Participating in the Olympic Games is every athlete's dream in life, but to become a reality, it takes hard work, dedication and talent. In the sports world, athletes with athletic talent abound, but there are not many people who can do both, and even fewer can "cross" the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics.
Edward Egan: Boxing gold medal at the 1920 Summer Olympics
Edward Egan, born on April 26, 1897 in Denver, Colorado, USA, his father was a railroad worker, when Egan was very young, he died in a work accident, his mother was a teacher, so Egan received a very gentle education from an early age, he was not only athletic, but also very good at learning, is a master.
At that time, boxing was popular in the United States, and Egan also fell in love with boxing and showed a great talent for boxing, but he did not embark on the road of professional boxing, but learned while boxing.
Egan was an outstanding law student who studied at Yale University in the United States as the captain of the Yale University team, and then won the Rhodes Scholarship at Harvard University (the Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate scholarship that enables select students to study at prestigious British universities), and then he went to Oxford University in the United Kingdom to study, and later obtained a bar qualification.
From 1914 to 1918, during World War I, Egan served in the U.S. Army, where he became a combat hero as a lieutenant in the U.S. Artillery Corps in France.
In August 1920, in a boxing match at the Antwerp Olympics, Egan defeated Thomas Haldstock of South Africa in the quarter-finals, Harold Frank of England in the semi-finals, and then Sver Southdale of Norway to become the Olympic champion in the lightweight category. After returning from the Olympics, he continued his studies at Harvard University and then received a scholarship at Oxford University.
After becoming the first Ever American to win a British amateur boxing title, Egan embarked on a two-year world tour where he battled the best amateur boxers in every country and won every match.
Egan competed in heavyweight boxing at the 1924 Paris Olympics, but lost to Britain's Arthur Clifton in the first round, and eventually, like all athletes, his boxing career became a memory. He began to focus on his career as a lawyer.
2. Gold medal in 4-man sledding at the 1932 Lake Placid Winter Olympics
At the age of 30, Egan accepted an invitation from his friend Jay O'Brien, chairman of the U.S. Olympic Bobsleigh Council, who was looking for a strong man to join the bobsleigh team led by Billy Fisk, the gold medalist in the 1928 St. Moritz four-man bobsleigh race and the youngest pilot in Olympic history to win a gold medal in a bobsleigh (only 16 years old at the time).
Egan had never been on a sleigh before arriving at Lake Placid in 1932, but, like the other sports he had tried, he was very athletically gifted and quickly got started, and dramatically, the four men in the makeshift team were like roller coaster tourists, who hadn't practiced much before, and hadn't gotten together to compete once since, and had won the championship in a vacuum!
On February 15, 1932, in the final of the Lake Placid Winter Games, Egan represented the American first team to win the gold medal at 7:53.68, ahead of the American second team (7:55.70) and the German first team (8:00.04), Egan said: "That game will always remain in my memory, the glide took only about a few minutes, but for me, it was like a carnival." I remember the snow-covered ground flashing like a movie out of focus, speeding just a few inches above the ground, without any sense of security, I clutched my belt tightly, my hands seemed to be shaking, but I still insisted. ”
Egan became the first and last person to win gold in both the Summer and Winter Olympics. His feats are comparable to that of Jacob Thurin Tymus (ski jumping and sailing), Krista Ludin-Rothenburg (speed skating and track cycling), Carla Hughes (speed skating and road cycling) and Laurin Williams (track and snow bobsleigh), however, he is the only athlete to win gold in both events.
After his Olympic career, he served the nation in World War II as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. After returning to China, he served as the chairman of the New York State Sports Commission for 6 years.
Edward Egan died of a heart attack on June 14, 1967, at the age of 69. In recognition of and commemoration of his feat, the United States also issued a stamp for him.
In 1960, Eddie Egan (center) and Floyd Patterson listen to Jesse Owens at a restaurant in Rome.
In 1983, Egan also joined Olympic legends Jesse Owens and Mark Spitz as a member of the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame.