Manuel Ángel Andrada Ballesteros (9 January 1890 – 21 September 1962) was an Argentine nine-goal

polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...

player who won the gold medal in the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

Early life

Manuel Andrada was born in 1890 on an

estancia An estancia or estância is a large, private plot of land used for farming or raising cattle or sheep. Estancias are located in the southern South American grasslands of Chilean and Argentine Patagonia, while the ''pampas'' have historically bee ...

in Curumalal near

Coronel Suárez Coronel Suárez is a city in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the administrative centre for Coronel Suárez Partido. Coronel Suárez has a population of 23,621 inhabitants (2010) and its main economic activities are related to agriculture ...

Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires, officially the Buenos Aires Province, is the largest and most populous Provinces of Argentina, Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of the province an ...

, Argentina.Horace A. Laffaye, ''Polo in Argentina: A History''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. 2014. pp. 203-205Horace A. Laffaye, ''The Polo Encyclopedia'', Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2004, p. 11 He worked as a horse trainer and later took up polo.Paisano Polo Club
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Polo career

He was a nine-goaler. His team won the Pacific Coast Polo Championship in 1930. The following year, in 1931, he was on the winning team of the

U.S. Open Polo Championship The US Open Polo Championship is an annual polo championship in the United States. It is organized since 1904 by the United States Polo Association (USPA). History The tournament was first played on September 20, 1904 at Van Cortlandt Park in T ...

. Moreover, his team won the

Campeonato Argentino Abierto de Polo The Campeonato Argentino Abierto de Polo ( Spanish for Argentine Open Polo Championship) is an international polo championship at club level, organised every year since 1893 at the Campo Argentino de Polo of Palermo, Buenos Aires Palermo is a ...

in 1930, 1931, 1933, 1935, 1938 and 1939. He was part of the Argentine polo team, which won the gold medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics.DatabaseOlympics
He played both matches in the tournament, the first against Mexico and the final against Great Britain. He was the oldest sportsman to receive an Olympic gold medal according to the

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...

. He was nicknamed "Paisano" (′peasant′). He has been called, "the first Argentine-born star player" by polo historian Horace Laffaye.

Personal life

He had three sons: Manuel Hector, Oscar Miguel and Eduardo Diego.

Death

He died in 1962 in

Laguna del Sauce Laguna del Sauce (Lagoon of the Willow) is a subtropical shallow lake and the largest water body in the Maldonado Department of Uruguay. It is located west of Punta del Este. The lake is the only freshwater ecosystem in the country classified for ...

, Córdoba Province, Argentina.

Legacy

His descendants own the Paisano Polo Club in Río Cuarto, Córdoba Province, Argentina.

References

External links

* 1890 births 1968 deaths Polo players from Buenos Aires Province Argentine polo players Olympic gold medalists for Argentina Olympic polo players for Argentina Polo players at the 1936 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in polo People from Coronel Suárez Partido {{Argentina-Olympic-medalist-stub