Manuel Andrada

Manuel Ángel Andrada Ballesteros (9 January 1890 – 21 September 1962) was an Argentine nine-goal polo player who won the gold medal in the 1936 Summer Olympics.

Olympic medal record
Men's polo
Gold medal – first place 1936 Berlin Team competition

Early life
Andrada in 1926

Manuel Andrada was born in 1890 on an estancia in Curumalal near Coronel Suárez, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.[1][2] He worked as a horse trainer and later took up polo.[3]

Polo career

He was a nine-goaler.[2] His team won the Pacific Coast Polo Championship in 1930.[1][2] The following year, in 1931, he was on the winning team of the U.S. Open Polo Championship.[1][2] Moreover, his team won the Campeonato Argentino Abierto de Polo in 1930, 1931, 1933, 1935, 1938 and 1939.[1]

He was part of the Argentine polo team, which won the gold medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics.[2][4] He played both matches in the tournament, the first against Mexico and the final against Great Britain.[4] He was the oldest sportsman to receive an Olympic gold medal according to the Guinness World Records.[2]

He was nicknamed "Paisano" (′peasant′).[1] He has been called, "the first Argentine-born star player" by polo historian Horace Laffaye.[2]

Personal life

He had three sons: Manuel, Oscar and Eduardo.[1]

Death

He died in 1962 in Laguna del Sauce, Córdoba Province, Argentina.[1][2]

Legacy

His descendants own the Paisano Polo Club in Río Cuarto, Córdoba Province, Argentina.[3]

References
  1. Horace A. Laffaye, Polo in Argentina: A History. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. 2014. pp. 203-205
  2. Horace A. Laffaye, The Polo Encyclopedia, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2004, p. 11
  3. Paisano Polo Club
  4. DatabaseOlympics Archived 2007-02-09 at the Wayback Machine


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