Pointless preamble
Interesting story I ran across I want to share.
Dorando Pietri, Marathon, Italy
Here is one of the great stories in Olympic history. Pietri was a pastry chef in Italy. He was a small man, barely 5-foot-3, but he loved to run. At the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens, he was leading the marathon by at least five minutes when he got sick and had to stop.
Two years later, at the 1908 Olympics in London, he again surged into the lead but with just over a mile to go he began to feel sick again. He ran into the stadium for the last 400 meters, and he did not even know where he was.
He came in the wrong way and had to be redirected by officials. He then fell down. He got up ran a little longer and fell down again. And again. And again. And again. Five times in all, Pietri fell, though his lead was so big that nobody else entered the stadium.
The umpires helped him up after he fell. It was written that several people basically pushed him over the finish line. Pietri crossed that line first and the crowd went crazy for him. And then, in came American Johnny Hayes.
The Americans were particularly despised in Great Britain in 1908 because they had complained loudly after the British did not have an American flag for the Opening Ceremonies (officials said they couldn’t find one - those were different times). So, basically, NOBDOY wanted Hayes to win.
But after Hayes crossed the line, there was an immediate protest put up — umpires and fans are not allowed to help a marathon runner. There was much confusion (apparently, in the madness, someone lodged a complaint against Hayes because it was reported he too had received some help).
When it finally cleared, Pietri was disqualified and Hayes was awarded the gold medal .
Pietri received a silver cup from the Queen of England for his efforts, though, and he was a beloved Italian hero.
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Athletes who could have been drafted:
Abebe Bikila - Ethiopian pioneer, back to back Olympic Marathons in Tokyo & Mexico City. He won the first one running barefoot. Tragic figure. The inspiration for all sub-Sahara runners who came after him.
Lasse Virén - 4 Olympic Golds in 5K & 10K, Munich & Montreal. Thought he might be a Top Ten? IDK
Ville Ritola - Finnish runner who won eight Olympic medals (5 gold) in the 1920s.
Emil Zátopek - 3 LD running golds at Helsinki, 4 G 1 S overall. Probably would have been top 6 of 8ish.
Pa’lante
Tier 3
Who are those guys?
16. (1 point) Pheidippides
Could not find any record of him at http://www.olympedia.org/
The central figure in the story that inspired a modern sporting event, the marathon race. Pheidippides is said to have run from Marathon to Athens to deliver news of the victory of the battle of Marathon.
That would make him a bad ### mothershucker if true, but the story is likely a romantic invention. It’s not found in the recorded history of the day.
Had you chosen a real life romantic figure - say
Eric Lydell, the 100/200M sprinter who refused to run on Sundays, entered and won the 400M in WR time at the 1924 Olympics...aw well...cool story bro, wrong draft.
15. (2 points) D i c k Fosberry
Guy was a flop, surprised he was even drafted. I kid, I kid. But Dwight Stones might have been a better choice if you wanted a US high jumper. Not much value in the pioneer.
Invented a whole new way to high jump - now known as the Fosbury Flop - and won Olympic Gold at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.
Richard Fosbury will be remembered more for the high jump style he perfected than for his gold medal. With his “Fosbury Flop”, he completely revolutionized the event. Though now often called simply the Flop, many Eastern European jumpers call this style of jumping the Fosbury. While attending Oregon State he won the NCAA in 1968 and after his Olympic victory he won the title again in 1969.
This was his only major post-Olympic victory and Fosbury turned professional in 1973, with limited success. Fosbury later became a civil engineer near Sun Valley, Idaho working with Galena Engineering. He also became quite good at swing dancing and would later marry his swing dancing instructor.
Easy placement, the accomplishments were limited, but his place in history is secure.
14. (3 points) Jonathan Edwards
60’ (18.29m) has been the Triple Jump record for 25 years. Although he had been a world class athlete for many years, his undefeated 1995 was magical. Upset at the Olympics the next year, came back to win gold at his 4th & final Olympiad. Ubiquitous commentator on BBC and Eurosport.
