Christiaan David "Chris" Berger (27 April 1911 – 12 September 1965) was a Dutch

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

, competing in the sprints.

Career

Berger was a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and changed to running after winning a

100 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standard SI prefix for a hundred is " hecto-". 100 is the b ...

national title among footballers. In 1930 he ran his best

200 m The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a Sprint (running), sprint running event. On an outdoor 400-metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run th ...

time (21.1 s), which would remain the European record until 1951 and the Dutch national record until 1965. Berger won the British

AAA Championships The AAA Championships was an annual track and field competition organised by the Amateur Athletic Association of England. It was the foremost domestic athletics event in the United Kingdom during its lifetime, despite the existence of the offi ...

title in the 100 yards event at the

1930 AAA Championships The 1930 AAA Championships was the 1930 edition of the annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA). It was held from 4 to 5 July 1930 at Stamford Bridge in London, England. The Championships c ...

, in addition to finishing second behind Stanley Engelhart in then 220 yards event. He repeated the success of winning a British AAA title at the

1933 AAA Championships The 1933 AAA Championships was the 1933 edition of the annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA). It was held from 7 to 8 July 1933 at White City Stadium in London, England. The Championship ...

. His career highlights came in 1934, when he had equalled the world record on the 100 m (10.3 s) in Amsterdam. Later at the first

European Championships in Athletics The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics (sport), athletics event organised by the European Athletic Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions F ...

, he won both the 100 m and 200 m sprints and finished third with the Dutch team at the

4 × 100 m relay 4 (four) is a number, numeral (linguistics), numeral and numerical digit, digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is a square number, the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is tetraphobia, considered unlucky i ...

. Originally the jury had declared the German athlete Erich Borchmeyer as winner of the 100 m, which led to outrage among the spectators who had clearly seen Berger win the race. The jury was eventually convinced to delay its decision after the films of the finish would be available the next day, which showed Berger to have won indeed. Berger participated twice at the Olympics without much success. Much was expected from the Dutch athletes in 1932, but after a 10-day voyage by boat and a week on the train they didn't play much of a role in Los Angeles. Berger was eliminated in both sprints in the semifinals. In 1936, Berger had passed his peak and was overshadowed in his own country by

Tinus Osendarp Martinus Bernardus "Tinus" Osendarp (; 21 May 1916 – 20 June 2002) was a Dutch sprint runner. Sporting career Osendarp was a football player and started training in sprint for fun. His first international success came at the 1934 European Ch ...

and

Wil van Beveren Wijnand "Wil" van Beveren (28 December 1911 – 5 October 2003) was a Dutch sprinter who competed at the 1936 Summer Olympics. Biography Van Beveren finished third behind Arthur Sweeney in the 220 yards event at the 1936 AAA Championships. ...

, while the Dutch relay team ended up dropping the baton in the finals. Between 1930 and 1934 Chris Berger won eight Dutch titles, four in each sprint event. He ended his career in sports in 1943 and became supervisor of the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam. He died in Amsterdam in 1965 and is buried at Zorgvlied cemetery. His daughter Elles was a popular presenter on Dutch television.

Competition record

References

* Heere, A. and Kappenburg, B. ''(2000) 1870 – 2000, 130 jaar atletiek in Nederland.'' Groenevelt b.v. * Bijkerk, T. (2004) ''Olympisch Oranje.'' De Vrieseborch *

External links

Article on Berger
(Dutch) {{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Chris 1911 births 1965 deaths Athletes (track and field) at the 1932 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1936 Summer Olympics Dutch male sprinters Olympic athletes for the Netherlands World record setters in athletics (track and field) Athletes from Amsterdam European Athletics Championships medalists Burials at Zorgvlied Cemetery 20th-century Dutch sportsmen