Ten Forgotten Olympic Triumphs (Part V)

9.    “You could hear a pin drop”

In the first week of October 1968 the world descended on Mexico City to begin the Olympics. The year had been an especially traumatic one for the U.S. At the end of January, the North Vietnamese army had launched a major offensive that had led to weeks of fighting and many Americans no longer believed the war could be won. At the end of March, President Lyndon Johnson had announced he would not seek reelection. Four days later longtime Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King had been shot dead on a hotel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee, causing riots across the country. Then on June 5, Senator and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy had been gunned down in California. By the time the Democratic National Convention arrived in Chicago in August, tensions were extremely high. As delegates argued over the candidates inside, outside anti-war protesters shouted against the war and the establishment. On August 28, police suddenly charged into the crowd and began beating them. The violence took place over several minutes as cameras rolled and the footage was soon shown around the world. Inside, several delegates hearing the fighting began accusing Chicago Mayor Richard Daley of causing it and various groups on the convention floor looked about to fight each other. The Democratic Party was imploding.

By the time the Olympics began, most Americans were numb and wanted to forget about politics and troubles overseas. For the first few days all went well, as medals were handed out with so sign of trouble. Then on October 16, American Tommie Smith won the 200 meter run, with teammate John Carlos coming in third. As the medal ceremonies began, both men walked to podium with their shoes off, Smith wearing a black scarf and Carlos with his track coat unzipped. The two later explained that this was to show solidarity with the black poor. This in itself would have been controversial. But it was what they did next that got them in real trouble. As the “Star Spangled Banner” began to play, Smith raised his right fist while Carlos raised his left in a black power salute. Immediately, boos began to echo across the stadium. Smith and Carlos were ejected from the remaining events and ordered to leave immediately.

All eyes now turned to the remaining black athletes, as people wondered what they would do. Among those immediately swarmed by the press was 19 year old heavyweight boxer George Foreman.

Born in Houston, Texas, Foreman had grown up in the in 5^th Ward, reputed to be the poorest section of the city. Uninterested in school, he had dropped out and fallen in with a street gang. “I was a teenage thug really,” Foreman would remember years later. Foreman exhibited a fiery temper, broke into houses and got in fights.               

However, things began to change when Foreman decided to join the Job Corps. Soon he had his degree, but his anger continued to be problem. Nearing expulsion, Foreman was saved when local boxing coach Doc Broadus agreed to begin training him. Slowly Foreman began to show skill in the ring and started winning fights. Still he was not sure if he wanted to pursue boxing as a career. Finally, Broadus explained that Clay and Frazer had become national celebrities after winning their gold medals; if Foreman got serious, he could compete at that level and if he won, would be lifted out of poverty. For the next year Foreman trained hard, fighting 18 times, winning all but one match and also acquiring a reputation for a savage punch.

Easily making it onto the U.S. Olympic team, Foreman remembered, “When I got a chance to really go to the Olympics, I knew then that I was a prime representative of the American team.” He quickly defeated each of his opponents, making it to the gold medal fight. In his way stood Jonas Čepulis, an experienced fighter from the Soviet Union. At the time of high Cold War tensions, the fight took on special political as well as racial meaning. In the first round, Foreman came out hitting Čepulis with repeated right hooks and left jabs. Soon blood was spilling out of Čepulis’ nose. While the Russian landed several good blows, he could not match the damage the American was causing. After starting round two, the referee stopped the fight. Foreman had won, but what would he do? As he retired to his corner, a hush fell over the crowd. Broadus, who was on hand for the fight, remembered, “Everybody was sitting there tensed; you could hear a pin drop.” Foreman took off his gloves, grabbed something and headed back out the center of the ring. To the delight of the crowd, he held out a small American flag and bowed to each side of the ring.

Overnight, Foreman became a national hero as pictures of him were flashed around the world, and he was even invited to the White House to meet President Johnson. Foreman would go on to become heavyweight champion and later a very wealthy grill salesman. On the other hand, Smith and Carlos were largely shunned by advertisers and had only brief NFL careers before slipping mostly into obscurity. Sometimes it is not so much the odds or the prize, but the symbolism of the moment that makes a victory memorable.

