The greatest Olympic athlete from every U.S. state

Connecticut: Dorothy Hamil

Sport: Figure Skating

Olympics: Innsbruck 1976

There are not many figure skaters who have made more of an impact on American culture than Dorothy Hamil. This is a slight bending of the rules because technically Hamil was born in Chicago. However, her family moved to Greenwich when she was very young and that’s where she spent the vast majority of her childhood.

Even before her Olympic triumph, Hamil showed significant promise at a very young age. She won the novice ladies title at the U.S. Championships at the age of 12. Hamil was well on her way to becoming one of the best figure skaters to represent the United States at this point. The international competitions and experience continued to pile up and that led her to the 1976 Olympics that in Innsbruck, Austria. Hamil won the gold medal in ladies singles and was actually the last single skater to win a gold medal without including a triple jump in her routine. She is also credited with creating a new skating move dubbed “the Hamil camel” which included a camel spin that turned into a sit spin. At the time of her gold medal, American women took to copying Hamil’s hairstyle, which was a short bob style cut. Her oversized glasses also became extremely popular.

After the Olympics, Hamil continued to skate around the country at various shows. In addition, she has been outspoken about her struggles with depression and her fight against breast cancer. She’s also appeared on TV shows such as Chopped and Dancing With The Stars and remains a figure in pop culture.

Honorable Mention: Kristine Lilly, soccer, in Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004

Idaho: Picabo Street

Sport: Alpine Skiing

Olympics: Lillehammer 1994, Nagano 1998, and Salt Lake City 2002

Is there a better town to be born in if you’re going to be an Olympic champion than Triumph, Idaho? Sure, Idaho isn’t exactly the first spot that people think of when the word skiing is mentioned, but Picabo Street broke that mold representing the United States three times.

Street made her Olympic debut in 1994 in Lillehammer and finished a very respectable second in the downhill event. Still, this only served as more motivation to fuel her for the 1998 Games. Silver was not good enough for Street and she used this experience of listening to the German national anthem being played for the gold medalist. She recounted listening to the German national anthem played for the old medalist and thinking, “Next time I’m back up here, I’m going to be listening to my national anthem played for me.”

Sure enough, she accomplished exactly what she set out to do in the very next Olympics as she took home the gold medal in the Super-G event. This was not without hardship, however. Street had to overcome missing a full year of action due to injuries suffered from a fall while skiing. This left her with just a scant eight weeks to train for the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan. During her training, Street suffered another setback as she fell and was unconscious for around two minutes. To be able to overcome that level of adversity and still bring home a gold medal speaks to the desire Street had to keep her promise of hearing her national anthem played for winning the gold. After an uneventful 2002 Games, Street retired from international competition.

Outside of the Olympics, Street was the first American woman to win World Cup season titles when she accomplished that feat in back to back years (1995 and 1996). She is a member of the National Ski Hall of Fame having been inducted in 2004. The two-time Olympic medalist remains one of the best to ever come from Idaho.

Honorable Mention: Amber Welty, track and field in Barcelona 1992