You were there, even if you weren’t
You could write a book — you could write a library full of them — on the significant moments since Pierre de Coubertin launched the modern Olympic Games in 1896.
But there’s no room for a book here, so this is a selective look at the Summer Olympic events and trends which created or influenced Games history, or left such an indelible impression on the collective memory that even those yet to be born at the time almost think they remember them.
Helen de Pourtales, 1900 Paris
No women competed in the ancient Olympics or in 1896 as de Coubertin said their presence would be “impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic and incorrect.” Paris was the first time women were allowed to compete in the Games, with 22 official entrants in golf and lawn tennis, out of over 900 athletes in total.
Figure Skating, 1908 London
It was the first time a winter sport had been part of an Olympics and led to the formation of the Winter Games in 1924. Included because London wanted to show off its new large-scale refrigeration capabilities, there were four events, but two of them had only three entrants. Ulrich Salchow, for whom a jump is named, won the men’s gold.
Jim Thorpe, 1912 Stockholm
A member of the Sac and Fox First Nation of Oklahoma, Thorpe is probably the greatest-ever American athlete, playing a number of sports at the highest levels and winning both the pentathlon and decathlon in 1912. His points totals weren’t topped for another four Olympiads. The International Olympic Committee soon stripped him of his golds, because he had played minor-league baseball, the first highlypublicized example of the IOC’s long-term hypocrisy around “amateurism.” Thorpe was generations ahead of other athletes in at least two areas: he had a “cut” body like today’s athletes, and he visualized his performances.
Jesse Owens, 1936 Berlin
Say the name and you summon up the scene: Jesse Owens, African-American; Hitler, German nationalism; four gold medals won by a member of, according to the creed of ascending Nazi-ism, an “inferior race.” Owens blazed a trail for Jackie Robinson (whose older brother Mack was second to Owens in the 200 metres at Berlin), Muhammad Ali and, arguably, Martin Luther King.
The Medals of Eternal Friendship, 1936 Berlin
The Berlin Games — ironically the last Games before the world descended into war — produced a number of incredible acts of friendship, highlighted by Owens being given a tip in the long jump by his German rival Carl ‘Luz’ Long. And when two Japanese pole vaulters tied for second, with Shuhei Nishida awarded the silver and Sueo Oe the bronze for no apparent reason, the vaulters returned home, had their medals cut in half and re-soldered into new medals for each, one half silver, the other half bronze. A concrete example of the Olympic spirit.
Bob Mathias, 1948 London
Mathias is still the youngest (17) male to win an Olympic track and field gold, winning the decathlon at London, only a few weeks after he found out there was such an event. The second-last event, the javelin, was illuminated by the headlights of cars driven into Wembley Stadium after the sun had set. He was a childhood anemic, but became the world’s best athlete and returned home to play football and lead Stanford to a Rose Bowl berth. His picture on a Wheaties box was a signpost for a generation and NBC is still telling Olympic stories as if they’re all Bob Mathias.
Cassius Marcellus Clay, 1960 Rome
Before he became Muhammad Ali, Clay romped through four opponents at the Olympics to win the heavyweight gold at just 18. His experience on the U.S. team, which was essentially led by African-American athletes, his overwhelming success inside the ring and his contact with international stars (he was the busiest pin-trader of all U.S. athletes) gave him, at age 18, a global view which became an integral part of his persona.
Tamara Press, 1964 Tokyo
Press won the discus and shot put events, giving her three golds and a silver in two Olympics, but there were always doubts about the Soviet Union star because of her physique. She was accused of being a man, and likely induced mandatory gender testing for track athletes in 1966, by which time she’d retired. She was the symbol of the suspicion surrounding Iron Curtain athletes for gender violations and performance enhancing drug use long before anyone heard of steroids.
Roger Jackson and George Hungerford, 1964 Tokyo
In a Canadian Olympic era that lasted essentially into the mid-1980s which the general public characterized as “just happy to get to the Games,” Jackson and Hungerford, who had never rowed together before the Games, won gold in coxless pairs. From 1960 through 1980, Canada had only two gold medals in the Summer Games: Jackson and Hungerford in ’64 and Jim Day, Tom Gaylord and James Elder in team jumping in 1968. Later Jackson became longterm president of the Canadian Olympic Committee.
