Canada
Swimming (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
| 1984 | HP | |
|---|---|---|
| 200 m Breaststroke | gold | 6400 |
| 100 m Breaststroke | silver | 4000 |
| 4 x 100 m Medley Relay | bronze | 640 |
| 11040 |
competed in 1984 as
B. 1966-05-10, Hanover, Jamaica, represented Slovenia in 2004
Track and Field (3 silver, 6 bronze)
| 1980 | 1984 | 1988 | 1992 | 1996 | 2000 | 2004 | HP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 m | - | bronze | SFdns | fifth | silver | bronze | 11th | 11208.44 |
| 200 m | bronze | bronze | fourth | bronze | silver | - | 16th | 14615.04 |
| 4 x 100 m | sixth | 8th | fin.dq | fin.dnf | bronze | silver | - | 2191.2 |
| 28015.68 |
With 6 individual (and 2 relay) medals, she was the most medalled sportsperson,
never to have won gold, until Franziska van Almsick
took that record away from her. She lost the 100 metres gold at Atlanta by
.005 seconds. She had previously lost the 1993 World Championship by a similarly
undetectable margin.
She received a two-year drugs ban in 1999, but she got a reprieve and made
it to Sydney, to become one of a very few athletics stars to compete in six
Olympics. Having finished only fourth in the national trials, she had to
blackmail the Jamaican authorities into letting her start in the 100 meters.
Yet again, she needed less than one hundredth of a second, for another medal.
She then led Jamaica, and herself to yet another relay silver.
Jamaica with Merlene Ottey qualified for six consecutive finals of the
4x100.
Aged 38, she competed in her seventh olympiad representing Slovenia.
She won a sixth bronze medal, a ninth in total, when Marion Jones got
disqualified over six years after her triumph in Sydney.
That made her a joint record holder, with Harri
Kirvesniemi, Alexei
Nemov, Heikki Ilmari Savolainen, and
Franziska van Almsick, of the number of bronze
medals (SIX)
The IAAF features her as a
star of 1996,
with a photo.
B. 1965-02-07, Leipzig, Germany
Swimming (6 gold)
| 1988 | HP | |
|---|---|---|
| 50 m Free-style | gold | 6400 |
| 100 m Free-style | gold | 6400 |
| 100 m Backstroke | gold | 6400 |
| 100 m Butterfly | gold | 6400 |
| 4 x 100 m Free-style Relay | gold | 1600 |
| 4 x 100 m Medley Relay | gold | 1600 |
| 28800 |
For winning six gold medals at Seoul, Kristin Otto received also the Paek
Sang crown for the most valuable athlete.
One of the most all-round swimmers ever, she won her first World Championship
at 100 m backstroke in 1982. She had her best chance of medals in 1984, but
the boycott prevented her (as an East German) from going to the Olympics.
When she cracked a vertebra later that year, it looked as though her career
was over. She spent nine months in a neck brace and returned to compete in
the 1986 World Championships, where she won 4 gold medals (100 m free-style,
200 m medley and two relays) and 2 silvers. She proved even better two years
later at Seoul.
She is now a TV commentator.
She is the highest placed Olympian on my list to have competed in just one
Olympiad.
Germany
Luge (2 gold)
| 2002 | 2006 | HP | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singles | gold | gold | 19200 |
| 19200 |
Written 2002-10-29 - last modified 2023-12-10
This page is part of the site "Full Olympians" by Herman De Wael. See here for a full Introduction.