Olympics: 1996 Atlanta silver, 2000 Sydney gold
Worlds: 1993 Stuttgart bronze, 1995 Gothenburg gold, 1997 Athens silver, 1999 Sevilla bronze, 2001 Edmonton gold
Commonwealth Games: 1990 Auckland silver, 1994 Victoria silver, 2002 Manchester gold
World Indoor: 2001 Lisboa silver
European Indoor: 1998 Valencia gold
13. (4 points) Javier Sotomaye
Cuban high jumper who dominated the 1990s. Current WR holder 2.45 M (8’-15/32”) set in 1993 - the only man to ever clear 8’.
2-year drug ban for cocaine in 1999 but it was reduced by half on appeal, allowing him to compete in Sydney at age 32. Testing positive for steroids at the 2001 Worlds which precipitated his retirement. Maintained innocence, he was setup, improper handling of his sampling, et al. Y’all know the script.
When he retired he held 17 of the 20 best all time jumps. Only 13 men in history have jumped 2.40 meters or higher, and only 5 have done it more than once. Sotomayor did it 24 times (in 21 different competitions between September 1988 – March 1995).
#1 high jumper 1988, 89, 1992, 93, 94, 95, 97 and 1998 (8 of 10 years.) Next highest is 5 years, consecutive. For his career Sotomayor accumulated 123 ranking points, while the jumper with the second-most career points, American Dwight Stones has 90 points and four consecutive #1 rankings (1973–76.)
Great career, was a phenomenal champion, mixed feelings about the dope violations. I’m a big cycling fan which makes me dubious of athletes claiming innocence after an unfavorable test. The longevity is impressive.
Olympics: 1992 Barcelona Gold, 1996 Atlanta 11th, 2000 Sydney Silver (missed the 1988 Seoul due to boycott, was already the WR holder.)
Worlds: 1991 Tokyo silver, 1993 Stuttgart gold, 1995 Gothenburg silver, 1997 Athens gold
World Indoors: 1985 Paris silver, 1989 Budapest gold, 1991 Sevilla bronze, 1993 Toronto gold, 1995 Barcelona gold, 1999 Maebashi gold
Pan Am: 1987 Indianapolis gold, 1991 La Habana gold, 1995 Mar del Plata gold
Goodwill Games: 1994 Saint Petersburg gold, 1998 New York gold
Central American and Caribbean Games: 1990 Ciudad de México gold, 1993 Ponce gold, 1998 Maracaibo gold
High Jump World Record 2.45 meters 8.046 feet
12. (5 points) Haile Gebreselassie
One of the greatest marathon runners of all time, he won back-to-back 10,000-meter gold at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics. The Ethiopian won at every distance. He broke 61 national records ranging from 800m to the marathon, set 27** WRs, and is regarded as one of the greatest distance runners in history.
(**ASIDE - I found several articles listing all of his WR. I’ll go with the Wikipedia entry but under protest; I think he only broke 23 official records according to my research. Astounding career nevertheless, this pedantic point is rather superficial.)
In September 2008, at the age of 35, he won the Berlin Marathon, breaking his own world record by 27 seconds. The record stood for three years, the masters record (age group 35+) for 11 years.
Ran New York Marathon 2010, DNF. Never ran Boston. McKayla is #notimpressed.
Wee little man (5’5”, 119), think Zacchaeus. Flag bearer at 2012 London Games.
Lots of records, but this is about as high as I could rank him.
Olympics: 1996 Atlanta gold 10K (OR), 2000 Sydney gold 10K
Worlds: 1993 Stuttgart gold 10K, silver 5K, 1995 Gothenburg gold 10K, 1997 Athens gold 10K, 1999 Sevilla gold 10K, 2001 Edmonton bronze 10K, 2003 Saint-Denis silver 10K
World Indoors: 1997 Paris gold 3K, 1999 Maebashi gold 1500m and 3K, 2003 Birmingham gold 3K
Tier 2
Cold War Glory
11. (6 points) Bruce Jenner
Decathlete from from the USA who set a WR in winning gold at the Montreal Olympics in 1976. Wrapped himself in Old Glory, which was not a thing then but It sure is now. John Belushi would mimic it in a Saturday Night Live skit.
Jenner quickly became one of the biggest celebrities in the country. Actually, with the perspective of time, I guess we didn’t even know what celebrity was back in the quaint ole 70s.
