Henry Wittenberg

Henry Wittenberg

Medal record
Men's freestyle wrestling
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
	1948 London	Light heavyweight
	1952 Helsinki	Light heavyweight

Henry Wittenberg (September 18, 1918 – March 9, 2010) was an outstanding American wrestler and Olympic champion in freestyle wrestling. He won two Olympic medals and was the first American wrestler after 1908 to achieve this feat. He at one point in his career wrestled 300 matches without losing. He taught wrestling at Yeshiva University and City College of New York for thirteen years. In 1977, he was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Henry Wittenberg was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. He became an excellent wrestler despite not wrestling at William L. Dickinson High School, where he instead swam and played chess. As a student at City College of New York he did not even consider himself athletic. However, the wrestling coach, Joe Sapora, introduced him to the sport. By his junior year of college, he was placing in prestigious college tournaments. After college, Wittenberg entered eight AAU tournaments. He won all eight of them. In the AAU tournaments he did not lose a match. He wrestled over 300 matches in a row and did not lose a single one. Wittenberg was the co-captain of the CCNY wrestling team together with Stanley Graze in 1939.

In 1948, Wittenberg entered the London Olympics. He was wrestling at the weight class 191.5 pounds. In the semifinals, he tore muscle tendons in his chest. His coach did not want him to wrestle in the finals, but Wittenberg was stubborn and wrestled anyway. He ended up winning the gold medal match. When he returned to the Bronx, he received a hero’s welcome.

Four years later, in 1952, Wittenberg entered the Helsinki Olympics as the returning champion. He once again reached the final match of the Olympics. This time he lost the match, but he still received the silver medal. He became the first American wrestler since 1908 to earn two Olympic medals.

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