Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #91 - Aleksandr Dityatin

Aleksandr Dityatin

USSR

Artistic Gymnastics

Overall Ranks

#19 among Gymnasts

#13 among Male Gymnasts

#10 among Soviet Olympians

#6 among Soviet Male Gymnasts

Olympic Results

1976

Team - Silver

Rings - Silver

1980

Individual All-Around - Gold

Team - Gold

Floor Exercise - Silver

Vault - Silver

Parallel Bars - Silver

Horizontal Bar - Silver

Rings - Gold

Pommel Horse - Silver

Total

Events - 16

Gold - 3

Silver - 6

Bronze - 1

Aleksandr Nikolayevich Dityatin was born on August 7, 1957 in Saint Petersburg, USSR (then known as Leningrad). He trained in gymnastics from a young age, and when he was 15, he received a special exception to be allowed to compete with adults in the senior division of the national championships.

He was selected to the national team when he was just 18, competing in his first Olympics in Montreal that year. The team competition came first, and the Japanese had won 4 straight golds at that point, and were favored to win again. The Soviets, however, didn't listen, and beat Japan in both the floor exercise and the rings, but ended up losing overall by 0.4 points, earning them a silver medal.

The top 36 competitors from the team event advanced to the individual all-around final, with a max of 3 per nation, and Dityatin was the third Soviet to qualify, in sixth place overall. In that event, he tied for the best score on the rings, and was second place in floor exercise overall, and had top 5 scores in three of the other events, but he came in 20th in the horizontal bar, which dropped his score enough that he ended up in 4th place, just outside the medals.

He qualified for two event finals, the rings and the pommel horse. The rings were his best event, and he was third after qualifying, but after his teammate, Vladimir Markelov, dropped out, he was able to move up to 2nd after posting the best score in his final performance, giving him a silver medal. In the pommel horse, he was the 6th and final qualifier, and he didn't improve his standing in the final. He still walked away with 2 silver medals at his first Olympics.

In 1980, he was again on the Soviet team, this time competing at home in Moscow. The Japanese team had joined the American boycott, so the home team was a big favorite in the team event, and they left no doubt, as they posted the highest score in each of the 6 parts of the competition, winning the gold medal by 8.45 points over East Germany.

In the individual all-around, Dityatin was the #1 qualifier, just ahead of his teammate, Nikolay Andrianov, who was the defending champion. Dityatin beat or tied his teammate in all 6 disciplines, and with no other major challengers, the gold medal went to Dityatin by 0.425 points, a pretty decent margin for an individual event.

He qualified for all 6 of the individual event finals. He was the #4 qualifier for the floor exercise, but after earning a 9.9 in his final performance, he moved up to third and took the bronze medal. He had tied for #2 in qualifying for the vault, but after a 9.925 in the final, tied for best score in that round, he earned the silver medal alone.

He was #3 in qualifying for the parallel bars, but after a poor performance from Stoyan Delchev of Bulgaria, the leader, plus a 9.9 score from Dityatin, he moved up to take another silver. In the horizontal bar, he was again behind Delchev in qualifying, and was unable to pass him in the final, instead settling for another silver medal.

He was the top qualifier in the rings, where he had won the silver in 1976, and this time he scored an impressive 9.5 in the final to put it out of reach for everyone else, giving him his first individual event gold by 0.15 points over his nearest competitor. In the pommel horse, he scored a 9.9 in all three rounds, but it wasn't enough to overcome Zoltan Magyar of Hungary, who finished with a perfect 10 and left the silver to Dityatin.

In all, Dityatin had earned 8 medals in Moscow, the first Olympian ever to win 8 in a single Olympics, a feat that has only been matched by Michael Phelps twice. Soon after the 1980 Olympics, he was severely injured in training, and was forced to retire as a result, spending the next decade plus as a coach. Though he was the first to win 8 medals at one Olympics, only 3 were gold, but it was still an impressive achievement, and made him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #92 - Sylvia Fowles

Sylvia Fowles

USA

Basketball

Overall Ranks

#29 among American Olympians

#10 among Female American Olympians

#2 among Basketball Players

Olympic Results

2008

Women - Gold

2012

Women - Gold

2016

Women - Gold

2020

Women - Gold

Total

Events - 4

Gold - 4

Sylvia Shaqueria Fowles was born on October 6, 1985 in Miami, Florida, which is also where she grew up, and led her high school teams to 3 state championships and was MVP of the high school All-American game. She then attended college at LSU, where she led the Tigers to the Final Four in each of her 4 seasons.

