Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #83 - Viktor Chukarin

Viktor Chukarin

USSR

Artistic Gymnastics

Overall Ranks

#16 among Gymnasts

#10 among Male Gymnasts

#7 among Soviet Olympians

#3 among Male Soviet Gymnasts

Olympic Results

1952

Individual All-Around - Gold

Team - Gold

Vault - Gold

Parallel Bars - Silver

Rings - Silver

Pommel Horse - Gold

1956

Individual All-Around - Gold

Team - Gold

Floor Exercise - Silver

Parallel Bars - Gold

Pommel Horse - Bronze

Total

Events - 16

Gold - 7

Silver - 3

Bronze - 1

Viktor Ivanovich Chukarin was born on November 9, 1921 in Krasnoarmeyskoye, USSR, which is now part of Ukraine. He began training in gymnastics as a young child, then joined the Soviet army during World War II, and ended up spending nearly 4 years as a Prisoner of War, finally being released when the war ended.

He was only 88 pounds when he returned from war, but he began training again, and by 1949, he was the Soviet national champion, a feat he repeated in both 1950 and 1951. When the Soviets appeared in the Olympics for the first time in 1952, he was the top member of the national team, and it showed in Helsinki, even though he was already 30 years old.

All gymnastics events were held simultaneously at the time, with the scores in the individual events added together for the all-around score, and the all-arounds scores added together for the team score. The only event in which he didn't contend for a medal was the floor exercise, where he finished 29th. He won gold in the vault, where he was only 4th in the compulsory portion, but had the top score by far in the optional section, which gave him the best overall score by 0.05.

In the parallel bars, he came in second to Hans Eugster of Switzerland, who was also the defending world champion in the event, but he only lost by 0.05 points, so it was a close silver. In the horizontal bar, he had the #2 score in the optional portion, but was far enough behind in the compulsory that he ended up in 5th place overall, falling short of a medal.

In the rings, he had a very good score of 19.55, which earned him silver, but he wasn't close to the gold medal score of 19.75 posted by his teammate, Hrant Shahinyan. In the pommel horse, he was #3 in the compulsory, but had the top score by far in the optional again, which earned him another individual gold medal, his second of the events.

When the scores from all of the individual events were tallied, Chukarin had run away with the individual all-around gold medal, 0.75 points ahead of Shahinyan, who took the silver. The Soviets had 7 of the top 11 scorers in the individual all-around, and the top 5 scores on each apparatus were counted in the team event, so the Soviets won gold easily, 6.85 points ahead of Switzerland. Chukarin ended his first Olympics with 6 medals, 4 of them gold.

After winning the all-around World Championship in 1954, Chukarin led the Soviets into the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne as well, just after his 35th birthday. The format was the same as it had been 4 years earlier, but this time, Chukarin finished in the top 7 of all six individual events, making up for his weak performance in the floor exercise in Helsinki by taking home the silver this time.

His vault and rings scores were both lower than usual, and he finished in 7th place in each event, but he was stronger than usual in the parallel bars, where he managed to win the gold in a close competition, just ahead of 3 Japanese gymnasts. He came up just short of a medal in the horizontal bar, with a 4th place finish, but he managed to slip in and grab a bronze in the pommel horse to get his third individual medal of 1956, one of each color.

Because his event scores were all so good, he managed to repeat as the individual all-around champion, a very difficult feat to accomplish, and this time Takashi Ono of Japan made it close, losing by 0.05 points to the Soviet. Japan had also closed the gap in the team event, but the USSR still managed to win gold, beating Japan by 1.85 points.

He retired soon after the 1956 Olympics, becoming a gymnastics coach for several years, and he passed away in 1984 in Lviv, USSR, which is also part of Ukraine today. Even though he didn't appear in the Olympics until he was 30 years old, he still managed to win the individual all-around twice, with 3 other individual golds, and 11 medals overall, so the late start didn't prevent him from becoming one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #84 - Teddy Riner

Teddy Riner

France

Judo

Overall Ranks

#2 among Judoka

#2 among French Olympians

#1 among French Judoka

Olympic Results

2008

Heavyweight - Bronze

2012

Heavyweight - Gold

2016

Heavyweight - Gold

2020

Heavyweight - Bronze

Mixed Team - Gold

2024

Heavyweight - Gold

Mixed Team - Gold

Total

Events - 7

Gold - 5

Bronze - 2

Teddy Pierre-Marie Riner was born on April 7, 1989 in Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, a Caribbean island that is a territory of France, and moved with his family to Paris while he was still a toddler. He grew up playing multiple sports, but preferred judo because it was all up to him. In 2007, the day after he turned 18, he won the European judo championship, then won the World Championship later that year, the youngest ever to do so, and he repeated as champion in 2008.

