Momčilo Tapavica

Medal record
Momčilo Tapavica (Hungarian: Momcsilló Tapavicza), the first ethnic Serb that won an Olympic medal as well as the winner of Kingdom of Hungary's only Olympic medal in Tennis. [1]
Men's Tennis
Competitor for Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary
Olympic Games
Bronze	1896 Athens	Singles

Momčilo Tapavica (Serbian Cyrillic name: Момчило Тапавица, Hungarian: Momcsilló Tapavicza; born October 14, 1872 in Nadalj village (then officially called Nádalja) near Srbobran (then officially called Szenttamás), Austria–Hungary (now Serbia), died January 10, 1949 in Pula, FPR Yugoslavia) was a native Serb tennis player, weightlifter, wrestler and architect who in his youth competed under the flag of Kingdom of Hungary whose citizen he was at the time, at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.

Tapavica is the first Serb to win an Olympic medal. He won a bronze medal in the singles tennis tournament. In the first round, he defeated D. Frangopoulos of Greece. The second round gave him a bye. Dionysios Kasdaglis of Egypt beat Tapavica in the semifinal, and with no playoff for third place he shared bronze medal honors with the Greek Konstantinos Paspatis. Tapavica was the only participant for the Kingdom of Hungary in the 1896 Olympic Tennis competition, ^[2] he participated at 23 years and 177 days old.

Sports career

Matica srpska building in Novi Sad, designed by Tapavica

Tapavica began to practise sports in Novi Sad, continuing his practise in Budapest where he studied architecture and civil engineering at the Higher Technical School.

At the Olympics Tapavica won a bronze medal in the singles tennis tournament. In the first round, he defeated D. Frangopoulos of Greece. The second round gave him a bye. Dionysios Kasdaglis of Egypt beat Tapavica in the semifinal, and with no playoff for third place he shared bronze medal honors with the Greek Konstantinos Paspatis. ^[3]

Tapavica did not compete in the doubles tournament.

He finished last of the six competitors in the two-handed weightlifting event, now known as the clean and jerk. The weight Tapavica lifted is unknown, but was less than 90.0 kilograms.

In the wrestling competition, Tapavica was defeated in the first round by Stephanos Christopoulos. The two were nearly evenly matched, but Tapavica tired first and conceded.

Having returned from Budapest to Novi Sad in 1904 he joined the rowing club “Danubijus”.

Architecture achievements

In 1908, Tapavica went to Montenegro, where he designed several buildings. During the First World War, he lived in Morocco, but later returned to Novi Sad, where he run his own architectural design company. He died in 1949 and was buried in cemetery in Pula.

Working as architect, Momčilo Tapavica designed the building of Matica Srpska in Novi Sad, the buildings of the German Consulate and National Bank in Cetinje, and the building of Boka Hotel in Herceg Novi, which was destroyed in the earthquake of 1977.

References

1. ^ Tapavicza Momcsilló 112 esztendeje vár egy hölgy partnerre…
2. ^ Hungary Tennis at the 1896 Athina Summer Games
3. ^ Olympics - OLYMPIC TENNIS MEDALISTS

See also

• Hungary at the 1896 Summer Olympics
• Tennis at the 1896 Summer Olympics

Persondata
Name	Tapavicza, Momcsillo
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1872
Place of birth
Date of death	1949
Place of death