I might have had a poster of her in my room when I was in 8th grade. The most famous trans woman in the world. No points for that here but it’s a heckuva legacy, however uncomfortable they may make you feel.
10. (7 points) Bob Matthias
True American hero, twice the man Jenner is. Was. Whatever. Twice as many Au medals.
#cringydadjokes
Maybe my favorite fact about Bob Mathias’ back-to-back decathlon victories is that in 1948, he was so unsure of the decathlon rules - he had competed in his first decathlon just two months earlier - that he almost fouled out of the shot put and he almost failed to clear any height in the high jump. He won anyway and, for a moment, became perhaps the most famous athlete in the United States.
He promised to never go through all that again, but he returned four years later and won the decathlon by a staggering 900 points, the largest gap in Olympic decathlon history. That year he also played fullback for Stanford making him the only man to win an Olympic gold medal and play in the Rose Bowl in the same year.
9. (8 points) Sergey Bubka
Ukrainian world record-setting pole vaulter who won a gold medal during the 1988 Seoul Olympics. He represented the Soviet Union until 1983-1991.
In Soviet Union, pole vaults you.
Pretty sure he cheated, the eastern communist bloc countries always did. I’m sure someone will tell me he was clean as a whistle & I’m not being fair.
Broke the record a gazillion times, gaming the rewards system setup. #McKaylaisNOTimpressed
8. (9 points) Bob Beamon
When it takes officials twenty minutes to measure because you’ve out-jumped the limit of the electronic measuring device and they have to go find a tape measure, you know something EXTRAordinary just happened.
29’ 2-1/2”
His 1968 Olympic Games long jump record is regarded as the most exceptional single performance in the history of athletics.
He won just the one gold medal - in the 1968 long jump - so his place this high on the list is probably pretty dubious. But his one jump so shook the earth that you could argue he belongs even higher. People will forget he almost did not make the final that year; he fouled on his first two jumps and needed a sensible but pressure-packed jump on the third just to qualify. Then, in the final, he jumped 8.9 meters. He broke the previous world record by almost two feet.
It was a quantum leap forward in the history of Olympic competition, a space-age jump into the future. The women’s long jump record in 1968 has been beaten by two feet. The men’s triple jump record is three feet longer than in 1968. But in 52 years only one man - Mike Powell - has jumped longer than Bob Beamon did that day, and to this day at major competitions often no one in the world comes within 12-18” of Beamon’s jump.
Beamon realized he had done something extraordinary and he almost collapsed in shock. “You have destroyed this event,” the great long jumper Lynn Davies told him.
Not a fluke, either - he came in the favorite & nailed it. #respect
Bob Beamon’s World Record Long Jump - 1968 Mexico City Olympics
7. (10 points) Al Oerter
The first athlete to win gold medals in the same event at four consecutive Olympics. Oerter won his first discus gold in 1956 in Melbourne when he was 20. He won his last in 1968 in Mexico City when he was the old man of the event at age 32.
He is considered to be one of the greatest figures in Olympic track and field history. Oerter dominated the discus throw event between 1956 and 1968, breaking his own World Records, continuing his high level of competition into the 80s. Amazing story!
Mr Discus
6. (11 points) Edwin Moses
The Streak. 122 straight.
Edwin Moses dominated the intermediate hurdles to an extent that no man has ever achieved in this or any other event. Though little known before the 1976 season, he set a world record of 47.63 in winning the Olympic title and improved the record in 1977 before setting his final world record of 47.13 in 1980.
Moses won the U.S. Title in 1977, 1979, 1981, and 1983 and the World Cup race in 1977, 1979, and 1981 and was the first World Champion in the 400 hurdles in 1983. Moses was unbeaten for nearly 10 years, winning 122 consecutive races (107 finals) between 1977 and 1987.
Known for his intelligence, he was a physics and industrial engineering major at Morehouse (#HBCUrepresent #moorehouseman), and later earned an MBA from Pepperdine. He won the Sullivan Award in 1983 and was voted Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year in 1984. In 1984 he was selected to recite the Olympic Oath at the Opening Ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympics.
He seldom ran other races, but did clock 45.60 for 400 m (44.1 in a relay) in 1977 and 13.64 for the 110 m hurdles in 1978.
