Estonian sport that amazed the world

A small nation, big sport: Estonians have written pages of world sporting history larger than the country itself. The story runs through three flags — tsarist Russia's, under which Martin Klein wrestled; the Republic of Estonia's, under which Kristjan Palusalu took his double gold; and the occupation regime's, from beneath which Erika Salumäe finally brought Estonia's own flag back up the Olympic mast.

The strongmen era: Lurich and Hackenschmidt

Georg Lurich (1876–1920, Väike-Maarja) was the first Estonian to set world records in weightlifting and a world-famous professional wrestler — he toured America in 1913–1917 and trained both Georg Hackenschmidt and Aleksander Aberg. Amandus Adamson modelled his 1912 bronze “Champion” on Lurich's physique.

Georg Hackenschmidt (1877–1968) was born in Tartu, but the world knew him as “the Russian Lion” — an Estonian behind the empire's label, for Estonia was then ruled by the tsars. On 4 May 1905 he beat Tom Jenkins at Madison Square Garden and is recognised as professional wrestling's first world heavyweight champion. He remained unbeaten until the 1908 Frank Gotch match; their encounters are wrestling's answer to boxing's greatest fights. Hackenschmidt invented the hack squat (named after him) and popularised the bench press — the Tartu man's legacy lives on in every gym.

Martin Klein 1912: the longest wrestling match in history

At the Stockholm Olympics in July 1912, the Greco-Roman middleweight semifinal between the Estonian Martin Klein (1884–1947) and Finland's reigning world champion Alfred Asikainen lasted 11 hours and 40 minutes — outdoors, in the sun, until Klein pinned his opponent. It is the longest wrestling match in Olympic history, and the rules were changed so it can never be surpassed. Too exhausted for the next day's final, Klein took silver — competing on the tsarist Russian team, for Estonia was then part of the empire. He is regarded as the first Olympic medallist from the soil of today's Estonia; by 1920 he was training the wrestlers of the Republic of Estonia itself.

The pre-war Republic's golden age

The young Republic of Estonia — some 1.1 million people — won 21 Olympic medals (6 gold, 6 silver, 9 bronze) between 1920 and 1936:

Antwerp 1920 — Alfred Neuland, weightlifting gold (the republic's first).
Paris 1924 — Eduard Pütsep's wrestling gold; six medals in all.
Amsterdam 1928 — two wrestling golds: Osvald Käpp and Voldemar Väli.
Berlin 1936 — seven medals, including Palusalu's two golds (below).

In basketball too Estonia stood near Europe's top: 5th place at both EuroBasket 1937 and 1939.

Kristjan Palusalu 1936: the double gold nobody has repeated

At the Berlin Olympics of 1936, Kristjan Palusalu (1908–1987) won heavyweight gold in both Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling — at the same Games, in the same weight class. He is the only wrestler in Olympic history to win both styles in the same weight class, and the only heavyweight ever to do it at all. When he came home, roughly a third of Tallinn turned out to greet him and the state gave its national hero a farm; in 1937 he added the European title in Paris.

Then came the occupation — and showed it spared not even the nation's greatest hero. In 1941 the occupation authorities sent Palusalu to forced labour at Kotlas; he tried to escape with fellow prisoners, was caught and sentenced to death; the sentence was commuted to a penal battalion on the Finnish front, from which he deserted across to the Finnish side in Northern Karelia during the Continuation War — reportedly shouting across the line not to shoot at Estonians. In 1945, when the occupation regime returned, he was arrested again. Later he was permitted to work as a wrestling trainer and referee. A double Olympic champion treated as a criminal by the occupation — the story speaks of both the man and the regime.

Paul Keres: the eternal second

The chess grandmaster Paul Keres (1916, Narva – 1975) won the 1938 AVRO tournament — one of the strongest ever held — earning the right to a match against world champion Alekhine, which the Second World War devoured. Under the occupation he finished second in four consecutive Candidates tournaments (1953, 1956, 1959, 1962) — hence the name “the Eternal Second”. When Keres died in 1975, over 100,000 people came to see him off in Tallinn — under the occupation, a quiet national demonstration. The restored republic put his portrait on the 5-kroon banknote and named him Estonia's Sportsman of the Century in 2000.

Erika Salumäe: two golds, two flags

The track cyclist Erika Salumäe (b. 1962) won sprint gold in Seoul in 1988 — under the occupation regime's flag, for her own state had no flagpole then. Four years later, on 31 July 1992 in Barcelona, she won gold again — and up the mast rose the restored Republic of Estonia's blue-black-white, for the first time in an Olympic champion's honour. The flag went up upside down — the world was still learning Estonia's colours — but it did not diminish the moment: Salumäe, who had set fifteen world records in 1982–1989, had carried Estonia's flag back to the highest point of the Olympics herself.

The era of restored independence

Andrus Veerpalu — cross-country skiing 15 km classical gold at both Salt Lake City 2002 and Torino 2006.
Kristina Šmigun-Vähi — two golds at Torino 2006 (10 km classical and the pursuit).
Gerd Kanter — discus gold, Beijing 2008.
Jüri Jaanson — rowing silver at Athens 2004 (single sculls) and Beijing 2008 (double sculls with Tõnu Endrekson).
The women's épée team — Katrina Lehis, Erika Kirpu, Julia Beljajeva and Irina Embrich won team gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
Ott Tänak — 2019 World Rally Champion, the first Estonian on the WRC throne, ending fifteen years of French dominance.
Anett Kontaveit — world No. 2 (WTA, June 2022), the highest-ranked Estonian tennis player of all time.
Kelly Sildaru — freestyle skiing Olympic bronze at Beijing 2022 and some ten X Games medals, including several golds.

The arc is complete: Klein wrestled under a foreign empire's flag, Palusalu won under his own republic's, Keres and Salumäe had the occupation regime's flag imposed on them — and today's champions stand on the podium beneath the blue-black-white, which is there in its own right.

Sources

Kristjan Palusalu (Wikipedia; the Estonian Wrestling Federation; Postimees “Kuulsuste hall”); Martin Klein, George Hackenschmidt, Georg Lurich, Paul Keres, Erika Salumäe, Estonia at the Olympics, Anett Kontaveit, Kelly Sildaru, Ivar Johansson (Wikipedia); ERR Sport “100 spordihetke” (Salumäe) and ERR News (Tänak 2019); sekundomer.ee — Estonia's Olympic champions; the Estonian basketball team and EuroBasket 1939 (Estonian Wikipedia).