Beschreibung:

An autograph album compiled by the celebrated Welsh-born Olympic water polo player and swimmer Paulo "Raddy" Radmilovic between 1924 and 1930, containing the signatures of competitors at the 1924 Olympic Games, the British Empire Games of 1930 and from other sporting events of the period, the Olympic autographs including the Radmilovic-skippered Great Britain water polo team, the Irish Free State water polo team, the British swimmers Lucy Morton (gold), Phyllis Harding (silver), Florence Barker (silver), Grace McKenzie (silver), Constance Jeans (silver), Gladys Carson (bronze), Irene Gilbert, Jack Hatfield, Leslie Savage etc.; American swimmers Ethel Lackie (gold), Sybil Bauer (gold), Mariechen Wehselau (gold & silver), Gertrude Ederle (gold), Duke Kahanamoku (silver), Bill Kirschbaum (bronze); Australian swimmer Andrew "Boy" Charlton (gold); Swedish swimmers Arne Borg (2 silvers & a bronze) & Orvar Trolle (bronze); the American diver Aileen Riggin (silver); the British diver Verrall Newman; the former British Olympic swimmer Fred Unwin (London, 1908) who was the British swimming coach in 1920 & 1924; the album also containing the signature of Kathleen Thomas, the first woman to swim the Bristol Channel, plus fellow Bristol Channel swimmer Edith Parnell; a page of various swimming officials and administrators; the 1929 Brussels Swimming Club water polo team; London Ladies Water Polo Association; Les Mousse Fleurs Water Polo Team of 1929; the Welsh Wanderers water polo team; John Leslie Phelps (winner of the Doggetts Coat & Badge, 1928); the English swimming team at the 1930 British Empire Games including gold medallists Bill Trippett and Cecilia Wolstenholme; away from swimming and aquatics, the album contains the signatures of the New Zealand Maori Rugby Team that toured Great Britain in 1926-27; the New South Wales "Waratahs" Rugby Team of 1927-28, the boxer Jimmy Wilde; a page profusely signed by members of the Scottish team at the 1930 British Empire Games including their two gold medal winners Dunky Wright (marathon) & James Rolland (boxing, lightweight), the English wrestling team, the Canadian boxing team; and also includes a separate sheet of hotel headed paper dated 2nd August 1924 signed by members of the water polo team of the Ferencvarosi Torna Club in Budapest Paulo Francesco "Raddy" Radmilovic was born in Cardiff 5 March 1886 and was a Welsh water polo player and swimmer of Croatian and Irish origin who won four Olympic titles in a 22 year Olympic career. He won four gold medals across three successive Olympic Games (1908, 1912 & 1920), a record which stood for a GB Olympic athlete until broken by Sir Steve Redgrave when he won his fifth gold medal at Sydney in 2000. He also competed at the 1924 & 1928 Games and was the first Briton to go to five Olympic Games, a record that would remain until eclipsed by fencer Bill Hoskyns in 1976. After his international aquatic career, Radmilovic ran the Imperial Hotel in Weston-super-Mare and was said to still be swimming 400m a day at the age of 78. In 1967, he was inducted in the International Swimming Hall of Fame. He was the second water polo player (after American Wallace O'Connor) and the third Briton (after coach Matthew Mann and English Channel swimmer Captain Matthew Webb to be inducted. He was one of the original ten inductees to the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame in 1988. To celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of Radmilovic's 1908 double-gold Olympic performances in swimming and water polo, a plaque was placed on the Cardiff International Pool to honour him. Radmilovic died in Weston-super-Mare on 19th September 1968.