She was the #2 draft pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft by the Chicago Sky, and made her Olympic debut that same year. She shot 64.3% from the field for the tournament, and led the USA in scoring with 13.4 points per game, as the Americans swept their way to an easy gold medal, with a 27-point win over Australia in the gold medal game.

In 2012, she was again chosen for the USA team, and played a slightly smaller role, but still averaged 6.0 points per game while shooting 61.1% from the field as the USA again went through the tourney without a loss, and beat France by 36 in the final game. She shot 69.0% in the 2016 Olympics, and the USA won another gold medal with a 29-point win over Spain.

She was selected for her 4th Olympic team in 2020, and again had an enormous shooting percentage of 63.2% for the tournament. This time, the games were a little closer, and the Americans only managed to beat the host Japanese team by 15 in the gold medal game, but Fowles had earned her 4th gold medal.

She retired after the 2022 WNBA season as the league's all-time leader in field goal percentage, at 59.9%, and rebounds per game, at 9.8. She led the league in blocks twice, rebounding twice, and field goal percentage 7 times, and won 2 championships, in 2015 and 2017. Four gold medals in separate Olympics is a rare feat, and Fowles was a large part of those teams, which makes her one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #93 - Sue Bird

Sue Bird

USA

Basketball

Overall Ranks

#30 among American Olympians

#11 among Female American Olympians

#3 among Basketball Players

Olympic Results

2004

Women - Gold

2008

Women - Gold

2012

Women - Gold

2016

Women - Gold

2020

Women - Gold

Overall

Events - 5

Gold - 5

Suzanne Brigit Bird was born on Oct 16, 1980 in Syosset, New York, and began playing AAU basketball in sixth grade. By the time she reached high school, she was a big star, and in her senior season, she led her team to an undefeated season and a state and national championship.

She attended the University of Connecticut, and after missing most of her freshman season to a torn ACL, she led the Huskies to a 36-1 record as a sophomore and a national championship. After a disappointing junior season where they lost 3 games and didn't win a title, her senior season was perfect, with a 39-0 record and another national title. She was drafted by the Seattle Storm with the #1 pick in the 2002 WNBA Draft. 

For her entire time as a pro, which covered 20 seasons, she was also a member of the US national team, starting with the 2002 World Championships, and stretching clear until the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She wasn't one of the big stars on the 2004 Olympic team, averaging only about 3 points per game, but she came out of that year with both a gold medal and a WNBA championship.

By 2008, she had become the national team's starting point guard, and in the 2008 Olympic tournament, she led the team with 14 steals in 8 games, and they team went undefeated again en route to the gold medal. In 2012, she raised her scoring average to 6.1 per game and her assists to 4.5 while helping guide the US to its fifth straight gold medal, and her third.

She led the USA team in assists in each of the next two Olympics as well, tying the old record with 4 Olympic gold basketball medals in 2016, then breaking it in 2020, along with Diana Taurasi, when the pair won their fifth. Though she was never a big scorer, especially in the Olympics, her mastery at distributing the ball made her a very important piece of all of those gold medals.

In her professional career, she won 4 WNBA titles, 5 Euro League titles, and 5 Russian league championships. Add in her high school championship and 2 NCAA championships to her 5 Olympic gold medals, and you have one of the greatest champions ever in any sport, and one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #94 - Christian Taylor

Christian Taylor

USA

Athletics

Overall Ranks

#31 among American Olympians

#28 among Track & Field Athletes

#22 among Male Track & Field Athletes

#19 among American Track & Field Athletes

#15 among American Male Track & Field Athletes

Olympic Results

2012

Triple Jump - Gold

2016

Triple Jump - Gold

Total

Events - 2

Gold - 2

Christian Taylor born on June 18, 1990 in Fayetteville, Georgia, and learned how to triple jump in elementary school. In high school, he set Georgia state records in the long jump, triple jump, and 400m. He then attended the University of Florida, and while there, won his first World Championship in the triple jump in 2011.

