Floyd Conner - The Olympics Most Wanted™: The Top 10 Book of the Olympics Gold Medal Gaffes, Improbable Triumphs, and Other Oddities

The Olympics Most Wanted

Also by Floyd Conner

Baseballs Most Wanted
More Baseballs Most Wanted
Footballs Most Wanted
Basketballs Most Wanted
Golfs Most Wanted
Hockeys Most Wanted
Tenniss Most Wanted
Wrestlings Most Wanted

The Top 10 Book of Gold Medal Gaffes, Improbable Triumphs, and Other Oddities

Floyd Conner

Copyright 2001 by Potomac Books, Inc.

Published in the United States by Potomac Books, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Conner, Floyd, 1951

The Olympics most wanted : the top 10 book of gold medal gaffes, improbable triumphs, and other oddities / Floyd Conner. 1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-57488-413-5 (paperback)

1. OlympicsMiscellanea. 2. AthletesAnecdotes. I. Title.

GV721.7 .C66 2001
796.48dc21

2001043524

Printed in Canada on acid-free
paper that meets the American National Standards
Institute Z39-48 Standard.

Potomac Books, Inc.
22841 Quicksilver Drive
Dulles, Virginia 20166

Designed by Pen & Palette Unlimited.

First Edition

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Notable Olympic firsts

Nude athletes and chariot races

Olympic and political rings

Silver medals to the silver screen

Patton, Krupp, and Dr. Spock

Football stars who were gold medalists

Memorable moments in Olympic basketball

They were what they wore

One-of-a-kind Olympic feats

Famous Olympic nicknames

Nicknames they would rather forget

They were born to be Olympians

Unusual names of Olympic athletes

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner of champions

Brandy, sherry, and champagne

Olympic-sized athletes

Small athletes with huge talent

Old Olympians

The youngest Olympic competitors

Athletes who excelled in more than one event

They won three in a row

Ten who won ten medals

Dominating Olympic performances

Kings, princes, and lords

Olympic family affairs

Romance at the Olympics

The womens struggle for equality

Pioneering black stars

The strangest Olympic competitions on record

Unusual Olympic sites

Foul weather at the Olympics

Olympic believe-it-or-nots

Astonishing success stories

They overcame career-threatening illnesses

Injuries did not end their Olympic dreams

Superstitions and lucky charms

All their luck was bad

Spectators who left their mark

The Games most colorful characters

Psyching out the opposition

Poor sportsmanship

Who could have predicted?

The Olympics biggest shockers

What could have been

Great athletes who never stood atop the podium

Unsung Olympic heroes

Women figure skaters who never won gold medals

Moments they would rather forget

Costly mistakes

The most dismal Olympic performances

They brought home more than medals

Anything can happen

Athletes with more than one country

Winning any way you can

The biggest controversies in Olympic history

Judging the judges

Sit-down protests and walkouts

Stripped of their medals

They tested positive for drugs

Blood in the water

When the games turn deadly

They died fighting for their country

Falls, suicides, and murders

The closest finishes in Olympic competition

Notable Olympic lasts

Michael Johnson

Hendrika Mastenbroek

Kerri Strug

Al Oerter

Bob Beamon

Nadia Comaneci

Jesse Owens

Wilma Rudolph

Florence Griffith-Joyner

Mildred Babe Didrikson

Billy Mills

Mary Decker Slaney

Tommie Smith and John Carlos

Frank Shorter

Bob Seagren

Bob Mathias

Jim Thorpe

The ancient Olympic Games were held in Olympia, Greece, from 776 B.C to A.D. 393. In 1896, the first modern Olympic Games took place in Athens. Except for interruptions due to World Wars I and II, the Summer Olympics have been contested every four years. The Winter Olympics were created in 1924. The 2002 Winter Olympics will be staged in Salt Lake City.

Olympics Most Wanted salutes the Games most outstanding offenders. The book contains top ten lists of the worst athletes, poorest officiating, and biggest blunders in Olympic history. The lists feature the most unlikely heroes, biggest disappointments, craziest fans, strangest competitions, and the weirdest things ever to occur at the Olympics.

Some Olympic performances border on the unbelievable. Margaret Abbott won the womens golf competition at the 1900 Paris Olympics without even realizing she was competing in the Olympics. George Lyon, the mens golf champion at the 1904 Olympics, walked on his hands at the victory ceremony. At the 1928 Olympics, rower Henry Pearce stopped to let a line of ducks swim in front of his boat and still won the race. Cyclists Giovanni Pettenella and Pierre Trentin stayed motionless for 22 minutes during their 1,000-meter sprint race at the 1964 Olympics.

Over the years there have been some unusual Olympic competitions. At the 1896 Athens Olympics, the 100-meter freestyle swimming competition was limited exclusively to sailors in the Greek navy. The 1900 Paris Olympics featured a live pigeon-shooting competition and a 200-meter obstacle-course swimming event. Four years later in St. Louis, the Games included a mud-fighting competition and an all-around dumbbell contest. The strangest event at the 1906 Athens Games was dueling pistols.

Not every Olympic competitor can be a champion. Antoin Miliordos of Greece fell 18 times during a slalom run at the 1952 Winter Olympics. Perhaps the slowest skier in Olympic history was Turkeys Resat Erces, who averaged a snail-like five miles per hour during a downhill run at the 1936 Winter Olympics. South Korean Kyung Soon-yim had never skied on snow prior to competing in the slalom at the 1960 Squaw Valley Winter Games. He had learned to ski by reading instructional books and practiced on grass. Eric Moussambani, a swimmer from Equatorial Guinea, was so slow in a 100-meter qualifying heat at the 2000 Sydney Olympics that an announcer nearly jumped into the pool because he thought he was drowning.

Bob Hayes, the gold medalist in the mens 100-meter dash at the 1964 Olympics, was known as The Worlds Fastest Human. Not every Olympic athlete has such a complimentary nickname. American cyclist Nash McCrea was nicknamed Crash because he caused several collisions at the 1904 Olympics. Ray Ewry, a ten-time gold medalist in standing high-jump competitions, was nicknamed The Human Frog. Legendary Czech runner Emil Ztopek was called The Beast of Prague because he grimaced and rolled his eyes while running. Inept British ski jumper Eddie Edwards was known as Eddie the Eagle, a jab at his less-than-soaring leaps.

The Olympics have had more than their share of colorful characters. Skier Diana Gordon-Lennox wore a monocle and competed with her leg in a cast at the 1936 Winter Olympics. Italian Ugo Frigero, a double gold medalist in walking events at the 1920 Olympics, directed the stadium musicians by waving his arms while competing. Marja Lilsa-Hmlinen, the winner of three gold medals in cross-country skiing at the 1984 Winter Olympics, was so publicity shy that she ran and hid from reporters after each victory. Glynis Nunn of Australia, the 1984 gold medalist in the womens heptathlon, had to overcome a mental block about crossing the finish line.