Wittenberg circa 1940s | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Born | Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S. | September 18, 1918|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | March 9, 2010 Somers, New York, U.S. | (aged 91)|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Wrestling | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | City College New York, West Side YMCA, Police Association, AAU[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Henry Wittenberg (September 18, 1918 – March 9, 2010) was an American New York police officer, coach, competitor and Olympic champion in freestyle wrestling.[2][1] He won two Olympic medals in freestyle wrestling (1948 and 1952), becoming the first American wrestler since 1908 to achieve this feat. After Army service in the early 1940s, he served with commendations as a New York City Police Officer until around 1954, worked as an instructor and college wrestling coach at Yeshiva and then City College of New York from 1967 to 1979, competed in, coached, and helped to organize the Maccabiah Games, and served as an American Olympic coach in 1968 at Mexico City.[3][1]