Largely forgotten despite his incredible tally of gold medals, Ray Ewry began one of the greatest Olympic careers in history at the 1900 Paris Games. The American jumper excelled in three events and won 10 individual Olympic titles (or eight titles, depending on whose version of history you rely upon) around the turn of the century. All three of those events — the standing high jump, the standing long jump and the standing triple jump — have since been dropped from the games. Unlike the more commonly known jumping events, Ewry competed without a run-up. And Ewry was the best there was, despite spending part of his childhood in Indiana in a wheelchair with polio.

Source: International New York Times July 23, 2020 19:30 UTC