Mickey Hirschl, Europe’s Heavyweight Wrestling Champion in 1932, won Olympic bronze medals that year in Los Angeles in both the Heavyweight Freestyle and Greco-Roman events. His Hakoah-Vienna wrestling team captured 127 international titles between
1929 and 1934.

At age 15, Hirschl was Austria’s Junior Champion in Shotput and Discus. A year later, he was Junior Champion in Heavyweight Weightlifting. At 17, he was Austrian Pentathlon champion, a
title he held for seven years. And, by the time he reached the age of 18, Hirschl was Heavyweight Wrestling Champion of Austria, a title he held for 10 successive years.

In 1932, Hirschl won the gold medal in the Heavyweight division of
the European Wrestling Championships, flooring the best of Germany, Hungary, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland, and Italy. He was the favorite to gain top honors in the Los Angeles Olympics that same year, but was injured in a Greco-Roman preliminary round. He nevertheless insisted on continuing and managed bronze medals in the two Olympic events.

Although some of his Jewish countrymen did compete, Hirschl refused to participate in the Berlin Olympics of 1936.