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Olimpia club (Uruguay)

Club Atl�tico Olimpia

image by Ivan Sache, 31 December 2011

About the club
About the flag

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Olimpia Club Official website
Reported by Ivan Sache, 31 December 2011

About the club

The Club Atl�tico Olimpia is a sports club located in the Col�n neighborhood of Montevideo since 1933. Today, the club has basket ball, bowls, dance, futsal, gymnastics, handball, judo, karate, pelota, swimming, volley ball, water polo and yoga sections.

The club was officially founded on 17 September 1918 as an athletics club, oddly enough *after* its registration with the Uruguay Athletics Federation, 6 September 1918. In the beginning, the club's members competed in different sports, as it was common at the time. The club's most famous athlete, the runner Isabelino Grad�n (1894-1944), was champion of South America in 200 m and 400 m; he played also football with Pe�arol and founded in March 1922 the Olimpia Football Club. Andr�s "El Buzo" Mazzali (1902-1975), a hurdler twice champion of South America in 400 m hurdles and also a basket ball player, is mostly remembered as the goal keeper of the Uruguayan football team that won the gold medal in the 1924 (Paris) and 1928 (Amsterdam) Olympics; he is considered as the first goal keeper who dared playing out of the penalty area. In 1932, when football officially became a professional sport in Uruguay, the Olimpia Football Club merged with the Club Atl�tico Capurro to form the Club Atl�tico River Plate.

The club's cyclist section was founded in 1924, winning four times the team classification of the Tour of Uruguay (1955, 1957, 1961 and 1965 - with Juan Jos� Tim�n as the winner of the individual classification). Basket ball, started in the club in 1921, is still the most successful sport practiced in the Club Atl�tico Olimpia, with eight national titles (1923, 1928 and 1929 - the famous "White Machine" ["m�quina blanca"] team, 1946, 1965, 1970-1972) and two South American club's championships (1946, 1954). Roberto Lovera (b. 1922), who played for Olympia all along its career, captained the Uruguayan basket ball team that won the bronze medal in the 1952 Olympics (Helsinki).

Ivan Sache, 31 December 2011

About the flag

The flag of Club Atl�tico Olimpia is white with a thin red border. In the middle is placed the famous emblem of the club, a red winged "O".

Ivan Sache, 31 December 2011