When he was in college, he used public high school facilities around Atlanta to train and run since Moorehouse did not have a track. Initially, Moses competed mostly in the 120-yard hurdles and 440 yard dash. Before March 1976, he ran only one 400 m hurdles race, but once he began focusing on the event he made remarkable progress. He qualified for the U.S. team a few months after he began training for it, an amazing accomplishment in the modern era by itself.
With his height of 6'2", Moses' trademark technique was to take a consistent 13 steps between each of the hurdles, pulling away in the second half of the race as his rivals often took 15 strides or changed their stride pattern. The Montreal Olympics were his first international meet; Moses won the gold medal, setting a world record of 47.63 seconds. It was a stunning thunderbolt to the world of Track & Field.
After breaking his own world record the following year at the Drake Stadium with a time of 47.45 seconds, Moses lost to West Germany’s Harald Schmid on August 26, 1977 in Berlin; this was his fourth defeat in the 400 m hurdles. Beginning the next week, Moses beat Schmid by 15 metres (49 ft) in Düsseldorf, and he did not lose another race for nine years, nine months and nine days. Moses qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team but was unable to compete due to the U.S. boycott of the Moscow Games.
In the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Moses went on to win his second Olympic gold medal. By the time American Danny Harris beat Moses in Madrid on June 4, 1987, Moses had won 122 consecutive races, set the world record two more times, won three World Cup titles, a World Championship gold, as well as his two Olympic gold medals. After the loss to Harris, he went on to win 10 more races in a row, collecting his second world gold in Rome in August 1987.
The 1980 boycott deprived him of an almost certain second gold medal. Moses finished third in the final 400m hurdles race of his career at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
1976 Montreal Olympics 400M Hurdles final
5. (12 points) Michael Johnson
USA sprinter who held the world record in 200m for 12 years from 1996 to 2008, and set a world record in 400m that stood for 17 years. First man to win gold medal in 200m and 400m in the same Olympics.
Make that he ONLY man to sweep the 200- and 400-meters at the same Olympics. How fast was he going when he hit the corner in the 200-meters? “My dad bought me a go-kart as a kid. There was a big hill at the end of the road. And I could make that go-kart go downhill so fast, it was like flying. … “It’s the only thing that really compares to running this fast.”
Really wanted to push him into Tier 1. Sprinters don’t typically do well in the 400 as it’s usually the domain of middle distance runners who, if they double, run the 800. Very special athlete with unique and lasting accomplishments.
Double Gold can of whupass 1996 Atlanta Games
400 meter record 1999
Tier 1
The thrill of victory,
the unfamiliarity of defeat
4. (13 points) Carl Lewis
US Long Jump and 100m specialist from the '80s and '90s. He won nine Olympic gold medals in the long jump and sprints. Cannot dispute the 9 gold medals, ten medals overall. Back-to-back wins in the 100-meter dash because Ben Johnson is an idiot.
IDK why he never inspired me. Just seemed like a calculated, corporate machine. There was a coldness to him. Edwin was cool, Carl was...obnoxious & cold. Probably says more about me than him.
Carl Lewis Top Ten Olympic Gold moments
3. (14 points) Paavo Nurmi
The Flying Finn. Nurmi set 24 official world records at distances between 1500m and 20K, and won nine gold and three silver medals in his twelve events over three Olympic Games 1920-28. At his peak, Nurmi was undefeated for 121 races at distances from 800m and upwards. Throughout his 14-year career, he remained unbeaten in cross country events and the 10K.
It might have been higher.
In the 1924 Paris Games the Finland, Nurmi won 5 Gold Medals (3 individual, 2 team) in 4 days, and was the Finnish representative in the 800 and the 10K. He elected not to run the former, and the team decided to keep him out of the 10K for rest purposes (he was the reigning Olympic champion and undefeated at that distance in his career.) The omission seems to have left him fuming. While countryman Ville Ritola was winning the 10K in a world-record 30:23.2, Nurmi was on the training track, alone, running 29:58.