He competed in the heavyweight division in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where he was expected to win. He won his first two bouts to advance to the semifinal round, but lost in sudden death to Abdullo Tangriyev of Uzbekistan. This put him into the repechage pool, where he won all 3 of his bouts easily, which earned him a bronze medal.

After the Olympic disappointment, he went back and won the World Championship 3 times in a row, and went into 2012 in London as a huge favorite. He competed in 5 bouts, with all 5 either ending in ippon (the highest score possible), or waza-ari (the second-highest score), and finally had his Olympic gold medal to go with all of his World Championships.

After the Olympic win, he went and won 3 more World Championships in a row, stretching his streak to 8 in a row, so he was obviously the huge favorite to take gold in Rio in 2016. As the top seed, he got a first-round bye, then won 3 straight bouts by ippon or waza-ari, which put him in the final, against Hisayoshi Harasawa of Japan, who had won 3 straight by ippon. The final ended in a tie, which was broken by total penalties, with Riner winning 1-2, giving him a repeat gold medal.

Between 2010 and 2020, Riner had a streak of nearly 10 years without losing a single bout in any competition, which was broken in the Paris Grand Slam that year. The next year, in Tokyo, he was still a favorite, but was upset in the quarterfinal round by Tamerlan Bashayev of Russia, requiring him to win a repechage bout to make it to a bronze medal bout. He won the repechage and bronze medal bouts by ippon, which earned him another bronze medal, 13 years after his first.

A mixed team event was also introduced in the 2020 Olympics, where each team had up to 12 judoka competing, which 6 taking the mat in each round, and the round ending when a country reached 4 wins. Riner won by ippon in his first bout, with France winning 4-3 over Israel after a tiebreaker bout, then wasn't needed in a 4-0 win over the Netherlands in the semifinal, before winning by waza-ari in the final round, as France beat host Japan 4-1, giving him his third Olympic gold medal.

He won another World Championship in 2023, and hoped to win another Olympic gold at home in Paris in 2024. He dominated his way to the gold medal, winning all four of his bouts by ippon, becoming the second judoka in history to win 3 individual gold medals.

In the mixed team event, Riner wasn't needed in France's 4-0 sweep of Israel in the first round, then he had the decisive ippon in their quarterfinal 4-1 with over South Korea. They also dominated Italy 4-1 in the semifinal, with another ippon from Riner, leading to a final rematch with Japan, this time with the home team switched. In the final, Riner won by ippon to give France its first win, then after France tied the match at 3-3, the heavyweights were randomly selected to battle for the gold in the tiebreaker, where Riner completed another ippon to give his team the repeat gold medal, his fifth overall.

Riner had elbow surgery shortly after the 2024 Olympics, but has not retired and plans to compete again in 2028, hoping to add to his medal collection. He has competed in 7 Olympic events so far, and has won his final bout every time, leading to a record of 5 golds and 2 bronzes so far. He has already established himself as one of the greatest Olympians of all time, but he may still improve his standing in the future.

 

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #85 - Athing Mu

Athing Mu

USA

Athletics

Overall Ranks

#28 among American Olympians

#24 among Track & Field Athletes

#9 among Female American Olympians

#6 among Female Track & Field Athletes

#5 among American Female Track & Field Athletes

Olympic Results

2020

800m - Gold

4x400m Relay - Gold

Total

Events - 2

Gold - 2

Athing Mu was born on June 8, 2002 in Trenton, New Jersey, to parents who had emigrated from South Sudan, and began running track at the age of 6. Upon graduating from high school in 2020, she attended Texas A&M, and also competed in the Olympic trials in early 2021, just days after she turned 19. Her time in the trials was the fastest in the world up to that point in the year, and she was made the favorite heading to Tokyo.

As the 800m started, Mu immediately sprinted to the front of the pack, and led the entire first lap at a steady pace, but as soon as the final lap started, she pulled away from the others, and by the finish line, she was 0.67 seconds ahead of anyone else, taking home an easy gold medal. She was the second-youngest winner of the event in history, and the youngest American woman to win track gold since 1964.

