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Olympic trivia with a quicksand connection

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 4:53 pm
by Fred588
I will admit, the quicksand connection here is pretty indirect, which is why its in Off Topic:

Name the only athlete in Olympic history to win a medal in two different sports in the same Olympics.

Re: Olympic trivia with a quicksand connection

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 6:27 pm
by dlodoski
There seem to be two such persons listed here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mu ... ngle_Games

Re: Olympic trivia with a quicksand connection

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 6:55 pm
by PM2K
Fred588 wrote:I will admit, the quicksand connection here is pretty indirect, which is why its in Off Topic:

Name the only athlete in Olympic history to win a medal in two different sports in the same Olympics.


Johnny Weismuller, aka Tarzan?

Re: Olympic trivia with a quicksand connection

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 8:11 pm
by dlodoski
PM2K wrote:....Johnny Weismuller, aka Tarzan?

Well, so much for Wikipedia. Johnny Weissmuller meets the criteria as well, for sure.

Somebody should submit a correction...

Re: Olympic trivia with a quicksand connection

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 10:42 pm
by Fred588
Weismuller is the answer I have. I don't see in the web page referenced who the other one was, but I stand corrected if there were two.

Re: Olympic trivia with a quicksand connection

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 10:44 pm
by Fred588
Never mind, I found them. So there were three.

Re: Olympic trivia with a quicksand connection

Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 10:21 am
by dlodoski
Even if Johnny Weissmuller was one of three, it's a great piece of trivia. :)

I knew he was an Olympic swimmer, but used to snicker a bit at his physique in the later Jungle Jim movies.

But now knowing his champion past more clearly, my hat is off to him. He was obviously quite the dude.

Re: Olympic trivia with a quicksand connection

Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 2:36 pm
by Lomax
You omit Britain's Rebecca Romero -

Silver medal for rowing, Athens 2004

Gold medal for cycling, Beijing 2008

Re: Olympic trivia with a quicksand connection

Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 2:41 pm
by Lomax
Hang on - I overlooked the bit about winning medals in two sports at the SAME games.

Hmm. From what I can establish, 81 people have won olympic medals at two sports, though only twelve of these are post-1945.

Of these 81, 37 only competed at one games, so must meet the criteria. That 37 doesn't include Weismuller, who competed at two games. Presumably there are others who competed at two games but won medals at two sports in the same games - so the final list could be as many as 50.

Winter olympics are included in the above statistics.

PS; in 1904 Frank Kugler of Germany won medals in THREE sports - tug-of-war, wrestling & weightlifting.