 Hal Prieste, holding the original Olympic"Antwerp" Flag | ||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birth name | Haig Prieste | |||||||||||
| Nickname | Harry | |||||||||||
| National team | United States | |||||||||||
| Born | (1896-11-23)November 23, 1896 Fresno, California | |||||||||||
| Died | April 19, 2001(2001-04-19) (aged 104) Camden, New Jersey | |||||||||||
| Resting place | Inglewood Park Cemetery | |||||||||||
| Occupation(s) | Athlete, stunt man | |||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 2 in (157 cm) | |||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||
| Country | United States | |||||||||||
| Sport | Diving | |||||||||||
| Club | Illinois Athletic Club | |||||||||||
Medal record
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Hal Haig "Harry" Prieste (November 23, 1896 – April 19, 2001) was anAmericanathlete who participated in the1920 Summer Olympics inAntwerp as adiver.[1]
He was born Haig Prieste inFresno, California, toArmenianimmigrant parents. Their original surname was Keshishian. "Haig" is the name of the progenitor of the Armenians. Prieste first took "Harry" as his American name, but later switched to "Hal."
He won a bronze medal in platform diving as a member of the 1920 US Olympic team.[2] He also competed in the1920 plain high diving event, but he was eliminated in the first round.
He is known fortaking the original five-interlocking-ringOlympic flag as a prank at the1920 Summer Olympics hosted by the city of Antwerp, Belgium. At the end of the Games, the flag could not be found. In 1997, at a banquet hosted by the US Olympic Committee, a reporter was interviewing him and the reporter mentioned that the IOC had not been able to find out what had happened to the original Olympic flag. "I can help you with that," Prieste said matter-of-factly; "it's in my suitcase."[3] At the end of the Antwerp Olympics, spurred on by team-mateDuke Kahanamoku, he climbed a flagpole and stole the Olympic flag. For 77 years the flag was stored away in the bottom of his suitcase. The flag was returned to the IOC by Prieste, by then 103 years old, in a special ceremony held at the2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.[4][5] At the handover, IOC presidentJuan Antonio Samaranch gave him a commemorative Olympic medal in a box, to which the hard-of-hearing Prieste responded, "What is it? Kleenex?"[6] The AntwerpOlympic Flag is now on display at theOlympic Museum inLausanne, Switzerland, with a plaque thanking him for donating it.
At the time of his death at 104, Prieste was the world's oldest formerOlympicmedalist,[7] and the first known Olympian whose lifespan covered three centuries (1896–2001).
