Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #64 - Wille Grut

Wille Grut

Sweden

Modern Pentathlon

Overall Ranks

#1 among Swedish Olympians

#1 among Modern Pentathletes

Olympic Results

1948

Individual - Gold

Total

Events - 1

Gold - 1

William Oscar Guernsey Grut was born on September 17, 1914 in Stockholm, Sweden, the son of Torben Grut, the architect who designed the Olympic stadium in Stockholm for the 1912 Games. His father had also been a very good tennis player, but Wille became a swimmer and won several national championships. He even made the 1936 Olympic team as a relay alternate, but didn't end up competing.

While he was in Berlin, he saw the modern pentathlon, and decided to switch events. World War II cancelled the next two Olympics, but in 1948, Grut was ready to compete. The first part of the modern pentathlon is the equestrian steeplechase, and Grut had experience riding horses in the army. He mastered the course, never missing a jump, and finishing in the fastest time to receive the top score for that portion.

The next part was a round-robin epee fencing tournament, where placement was determined by number of wins against the field. There were 44 competitors, so this took a couple of days, but in the end, Grut had won 28 matches, the most of anyone, and he again earned the top score.

The third portion was rapid-fire pistol shooting, with a total of 200 points possible per competitor. Grut hit 190, which put him in 5th place out of the field, while his nearest competition through the earlier events finished in 21st, dropping him way behind the lead. Next was a 300m freestyle swimming race, which again played to Grut's strength, and he easily won that portion, by more than 4 seconds over anyone else.

The final event was a 4000 meter cross country race. Grut was far from the lead in this portion, finishing more than a minute behind the leader, but he still came in 8th among 42 racers who finished, giving him the gold medal by a mile over anyone else. No other competitor finished in the top 10 in more than three portions, while Grut was top 10 in all of them, and won three parts outright. It remains the most dominant modern pentathlon performance in history, and makes him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #74 - Harrison Dillard

Harrison Dillard

USA

Athletics

Overall Ranks

#23 among American Olympians

#19 among Track & Field Athletes

#16 among Male American Olympians

#14 among Male Track & Field Athletes

#11 among American Male Track & Field Athletes

Olympic Results

1948

100m - Gold

4x100m Relay - Gold

1952

110m Hurdles - Gold

4x100m Relay - Gold

Total

Events - 4

Gold - 4

William Harrison Dillard was born on July 8, 1923 in Cleveland, Ohio, and attended the same high school that Jesse Owens had once attended, and dreamed of following him into Olympic stardom. In 1943, he was drafted into the Army, and fought in Italy during World War II. He returned to college after the war, and resumed running, still aiming for the Olympics.

By the time the 1948 Olympic trials came around, Dillard had won 82 hurdle races in a row, but in the final, he tripped over a hurdle and failed to qualify for the Olympic team. Rather than quit, he entered the 100m race, taking third place to qualify for a spot in the Olympics.

Entering the 100m race in the Olympics, the favorites were Mel Patton of the USA and Lloyd LaBeach of Panama, who had split wins in every recent race they had entered. Dillard won his prelim heat, then had the best time in both the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, giving him a spot in the 6-man final. He ended up leading the final from start to finish, with Barney Ewell, who had come in second in the US Olympic trials, closing the gap at the end but falling short, as Dillard tied the world record of 10.3 seconds while he won the gold. This race was the first in Olympic history to use a photo finish to determine the winner.

In the 4x100m relay, Dillard ran the third leg in both rounds, with the Americans winning easily both times. In the final they won by 0.7 seconds over Great Britain, but then it was announced that the first handoff had happened outside the legal zone, and the team was disqualified. After an appeal and review of the video, the USA's win was reinstated 3 days later.

Over the next 4 years, he maintained his status as the best hurdler in the world, and this time, he qualified for the Olympics in his signature event. He set a new Olympic record in the prelim round, then broke it again in the final, running the race in 13.7 seconds, finishing just ahead of teammate Jack Davis to win his third gold medal.

He was also chosen to run in the 4x100m relay again, this time in the second slot. He ran in all 3 rounds, and in the final, the Soviets took the lead early, then Dillard closed the gap slightly during his leg, before Lindy Remigio, the American 100m gold medalist, took the lead near the end of the final curve, and Andy Stanfield (#105 in this countdown) put it away on the anchor leg to win gold.

