Newsletter

Meet the only man from Salamanca who has championed Spain at the Olympic Games

José Luis Albarrán had the honor of being the first Salamanca athlete to compete in the Olympic Games, which the then boxer Fabián Vicente del Valle would have snatched from him in Berlin 1936 had it not been for the Spanish Civil War. Twelve years later, in London 1948, he had the opportunity to retaliate by being chosen to act as flag bearer of the Spanish team at the Opening Ceremony, become a national boxing coach.

The Salamanca historian and writer Jorge García unveiled the figure of Fabián Vicente del Valle with an exhaustive and laborious work of investigation, that served to honor the memory of the ‘Olympic Hercules’, born in Salamanca in 1912 and died in 1993 in Madrid after a whole life dedicated to sport.

He started in his native Salamanca from very early, first with athletics, where he already stood out in the throws in the 20s. Later he tried judo and boxing (in which he began in 1932), but the lack of rivals that could put him in difficulties with his conditions and His physique (more than 2 meters and 100 kilos), caused him to leave for Madrid, where he continued to progress and was proclaimed champion of Spain on several occasions. Su level gave him to qualify for the Berlin Olympics in 1936, to which finally could not come by the Civil War. The chronicles tell that of 16 fights, he achieved 13 victories by KO or by manifest inferiority of the adversary.

That forced absence and his work as national boxing coach, a position for which he was appointed in 1945, were some of the reasons why he was chosen as standard-bearer in London 1948, having the honor of leading the parade of the Spanish team in a Wembley stadium packed with 80,000 spectators in the stands.

His work did not end there far from it, since was president or director of several national federations, being one of the main responsible for the boom in the country of disciplines such as judo or wrestling, also having an important role in helping the development of lifeguards or baseball, or making Spain host international championships.

Such was his knowledge of the sport (in the military field, as General of the Air Force he was a pioneer to facilitate that elite athletes could have more facilities) than Juan Antonio Samaranch counted on him to work for the Spanish Olympic Committee.

He was the author of several books on self-defense and boxing technique, creator of a glove model used in various countries, chemist and professor of Physical Education.

.

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending