Joseph Schleimer

Biography

At Berlin 1936, Joseph “Joe” Schleimer received a bye to the welterweight (72kg) wrestling gold medal final where he lost to Thure Andersson, settling for bronze. This was Canada’s last wrestling Olympic medal until Los Angeles 1984 when Bob Molle won super-heavyweight silver and Chris Rinke won middleweight bronze.

Winning the 1934 British Empire Games welterweight gold medal was Schleimer’s greatest career victory. He was also a three-time Canadian champion winning titles in 1933, 1934 and 1936.

After retiring from competition, Schleimer became involved in sports administration. In 1961, he was named chairman of the wrestling committee of the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada and in the 1970s, he served as head of the Central Ontario Wrestling Association and was director of the national wrestling federation. Schleimer coached the national team at the 1959 Pan American Games, 1962 Commonwealth Games, 1962 World Championships, 1963 Pan American Games and at Tokyo 1964. He was the coach for the Broadview YMCA from 1950-71. 

Schleimer was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 1960 and Wrestling Canada Hall of Fame in 1975.