The greatest sporting feats of the Olympic Games: performing legends

The Olympic Games They are a must-see event every four years to experience many of the greatest sporting achievements on the planet. Every athlete who makes it onto the podium leaves a huge mark on the world’s biggest multi-sports event, while only a select few can do so by winning gold medals.

But there is still a group of athletes among those who managed to touch the Olympic sky. This is one of the ones that left legendary performanceconsisting of winners, convinced and in love to make their name part of the history of the sport.

Paavo Nurmi, the first king of the world fund

Paris 1924

The Finn was perhaps the first great hero of the Olympics. One hundred years ago he became the first athlete in history to win five Olympic golds in the same edition. He swept the athletics long-distance events after taking the 1500m, the 5000m, the 3000-meter team event, the individual cross-country event and the cross-country team event.

2

Jesse Owens proof of poker

Berlin 1936

The 1936 Berlin Games became a great symbol for Adolf Hitler’s regime. Among them, however, the star was a young black American, who not only became the visible face of the event but also left behind one of the best performances in history after winning gold in the 100, 200 and 4×100 meters and long jump . His performance in that event is sports history.

3

Emil Zatopek, the locomotive that only knows how to win

Helsinki in 1952

The Czechoslovakian left a victory more than seventy years later, not because it was not equaled at the Olympic Games, but it seems impossible to try again. In just one week he was declared the Olympic champion of 5,000 and 10,000 meters and the marathon to become the distance runner who has most managed to dominate the long events in the entire Olympic history.

4

Larisa Latynina, an eternal queen of gymnastics

Melbourne 1956, Rome 1960 and Tokyo 1964

She is the most successful female athlete in the history of the Olympics and this is only possible based on anthological performances. As a result, he left behind three: four gold, one silver and one bronze at Melbourne 1956; three gold, two silver and one bronze in Rome 1960, and one gold, two silver and two bronze in Tokyo 1964.

5

Abebe Bikila’s barefoot marathon gold

Rome 1960

In Rome 1960 he became the first African athlete to become an Olympic champion. In Tokyo 1964, he became the first marathoner to win Olympic gold. But of his two exploits, the most memorable is the first, on Italian soil. In Rome, Bikila realized that the various shoes his brand had prepared for him for racing were not comfortable for him. Because of this, he did not hesitate to run the most mythical test of the Olympics without shoes. And he won.

6

Bob Beamon’s jump was impossible

Mexico in 1968

Bob Beamon’s world record in the long jump stood for twenty-three years, from 1968 to 1991, after his legendary 8.90 at the Mexico Games. However, even today and despite the fact that Mike Powell holds the record with 8.95 way back in 1991, Beamon’s feat is still considered one of the greatest in history. If the sport has evolved from time to time, more than fifty years ago it seems that it was not even dreamed of reaching a distance like the American reached. At that time, the world record of Ralph Boston and Igor Ter-Ovanesyan was 8.35 meters. Therefore, Beamon’s leap is from another century, unimaginable.

7

Seven medals by Mark Spitz

Munich 1972

American boy Mark Spitz always believed in his chances of becoming a legendary swimmer. In fact, he was confident that in Mexico 1968 he could have a Games for the ages, aiming for six gold medals. He was very far from that, which made him face the event in Munich in 1972 with even more anger. He only wanted to win seven and he achieved them in seven world records.

8

Nadia Comaneci’s perfect performance

Montreal in 1976

The uneven bars exercise of the women in the event in Canada left one of the most legendary images in the history of sports. Nadia Comaneci waited for the judges to evaluate her performance and their determination was clear: 1.00 points. Or not, because the fact is that the scoreboard is not ready to recognize an athlete with a 10, with a simple perfect score. It was the culmination of one of the greatest Olympic legends of all time.

9

Carl Lewis, the ‘son of the wind’ who changed history

Los Angeles 1984

A clear example that athletes transcend is the fact that the work of Jesse Owens in Berlin 1936 is still there almost fifty years later. It was in Los Angeles in 1984 when another young African-American jumper named Carl Lewis tried to emulate and honor him. The challenge was of enormous dimensions, but the American who met his idol as a child followed up with golds in the 100, 200 and 4×100 meters and in the long jump. This is the culmination of a saga that has only just begun.

10

United States, the dream team

Barcelona 1992

It is fair to acknowledge with a quote from the great legends, most of them individual, the exploits of team sports. There have been many legendary teams in many sports, but certainly none left a mark like the American men’s basketball team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games with their favor every game to the rhythm of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing , John Stockton or Scottie Pippen, among others.

Eleven

Michael Phelps, the never-ending legend

Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016

To highlight a single performance of Michael Phelps at the Olympic Games is not to do justice to the sports career of, according to the record, the best Olympian in history. The Baltimore Games left four Games to remember, including the pinnacle of Beijing 2008 and its eight gold medals in the 200 freestyle, 100 and 200 butterfly, 200 and 400 freestyle and the 4×100 and 4×200 free and 4×100 relay style. But the successes were his appearances in Athens 2004 (six golds and two bronzes), London 2012 (four golds and two silvers) and Rio de Janeiro 2016 (five golds and one silver).

12

Usain Bolt, lightning without limits

Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016

No one has dominated speed trials like Usain Bolt. The best proof of this is his three triplets at the Olympic Games, with golds in the 100, 200 and 4×100 meters at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016, although the positive test for doping of his teammate Nesta Carter took away the gold. for Chinese event relays. Not only has Bolt surpassed his achievements, but also his immense superiority when it came to achieving them. For Olympic memory, his sky-high records of 9.69 seconds (he himself ran 9.58 at the 2009 Berlin World Cup) in the 100m and 19.30 in the 200m (he lowered it to 19.19 at the same German event) from Beijing 2008 are especially which is important to seal one of the best performances in the history of world athletics.

13

Simone Biles’ magical week

Rio de Janeiro 2016

Simone Biles was, certainly and still is, the last beautiful icon that Olympism produced. This is the only way to explain her extraordinary performance at the 2016 Rio Games, with four gold medals (general competition, team, vault and floor) and one silver (balance beam) to become one of the greatest in the history of the Games. Games. His figure also goes beyond pure sporting, as a great champion of the fight for mental health in sports since the Tokyo Games, where he achieved silver and bronze.

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