He and Will Claye took turns winning each meet through 2011 and 2012, with Taylor winning in the 2012 Olympic Trials, and they were co-favorites heading into the London Olympics. Taylor led the qualifying round with a jump of 17.21 meters, but in the 12-man final, he fouled on his first two jumps, giving him one more chance to get into the top 8 or be eliminated. He jumped 17.15, which earned him 3 more jumps, and on his very next jump he got 17.81, which ended up winning him the gold medal, leaving Claye to take the silver.

The following year he moved to England to train, and in 2015 he won the World Championship again, this time with a jump of 18.21, the second-longest in history. He was the favorite to win gold again in Rio, and he again led after qualifying. In the final, he hit 17.86 with his first jump, which was longer than any of the others had ever jumped, and it ended up winning him the gold. He also jumped 17.77 twice in the final round, which gave him the three longest jumps of the competition.

He repeated as World Champion in both 2017 and 2019, but an Achilles injury prevented him from competing in the Tokyo Olympics. When he returned in 2022 for the World Championships, he only managed to finish in 18th place, and in 2024 he officially retired. He owns the American record, 3 of the 10 best jumps in history, and two Olympic gold medals, making him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #95 - Nedo Nadi

Nedo Nadi

Italy

Fencing

Overall Ranks

#6 among Fencers

#6 among Italian Olympians

#5 among Male Fencers

#5 among Male Italian Olympians

#3 among Italian Fencers

#2 among Male Italian Fencers

Olympic Results

1912

Individual Foil - Gold

1920

Individual Foil - Gold

Team Foil - Gold

Team Epee - Gold

Individual Sabre - Gold

Team Sabre - Gold

Total

Events - 8

Gold - 6

Nedo Nadi was born on June 9, 1894 in Livorno, Italy, the son of Beppe Nadi, a famous Italian fencing master, who began training his two sons as fencers from the age of 7. His father trained him on the foil and the sabre, but refused to teach the epee, as he considered it "undisciplined," so Nedo and his brother Aldo trained together in secret on the epee.

He made his Olympic debut in Stockholm in 1912, just after his 18th birthday. His first event was the individual foil, which was made easier due to a French boycott over a rule disagreement. Nadi dominated the event, losing only 1 bout the entire way, during the quarterfinal round, and he finished it off with a perfect 7-0 romp in the finals to become the youngest fencing gold medalist in history, a distinction he still holds over 100 years later.

The sabre events were up next, but they didn't go quite as well. Italy lost in the semifinal pool of the team event, which left them tied for 5th place. In the individual event, the Hungarians had already begun their dominance 4 years earlier, and 1912 may have been their peak. Nadi lost only 3 bouts through the 3 rounds leading up to the final, in which he was the lone competitor not from Hungary in the field of 8. He fought well, winning 4 of 7 bouts, which was good enough for 5th place, but not enough for a medal.

Nadi served in the Italian army during World War I, then returned to fencing after the war concluded. Hungary was not allowed to compete in 1920 due to their role in the war, leaving some events more open than usual, so Nadi entered 5 events, competing with all 3 weapons in Antwerp.

His first event was the team foil. The Italians had 8 matches total, and won all 8 of them, with the only close match in the final coming against France, but they came out ahead 9-7 to win the gold medal. Next up was the individual foil, where he was the defending champion, and he crushed the competition, winning 22 out of 23 bouts to take his third career gold medal easily.

The next event was the team epee, the weapon that his father hated. Italy advanced to the final with just a single loss, against Portugal, but then swept the final pool, beating all 5 of their opponents to walk away with another gold medal. In the team sabre event, there were only 8 countries competing, so the event was a single round-robin to determine the winner. Italy won all 7 of their matches very easily, with the closest score of 12-4 against both Belgium and the Netherlands, giving Nadi a 4th gold in 1920.

In the individual sabre event, Nadi was once again dominant, losing only a single bout in the entire tournament and dominating the final pool without a loss, giving him another gold medal, his fifth in Antwerp and 6th overall. Notably, his younger brother, Aldo, won the silver medal, which went along with his 3 golds in the team events with his brother.

