Isakas Anolikas

During the 1920s Lithuanian cyclist Isakas Anolikas won three national titles and competed at two Olympic Games. Representing the Makabi Šiauliai sports clubm Anolikas won his first national title in 1925 with victory in the individual 10 km race. One year later he won the race again, along with taking gold in the 70 km team race.

In 1924 Anolikas was part of Lithuania’s first ever delegation to compete at the Olympics. He and compatriot Juozas Vilpišauskas competed in the road race, but neither rider finished the course. Anolikas suffered with technical issues with his bike, which he was unable to rectify, and would ultimately cause his retirement from the race. History repeated itself at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, where once again Anolikas was unable to compete the race due to mechanical issues.

Anolikas was Jewish, which resulted in his capture and execution by the hands of the Nazis during World War II. He was taken to the Ninth Fort in Kaunas where he was executed by a firing squad at some point during 1943. In 2016 he was featured on the cover of a book written by a Lithuanian writer about murdered Jewish civilians from the country during the Holocaust. That same year Anolikas was also honoured with a stone known as a Stolperstein (“stumbling block”) by the German artist Gunter Demnig as a memorial to the victims of Nazi persecution.