10. Facing “Alexander the Great”

In 2000, the world’s athletes came to the continent of Australia, this time to the city of Sydney. While many expected the U.S. team to do well in track, basketball, baseball, and several swimming events, few contemplated the sport of wrestling. This was because beginning in 1987, then 20-year-old, six-foot-three, 286-pound Alexander Karelin had won every international event he had entered and defeated every opponent who stepped on his mat. Karelin had become a hero to the Russian people and gained a reputation as an unstoppable machine. Sydney would be Karelin’s fourth straight Olympics and as usual he expected to bring home another gold medal. 

Expectations for American Rulon Gardner were far different. Born in Afton, Wyoming, Gardner had been raised on dairy farm. Like everyone in the family, Gardner helped his parents with manual labor, often lifting heavy bales of hay. However, he had a hard time in school. In kindergarten, Gardner had been placed in special needs for time. Taunted for his inability to read as he got older, Gardner had sought an escape in sports, taken up wrestling and begun winning. By the time he graduated high school, Gardner could still only read at a 5^th grade level, and against his teachers’ advice applied and was accepted to Ricks College in Idaho on an athletic scholarship. He later transferred to the University of Nebraska to be on their wrestling team. To the surprise of many, he completed his studies and earned a degree in physical education; Gardner had done nothing to distinguish himself in sports, held no major wrestling titles and had placed only fifth at one major tournament. Undaunted, he tried out for the U.S. Olympic team and was accepted.

When he arrived in Sydney, Gardner made a splash when he announced to the press that after months of hard training he believed he was good enough to go up against Karelin. Few put any stock in his claims and called him cocky. As the wrestling competitions began, one by one Gardner beat each of his opponents until he found himself in the gold medal round with the man called “Alexander the Great.” Many spectators and analysts believed Karelin would make quick work of the American. They had good cause to think so; in 1997, Gardner had gone up against the Russian and lost 5-0. Not only had he lost, but he had been picked up three times, and at one point Karelin had thrown his entire body weight on Gardner’s neck.

Now, the gold medal match began. Karelin raced into and tried to lift Gardner again; but each time he did, Gardner refused to budge. Trying to find a better hold in the second round, Karelin’s hand slipped for brief second. It was enough; for the first time in six years, he had allowed an opponent to score a point. For the rest of the round, the Russian tried again and again to find some way to earn a tying point, but Gardner continued to stop him. Because only one point had been scored, the match went to overtime, one final chance for Karelin to win. But as the clock continued to tick down, Karelin became frustrated and clawed at Gardner’s face. Finally, with just seconds left, Karelin stood up and let the clock run out.

Wild chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” instantly filled the arena as Gardner grabbed an American flag and raced around the mat. Overnight, the victory hit newsstands like a bombshell and he became a celebrity and hero of the games.

After the match, Karelin announced his retirement from wrestling and went into Russian politics, where he continues to serve to this day. Gardner attended the games in 2004 and walked away with a bronze medal. Missing the 2008 games, he attempted a short lived comeback in 2012. Failing, he announced his retirement. Today the famous match has been largely forgotten by the public, but among wrestling enthusiasts it remains the biggest upset in the sport’s history.   

Ten Forgotten Olympic Triumphs (Part IV)

7. Showdown in Melbourne

For the first time in 1956, the Olympics were held in the southern hemisphere in Melbourne, Australia. Due to various political situations, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, and China announced that they would not participate in the games. At the same time, Soviet tanks were rolling into Hungary to put down a revolt. Soon after the games began, the Australians were winning various swimming events. Over in water polo, a violent fight broke out between the Soviet Union and Hungary teams, and American Paul Anderson performed a little noticed victory.

23 year old Anderson had begun lifting weights to get in shape for football and had continued training after he finished school. He received international attention when he went to the Soviet Union and shocked an assembled crowd by lifting an incredible 402 pounds to defeat champion Alexey Medvedev, and became a national celebrity. Later that year, Anderson broke two world records at the World Championships in Munich, Germany, and easily won the competition.

However, in Melbourne he would be facing the world’s best weight lifters. As the games continued, he beat each of his opponents and through shear skill and grit made it to the finals against Argentine Humberto Selvetti. As the match started, the two went weight for weight. Finally, Selvetti lifted 315 pounds and Anderson responded by lifting 302 pounds. Because Anderson was lighter than Selvetti his lift counted for more points and he was announced the winner. Anderson’s victory marked one of the final times the U.S. won in weightlifting

8. “Look at Mills! Look at Mills!”