She also ran in the 4x400m relay, though she didn't usually run the 400m. She was assigned the anchor leg, but by the time she was given the baton, the race was practically over, as the Americans were 15 meters ahead of Poland, a gap of 1.5 seconds. Mu then ran the fastest leg of anyone, finishing her lap in 48.32 seconds, and the Americans won the race by nearly 4 seconds.

After Tokyo, Mu won the 800m World Championship in 2022, but only took bronze in the 2023 edition. In the 2024 Olympic trials, she tripped during her final race, causing her to miss out on going to Paris for the Olympics. She is still young, and actively competing, so she may be able to add to her medal count in 2028, but with what she has already done, she is one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #86 - Ray Ewry

Ray Ewry

USA

Athletics

Overall Ranks

#29 among American Olympians

#25 among Track & Field Athletes

#20 among American Male Olympians

#19 among Male Track & Field Athletes

#15 among American Male Track & Field Athletes

Olympic Results

1900

Standing High Jump - Gold

Standing Long Jump - Gold

Standing Triple Jump - Gold

1904

Standing High Jump - Gold

Standing Long Jump - Gold

Standing Triple Jump - Gold

1908

Standing High Jump - Gold

Standing Long Jump - Gold

Total

Events - 8

Gold - 8

Raymond Clarence Ewry was born on October 14, 1873 in Lafayette, Indiana, and spent much of his childhood in a wheelchair due to polio. He went through a rigorous exercise routine to strengthen his legs, and by the time he went to college at Purdue in 1890, he was captain of the track team and played football. After graduating with a Masters in Mechanical Engineering, he moved to New York and joined the New York Athletic Club, competing in the standing jump events.

He first competed in the 1900 Paris Olympics, and all 3 of his events were held on the same day. In the standing high jump, there were only 3 competitors, but Ewry easily beat the others, jumping 1.655 meters, about 5 feet, 5 inches. There were only 4 participants in the standing long jump, and Ewry again dominated, jumping 3.3 meters, or 10 feet, 10 inches.

There were 10 jumpers in the standing triple jump event, and Ewry was the only one to jump more than 10 meters, ending up at 10.58 meters, nearly 2 feet ahead of anyone else. He walked away from Paris with gold medals in all 3 of his events.

He returned to defend his medals in 1904 in Saint Louis. In the standing long jump, which came first, he was again the best of the 4 participants, jumping over 3.4 meters on all 4 of his attempts, while no one else reached 3.3 meters on any jump. His final jump of 3.47 meters gave him the win by nearly 8 inches.

In the standing high jump, there were 5 athletes taking part, and Ewry again dominated, jumping 1.6 meters, a full 6 inches higher than the silver medalist. In the standing triple jump, he finished at 10.54 meters, just short of his distance from 1900, and again won the competition by more than a foot over anyone else.

In 1908, the standing triple jump had been discontinued, but he still competed in the other two events. In the standing long jump, there was a qualifying round for the first time, because the field had ballooned to 23, but Ewry led after both the qualifying and the final, finishing with a jump of 3.33 meters, 0.1 meters ahead of the silver medalist.

There were also 23 jumpers in the standing high jump, and this time Ewry was tied for first after qualifying with Kostas Tsiklitiras of Greece, both with jumps of 1.55 meters. The top 4 advanced to the final, where John Biller of the USA also jumped 1.55, but Ewry was able to eke past them both with a final jump of 1.57 meters to win his final gold medal.

He attempted to make the team again in 1912, but failed to qualify. Even though none of his events were contested again after World War I, he won every event he entered, often by large margins, which makes him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #87 - Ethan Katzberg

Ethan Katzberg

Canada

Athletics

Overall Ranks

#26 among Track & Field Athletes

#20 among Male Track & Field Athletes

#1 among Canadian Olympians

Olympic Results

2024

Hammer Throw - Gold

Total

Events - 1

Gold - 1

Ethan Katzberg was born on April 5, 2002 in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada, and started throwing the hammer when he was 14, after watching his sister compete in the event. He moved to Kamloops after high school to train with Dylan Armstrong, who had won a bronze medal in shot put in 2008. His first international competition was in 2001, and by 2003 he was the world champion, breaking the Canadian national record twice during that competition.

He was the favorite to win the gold medal in Paris in 2024, and he didn't disappoint. After the qualifying round, he was in first place, more than 2 meters ahead of anyone else. In the final, he started with a throw of 84.12, just short of the Olympic record of 84.8 meters. He only had one more valid throw in the final, which went 82.28, while no other competitor reached 80 meters, giving him a dominant gold medal by 4.15 meters.