Late in his career Nurmi focused on the marathon. His plan was to climax his career by running his first marathon and winning his 10th gold medal at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. Just before the games, in one of the most ill-judged official rulings of all time, Nurmi was suspended for “suspected professionalism." He was surely ready for the marathon, age 35, with 12 years of elite experience, a 10,000m PR of 30:06.1, and the 1-hour and 20K world records. He invariably prepared thoroughly and had proven his ability in hot conditions. An informed estimate for Nurmi's debut is 2:19:00. The world record in 1932 was 2:29:20. Nurmi's exclusion was one of the great lost opportunities in running history. No evidence ever emerged to support the allegations, and his supreme career ended enigmatically.
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The taciturn long-distance runner was one of the greatest athletes there has ever been. The name Paavo Nurmi is right at the top of the list of the best long-distance runners of all time. He is often spoken about in the same breath as the Czech Emil Zatopek and the Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie. However for many people the Finn is the only number 1. Nobody has broken more world records than he did and nobody has had so many Olympic victories.
Nurmi's running speed and elusive personality spawned nicknames such as the "Phantom Finn", while his achievements, training methods and running style influenced future generations of middle- and long-distance runners. Nurmi, who rarely ran without a stopwatch in his hand, has been credited for introducing the "even pace" strategy and analytic approach to running, and for making running a major international sport.
He is the only runner ever to hold world records simultaneously for the mile, 5,000m and 10,000m.
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For such an acclaimed hero, Nurmi remains elusive, a complex of contradictions. He was the most deeply committed runner the world had ever seen, yet he seemed to run without passion or pleasure. He loved to win yet never smiled. He studied the science of running but never shared his knowledge. He had no specialty, excelling at everything from indoor 800m to 20K road races.
He was a relentless racer but seemed to give more attention to the bulky stopwatch he carried in one hand than to his striving opponents. He accepted late-life honors, like lighting the 1952 Olympic flame in Helsinki, yet often protested that he valued his success in business more than his running.
Living in a land that veers seasonally between interminable darkness and the sleepless sun at midnight, a place that survives the cold under the giant shadow of Russia, the Finns define themselves by sisu, "intense, impassive and self-disciplined resilience under adversity."
Olympics:
Antwerp 1920: 3 gold (10,000 m, individual & team cross-country) & 1 silver (5,000 m)
Paris 1924: 5 gold (1,500 m, 5,000 m, individual & team cross-country, 3,000 m team)
Amsterdam 1928: 1 gold (10,000 m) & 2 silver (5,000 m, 3,000 m steeplechase)
#scoreboard
Nurmi was inspired by Hannes Kolehmainen, who won 3 Golds in 1912 in Stockholm and the marathon in the 1920 Games. The pair lit the cauldron to open the Helsinki Games in 1952.
His Paris achievements came in the middle of a blistering heatwave that hit Paris just as the Games got underway. On July 10 he won the 1500 and 5000, both in WR time, only 2 hours apart. On the 11th he won heats for the 3000. The next day he won two more golds, in the Team and Individual Cross Country heats. He won the individual Cross Country event by 1.5 minutes in 113 degree weather. Most of the competitors had early in the day competed in the Team event, and only 15 of 38 runners completed the course. On Sunday, July 13, he completed the most incredible track week in Olympic history by winning his 5th golf medal in the 3K team.
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World Records & Progression
At the 1924 Olympic Trials in Helsinki, Paavo lowered the 1500m WR by 2.1 seconds. The 1500 record had stood for 7 years; no other runner matched his progression until 1957-58, and it wasn’t exceeded until Jim Ryan lowered the record by 2.5 seconds in 1957. 45 minutes later, he broke the 5K WR.
In an extensive 1925 tour of the United States - over 5 months he won 53 of 55 races - Nurmi lowered the One Mile world record by a full second in NYC in January and then another 1.4 seconds in March at a Buffalo meet. Thirteen years would pass before a runner matched his progression mark of 0:00:01.4, and 37 years before it was exceeded.
He set the 3K meter world record three times 1922-26; the record stood until 1932. His July ‘26 run in Stockholm had broken his own record of two months by 5 full seconds. All time greats Gunder Hägg (1942) and Kipchoge Keino (1965) are the only two with a larger progression of this record.
At 5000 meters, Nurmi broke his idol Kolehmainen’s ten year old mark in 1922. At the 1924 Trials - 3/4 of an hour after shattering the 1500 meter record - Paavo broke his own WR by 7.2 seconds. Both records stood for 8 years.
