Numerous biographies and sets of interesting facts about the Nobel laureate in physics claim that in his youth Bohr defended the goal of the Danish national football team and even became vice-champion of the Olympic Games. We checked if this is true.

Usually in a football context, Niels Bohr is mentioned together with his younger brother Harald, who later became a fairly prominent mathematician. In particular, the magazine “Around the World” provides photograph with the caption: “The final of the football tournament of the 1908 Olympics: the Danish team, which includes the future Nobel laureate Niels Bohr and his brother Harald, will lose to the Great Britain team and take home silver medals.” A number of sources say that Nils went to the tournament as a reserve goalkeeper. Also, the authors of the books like to report that in moments of calm at his own gates, the young scientist solved mathematical problems on barbells.

First, let's look at the 1908 Olympics in London. According to the official report of the competition, Ludwig Drescher was in goal for the Danish team throughout the entire tournament, including the final lost to the British. The name Niels Bohr is not even in the number spare players. It is noteworthy that in those years only athletes who entered the field could receive a medal, so the role of a reserve goalkeeper - if this information had been confirmed - could not have made the older brother a medalist of the Games. But Harald Bohr took part in all the matches of the Olympic tournament and even scored two goals. It must be said that the brothers were very similar in appearance, so it is not surprising that in the comments to many photographs of that Danish team on the Internet, Harald is mistakenly called Nils.

Further, the name of Niels Bohr is not at all on the list of football players who have ever played for the Danish national team. Danish media periodically affect this topic due to the prevalence of the legend. The last high-profile case occurred in Germany at the beginning of the 2000s, when the question “Which Nobel Prize winner in physics played several matches for his country’s football team?” was asked on the TV quiz show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” The participant could not choose between Hertz, Curie, Becquerel and Bohr and passed. Considering it was a €500,000 issue, there was a big scandal after the show aired.

But it cannot be said that Niels Bohr did not play football at all. Together with his brother, he played for the university team "Akademisk" from Copenhagen. Harald was known among fans for taking a white handkerchief out of his pocket before each match to determine the direction and speed of the wind. But Nils, during his much more modest amateur career, was remembered for another incident. Once, in a match against the German team Teknikum from Matvaida (other sources say that it was the Danish Fremad Amager), he missed a ridiculous goal from a long distance, without even noticing how the ball flew into the net. The goalkeeper-physicist later admitted that he was very interested in solving a mathematical problem on the goalpost. So this part of the popular information about the Danish scientist is confirmed. But he never played for the Danish national team.