After failing to qualify for the 1956 Olympics, Dillard retired from racing. He later worked for the Cleveland Indians in scouting and public relations, and hosted a local radio show as well. He passed away in Cleveland on November 15, 2019, and at the time he was the oldest living American gold medalist. He is the only man to ever win both the 100m and the 110 hurdles in his Olympic career, which alone makes him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

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: #99 - Rudolf Karpati

Rudolf Karpati

Hungary

Fencing

Overall Ranks

#8 among Fencers

#7 among Male Fencers

#4 among Hungarian Olympians

#4 among Hungarian Fencers

Olympic Results

1948

Team Sabre - Gold

1952

Team Sabre - Gold

1956

Sabre - Gold

Team Sabre - Gold

1960

Sabre - Gold

Team Sabre - Gold

Total

Events - 6

Gold - 6

Rudolf Klein was born on July 17, 1920 in Budapest, Hungary, and later changed his surname to Karpati in order to hide the fact that he was Jewish from the Nazis. Following World War II, he joined the Hungarian national fencing team, which had dominated the sabre events for the decade prior to the war, and would continue to do so for the duration of Karpati's career.

His first Olympic experience came in London in 1948, where he competed in the team sabre event. Hungary got a bye in the first round, then had an easy victory over Egypt in the quarterfinals, where Karpati didn't compete, but he won 6 of his 8 matches in the semifinal pool as Hungary cruised into the final pool of 4 teams. Hungary beat all 3 of its opponents in the final pool, though Karpati struggled against runner-up Italy, losing 3 of his 4 matches, finishing with 5 wins in 10 tries in the final, but he still earned a gold medal as part of the dominant team.

He was again on the Hungarian team in Helsinki in 1952, and again competed in just the team event. This time he went 13-1 in his matches as Hungary went undefeated on their way to the final pool, and they also went undefeated in the final pool, though they were trailing Italy 7-6 with only two bouts left. After Tibor Berczelly won his bout, it was up to Karpati to determine the color of Hungary's medal, and he came through, keeping their streak of gold medals alive.

In 1956, Hungary was advanced straight to the semifinals, where they only needed a quick 9-1 victory over the USA to advance to another final. The toughest match of the final came against the USSR, who had just invaded Hungary a couple of weeks earlier, and they were able to pull out a hard-fought 9-7 victory, with Karpati supplying 3 of the victories, and Hungary won another gold without a loss.

He also competed in the individual event for the first time in 1956, alongside the past two champions of the event, Kovacs and Gerevich of Hungary. Karpati won both of his pools on his way to the final, where he was joined by his two countrymen in the field of 8, and after a round-robin among them all, Karpati came out on top, with a 6-1 record, and kept Hungary's gold medal streak alive, even though it was a bit of a surprise. After the Olympics, the other 3 Hungarian sabre fencers fled to the United States rather than return to Soviet-controlled Hungary, but Karpati, Kovacs, and Gerevich returned home.

He returned to defend his gold medals in 1960 in Rome, even though he was now 40 years old. This time, the individual event was held first, and he went 15-3 through the first 4 rounds of round robin pools, each of which he won, to advance easily to another final. In the final pool, he won 5 of his 7 bouts, which turned out to be enough, as 4 others tied at 4-3, so Karpati was able to walk away with another individual gold medal.

The Hungarian team was weaker than normal headed into the team event, after the defections of 1956. The three holdovers were all over 40 years old, but all were still very skilled. Karpati didn't need to compete in the first round win, which advanced them to the quarterfinals, where they beat Romania easily, 9-3, with 3 wins from Karpati. In the semifinals against Italy and the final against Poland, they were carried by their new younger teammates, and won both in close contests, 9-6 and 9-7 to successfully win another team gold.

Karpati retired in 1961, having competed in 6 Olympic fencing events, and winning gold in all 6. Four of his 6 gold medals came in team events, with Karpati making big contributions to two of them, and his two individual golds were closely contested and somewhat surprising, but he made it through each time, which makes him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #113 - Paul Elvstrom

Paul Elvstrom

Denmark

Sailing

Overall Ranks

#1 among Sailers

#1 among Danish Olympians

Olympic Results

1948

One-Person Heavyweight Dinghy - Gold

1952

One-Person Heavyweight Dinghy - Gold

1956

One-Person Heavyweight Dinghy - Gold

1960

One-Person Heavyweight Dinghy - Gold

Total

Events - 8

Gold - 4

Paul Bert Elvstrom was born on February 25, 1928 in Hellerup, Denmark. His father was a sea captain who died when Paul was young. He lived right along the strait between Denmark and Sweden, and became obsessed with sailing from a very young age. A neighbor who recognized his talent and interest gave him his first boat.

