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The greatest Olympic athlete from every U.S. state

By Adam Strangis

16th October 1964: Alfred A Oerter, American winner of the Gold Medal in the Tokyo Olympics 1964 for Discus throwing. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
16th October 1964: Alfred A Oerter, American winner of the Gold Medal in the Tokyo Olympics 1964 for Discus throwing. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images) /
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Nevada: Andre Agassi

Sport: Tennis

Olympics: Atlanta1996

Widely considered to be one of the best male tennis players the world has ever seen, Andre Agassi is a deserving member of this list. Even with just a single medal to his credit, Agassi had a spectacular 20-year career and has a ton of accomplishments to his name. He and Pete Sampras helped to bring a little more popularity to the sport during their careers.

Agassi got started as a professional in 1986 as a 16-year old kid who quickly climbed up the ranks. There are four major events in the year for tennis player: Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the Australian Open, and the French Open. Agassi won a Grand Slam event eight times in his career and finished as a runner-up seven other times. He is one of only eight men to ever win all four events during a career. In addition, he and Rafael Nadal are the only two men to win attain a career Grand Slam and a gold medal. Agassi is the only man in the history of the game to earn a career Grand Slam, a gold medal, and the ATP Tour World Championship in their career.

When he entered the 1996 Olympics, Agassi was the heavy favorite to land the gold. He didn’t play very well through a lot of the tournament but was still able to scrape by into the final, where he defeated Sergi Bruguera of Spain. It’s quite the credit to Agassi that he won a gold medal while he not playing at his highest level. Agassi was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2011.

Honorable Mention: Shannon Bahrke, skiing in Salt Lake City 2002, Turin 2006, and Vancouver 2010

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