Katzberg was the youngest hammer throw winner in history, the first Canadian thrower to win gold since 1904, and had the largest margin of victory in the event since 1912. He also repeated as world champion in 2025, and looks to have a very good career still in front of him. All taken together, he has already proven himself to be one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #88 - Mikhail Voronin

Mikhail Voronin

USSR

Artistic Gymnastics

Overall Ranks

#17 among Gymnasts

#11 among Male Gymnasts

#8 among Soviet Olympians

#4 among Soviet Male Gymnasts

Olympic Results

1968

Individual All-Around - Silver

Team - Silver

Vault - Gold

Parallel Bars - Silver

Horizontal Bar - Gold

Rings - Silver

Pommel Horse - Bronze

1972

Team - Silver

Rings - Silver

Total

Events - 16

Gold - 2

Silver - 6

Bronze - 1

Mikhail Yakovlevich Voronin was born on March 26, 1945 in Moscow, USSR, and trained at the main Soviet gymnastics school in Moscow while growing up. He made the national team in 1966, and at that year's world championship, he won the rings and the individual all-around, plus 3 silvers, making him one of the top medal competitors heading to Mexico City in 1968.

Voronin was the favorite to win the individual all-around, thanks to his recent world championship, and he was definitely the best on the Soviet team, but he was edged out for the gold medal by Sawao Kato of Japan, who took gold by 0.05 points. The day before, Voronin's wife, Zinaida, had also won silver in the individual all-around.

The top 8 in the individual all-around were all from either Japan or the USSR, but since 5 of them were from Japan, the Japanese won by 4.8 points to continue their streak of team golds. The Soviets finished nearly 14 points ahead of the East Germans for silver, so there was never any doubt that they would get a medal, just a question as to the color.

Voronin qualifed for all 6 event finals, but decided to sit out of the floor exercise final, where he was 4th after qualifying. In the vault, he was tied for #2 with Yukio Endo of Japan going into the final, behind Kato, but Kato faltered on his final vault, and Voronin had the best vault of the round, which moved him up to gold.

He was also #2 in the parallel bars heading into the final, behind Akinori Nakayama of Japan by 0.1 points. The two scored identical 9.7s in the final performance, so they kept their standing, with Voronin taking another silver. He and Nakayama were tied after qualifying in the horizontal bar, and they again posted identical scores in the final, leading to the pair sharing the gold medal.

In the rings, Voronin had qualified third, but after Kato had another poor final performance, Voronin was able to move up and take his 4th silver medal in Mexico City. On the pommel horse, he was #2 after qualifying, but was outperformed by Olli Laiho of Finland in the final and fell to third, content to take home a bronze.

After the 1970 World Championship, where he only earned two individual bronze medals, he remained on the national team for the 1972 Olympics in Munich. This time the team competition was first, and the result was just like 4 years earlier, except that the Japanese won by 7.2 points this time, while the Soviets were still 14 points ahead of the East Germans for silver.

The top 36 in the team event were advanced to the individual all-around final, with Voronin in 7th at that point. Unfortunately, he struggled in the final performances, coming in among the bottom 7 in 3 events, and fell to 12th overall by the end of the event.

He qualified for only 2 event finals, the rings and the pommel horse. In the rings, he qualified in second, but with a large gap both behind and in front of him, he was unlikely to move, and he didn't, finishing with a silver medal in rings for the second straight time. He had the same gaps around him in the pommel horse, except that he started in 5th, which is also where he ended up.

He retired from competition after the 1972 Olympics, moving on to become a gymnastics coach. He was a good performer in his second Olympics, but his 7 overall medals in 1968 was tied for the record for a single games at the time, since broken by Aleksandr Dityatin and Michael Phelps, and finishing in the top four in all 8 events alone is enough to make him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #89 - Ville Ritola

Ville Ritola

Finland

Athletics

Overall Ranks

#27 among Track & Field Athletes

#21 among Male Track & Field Athletes

#3 among Finnish Olympians

#2 among Finnish Track & Field Athletes

Olympic Results

1924

5000m - Silver

10000m - Gold

Steeplechase - Gold

Team Race - Gold

Cross Country - Silver

Cross Country Team - Gold

1928

5000m - Gold

10000m - Silver

Total

Events - 9

Gold - 5

Silver - 3

Vilho Eino Ritola, known as Ville, was born on January 18, 1896 in Peraseinajoki, Finland, which at the time was part of the Russian Empire. He was the 14th of 20 children, and he joined 7 of them in emigrating to the United States in 1913 to find work as a carpenter. He didn't begin training as a runner until he was 23 years old.