His first Olympic appearance came in 1948, when he was just 20 years old. He competed in the one-person heavyweight dinghy, which used a boat called the Firefly that year, which was usually manned by two sailors. All competitors sailed in 7 races, with scores given after each race based on order of finish, and each sailor's worst race not counted. 

Elvstrom got his worst race out of the way early, as he failed to finish the first race, resulting in no points scored. He improved over the next several races, and was in 8th place after the fifth race, but after winning the final two races, he pulled into the lead and walked away with a gold medal.

After the 1948 Olympics, 4th-place finisher Rickard Sarby of Sweden designed a new ship which he called the Finn, which was designed for a single sailor, and became the model used in the event starting in 1952. Elvstrom returned to defend his gold medal, and had an easy time of it, winning 3 of the first 4 races outright, which gave him a big enough lead that he could have skipped the final 3 races and still won the gold. Instead, he finished 3rd, 4th, and 1st in those three races and ended up with the largest win ever in the event.

He was expected to win again in 1956, and he started out well, winning the first race, but he struggled in the next two races, finishing in the middle of the pack in each, which left him in second place nearly halfway through. After that point, he figured it out, winning 4 straight races to run away with the gold medal yet again.

He returned in 1960 looking to make history. No Olympian had ever won the same individual event 4 straight times, and he was favored to be the first. He won 3 of the first 6 races, and finished in the top 5 in the others, leaving him with a large enough lead that he didn't need to compete in the final race, so he sat out and took the easy gold. 

He skipped the 1964 Olympics, then made his return in 1968, but in a different event, the two-person keelboat, sailing with partner Poul Mik-Meyer. The pair remained in contention for a medal throughout the competition, and was in third place entering the final race, but they already couldn't reach gold at that point. Unfortunately, they finished 5th in that race, which put them in 4th place overall, leaving them just short of a medal.

In 1968, he competed in the three-person keelboat, which was shortened to 6 races due to the hostage situation in the Olympic village, but his team finished around the middle in the first two races, leaving them far behind the pack. They won the third race, which put them in 5th overall, but they dropped to 12th after race four, and after they bumped another boat in race five, resulting in a disqualification, and they refused to finish the event in protest.

He skipped the next two Olympic games, but returned in 1984 to compete in Los Angeles in the Multihull event, partnering with his daughter, Trine. They kept themselves in third place through the first four races, but then fell to 4th place after finishing #14 in race five, and remained there for the rest of the event, falling just short of a medal again.

The father-daughter pair returned for one final attempt at a medal in 1988, but they only finished in the top 5 in one race, and were never in medal contention. His Olympic career spanned 40 years, and he competed in 8 different games, and while he was in contention for medals late in his career, winning 4 straight gold medals in the same event made his one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #114 - Laszlo Papp

Laszlo Papp

Hungary

Boxing

Overall Ranks

#6 among Hungarian Olympians

#2 among Boxers

#1 among Hungarian Boxers

Olympic Results

1948

Middleweight - Gold

1952

Light-Middleweight - Gold

1956

Light-Middleweight - Gold

Total

Events - 3

Gold - 3

Laszlo Papp was born on Mar 25, 1926 in Budapest, Hungary, and began boxing at the age of 16. His training was interrupted soon afterward by World War II, but as soon as the war ended, he picked up his gloves again, and became one of the greatest boxers ever.

He made his Olympic debut in 1948 in London, and he made a big splash immediately. He knocked out his first opponent in the second round, then won on a TKO early in his next match, followed by a first-round knockout in the quarterfinals. His next two fights were a little tougher, but he still won both in unanimous decisions, with the final coming over Johnny Wright, who was in front of his home crowd.

In 1952, new weight classes were added to the Olympic boxing schedule, allowing Papp to fight in the light middleweight division instead of middleweight, where he had won in 1948. He started out dominant again in Helsinki, with two straight second-round knockouts to open the tournament, followed by 3 straight unanimous decisions to give him his second straight gold medal.

The field in Melbourne in 1956 was much smaller, and Papp was a big favorite to win again, which would make him the first boxer ever to win 3 gold medals. After a first-round bye, he knocked out his first opponent in the third round, then defeated the defending European champion by unanimous decision in the semifinal. He faced Jose Torres, an American from Puerto Rico, in the final, and won again by decision, but for the first time it was not unanimous, but it didn't matter, as Papp had made history with his 3rd gold medal.

