The greatest Olympic athlete from every U.S. state

Indiana: Ray Ewry

Sport: Standing Jump

Olympics: 1900, 1904, and 1908

There’s likely a fair amount of readers asking themselves what in the world is “Standing Jump”? That’s a pretty fair question because it was a sport that was dropped after the 1912 Olympics. It’s the exactly same as the high and long jump, except there is no run-up before the jump. The athlete must pull off the jump from a standing position. In the early 1900s, there was no man better at this sport than Ray Ewry and he dominated the Olympic events in that time frame.

Ewry’s path to Olympic glory started very poorly as he contracted polio when he was a young child. Through the sheer will of force and exercise, Ewry beat polio and developed great strength in his legs. Especially in this time period, overcoming polio alone was quite the feat. To then turn around and appear in three Olympics AND win an astounding 10 gold medals seems too good to be true. Ewry did capture two of his gold medals at the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens. It is not currently recognized as part of Olympic history, even though it was an event organized by the IOC. Whether certain historians count his medals as eight or 10, that still makes Ewry one of the most successful Olympic athletes to ever compete.

His eight gold medals in an individual event (non-relay) stood as a record for over 100 years until American swimmer Michael Phelps broke it in 2008. To this day, Ewry and Phelps share the record for three gold medals in two separate events. Amazingly, Ewry still holds a record for most medals with 100 percent success in his events entered. He never went home with anything less than a gold medal. Although he passed over 80 years ago, Ewry remains one of the most accomplished Olympians ever. Polio never stood a chance.

Honorable Mention: Larry Bird, basketball in Barcelona 1992