Kurt DOERRY

Kurt Doerry was one of the best European sprinters in the final 10 years of the 19th century, starting out as a junior 1892 under the pseudonym Arthur Payne and winning German titles at over 200 and 400 m in 1899. He took part in the first two Olympic Games 1896 and 1900 in athletics in different disciplines. He later was also a very good figure skater, cyclist, boxing referee, tennis player and a hockey international for Germany.

He was a founding member of the Deutscher Hockey Bund (DHB) in 1909 and first president until 1914. His 1904 published book Leichte Athletik was the first one written by a German Olympian and was the first in a row of a lot special literature concerning athletic themes. In the 1890s he had worked on the sport desk of Sport im Bild, and served as its editor-in-chief until World War II. In 1910 Doerry became president of the Verein Deutsche Sportpresse. As a representative of the sport press he was elected onto the executive committee of the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS) in 1928. With Willy Dörr he co-wrote Das Olympia-Buch (1927).

Personal Bests: 50 – 5.6 (1896); 100y – 10.2 (1896); 200 – 22.5 (1895); 400 – 53.5; 110H – unknown.