Numerous biographies and sets of interesting facts about the Nobel laureate in physics claim that in his youth, he defended the gates of the Danish national football team and even became the vice-champion of the Olympic Games. We checked whether this is so.

Usually, in the football context, Niels Bor is mentioned with his younger brother Harald, who later became a rather large mathematician. In particular, the magazine "Around the World" leads Photo With the signature: “The final of the football tournament of the 1908 Olympics: the Denmark team, which includes the future Nobel laureate Niels Bor and his brother Harald, will give in to the UK team and take silver medals to their homeland.” A number of sources say that Niels went to the tournament with a backup goalkeeper. Also, the authors of the books love to report that in the moments of the lull at their own gates, the young scientist solved mathematical problems on the rods.

First, let's deal with the 1908 Olympics in London. According to the official report on the competition, at the gates of the Danish national team throughout the tournament, including Ludwig Drescher, which was lost to the British. Niels Bor is not even among Niels Bor Spare players. It is noteworthy that in those years only athletes who went on the field could receive the medal, so the role of the backup goalkeeper - if this information was confirmed - could not make the older brother a winner of the games. But Harald Bor took part in all matches of the Olympic tournament and even scored two goals. I must say that the brothers were very similar in appearance, so it is not surprising that in the comments to many photographs of the Danish national team on the Internet, Harald was mistakenly called Nils.

Further, the name Niels Bora is not in the list of players who have ever played for the Denmark. Danish media periodically affect This topic due to the prevalence of legend. The last high -profile incident occurred in Germany at the beginning of the zero, when the question “Who wants to become a millionaire” “Which Nobel Physics Prize played for several matches for the football team of his country?” The participant could not choose between Hertz, Curie, Beckerel and Bor and saved. Considering that this was a question for € 500,000, after the show was released a big scandal.

But it cannot be said that Niels Bor did not engage in football at all. Together with his brother, he played for the university team of Akademisk from Copenhagen. Harald in the midst of fans was known for the fact that before each match he took a white scarf from his pocket to determine the direction and speed of the wind. But Niels for his much more modest amateur career was remembered by another case. Once, in a match against the German Textrinum team from Matvyde (other sources say that it was the Danish Fremad Amger), he missed an absurd goal from a long distance, not even noticing how the ball flew into the net. Later, the goalkeeper-physicist admitted that he was very interested in solving the mathematical problem on the gate rack. So this part of the popular information about the Danish scientist is confirmed. But he never played for Denmark.