24 years after they were originally scheduled, the Olympic Games were finally held in Tokyo, Japan, in 1964, marking the first time that the events had taken place in Asia. The U.S. fielded great athletes like Joe Frazier, who went on to match Cassius Clay’s gold performance four years earlier. Runner Bob Hayes broke a world record by running 100 meters in just 10.6 seconds. In the pool, Don Schollander won four gold medals and set three world records.

However, few in the press followed the competition for the 10,000 meter race, and those who did pegged Australian Ron Clarke and Tunisian Mohammad Gammoudi as the clear favorites. Not even taken into consideration was American Billy Mills.

Born in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, and raised on a Sioux reservation, Mills had been orphaned by the time he was 12. Turning to running, Mills’ abilities had earned him a scholarship to the University of Kansas and he had helped his team win two national championships. After graduating, Mills did something surprising – rather than try out for the Olympics, he enlisted in the Marine Corps. Mills had not forgotten about the sport. As the Olympic trials came around, he worked hard and qualified for the long marathon race by placing second. This was still little noted as he had run a full minute slower than Clark, who in addition to be the favorite, also held the world record.

Finally the day of the race arrived; sports analysts worked furiously trying to figure out who it would be: Clark or Gammoudi?  29 athletes from 17 countries lined up at the starting line and took off for the six mile run. At the start Clark took the lead, then lap after lap he and Gammoudi traded the lead. As the race continued and the miles piled up, the two runners pulled away from pack, leaving only three other runners including Mills close enough to catch them. In the final lap, as 75,000 fans looked on, the five runners came together with Mills ahead of Clark and Gammoudi. Boxed in momentary and on the final turn, Clark swung left past Mills. However, at the same moment Gammoudi shot through a narrow opening between both and raced for home. Running hard, Gammoudi held off Clark, who now made one last charge. Then out of nowhere, Mills came from the outside and began catching up. In the booth, announcer Bud Dick saw what was happening and screamed “Look at Mills! Look at Mills!” Passing Clark and a stunned Gammoudi, Mills suddenly pulled away. Hitting the finish line, Mills had done the impossible; he had beaten the world’s two best marathon runners, and become the first American in history to win the race. It turned out that Mills had run a full 50 seconds faster than his previous best time. No American has won the event since.

10 Forgotten Olympic Triumphs (Part III)

5.  Queen Helene

The world of 1932 was vastly changed from the 1924 Olympics. On October 29, 1929, the Stock Market had crashed, sending stocks plummeting from New York to Tokyo. Unlike previous recessions, this showed no signs of stopping. With his poll numbers falling, President Herbert Hoover looked less and less likely to win a second term. Thousands of Americans began to wander the country’s highways and cities like John Steinbeck’s fictional Joad family. Many simply gave up. Even the Olympics were not spared from the new economic realities. By January of 1932, organizers in Los Angeles were in a panic. Seats had been added to the massive Olympic Stadium and not a single country had said they would take part in the games. In desperation, actors Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Marlene Dietrich, and Mary Pickford had announced they would perform at the games. Slowly other nations agreed to come, and ultimately 37 would participate.

At the games themselves, all round athlete Babe Didrikson would go on to win three medals, including two gold. Track runner Eddie Tolan would also get gold medals for both 100 and 200 meter races. But the greatest American performance would come not on the track or the gym, but in the pool.

If Johnny Weissmuller had been arguably the best Olympic male swimmer of his time, then 19 year old Helene Madison was definitely the best female swimmer games, or for that matter, the entire sport, had ever seen. Five years earlier, Madison had been playfully swimming in Seattle’s Green Lake when Ray Daughters happened to walk by. Daughters had been a champion west coast swimmer and though Madison had been swimming since she was 2, she still lacked natural skills. Daughters thought that beyond the rough edges, he saw the makings of a real star.  Daughters immediately offered to begin training her. She agreed.

After only a few weeks of training, Madison had won her first big race and several months later, she had set state records for the 50 and 100 meter freestyle and 100 meter backstroke. From there. she only got better. The next year, Madison set a new Pacific Coast record for the 100 meter freestyle which was only four seconds slower than the world record. In another race against two time gold medalist Albina Osipowich, Madison finished just behind her. Into 1929, Madison continued winning races, setting another Pacific Coast record in the 200 freestyle, and more records fell the next year. If there were any doubts about her stamina, Madison silenced these when she traveled to Miami and set a world record for a 500 meter race. By now Madison could beat anyone including other Olympians. In 1931 and 1932, she did not lose a single race.

