7. Teofilo Stevenson (Cuba) With a devastating right hand, Stevenson dominated the super heavyweight division. He became the first boxer to win three Olympic golds in the same division – at Munich in 1972, Montreal in '76 and Moscow in '80. 6. Mark Spitz (USA) Never before had anyone in any Olympic sport won six gold medals in one Olympics. At the 1972 Munich Games, Spitz won seven, with world records in the 100 and 200 freestyle events, as well as the 100 and 200 butterfly. The other golds came via relays, the 4-x-100 freestyle, 4-x-100 medley and 4-x-200 freestyle. A prelude to his Munich mastery came at the 1968 Mexico City Games. There, Spitz took gold in the 4-x-100 and 4-x-200 free relays, silver in the 100 butterfly, bronze in the 100 free and eighth in the 200 butterfly.  Johann Koss, a champion in sport and philanthropy. 5. Paavo Nurmi (Finland) "The Flying Finn" won 12 medals, including nine golds, at three Olympics. Nurmi won gold in cross- country, team cross-country and 10,000 meters, as well as a 5,000-meter silver at Antwerp, in 1920. Four year later at Paris, Nurmi swept five golds – cross country, cross country team event, 1,500, 5,000 and 3,000 team event. His 1,500 meter victory came less than an hour after taking the 5,000-meter title. At Amsterdam, 1928, Nurmi won the 10,000, placing second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and 5,000. He had planned to end his Olympic career by running the marathon at the 1932 Los Angeles Games. However, he was banned beforehand by the International Olympic Committee because he had accepted travel expenses to competitions, a violation of the strict amateur rules then in place. 4. Larissa Latynina (USSR) The Ukrainian gymnast averaged six medals per Olympics during 12 years – Melbourne, 1956; Rome, 1960; and Tokyo, 1964. Nine of her 18 career medals were golden. At Melbourne, wins came in the team combined, all-around, vault and floor exercise, with a silver on the uneven bars and bronze on portable apparatus. She added three golds (all-around, floor, team), two silvers (beam, bars) and a bronze (vault) at Rome. At Tokyo, golds came in the team event and floor exercise; silvers in the all-around and vault; bronzes in balance beam and uneven bars. 3. Sir Steve Redgrave (Great Britain) Rowing's greatest struck gold at five consecutive Olympics, from Los Angeles in 1984 through Sydney in 2000. The coxed fours at L.A. began his run. Then came coxless pairs golds in 1988 at Seoul, 1992 at Barcelona and 1996 at Atlanta, capped by coxless fours gold in 2000 at Sydney. Redgrave also took a coxed pairs bronze at Seoul. He was knighted in 2001.
|
Newswire 
