Friday, 16 December 2011

Celebrity profile - G. Eyser - Chicago 1904



The splendidly named George Eyser lost his leg when he was hit by a train as a child and became the only Olympian ever to compete with a genuine wooden leg.

On a single day, October 29 1904, he won 6 medals in total, with gold in the parallel bars, the long horse vault (an event which then included a jump over a long horse without the aid of a springboard) and the 25-foot rope climbing, silver in the pommel horse and 4-event all-around, and bronze in the horizontal bar. Never being one to let his disability stand in his way he also entered the long jump but did not make the medals.

May he be a shining example to all you legless athletes.

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