When Madison arrived in New York for the Olympic trials, her qualifying was a forgone conclusion. She easily won the 100 and 400 meter races and made the team. When she came to L.A., her career statics were astonishing, before even setting foot in the water, she already held 117 U.S. and world records.  On August 6, she lined up for the 100 meter freestyle. Though she was at the Olympics and surrounded by the best swimmers in the world, she had no real competition and climbed out of the pool with a new Olympic record and her first gold medal. Six days later, Madison earned a second one in the 400 meter freestyle, this time with a world record. The next day she finished out her Olympic events with the 4×100 team relay. Going in the last leg she shot out the second the U.S swimmer touched the wall, rounded the final turn and flew home for her third gold medal and her second world record.

On August 26, Madison returned to Seattle. No local Washingtonian had ever won so many medals in a single Olympics and people were ecstatic. Nearly 200,000 waited at Boeing Field when she landed and the city held the biggest tickertape parade in its history. In a speech, Mayor John Dore proclaimed her “Queen of Fleet Week.” Madison, he said, “has done more in two years to give Seattle and the state the best kind of advertising than anyone who has ever lived here." He added, “The reception she receives today is greater than that received by anyone in the history of the city.” Finally Madison herself spoke. To stunned throng, she said, “I have entered my last race in amateur competition and will leave the field for good. My ambitions were realized when I scored in the Olympics.” She added, “I have nothing else to look forward to. The grind has been a hard one, a tremendous task, and I am glad to give it over to other girls.” Asked three decades later about this decision, Madison responded, “I don’t think I had peaked yet when I retired. But it was the Depression. I had to work.”

Madison swam in a few exhibitions were she was paid, but as money became increasingly tight, few people showed up. In taking the money, she could never race again on the armature circuit or the Olympics. Like Weissmuller, Madison moved to Hollywood and appeared in several films, one with Weissmuller himself. However, all of them did poorly and she soon returned to Seattle, forgotten.

In her brief athletic career, Madison won every national freestyle event in the county for three years in a row, won every freestyle Olympic event, and held 16 world records in addition to her over 100 U.S. records. To this day she remains the only athlete from Washington to bring home three gold medals. No one, not Megan Quann or even Apolo Ohno has matched her. In 1960, she was added to Washington State Hall of Fame and six year later to the International Swimming Hall of Fame. Sadly, few remember her incredible life, and it is only sharp eyed locals who may notice that two Seattle swimming pools are named for her.  

6. “I'll start shaving, I guess."

In 1948, London was once again chosen to host the Olympics. However, things had vastly changed since 1908. Two world wars had occurred and had cost Britain dearly. Even as the games began, citizens were still working to fix the last visible scars on the city. Gone were the days when the sun never set on British Empire. Just the year before, India and Pakistan had declared independence. In May 1948, Israel also departed, and Ireland looked soon to follow. Britain was nearly broke. 

In a more important sense, the games were clear sign of a return to normalcy after the tension filled Berlin Games of 1936 and the cancelled games of 1940 and 1944. Because food rationing was in place, other countries brought supplies: Denmark shipped over eggs, New Zealand shipped over condensed milk, and the U.S. made the biggest splash when they brought in chocolate, something not many British children had ever seen.

Many would later remember the spirit of unity that characterized the games. Dorothy Whitley, a nurse with the American team, later wrote, “The customs men were courteous to the point of not looking in our bags, and redcaps refused to be tipped.” Whitley added, “During our whole stay people knocked themselves out to make us welcome. Bus passes and badges to take us inside Wembley arenas were given to everyone. When we saw and heard the enthusiasm of thousands at the Games, we changed our minds about the blasé English. They sweated out some of the hottest days on English record, and stood dripping wet later in the rain to see the greatest sportsmen of the world perform."

In the mist of the London hustle and bustle towered six-foot-two, 17 year old American Bob Mathias. Like Weissmuller before him, Mathias was a newcomer to his sport, the decathlon. Born in Tulare, California, Mathias had been a sickly boy and still suffered from Anemia. By the time he entered the Olympics, he had to take several sets of pills to compete and frequently fell asleep.