Bob Beamon, 1968 Mexico City
It came on the first legal jump of the men’s long jump competition and when the distance was announced Beamon — who had grown up severely abused, and had been a gang member — suffered what was diagnosed as a cataplectic seizure, losing control of his muscles because of excess emotion. He had soared 29 feet 6 ¾ inches, some 18 ¾ inches beyond the old world record, shared by two other competitors who were in this event. In the 33 years since Owens held the world record, it had only been upped by 8 ½ inches. Beamon’s jump was achieved at altitude, but that accounted for only a small per cent of his perfection. It was, says this writer, the greatest single accomplishment in Olympic history. If it was gymnastics, he would have received an ‘11’.
Eleven Israeli Athletes, 1972 Munich
Germany, playing host to its first Olympics since the Hitler Games, had planned low-key security Olympic security in Munich. The idea backfired tragically as members of Black September, a Palestinian terrorist group, invaded the Athletes’ village, killed two Israeli athletes almost immediately, and killed nine more at an airport near Munich when the plane they had demanded was attacked by police snipers. Since then, the Games have never felt completely safe.
Nadia Comaneci, 1976 Montreal
The first perfect ‘10’ in gymnastics, achieved in an era when the Cold War raged. She (with a nod to high jump silver medalist Greg Joy) was the face of our only Summer Games. Unfortunately, it opened the door for too many perfect scores.
Ben Johnson, 1988 Seoul
First national elation, then national dejection as Johnson tested positive after wiping out the field in world record time. Six of the eight runners in the Seoul 100 metres have tested positive and at least one other is highly suspected of using HGH. That race put performance enhancing drugs on the map, and lent a hint of suspicion to every spectacular athletic performance since then.
Simon Whitfield, 2000 Sydney
It was a brilliant, and stunning, race by the Canadian as he came out of the water 28th, was part of a 15-rider bike crash and came into the 10k in 24th place. But he caught the field and passed leader Stephan Vuckovich with about 200 metres remaining as if the German were standing still. It was triathlon’s first appearance in the Olympic Games as the IOC was beginning to recognize what sports people around the world were actually taking part in.
Michael Phelps, 2008 Beijing
His single-games record of eight gold is part of the stunning 18-gold-medal portfolio the American multi-event swimmer owns and the range of skills required to do it defies description. He took the record from the edgy Mark Spitz, who had seven in 1972. He’ll be back at Rio, looking to add to his pile.
Derek and Jim Redmond, 1992 Barcelona
Derek, running for Great Britain, tore a hamstring hallway through his 400 metre semifinal and was limping in pain when his father Jim ran onto the track to help him finish (unofficially, once he was helped) as the crowd tearfully roared. “We started your career together,” Jim said. “We will finish this race together.” It was so emotional, so Olympian, no one really complained about the security violation.
Robert Esmie, Glenroy Gilbert, Bruny Surin, Donovan Bailey, 1996 Atlanta
In 18 previous Olympics, the Americans had never lost a 4 x 100 metre men’s relay in which they finished. Once they boycotted (1980) and three times they were disqualified. But when Surin passed the baton to Bailey on the third corner, Canada had a lead and Bailey lengthened it. Canada likely would have had a world record had he not raised his arm in celebration metres before the finish. But forgive him; the Americans — most of whom, like the Canadians, had raced at The Spectator Indoor Games over the years — had been crowing all week and attention had been all put on whether Carl Lewis would run (he didn’t), not on the Canucks. The gold, plus Bailey’s 100 metre win a week earlier, cemented Canada’s return to sprinting leaders and set the template for Canada’s current resurgence.
Usain Bolt, 2008 Beijing
He started an unprecedented back-to-back Olympic sweep of the 100 metres, 200 metres and 4 x 100 relay with a world record in the 100, despite an unlaced shoe and slowing down at the finish. The first man to win six sprinting Olympic golds, he has established himself as the fastest man ever, prompting millions of admirers to silently wish, “Please don’t ever let him test positive.”