If you’ve been watching any of the winter Olympics events recently, you might have wondered, why are there no gold medals for Aeronautics? According to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, there used to be. In 1936, at the Berlin Olympics, no contests took place, but Switzerland was awarded a gold medal in Aeronautics in recognition of Hermann Schreiber’s glider flight over the Alps. During the games, the Hindenburg hovered above the Olympic stadium, painted with Olympic rings. The first public flight of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 prototype also took place there. Fourteen pilots from seven countries took part in demonstration flights at a nearby airfield.
Preparations were underway to continue and expand Aeronautics as an Olympic event, according to the Smithsonian, but then the 1940 Olympics were cancelled due to the breakout of war in Europe. The medal for Switzerland in 1936 remains the only one ever awarded for Aeronautics.
