Estonian athlete: Georg Lurich

I'd wish to start this new blog by explaining why I have chosen Georg Lurich as avatar.

The athlete Georg Lurich was a person who managed to imprint a deep mark in the memory of Estonians. Although he was active more than a hundred years ago, he now and again emerges as a hero, when someone somewhere talks about the national pride and dignity of Estonians. He is a myth!

Estonian sports enthusiasts took the first steps in organizing in the last decades of the 19th century. The first unofficial Estonian athletic association was the Tallinn heavy athletics club formed by the heavy athletics enthusiast Gustav Boesberg in 1888. From the heavyweight lifters and wrestlers who practised in that association the first great generation of Estonian athletes arose. One of the best known among them was the later national pride and honour of Estonians, the versatile professional athlete Georg Lurich.
It was the time when each success of fellow countrymen was welcome and a national hero was a hero indeed. It can be said that Lurich happened to be in the right place and in right time. He was by no means the first Estonian athlete, nor the man, who introduced heavy athletics in Estonia, yet he was the most popular athlete in his time. His role in the popularisation of sport in Estonia was really remarkable.

There are tales about Georg Lurich, which have moved around among people for a hundred years already. We may say that Lurich as the hero of Estonian folk tales has become a hero mainly because of his great physical strength and because he is not ashamed of using his strength.