50 greatest Summer Olympians in history
By John Buhler
50. Frank Kugler, Wrestling/Weighlifting.
Though he only participated in one Olympic Games, never won a gold medal, and had nebulous national ties (Was he American or German?), Frank Kugler is undoubtedly one of the best Summer Olympians in history, for the simple reason that nobody has ever matched his feats at the 1904 St. Louis Games.
That summer, Kugler won four medals in three different sports: wrestling, weightlifting, and tug of war, earning a silver in the heavyweight division of freestyle wrestling; two bronzes in weightlifting (two hand lift and all-around dumbbell); and a third-place finish in the team tug of war.
It’s been over a century since Kugler participated in his lone Olympics, and nobody has matched the feat since. Yes, one could argue that the pentathlon and the decathlon should qualify. But wrestling and weightlifting are two, very different sports. Even given vast differences in training, diet, and athlete physicality, Kugler’s accomplishment remains unique in the annals of Olympic history.
He may have been a German national at the time, but the IOC still recognizes Kugler as an American athlete. He passed away on July 7, 1952, in the same city where he authored one of the Summer Games’ greatest-ever feats.
Next: 49. Muhammad Ali.