Don Cohan: Difference between revisions

Don Cohan

Medal record
Sailing
Olympic Games
	1972 Munich	Dragon class

Donald "Don" Cohan (born in 1930 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) has been one of the leading yachtsmen in the U.S. He won a bronze medal at the 1972 Munich Olympics (becoming the oldest competitor to win a bronze in sailing, at the age of 42), twice defeated Hodgkins Disease, and then came back to win a U.S. sailing championship at the age of 72.^[1]

Cohan graduated from Amherst College (cum laude; 1951), where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi,^[2] and from Harvard Law School. He practiced as an attorney, before going into business in real estate.^[3][4][5] He became President of Donesco Company, a real estate development firm.^[6]

Cohan began sailing in 1967 at age 37.^[7] He was on the U.S. team at the World Championships in 1969, 1970, and 1971. Cohan won the 1972 Olympic trials.^[8] Within five years from when he began sailing, he was an Olympic medalist.^[7] He was the first Jew to be a member of the United States Olympic Team in Sailing, and the first to win an Olympic medal in sailing.^[7]

In the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, he was set to compete when the Munich Massacre resulted in the killing by terrorists of 11 Israeli athletes.^[9] All Jewish athletes were warned to leave, and two Israelis slated to compete in sailing were instructed to return home immediately.^[9] They handed Cohan their satin, blue and white triangular flag, emblazoned with "Sports Federation of Israel. XXth Olympiad Munich 1972," and said: "You're representing us now. Go win a medal for us."^[9]

Competing at the age of 42, he came from far back on the final day and earned a bronze medal as helmsman in the mixed three-person keelboat named Caprice in the 29-foot (8.8 m) Dragon class.^{[10][11][12][3][13][14][15]} He became the oldest person ever to place in Olympic sailing.^[12][8]

He wrote: "The last act of [expletives deleted] [U.S. Olympic Committee head and International Olympic Committee president] Avery Brundage was to hang an Olympic medal around my neck."^[16][17] Brundage (a Nazi sympathizer) was notorious, among other things, for having reputedly pressured to have the only two Jews on the 1936 U.S. track team, Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, removed at the last moment on the morning of the 400-meter relay race, so as not to embarrass Hitler and the Nazis with a Jewish victory.^{[18][19][20][21][22][23][23]} Brundage later praised the Nazi regime at a Madison Square rally.^[19][20][21] [1][2]

Cohan has also been U.S. champion, European champion, German champion, and Australian champion.^[24]

In 1984, he put his legal skills to good use. He was involved in a dispute with regard to the fact that Robbie Haines, one of the competitors in the Olympic yachting Soling trials had left too early (or "barged" at the start) in the Long Beach, California, race. Ed Baird, a fellow competitor, said that Cohan "destroyed Haines in the protest room", but that "We're all still pretty close". Haines was disqualified for the race. At the end of the day, however, Haines qualified for the 1984 Olympics, where he won a gold medal.^[25]

Nineteen years later, in 1991, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease of the lymph glands and nodes, and was diagnosed with the most severe type (4B).^[12] He was not expected to survive.^[26]

Recalling that he said to himself, "Don, you may be very good in your line of business, but you know nothing about this one", he assembled a team around him that he could rely on in the fight.^[6] Cohan looked for excellent doctors who would allow him to undergo therapy usually considered too grueling for someone his age.^[6] He interviewed doctors, engaged a psychiatrist to help him deal with grief and fear, and told his wife she was his deputy in the struggle.^[6] He went through aggressive chemotherapy and radiation therapy, suffered through fatigue, nausea, night sweats, swelling, and pain, and made it through the cancer successfully.^[26][24]

Then, though only one percent of patients get it a second time—he fell into that category.^[12] Again, he was not expected to survive.^[26] Again, he underwent aggressive chemotherapy and radiation therapy.^[6][26][24] And again, he defeated the cancer.^[6][26][24]

In 2002, at the age of 72, he won the United States Soling Championship. He also finished 5th in the world championship.^[27][26][24]

Taking a step back to ruminate on sailing competitively at his age, Cohan remarked, "I'm aware that I'm on the downwind side of the hill, and the reawakened goal of being a competitive sailor has caused me to stir up banked fires and rejuvenate neglected physical abilities."^[24]

He was inducted into the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.^[7]

In 2010, he was still sailing competitively.^[28]

• Olympic bio