![[Olimpia club flag]](../images/u/uy@olimp.gif)
Last modified: 2021-12-24 by rob raeside
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image by Ivan Sache, 31 December 2011
The Club Atlético Olimpia is a sports club located in the Colón
neighborhood of Montevideo since 1933. Today, the club has basket ball,
bowls, dance, futsal, gymnastics, handball, judo, karate, pelota,
swimming, volley ball, water polo and yoga sections.
The club was officially founded on 17 September 1918 as an athletics
club, oddly enough *after* its registration with the Uruguay Athletics
Federation, 6 September 1918. In the beginning, the club's members
competed in different sports, as it was common at the time. The club's
most famous athlete, the runner Isabelino Gradín (1894-1944), was
champion of South America in 200 m and 400 m; he played also football
with Peñarol and founded in March 1922 the Olimpia Football Club.
Andrés "El Buzo" Mazzali (1902-1975), a hurdler twice champion of
South America in 400 m hurdles and also a basket ball player, is
mostly remembered as the goal keeper of the Uruguayan football team
that won the gold medal in the 1924 (Paris) and 1928 (Amsterdam)
Olympics; he is considered as the first goal keeper who dared playing
out of the penalty area. In 1932, when football officially became a
professional sport in Uruguay, the Olimpia Football Club merged with
the Club Atlético Capurro to form the Club Atlético River Plate.
The club's cyclist section was founded in 1924, winning four times the
team classification of the Tour of Uruguay (1955, 1957, 1961 and 1965
- with Juan José Timón as the winner of the individual classification).
Basket ball, started in the club in 1921, is still the most successful
sport practiced in the Club Atlético Olimpia, with eight national
titles (1923, 1928 and 1929 - the famous "White Machine" ["máquina
blanca"] team, 1946, 1965, 1970-1972) and two South American club's
championships (1946, 1954). Roberto Lovera (b. 1922), who played for
Olympia all along its career, captained the Uruguayan basket ball team
that won the bronze medal in the 1952 Olympics (Helsinki).
Ivan Sache, 31 December 2011
The flag of Club Atlético Olimpia is white with a thin red border. In
the middle is placed the famous emblem of the club, a red winged "O".
Ivan Sache, 31 December 2011
