Joaquín Blume
Personal information
Country represented	Spain
Born	(1933-06-21)21 June 1933
Died	29 April 1959(1959-04-29) (aged 25) Cuenca, Spain
Discipline	Men's artistic gymnastics

Joaquín Blume (Catalan: Joaquim Blume; 21 June 1933 – 29 April 1959) was a Spanish gymnast. The son of a German gymnastics instructor established in Barcelona,^[1] he belonged to the gymnastics section of FC Barcelona.^[2]

He became Spanish gymnastics champion at 15^[1] and he competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics of Helsinki with only 19 years.^[2] He went to win eight medals in the 1955 Mediterranean Games^[1] and in 1957 he won the European Championship, defeating favourite Yuri Titov.^[2] He was a favourite for the 1956 Summer Olympics of Melbourne, until Spain boycotted the games in protest against the presence of the USSR, after their brutal suppression of the Hungarian Revolution.^[3]

He was also a favourite in the 1960 Summer Olympics, but he died in a plane crash at the Valdemeca mountains, in Cuenca, on 29 April 1959. The plane was headed for Canarias, where the Spanish gymnastics team were to do a gymnastics exhibition. His wife, also a gymnast and pregnant with their second child, was also a passenger. There were no survivors.^[2][4]

In his honour, the Catalan Gymnastics Federation started in 1969 the Memorial Joaquim Blume tournament, first only of male gymnastics with female competition introduced in 1972.^[1] A sculpture in his honour is displayed at the Gardens of Joan Brossa, in Barcelona.

References

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