the sabre event. He split his matches in the five-man, round-robin tournament. Nielsen defeated Adolf Schmal and Georgios Iatridis, but lost to Telemachos Karakalos and Ioannis Georgiadis. This 2–2 record put Nielsen in third place.[4]
Firearms competitions
editIn the military rifle event, Nielsen quit the competition after the first day. He had shot 20 times out of the full 40, though his score was unknown.[5] Nielsen placed fifth in the military pistol event.[6] He won a bronze medal in the rapid fire pistol, coming in last of the three shooters that finished the competition.[7] His best result of the Games was a surprise silver medal in the free pistol competition; his score of 285 was far behind Sumner Paine's 442 but was sufficient to defeat the other three shooters in the event. His scores for each of the five strings of 6 shots were 12, 85, 62, 24, and 100.[8]
Discus
editNielsen also competed in the discus throw. He did not place among the top four in the event, though records are unclear as to which place between fifth and last (ninth) he received.[9]
Football
editTogether with fellow Københavns Roklub athlete Eugen Schmidt, Nielsen also participated in the unofficial football event in which a Danish XI faced a Greek team as a "demonstration sport", and it was the Danes who came-out as the winners by either 9–0 or 15–0.[10][11]
Other activities
edit
Nielsen is also credited with developing an early set of rules for handball in 1898,[3] and with developing a form of external cardiopulmonary resuscitation called the Holger Nielsen method in 1932. The National Research Council gave support to this method in 1951, however, it was superseded by mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in recommendations of 1958. (Artificial Respiration, the history of an idea. A B Baker Med Hist. 1971 15(4): 336-351)
References
edit- ^ "Holger Nielsen". Olympedia. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
- ^ "Holger Nielsen Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 2011-08-25. Retrieved 2010-03-31.
- ^ a b "History of Team Handball". sportsknowhow.com. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
- ^ "Fencing at the 1896 Athina Summer Games: Men's Sabre, Individual". Olympics at sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
- ^ "Shooting at the 1896 Athina Summer Games: Men's Military Rifle, 200 metres". Olympics at sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
- ^ "Shooting at the 1896 Athina Summer Games: Men's Military Pistol, 25 metres". Olympics at sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
- ^ "Shooting at the 1896 Athina Summer Games: Men's Muzzle-Loading Pistol, 25 metres". Olympics at sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
- ^ "Shooting at the 1896 Athina Summer Games: Men's Free Pistol, 30 metres". Olympics at sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
- ^ "Athletics at the 1896 Athina Summer Games: Men's Discus Throw". Olympics at sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
- ^ "Games of the I. Olympiad". RSSSF. 3 February 2022. Archived from the original on 11 July 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
- ^ "Olympic Football: 1896 Demonstration Match between Denmark and Greece". www.topendsports.com. Archived from the original on 27 June 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