Nadi retired right after the 1920 Olympics, and became a fencing coach who travelled all over the world. He later coached the Italian fencing team at the 1936 Olympics, then passed away in 1940 at the age of 45. His 1920 Olympic performance alone would have been enough to make him one of the greatest Olympians of all time, but add in his earlier gold as the youngest fencer to win and you have an undoubtable great.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #96 - Laszlo Rajcsanyi

Laszlo Rajcsanyi

Hungary

Fencing

Overall Ranks

#7 among Fencers

#6 among Male Fencers

#3 among Hungarian Olympians

#3 among Hungarian Fencers

Olympic Results

1936

Team Sabre - Gold

1948

Team Sabre - Gold

1952

Team Sabre - Gold

Total

Events - 4

Gold - 3

Laszlo Rajcsanyi was born on February 16, 1907 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, and began fencing when he was 17 years old. He won the World University Championship in 1928, and the Hungarian national championship in 1934, and qualified for his first Olympics in 1936 at Berlin.

His first event was the team sabre, which Hungary had been dominating for a decade, and would dominate for a few more decades. He participated in one match each in the quarterfinals and semifinals, winning all 4 of his bouts in each round. He was used in matches against Poland and Italy in the final round, going 2-1 against Poland, the only bout lost by Hungary in that match, and finishing 2-2 against Italy in a close-fought 9-6 finale that gave Hungary the gold. Overall, Rajcsanyi won 12 of his 15 bouts.

The individual sabre was contested over the next couple of days. In each of the first two rounds, he finished second in his pool, with the top 3 advancing. He finished 3rd in his semifinal pool, and was one of 3 Hungarians to reach the final pool, out of 9 total fencers. He went 5-3 in the final round-robin, with two of his losses coming against the gold and silver medalists, but it wasn't quite enough, and he finished in 4th place, just short of a medal.

The next two Olympics, which would have been during his prime, were cancelled due to World War II, so by the time he got to compete again, he was 41 years old. He only competed in the team event in 1948, going 6-1 on the way to the final pool. In the final pool, he went 5-2 in bouts against Belgium and the USA, but wasn't used against silver-medalist Italy as the Hungarians won another easy gold, with Rajcsanyi going 11-3 overall, nearly identical to his performance 12 years earlier.

He returned for one final Olympic run in 1952, as a 45 year old. Again just competing in the team event, he went 7-1 in the first round as Hungary easily won their pool. He won both of his bouts in round 2, but went 8-4 in the semifinals, where he was used in all 3 matches. In the final, they only used him against France, the eventual bronze medalist, where he went 2-2, while Hungary won a close match against Italy to keep their gold medal streak alive, getting Rajcsanyi a third gold medal to end his career.

He had earned a degree in mechanical engineering in 1930, and worked as a chief engineer throughout his entire fencing career, and he continued to do so after retiring from fencing. Even though all 3 of his gold medals came in team competitions, he was a big part of all 3, and nearly won an individual medal as well. All things considered, he was one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #97 - Herb Elliott

Herb Elliott

Australia

Athletics

Overall Ranks

#29 among Track & Field Athletes

#23 among Male Track & Field Athletes

#2 among Australian Olympians

#1 among Australian Track & Field Athletes

Olympic Results

1960

1500m - Gold

Total

Events - 1

Gold - 1

Herbert James Elliott was born on February 25, 1938 in Subiaco, Australia, near Perth, and began running in high school, and did most of his training in his youth on sand dunes, which made running on a track easier by comparison. In August, 1958, he set his first world record in the mile, at 3:54.5, and later that month, he set the world record in the 1500m, at 3:36.

He attended the University of Melbourne while also preparing for the 1960 Olympics in Rome. His only event was the 1500m, and after easily qualifying for the final as the overwhelming favorite, he was content to sit behind Michel Bernard of France for the first half of the race. When there was about 600m remaining, he made his move, sprinting away from the field and cruising to an easy victory, only slowing down near the end when he knew he had the world record in hand. He won by nearly 3 seconds, and dropped the world record to 3:35.6.

After the Olympics, he transferred to the University of Cambridge in England, and though he still raced a bit over the next two years, he decided to retire in 1962 to focus on his studies. He only competed actively for about 5 years, and never lost a single race during that time. He held the world record in the 1500m until 1967, a span of 9 years from the first time he set it, and his dominant performance in his only Olympic event made him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.