However, he had also shown great skill at hand eye coordination from a young age and been involved in high school sports, Mathias had been on the basketball, football, and track teams, proving an outstanding all round athlete winning one local completion after another. Then one day his track coach Virgil Jackson told him he thought Mathias was good enough to compete in the decathlon at the Southern Pacific AAU Games in Los Angeles only weeks away. Even though he had never thought about it, or done any serious training for the events, Mathias agreed.

To the shock of many, likely including Mathias himself, he won. After getting financial support from his hometown, Mathias next competed in the National AAU in New Jersey. Again he won, beating three-time national champion Irving "Moon" Mondschein and qualifying for the London Olympics. Though Mathias had won two major victories, he was still largely an unknown.

After the first day of events, Mathias was in third place. Despite making several serious mistakes in the shot put and long jump, he came back with a strong performance in the discus throws. The final event was the 1,500 meter run which took place as the darkness crept across the sky. As spectators looked on, an exhausted Mathias came across the finish line. “In rain, on a track covered with water ... in fading light, and finally under floodlights, it was an amazing achievement," wrote Allison Danzig in The New York Times. Mathias had just become the youngest man to ever win a gold metal. Asked what he would do to celebrate, Matthias responded, “I'll start shaving, I guess."

Four years later Mathias was back at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, and won the decathlon a second time, the first man to win back to back victories. After that, Mathias retired from sports and later served as a U.S. Congressman, from 1967to 1975

10 Forgotten Olympic Triumphs (Part II)

3.  "Street Fighters and Saloon Brawlers"

In 1924, the world turned its attention to the “The City of Light.” Only six years removed from the worst war in European history, French leaders were eager to show that their nation had not only been rebuilt, but was again the model for all of Europe.  They also expected their athletes to excel at the games. The French Rugby team in particular was not only looking to win, but to redeem itself after a humiliating 8-0 defeat to the armature U.S. team in 1920. To this end, the best French payers in the country had been assembled including Adolphe Jauréguy, said to be the fastest player in the world. By contrast, the American team held no stars and did not even begin to practice for the games until six months before, when they moved to England to begin sharpening their skills. But if their practice games were any indication – they’d lost four matches to local British teams – the French had nothing to fear.

If the Americans expected the French to be gracious hosts, they were vastly mistaken.  When the U.S. team finally arrived in the port of Boulogne on April 27, immigration officials refused to let them off until the Americans simply pushed past them. Things only got worse from there. Paris cancelled the rest the team’s practice games and barred them from even setting foot in Colombes Stadium, saying the team could only practice in a dirty field next to their hotel. Coach Charlie Austin responded by marching his team down to stadium and having them climb the fence. "If they wanted to push us around, then we damn well pushed back." remembered Vice-captain Charlie Doe. French journalists openly called the team "street fighters and saloon brawlers" and said they fully expected them to be crushed. "They were looking for a punching bag," remembered American player Norman Cleaveland bitterly. In response to the disobedience at the stadium as well as other ongoing disputes, the Americans were banned from any practice field and had to go to a city park. Finally, French officials refused to even let Americans film the Olympics. At this, tempers snapped, and the American team said that they would withdraw from the games if the French did not concede on this point, which they ultimately did. Still, things did not improve; one afternoon after a team practice, the players returned to find $4,000 and most of their personal possessions and clothes gone, despite the fact that the room had been under guard.  

On May 11, the U.S. team confronted Romania, the only other team present besides France. Any time the Americans touched the ball they were booed, and anytime Romanian team touched it they were wildly cheered. Still, the game turned into a lopsided route as the Americans stopped their opponents from even scoring a single point and went on to win 37-0.

Two days after their victory, the U.S. team was unceremoniously thrown out of their hotel for "a little college cheering and rollicking". By this time, the team was openly spit on and cursed at by French citizens and avoided by American expatriots.

On May 17, the Americans entered Colombes stadium for the second and deciding game against France. Paris bookies had set the odds against them as 20-1. Just before the game started, the American team made an interesting choice in asking that the playing periods be extended to 45 minutes, which was granted over French protests. They were betting they could outlast their more powerful opponents. Finally, all the arguments, the snubs, and the repeated public humiliations came to a head as 50,000 raucous French fans looked on as the opening whistle blew. Seconds later, French star Adolphe Jauréguy was handed the ball and raced down the field. With one sudden violent movement, American William “Lefty” Rogers threw his full weight into a sharp tackle that sent Jauréguy flying through air. Moments later, Jauréguy was handed the ball again only to be hit hard a second time by Rogers. Given the ball a third time, Jauréguy broke into the open field again to  thundering cheers when the unthinkable happened. American Alan Valentine caught up to him, leading to a third, even more violent collision which left Jauréguy sprawled on the ground, unconscious. With blood streaming from his face, Jauréguy was carried off the field and out of the game. From then on one continuous wave of boos flowed over the field.

