Norman Pritchard

Norman Pritchard (Norman Gilbert Pritchard, late stage name Norman Trevor, born June 23, 1875 in Kolkata, India, † October 31, 1929 in Norwalk (California ), USA ) was an athlete and medal winner at the Olympic Games, which for TAC, after the official view his native India participated. In later years he acted under the name Norman Trevor as a film actor.

Life

Pritchard was of British descent and the son of Helen Maynard Pritchard and George Peterson Pritchard, who worked as an accountant for retail companies. Norman Pritchard studied at St. Xavier 's College in Kolkata and worked for some time as an assistant in a commercial enterprise for jute goods.

His sporting passion was football. In a game of his college team in 1897, he scored the first hat-trick in a soccer tournament in India. However, his athletic talent was while running on the sprint distances. From 1894 to 1900 he was continuously Bengali master over 100 yards, with him in 1898 with 10.0 seconds achieved a record of Bengali.

His achievements also found in distant England attention. A visit from Pritchard in the land of his ancestors before the Olympic Summer Games 1900 in Paris used the exclusive London Athletic Club, accept him as a member. In the following days and weeks, he took part in various running events of the club, where he won several victories, so about 100 yards and hurdling over 120 yards, where he could defeat the British Masters in 1897.

Just a week before the start of the athletics competitions at the Games in Paris found the championships of the Amateur Athletics Association held (AAA), which could be equated with the British Championships. This is followed several athletes from the United States participated, both in England appealed for a stopover on the way to Paris. Pritchard took over about 120 yards hurdles behind Alvin Kraenzlein second place. The championships were the officials of the AAA to name the athletes who should travel for your association to Paris. Also Pritchard was selected.

This is followed now lit a later controversy over Pritchard's national affiliation in the Olympics. The background to this is the fact that in the early Olympic Games, the athletes were viewed as participants in a club or association, which in international competitions representing the country in general, where the club or association was established. The appointment of Pritchard by the AAA, which also was a citizen of the British Empire, prompted renowned sports historians to believe that he had taken part in the Olympic Games in 1900 as the British.

Pritchard, however, was also a member of the Bengal Presidency Athletic Club his Indian home town Kolkata. It is unclear whether his trip to Europe in 1900 with a posting to the Olympics was related. The International Olympic Committee (IOC ) leads Norman Pritchard in any case as the first Indian athletes at the Olympic Games and the first medal winner this country and Asia.

Pritchard took at the Olympic Games in Paris on 5 contests, the 60 - meter dash, the 100 -meter run, the 200 -meter run, the 110- meter hurdles and 200 - meter hurdles. He reached three finals and was twice placed second. In the third final of the 110m hurdles he had to give up and did not reach the target.

Placements at the Olympic Games:

• II Summer Olympic Games in 1900, Paris 200 m - silver with 22.8 s ( gold at Walter Tewksbury from the USA with 22.2 s; Bronze Stan Rowley from Australia with 22.9 s )
• 200 m hurdles - Silver with 22.8 s ( gold Alvin Kraenzlein from the USA with 22.2 s; Bronze Stan Rowley from Australia with 22.9 s )
• 60 m - excreted in the forward ( gold Alvin Kraenzlein from the USA with 7.0 s )
• 100 m - excreted in the repechage (Gold Frank Jarvis from the USA with 11.0 s )
• 110m hurdles - in the final abandoned (Gold Alvin Kraenzlein from the USA with 15.4 s )

Note: With the exception of the periods of the respective winner, transit times are estimated, as there was no time measurement for the runners. For them, the residue was estimated to be the winner or pre-placed with a length specification.

Following the Games of Paris, he returned to India. Here he turned back to the football and has held the post of secretary in the Indian Football Association Indian Football Association. In 1906, he traveled again to England, where he again joined the London Athletic Club.

After 1908, the name of Norman Pritchard is no longer documented. Investigations Indian biographers come to the conclusion that Pritchard moved to the U.S. and there began a career as a theater artist and film actor by the name of Norman Trevor. Norman Trevor played in 1917 at the 39th Street Theatre in New York City and played 1915-1929 in at least 28 films, primarily as a supporting actor. This would Norman Pritchard, the first Olympian in a number of successful athletes who transferred from the sports stage for the show stage.

Pritchard also known as Norman Trevor died at the age of 54 to a brain disease.