Rodolfo Hammersley

Rodolfo Hammersley was a Chilean all-round sportsman and optometrist. Rodolfo’s father was the Englishman Robert Hammersley Symens who founded the first opticians in Chile in 1872. Rodolfo Hammersley was born in Valparaíso in 1889 and continued with the family business when he opened a branch in Santiago.

In 1910 Hammersley ran 10.4 seconds in the 100 metres to equal the world record. He was selected to represent Chile in multiple events at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics but an injury prevented him from competing in most of them. Hammersley was able to start in the high jump and the standing high jump but failed to clear the minimum heights in each of the qualification rounds to advance further. Hammersley was listed to compete in the 100 metres, 200 metres, 4 × 100 metres relay, long jump, standing long jump, triple jump, and pentathlon, but was unable to start in any of them.

At the first edition of the South American Championships in Athletics in 1918 Hammersley won gold in the discus throw and silver in the hammer. In between the two World Wars he served as a delegate for Chile at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics and the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Two of Hammersley’s children were also talented sportsmen, with Andrés playing tennis in the Davis Cup for Chile, while Arturo competed at two Winter Olympics in Alpine skiing. Little is known of Hammersley’s later life but he was still alive in 1958.