Olympic medalists don’t give up on the taste of success, and continue to participate till they are eligible for the competition. Here are some of the most awarded athletes in the world. Read on!
Since 1896, hundreds of athletes have emerged, each winning the hearts of spectators all across the world. Gold medalists might range from those who overcome incredible odds to win to those who were simply so talented that they won several medals during their careers.
Frank Kugler, has won medals in three separate sports. He competed in the 1904 Olympics and came away with silver in men's freestyle wrestling and bronze in the two-hand lift, all-around dumbbell, and team tug-of-war. No other athlete has ever done it, thus he definitely deserves some sort of recognition for it.
In the 400-meter relay at the 1956 Olympics, 16-year-old Wilma Rudolph won bronze. She was given the moniker "The Tornado" after winning gold in the 100-meter, 200 meters, and 400 meter relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.
Sir Steven Redgrave was the first man to win the gold medal in the Olympic sport of rowing on five separate occasions. Redgrave has won many Olympic gold medals in various events, including the coxed eight in 1984 & 2000 and the coxless pair in 1988, 1992, and 1996. In 1988, he again competed in the coxed four events and brought home bronze. His long-term reliability makes him a top contender for the title of greatest Olympic rower ever.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee catapulted women's athletic competition to a new level by leveraging her prominence to get widespread media attention and lucrative sponsorship deals. Three gold medals, one silver medal, and two bronze medals are on her Olympic resume. For the first time in the Olympics in 1984, Joyner-Kersee competed in the heptathlon and won silver. She took home gold medals in the heptathlon & long jump at the 1988 Olympics. She repeated her 1992 heptathlon gold with a bronze medal performance in 1996, and that was the end of her Olympic career. Her score of 7,291 in the heptathlon for the gold medal she won in 1988 is still the current world record.
Paavo Nurmi was a Finnish middle- & long-distance runner who dominated the 1920s. Throughout the years from 1920–1928, Nurmi competed in the Olympics and came away with a total of ten medals (9 gold, 3 silver). He excelled in the 1,500-meter, 5,000-meter, solo cross-country, 5,000-meter cross-country team, and 3,000-meter relay events, all of which he won gold medals for in the 1924 Olympics.
Ray Ewry holds the record for most Olympic gold medals with eight, including two from the now-disregarded Intercalated Games. Ewry was a three-time champion in the standing events of the long jump (1900), high jump (1900), and triple jump (1908). (1900 and 1904). All this even though he suffered polio as a kid and spent the remainder of his life in a wheelchair, thankfully not for as long as the doctors had feared.
