History remembers Franz Stampfl as one of the athletics world.s premier coaches, a former Austrian art student who mentored Olympics champions including Roger Bannister, Christopher Chataway, Ralph Doubell and John Landy.
His accomplishments were all the more remarkable considering the adversity he suffered: a near-drowning in the Atlantic Ocean after his ship was torpedoed by a German U-Boat during WW2; internment in Australia as a prisoner-of-war; and, in later life, a near-fatal car accident that rendered him a quadriplegic but did not stop him from coaching.
Australian writer-director-producer Sally McLean profiles Stampfl in her feature-length documentary A Life Unexpected: The Man Behind The Miracle Mile. McLean has a personal connection to her subject, who died in 1995: Her mother Margaret Woodlock competed in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics as a 17-year-old shot putter, one of Stampfl.s first Australian protégés.
.I never met Franz which is one of the reasons...
His accomplishments were all the more remarkable considering the adversity he suffered: a near-drowning in the Atlantic Ocean after his ship was torpedoed by a German U-Boat during WW2; internment in Australia as a prisoner-of-war; and, in later life, a near-fatal car accident that rendered him a quadriplegic but did not stop him from coaching.
Australian writer-director-producer Sally McLean profiles Stampfl in her feature-length documentary A Life Unexpected: The Man Behind The Miracle Mile. McLean has a personal connection to her subject, who died in 1995: Her mother Margaret Woodlock competed in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics as a 17-year-old shot putter, one of Stampfl.s first Australian protégés.
.I never met Franz which is one of the reasons...
- 7/23/2013
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
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