By the end of the first half, the French crowd looked at the scoreboard in shock; not only were the Americans standing up to the French, but they were beating them 3-0! The French team came out for the second half now conscious of the hard American hits. Still, the Americans continued to hammer them, tackling them hard each time they got the ball, leaving them groggy and exhausted. It was as if all the bottled up American frustration was coming out on the French players.  French reporter Andre Glarner wrote afterward, "Our men, too frail and hesitant, too fragile, could not hold up before the admirable athletes before them."  Five times the Americans scored; the supposedly unbeatable French could only score once. As the Americans began to pull away, the boos of the French spectators swelled to an angry roar and attacks on Americans unfortunate enough to be seated nearby began. Several American spectators were knocked to the ground unconscious and were passed down to the field for medical treatment. By the end of the game, Cleaveland remembered the French “were throwing bottles and rocks and clawing at us through the fence.” As the game ended, American player Gideon Nelson was knocked out when a heavy cane hit him in the face. The final score was 17-3.

A French band began playing the “Star Spangled Banner” as the players were given their medals. However, the boos and hisses were so loud that the music could not be heard and there was fear that fans would riot and harm the players.  Finally, police surrounded the Americans and escorted them off the field. Over the following days tempers cooled and the team suddenly became celebrities. The French press even began calling them heroes. Doe recalled, “All we had to do was walk in to a bar or restaurant and there would be free drinks all around.” 

After the games, the Americans boarded a ship, sailed back across the Atlantic and eventually arrived in San Francisco. No victory parade or official plaudits from American politicians awaited them. With radio only beginning to become popular and with nowhere near today’s wall to wall television coverage, many athletes from all nations won medals then went back to their ordinary lives. The American players understood and accepted this at the time, but as the years passed and the Olympics became more popular, many players felt like they had been forgotten. "Our victory in '24 made the hockey win against the Soviets look like an everyday occurrence," Doe recalled seven decades later. "If we had that kind of coverage rugby might be the great American pastime today.”

The 1924 victory marked the last time Rugby was an Olympic sport. In 1928, the International Olympic Committee removed rugby from the list of accepted sports in order to make room for others. Requests in 1980s by the Soviet Union and South Korea to bring it back were also turned down. Then in 2005, the IOC removed baseball and softball and announced they would include rugby in the 2016 games. So when that first game begins, the U.S will be the defending champions after 92 years.         

4. Weissmuller vs. Kahanamoku

While the rugby players fought their private battle against the Paris fans in 1924, over at the pool at Piscine des Tourelles, 19 year old Johnny Weissmuller was making his own place in Olympic history.

Born in modern day Romania, Weissmuller’s family had soon taken him to the U.S., eventually settling in Pennsylvania. After a sudden attack of polio, 9 year old Weissmuller had gone into swimming after a doctor said it was a good way to fight the disease. Soon after dropping out of high school, he came to the attention of swim coach William Bachrach, who believed the young man could compete at an international level. After a year of Bachrach’s tutelage Weissmuller broke Duke Kahanamoku's world record in the 100 meters freestyle. He also went on to win several other championships. With such talent, Weissmuller was a shoe in for the Olympic team in 1924. However, despite the fact that he had spent nearly his entire life in America, Weissmuller’s foreign birth officially bared him from the games. So he lied and wrote in all his official documents that he was born in Pennsylvania and even had his father sign an affidavit so he could compete.

Safely at the Olympics, Weissmuller came up against his biggest challenge. Fellow American Kahanamoku, whose record Weissmuller had broken, already had three previous gold medals and seemed more than match for the newcomer. The 100 meter freestyle was an event that Kahanamoku and many others looked for him to win. However, Weissmuller swam hard and finished just ahead of Kahanamoku. Ironically, Kahanamoku’s younger brother Sam finished third, giving America all three medals.

Not only did Weissmuller win the 100 meter, he also won the longer 400 meter freestyle and the 4 x 200 meter relay, giving him three gold medals for the games. Weissmuller, as a member of the water polo team, even got to tack on a bronze.