In 1922, he won a couple of gold medals in the AAU Championship, and came in second in the Boston Marathon, after which he felt he was ready to try to make the Olympics, competing for his home country of Finland. Some other American Finns helped raise money to send him home to Finland to compete in the Olympic trials, where he set a world record in the 10000m, breaking the record previously held by fellow Finn Paavo Nurmi.

Ritola went to Paris to compete in 6 events. His first was the 10000m, where he was a heavy favorite, thanks partly to his new world record, and partly due to Nurmi choosing to sit out to conserve his energy for other events. He pulled away early, with only Edvin Wide of Sweden keeping pace, but after 4000m, Wide dropped back, and Ritola continued his pace, winning the race by 32 seconds, nearly half a lap, and breaking his own world record by 12 seconds, giving him a dominant gold medal in his first event.

His next event was the steeplechase, which he had never run before. He didn't have the technique down, but his speed and endurance were enough as he won the race by over 11 seconds, setting a new Olympic record, and coming up just 0.2 seconds short of the world record. 

Up next was the 5000m, in which he would finally face Nurmi. Nurmi had just won the gold medal in the 1500m less than an hour earlier, so Ritola and Wide took off early, hoping that Nurmi would be too tired to catch them, but at the 2000m mark, Nurmi had caught up to the leaders, and by 3000m, Wide had dropped off the pace, leaving the two Finns to battle for gold. Nurmi passed Ritola at the 4000m mark, then held him off the rest of the way, winning the gold, and leaving Ritola with a silver by 0.2 seconds.

The cross country event was next, which covered nearly 10000m on one of the hottest days in Paris history. Nurmi and Ritola took off ahead of the pack again, but Ritola was unable to keep pace, and ended up losing by almost a minute and a half, though he still won silver by over a minute. More than half of the racers were unable to finish due to the heat.

The cross country team event scoring was based on placement of the top 3 runners from each country in the individual event, so Finland was a massive favorite due to having the top 2 finishers. Heikki Liimatainen was the third Finnish runner, and he was stumbling toward the finish, then stepped off the course thinking that he had finished, but he was still 30 meters short. After the crowd let him know that he hadn't finished, he returned to the course, and staggered for two minutes toward the line, finally crossing just in time to earn Finland the gold ahead of the USA.

The final event was the team 3000m race, in which the places of the top 3 finishers counted toward each country's score. Nurmi and Ritola again finished in first and second, but they didn't have to wait as long this time, as teammate Elias Katz came in fifth, earning the Finns an easy gold medal, the fourth for Ritola at his first Olympics. His 6 total medals are still the record for a track athlete at a single Olympics, and his 4 golds only trail Nurmi's 5 from the same Olympics.

He returned to the US after the Olympics and returned to work in construction, rarely training, but still competing in some meets. He decided to compete in the Olympics again in 1928, heading to Amsterdam, where he would go head to head with Nurmi in 3 events again.

The first event was the 10000m, where Ritola was the defending champ, but Nurmi was now the world record holder, and the two of them, along with Wide, left the field behind early again, with Ritola in front. Wide kept up with the Finns until 8000m, then fell behind, leaving the two favorites to fight for gold again. Nurmi stayed right behind Ritola until the final straightaway, when he passed his teammate and pulled away slightly to win by 0.6 seconds in Olympic record time, both more than 40 seconds ahead of Wide, the bronze medalist.

In the 5000m final, the same three runners pulled away from the pack again, with Ritola taking the lead around the halfway point. Wide fell behind with 600m left, while Ritola started to pull away from Nurmi, and ended up winning the race by 2 seconds, while Nurmi held on for the silver.

His final event was the steeplechase, where he was the defending champ. He qualified for the final, but hurt his ankle in the process, and while he still ran, he was unable to finish the race, the first time he had ever failed to win a medal in an Olympic event.

He retired soon after the 1928 Olympics, returning to the United States, where he spent the next 30 years working construction until he was old enough to retire. A few years later, he returned to Finland, where he passed away a decade later in Helsinki on April 24, 1982. He was overshadowed by his teammate Nurmi through his whole career, but he finally beat him head-to-head in his final Olympic win, and he was so much better than anyone else at the time, that he is obviously one of the greatest Olympians of all time.