Julius Gustav Albert "Bert" Schneider (July 1, 1897 – February 20, 1986) was an American-born Canadian

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term ''welterweight'' was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: *Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing * Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

who competed in the early 1920s. He was born in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

, United States, was raised in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, and was Jewish. Schneider's greatest success was as an amateur, winning the welterweight gold medal in

boxing at the 1920 Summer Olympics These are the results of the boxing competition at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and ...

with a win over British boxer Alexander Ireland in the final. Schneider was the first Canadian to win an Olympic boxing gold medal. Only two other Canadian boxers have achieved that feat in all the years since:

Horace Gwynne Horace "Lefty" Gwynne (October 5, 1912 – April 16, 2001) was a bantamweight professional boxer from Canada, who competed in the 1930s and won the gold medal at the 1932 Summer Olympics. He was still an amateur when he won the gold medal. Born ...

in 1932 and

Lennox Lewis Lennox Claudius Lewis (born 2 September 1965) is a British-Canadian boxing commentator and former professional boxer who competed in the heavyweight division from 1989 to 2003. He was a three-time world champion, a two-time lineal champion, ...

in 1988.

Olympic results

The following matches were fought by gold medallist Bert Schneider at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics: * Round of 32: bye * Round of 16: defeated Joseph Thomas (South Africa) * Quarterfinal: defeated

Aage Steen Aage Torstein Wetterland Steen (January 15, 1900 – February 28, 1982) was a Norwegian boxer who competed in the 1920 Summer Olympics. At the Olympics he was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the welterweight class after losing his fight t ...

(Norway) * Semifinal: defeated

Frederick Colberg Frederick William Kolberg (November 13, 1900 – March 21, 1965) was an American welterweight boxer who competed in the early 1920s. He won a bronze medal in Boxing at the 1920 Summer Olympics, losing against Canadian boxer Bert Schneid ...

(USA) * Final: defeated Alexander Ireland (Great Britain) - won gold medal All matches were contested between August 21 and 24, 1920 at the Amphitheater of the

Antwerp Zoo Antwerp Zoo () is a zoo in the centre of Antwerp, Belgium, located next to the Antwerpen-Centraal railway station. It is the oldest animal park in the country, and one of the oldest in the world, established on 21 July 1843. History Since its ...

Pro career

He turned professional early the next year. According to BoxRec.com, his career record as a professional was 17-17-2 with 6

KOs Kos or Cos (; ) is a Greek island, which is part of the Dodecanese island chain in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Kos is the third largest island of the Dodecanese, after Rhodes and Karpathos; it has a population of 37,089 (2021 census), making ...

Honors

Schneider is a member of

Canada's Sports Hall of Fame Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (; sometimes referred to as the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame) is a Canadian sports hall of fame and museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Dedicated to the history of sports in Canada, it serves as a hall of fame and mu ...

References

External links

* * * * 1897 births 1986 deaths Canadian male boxers Welterweight boxers Olympic boxers for Canada Boxers at the 1920 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Canada Olympic medalists in boxing Medalists at the 1920 Summer Olympics Boxers from Cleveland Boxers from Montreal American emigrants to Canada American male boxers Jewish Canadian sportspeople Jewish boxers 20th-century Canadian sportsmen 20th-century American sportsmen {{Canada-Olympic-medalist-stub