OLYMPICS | SPORTS | HISTORY
Six Memorable Olympic Records Since 1904 That Probably Might Never Be Broken
Modern humans absolutely couldn’t
It feels as if the Tokyo Olympics have just ended yesterday. This is literally the first Olympics I’ve ever watched on TV. While 206 countries have participated, 90 of them have won at least one medal.
And while a couple of records are broken almost every Olympics, there exist few records that weren’t broke for too long since they were set. And here I tell you about six of them.
#1. He won 28 Olympic medals in his career
Athlete: Michael Phelps
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Sport : Swimming 🏊♀️🏊♂️Michael Phelps is known as the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time. He won the most Olympic medals ever won by a single individual.
This 2016-retired athlete won a total of 28 medals in the Olympics. The ‘Oh My God’ fact is that – Out of the 28, 23 were gold. Of the rest, three were silver and two were bronze.
He started his Olympic career in 2000, and won his first ever medal in 2004. He established dominance over various swimming styles like 100 and 200m butterfly, and 200m individual medley etc.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics was his most successful one. He won a gold medal each in all the eight different swimming events he participated in, totalling to eight gold medals that time. It is often claimed his records couldn’t ever be broken by any athlete.
#2. This country won 239 medals in a single year
Country : USA 🇺🇸
Year : 1904The USA has been the most successful country when it comes to overall Olympics. Till date, it has approx. 2600 medals, which is the highest ever won by a country.
Precisely, the year 1904 is the most special year for it. That year, it set a colossal record bagging 239 medals in total at a single Olympic festival. It’s worth noting the Olympics were held in the US only.
Out of the 239 medals, 78 were gold, 82 were silver, and 79 were bronze. No country ever after has bagged such an enormous count of medals in a single year till date. That record is still on the name of the US.
#3. He participated in 10 Olympics
Athlete: Ian Millar
Country: Canada 🇨🇦
Sport : Equestrian 🏇The famous Olympic horse rider Ian Millar of Canada could be an inspiration to every athlete. He relentlessly tried for an Olympic medal for 40 years, yes 40. In the bargain, he set a record by becoming the first athlete ever to participate in 10 Olympics, in any sport, in any nation.
Millar participated in the Olympics from 1972 to 2012 in equestrian (horse riding) sport. He won the bronze medal in 2008, at age 61, proving age is just a number. That was the first medal he longed for.
He might have done bigger at the 2016 Olympics with that motivation, but had to drop due to the unfortunate injury to his horse. The athlete retired from his glorious sports career in 2019 at 72.
#4. The 72-year old Olympic winner
Athlete: Oscar Swahn
Country: Sweden 🇸🇪
Sport : Shooting 🔫Oscar Swahn holds the record for being the oldest person to win an Olympic medal, and also the oldest person to win a gold medal. He was 72 when he won his last medal.
This Swedish athlete participated in shooting at the 1908, 1912, and 1920 Olympics and won six medals in total. Of which, three were gold.
At 72, the shooter won the title “Oldest Olympic Medalist” at the 1920 games. Notably, he competed alongside his son Alfred Swahn (first person from the right in the photo) that day.
#5. 60 medals in Table tennis by a single country
Country: China 🇨🇳
Sport : Table Tennis 🏓The Table tennis sport was first introduced in the Olympics at the 1988 games in Seoul. Since then, the People’s Republic of China has been in the top lists almost every single time. The country has won 28 of the 32 gold medals awarded till date.
The People’s Republic has been more dominant in table tennis than the US in basketball, Russia in weightlifting, and South Korea in archery. From a distance, it seems as if China has complete control over the Table tennis top lists.
The country has won 60 medals in total at table tennis. Of which, 32 were gold, 20 were silver, and 8 were bronze. No other country till date has made it to this level in the game.
#6. She is the youngest Olympic winner
Athlete: Marjorie Gestring
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Sport : Diving 🤿Marjorie Gestring holds the record for being the youngest Olympic medal winner, and the youngest gold medal winner. At the age of 13 years and 268 days, she won the Gold medal in 3m springboard diving at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. That was her first and only medal in the Olympics.
The only person to have come to the close vicinity of her record was Momiji Nishiya of Japan. She won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 in women’s street skateboarding.
However, at that time, she was 63 days older than Marjorie when she won it. So, the title of youngest person to win gold is still held by Marjorie.
Conclusion
Science says most (physical) records today will probably never be broken. And that’s because of the biological limits we have. It says we’ve reached our highest potential, and there’ll ever be a time when Olympic records are no longer broken.
The fastest possible 100m sprint time for a human is around 9.44 secs, and that’s just 0.14 secs faster than Usain Bolt’s record..!
For another interesting example… In 1908, the record for a marathon was 2:55:08. Over the next 50 years, 40 min was knocked off by the athletes. But in the next 50 years after that, the record time dropped by only 10 min. And since 2002, the athletes managed to improve the record by only 4 min ;)
Doesn’t it look disappointing?
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