Weissmuller would go on to become arguably the best swimmer of his era. Four years after his stunning victories he would repeat his performance by again taking home a gold medal in the 100 meter and 4 x 200 meter relay. All told, over a career, he won 52 United States National Championships, and set sixty-seven world records. Afterward he retired, having never lost a race.

After the 1924 Olympics, both Weissmuller and Kahanamoku went on to enjoy great successes in vastly different fields. In 1932, Weissmuller signed a contract with the movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to play the fictional hero Tarzan. The movie proved so successful that Weissmuller reprised his role for 11 sequels, earning him the astounding sum of $2 million. Meanwhile, Kahanamoku returned to Hawaii and went on to become a national symbol for his expertise with a surfboard, and eventually the sport became a popular pastime largely because of him.

10 Forgotten Olympic Triumphs (Part I)

1. The First Olympic Champion

On April 6, 1896, 80,000 people including King George I of Greece crammed into the stands at Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens to watch the event of a lifetime. For the first time in over 1,500 years, the Olympic Games would be held, but would appropriately occur in their birthplace. As anticipation built and athletes lined the infield, the king stood up and declared the games open.

Among those waiting to begin was 27 year old American James Connolly. Raised in Boston, Connolly had quit Harvard to become part of the first ever U.S. Olympic team. At the time, the U.S. had no Olympic committee or even a way to try out for the team. Those wishing to go to Athens had to pay their own way across the Atlantic and get to games in time to compete.

Connolly was among the first athletes to compete in games that same day. He and six others would be doing the triple run event, where they would run down a prepared track, then hop, skip and finally jump for distance.

Connolly was the last up that day, and had to wait as France's Alexandre Tuffèri and Greece's Ioannis Persakis took the top two spots. It was all up to Connolly. Running down the track, he hopped twice on right foot and jumped with all his might. It was enough. In front of the stunned crowd, he shot to first place and earned the first winning medal in modern times (the medal was sliver as no gold medals existed at the time). Connolly’s victory signaled the beginning of an amazing performance by the small American team as they went on to win 20 medals, including 11 for first place.

 2. “This flag dips to no earthly king.”

By 1908, the Olympics were fast becoming a regular tradition as more speculators and athletes became involved. This year the games were held for the first time in London, making expectations especially high for the British, who looked to dominate the games. As the American team arrived, many locals were upset by the fact that most of the U.S. competitors were of Irish decent, and made no secret of their dislike of continued British occupation of their old homeland.

Almost immediately, things got off on the wrong foot. On opening day, British officials pointedly flew an American flag at half mast, as an insult; in response, the American team refused to dip the flag as they passed King Edward VII.  According to legend, U.S. athlete and Irish native Martin Sheridan, when asked about it, responded, “This flag dips to no earthly king.” Despite the insult, English fans fully expected to win all the events. These expectations were soon shattered as one event after another went to the haughty Americans. In all, the U.S. won a total of 15 gold medals, including top three finishes in several races. Even the one British  gold medal in the 400 meter run rang hollow after all three Americans withdrew from the race when British officials ordered it rerun because they claimed that the Americans had blocked the British runner, leaving Wyndham Halswelle the only man present to run the race. To further salt British wounds, American fans shouted “U-S-A! U-S-A!” over the British fans’ objections.

All of the tensions climaxed with the final 26 mile marathon from Windsor Castle to Shepherd's Bush Stadium. All hopes for a big British victory now turned to five runners. Initially, things went well as these men either held the lead or stayed close by. However, at about the half-way point they began to tire and fall far behind. Now anyone in the race was acceptable over the Americans. As the spectators eagerly waited, their prayers appeared to be answered as Italian Dorando Pietri entered the stadium first and began to close on finish line. Sweating heavily, he was clearly exhausted, but looked assured for first place. Then disaster struck with just yards to go. Pietri collapsed on the track and could not move another step. All eyes turned to entrance to see who would enter next. To the horror of British fans and officials, American Johnny Hayes came into view. This was too much. Several people from the sidelines ran out to Pietri and half dragged, half pushed him across the finish line. James Sullivan, head of the American team, immediately filed a fiery protest, and upon further review Pietri was disqualified and the gold medal went to Hayes. In fact, not only did Americans win gold, they also won bronze and had a third runner finish in fourth place.