In his best event, 10000 meters, Paavo’s first World Record broke a 10 year old mark. 8 weeks after not being allowed by the Finish delegation to compete in the 10K at the Paris Games, Nurmi broke the WR set by his teammate by 17.0 seconds. The record stood for 13 years, the progression jump for two decades.
In Berlin fall, 1928, Nurmi set a new WR in the one hour run. It broke a 15 year old record and stood for 17 years. The progression stood for 23 years.
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After the 1932 IOC lifetime ban the publicity-shy Finn retreated into private life and began a second career as a successful building contractor and businessman. He sole little of his athletic achievements, focusing on wealth accumulation, and became one of the richest men in Finland.
Only once did Paavo Nurmi return to the limelight. He carried the Olympic flame into the stadium in Helsinki in 1952 and lit it, joined on the platform by his childhood hero. Paavo Nurmi was greeted with a storm of jubilation – a special honour and gratification for the 54-year-old, who was finally being rehabilitated
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It’s all but impossible to define the toughness of Nurmi. He once won the 5,000-meter and the 1,500-meter on the same day. He set Olympic records in both.
He was famously intense; my favorite Nurmi fact is that when Emil Zátopek, who would win the 5,000, 10,000 and marathon at the 1952 Olympics, felt like he was spent he would shout to the heavens
“I am Nurmi! I am Nurmi!”
Seriously considered him for #2.
1924 Paris - 9 races (including heats) 5 golds over 6 days
2. (15 points) Usain Bolt
What is left to say about Bolt? Winner of eight golds. Swept the 100-, 200- and 4×100-meter relays London and Rio de Janeiro Olympics. World-record holder at 100- and 200-meters.
Bolt is the only sprinter to win Olympic 100 mand 200 m titles at three consecutive Olympics (Beijing 2008, 2012 and 2016.)
The greatest sprinter of all time. Current world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres and 4 × 100 metres relay.
Could have easily pushed his ranking to #1 with few objections.
Usain Bolt’s 9.58 - the night he obliterated the World Record
Usain Bolt wins Olympic 100m Gold London 2012
Regular people try to beat the world’s fastest man
Jamaica breaks Men’s 4x100 WR London 2012
100m Final 2016 Rio
200m Final Rio 2016
4x100m Final Rio - Bolt’s last Olympic race
Usain Bolt | All Olympic Final
1. (16 POINTS) Jesse Owens
Ground breaking USA sprinter and long jumper who competed at the Olympics just once, in Berlin 1936, winning 4 gold medals.
1935 Big Ten Track and Field Championships (Ann Arbor, MI)
5 World Records set & another tied (4 events) in 45 minutes. WHILE INJURED. It is still hard to fathom what happened that day.
1936 Olympics
Owens won four gold medals and set two world records in the most heated environment imaginable.
What Owens did in 1936, with Nazism on the rise, with Hitler himself in the crowd, is the most remarkable achievement in the history of the Olympics. He won the 100-meter, the 200-meter, the long jump and was part of the gold-medal winning 4×100-meter relay team. Owens set three world records (200m, two in 4x100m), shattering Hitler's theories of Aryan superiority.
In that moment, he overcame the racism of his own country and the rising hatred in another.
He’s the greatest Olympian of them all.
U-S-A
#BLM
1. (16 POINTS) Jesse Owens
2. (15 points) Usain Bolt
3. (14 points) Paavo Nurmi
4. (13 points) Carl Lewis
5. (12 points) Michael Johnson
6. (11 points) Edwin Moses
7. (10 points) Al Oerter
8. (9 points) Bob Beamon
9. (8 points) Sergey Bubka
10. (7 points) Bob Mathias
11. (6 points) Bruce Jenner
12. (5 points) Haile Gebrselassie
13. (4 points) Javier Sotomaye
14. (3 points) Jonathan Edwards
15. (2 points) Richard Fosbury
16. (1 point) ancient Greek Marathon legend dude
As Ken Burns once famously sent out in Morse code...
never mind 
. Folks in the business claim he was the quickest they ever saw "get the business." Basically no training, took to the ring like a fish to water.
