Ray Ewry
Encyclopedia
Raymond "Ray" Clarence Ewry (October 14, 1873 – September 29, 1937) was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 track and field athlete
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...

 who won 8 gold medals at the Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

 and 2 gold medals at the "Intercalated Games
Intercalated Games
The Intercalated Olympic Games were to be a series of International Olympic Games half-way between what we now call Games of the Olympiad. This proposed series of games, intercalated in the Olympic Games cycle, was to always be held in Athens, and were to have equal status with the international...

" (1906 in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

). This puts him among the most successful Olympians of all time. His 8 Olympic gold medals in individual events are second only to Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps
Michael Fred Phelps is an American swimmer who has, overall, won 16 Olympic medals—six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008, becoming the most successful athlete at both of these Olympic Games editions...

's 9.

Ewry was born in Lafayette, Indiana
Lafayette, Indiana
Lafayette is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, northwest of Indianapolis. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 67,140. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, which has a large impact on...

, and contracted polio as a young boy. For a short while, he was in a wheelchair, and it was feared that he might become paralysed for life.

However, Ewry did his own exercises and overcame his illness. Ewry attended Purdue University
Purdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...

, where he became a member of Sigma Nu
Sigma Nu
Sigma Nu is an undergraduate, college fraternity with chapters in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Sigma Nu was founded in 1869 by three cadets at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia...

 Fraternity. After receiving a graduate degree in engineering at Purdue, he became a member of the New York Athletic Club. There, he specialised in now defunct events, the standing jumps: the standing high jump
Standing high jump
The standing high jump is an athletics event that was featured in the Olympics from 1900 to 1912.It is performed in the same way as high jump, with the difference being that the athlete stands still and jumps with both feet together....

, the standing long jump
Standing long jump
The standing long jump is an athletics event. It was an Olympic event until 1912.In performing the standing long jump, the jumper stands at a line marked on the ground with their feet slightly apart. The athlete takes off and lands using both feet, swinging their arms and bending their knees to...

 and the standing triple jump
Standing triple jump
Standing triple jump is an athletics event. As with conventional triple jump the event involves three phases, but in this event there is no approach run....

. These events are identical to their normal versions, but are contested without a run-up.

Ewry proved to be the best standing jumper in the world. At his first Olympics
1900 Summer Olympics
The 1900 Summer Olympics, today officially known as the Games of the II Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1900 in Paris, France. No opening or closing ceremonies were held; competitions began on May 14 and ended on October 28. The Games were held as part of...

, held in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 (1900), he won gold medals in all three standing jumps. Incidentally, all three finals were held on the same day (July 16).

At the 1904 Summer Olympics
1904 Summer Olympics
The 1904 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the III Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States from 1 July 1904, to November 23, 1904, at what is now known as Francis Field on the campus of Washington University...

, Ewry successfully defended all three of his titles. The standing triple jump event was discontinued after those Olympics, but Ewry continued to dominate the two remaining standing jump events at both the 1906 Intercalated Games and 1908 Games
1908 Summer Olympics
The 1908 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the IV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in 1908 in London, England, United Kingdom. These games were originally scheduled to be held in Rome. At the time they were the fifth modern Olympic games...

, thus bringing his total to 10 Olympic gold titles including two from the Intercalated Games, the highest number achieved until 2008. The 1906 Intercalated Games are currently not officially recognised by the IOC
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...

, although they were organized as an Olympic event by the IOC. Most historians do consider them as real Olympics, though. Even if the 1906 games are removed from his totals, he stands as the 11th most successful Olympian (and third most successful Olympic athlete) of all time. The standing jumping events were no longer held in the Olympics after 1912.

Ewry's superiority is also displayed by the fact that his world record
World record
A world record is usually the best global performance ever recorded and verified in a specific skill or sport. The book Guinness World Records collates and publishes notable records of all types, from first and best to worst human achievements, to extremes in the natural world and beyond...

 in the standing long jump (3.48 metre) was still standing when the event was discontinued internationally in the 1930s.

See also


External links

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