Turning pro was not allowed in communist Hungary, so when Papp turned pro in 1957, he did all of his training and fighting in Austria. He fought 29 professional fights over the next 7 years, never losing a single fight, before Hungary revoked his visa, ending his pro career, making him one of the few fighters to ever retire without a loss.

It may have been a long time ago, but Papp was completely dominant right up until his final Olympic bout, winning nearly half of his bouts by KO or TKO. He was the first boxer ever, and one of only 3 so far, to win 3 Olympic gold medals, and is definitely one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #121 - Emil Zatopek

Emil Zatopek

Czechoslovakia

Athletics

Overall Ranks

#35 among Track & Field Athletes

#26 among Male Track & Field Athletes

#2 among Czechoslovakian Olympians

#1 among Male Czechoslovakian Olympians

Olympic Results

1948

5000m - Silver

10000m - Gold

1952

5000m - Gold

10000m - Gold

Marathon - Gold

Total

Events - 6

Gold - 4

Silver - 1

 

Emil Zatopek was born on September 19, 1922 in Koprivnice, Czechoslovakia, the seventh child in a large family, and started working at the local show factory when he was 16. One day, a coach picked out a few of the young workers at the factory and ordered them to run in a local race. Zatopek came in second, but he caught the running bug.

In 1944, he broke the national records in the 2000, 3000, and 5000 meter races. He continued improving, and by 1948 was expected to challenge for Olympic medals. His first event was the 10000m, where the favorite was Viljo Heino of Finland, the world record holder, and Heino led for the first 3000 meters before Zatopek overtook him. The two remained close for the next 3000 meters, but after Heino made a push to take back the lead, Zatopek pushed harder and pulled away, and Heino dropped out soon after. By the finish, Zatopek was ahead of the next racer by 48 seconds, and had lapped all but two other runners.

His next race was the 5000m, which took place in a heavy rainstorm. He took the lead early, with a pack of three other runners keeping pace behind him, but Gaston Reiff of Belgium made a move at the start of the ninth lap and pulled away from the others. He was ahead by 30 meters at the start of the final lap, and Zatopek made a hard push through the entire lap, but ended up falling short by 0.2 seconds and had to take the silver.

He broke the world record in the 10000m five times over the next four years, and didn't lose a single race over that time, so he was a big favorite to repeat in Helsinki in 1952. It was his first event, and once he took the lead in the 6th lap, he never looked back, beating the runner-up by more than 15 seconds and setting a new Olympic record, though he was still nearly 15 seconds short of his own world record.

Next up was the 5000m, where he was also the favorite, but this one would be much closer. Zatopek took the lead early, with 4 others keeping pace for several laps, and by the final lap, there was still a group of 4 runners led by Zatopek all together. The others all moved past him early in the final lap, but as the rounded the final corner, Zatopek shifted gears and passed all 3, winning the event by 0.8 seconds over Alain Mimoun of France, who had been runner-up to Zatopek in all 3 of his gold medal wins.

A few hours after winning that race, Zatopek watched his wife win the gold medal in the javelin throw, bringing yet another Olympic victory to the family. A few days later, Zatopek decided to try running the marathon, a race he had never run before. Jim Peters of Great Britain, the pre-race favorite, shot out fast, while Zatopek hung back with a couple of other runners. About halfway through, Peters started to slow down, and was passed by Zatopek and Gustaf Jansson of Sweden, but Zatopek never slowed down, eventually pulling away from Jansson and winning the race by over 2.5 minutes and setting a new Olympic record. He was the first to ever win all 3 distance events in the same Olympics, and so far the only one.

He planned to defend his Olympic titles in 1956, but suffered a hernia not long before the Olympics, which required surgery. He began training again as soon as he was allowed, but decided to only run the marathon in Melbourne, finishing in 6th place, about 4.5 minutes behind Mimoun, the winner. After finishing, Mimoun waited for Zatopek at the finish line, excited to share his victory, and Zatopek responded by saluting Mimoun.

He retired the next year, though his wife kept competing, winning the silver medal in 1960 before she hung it up. Zatopek had a falling out with the Communist Party in 1968, and was forced to work in menial jobs for the remainder of his life, but he deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest Olympians of all time.