There are 20 athletes and 20 different lives. They have survived in their own ways in the history of the Winter Olympics, some of which are awe-inspiring, some of which elicit a sigh.
In the world of competitive sports, there will always be something more important than the gold medal, such as passion for sports, respect for opponents, yearning for love and peace, the pursuit of equality in life, and the reverence for life and nature. We hope that the 20 stories told here will bring more inspiration to life.
Gillis Grafstrm
7 June 1893 – 14 April 1938, Sweden
The only athlete in history to win gold medals in both the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics, and the only male athlete to win three gold medals in individual events in the Olympic figure skating event.
Grafström's Olympic life was full of drama, and when he participated in his first Olympic Games (summer) in Antwerp, Belgium, the ice knife on one of his skates broke, so he had to temporarily go to the city center to buy shoes. The only thing he could buy was vintage skates, but that didn't stop him from winning the first Olympic gold medal of his figure skating career.
At the 1924 Chamonix Winter Olympics, he won the gold medal dragging his body battered by a severe flu.
St. Moritz, where the 1928 Winter Olympics were held, suffered a warm winter, and the ice quality was severely affected. It doesn't matter, he's still the champion.
In 1932, at his last Winter Olympics, he collided with a photographer during a match. The dream of the three consecutive Winter Olympics was shattered, but he still won the silver medal.
Grafström's marriage is as legendary as his ice performances: his wife is the great-granddaughter of the great musician Mendelssohn, and both are keen to collect skating memorabilia, for which they traveled across Europe. These collections, which had taken time and effort, were later donated in batches to institutions including the World Figure Skating Museum.
Grafström died in Potsdam, Germany, in 1938 at the age of 44, at the age of absolute untimely, and he told us the most simple truth in his life: the length of life has nothing to do with its quality.
William Fiske III
June 4, 1911 – August 17, 1940, United States
At the 1928 and 1932 Winter Olympics, Fisker twice won gold as the helmsman of the American Snow Team and carried the flag of the American delegation at the opening ceremony of the 1932 Winter Olympics.
When World War II broke out in 1939, Fisk traveled to England, declared himself a Canadian citizen, and was able to join the Royal Air Force (RAF) Volunteer Reserve by virtue of his citizenship as a Commonwealth country. Fisk trained at the RAF's Basic Flight Training School before travelling to Oxfordshire for further flying training. When he was officially recruited by the RAF, the American excitedly wrote in his diary, "I believe I can claim to be the first American citizen to join the RAF in England after the outbreak of war." He then fought in the "Battle of Britain", which was known for its tragic fighting, and was killed on 17 August 1940 while on a mission. He was also one of the first American pilots to die in World War II.
Fisk also worked on the Aspen Ski Resort in the Mountains of Colorado, where he and his companions built the first ski lifts and hotels, and others took over his unfinished work after his death.
Eddie Egan Eddie Eagan
April 26, 1897 – June 14, 1967, United States
One of Egan's feats to date has been to become champions at the Summer Olympics and then the Winter Olympics in different sports. At the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, he won the championship in light heavyweight boxing; a few years later, as a member of the American Snow Team, he returned to the Olympic games and won gold at the 1932 Winter Olympics.
While Egan was busy winning gold at the Olympics, he didn't give up his studies, a true academic bully: he graduated from Yale University in 1921 and later studied law at Harvard University. In 1928, he graduated from Oxford University, the third prestigious university in his life, with a bachelor's degree in liberal arts.
During World War II, the World Series were all suspended and Eagan signed up for the army. He has been to the front many times, received many medals of honor for his heroic performance on the battlefield, and retired from the army with the rank of colonel.
Tony Seiler Toni Sailer
November 17, 1935 - August 24, 2009
One of the world's greatest alpine skiers. At the age of 20, he participated in the 1956 Winter Olympics and won 3 gold medals in one fell swoop. Two years later, at the World Championships, he almost copied the magic, and won two gold and one silver. In 1959, his amateur status was questioned for his participation in ski scenes in the film, and at his peak he opted out of all skiing events.
Leaving the arena, Seiler started a ski supplies business and became a successful businessman. At the same time, he was frequently "electrocuted", and between 1957 and 1971, he was involved in the shooting of more than a dozen films, and he used his skiing skills in these films, which are not worth mentioning. Seiler also worked as a professional singer for a time, releasing 18 albums.
Later in life, Celer, who had already tried many career possibilities, suddenly became interested in politics that he had previously cared no attention to, and in January 2004 announced that he was running for mayor of Kitzbüll, Austria. But he withdrew from the election just a few weeks later because he didn't realize until then that the mayor was a full-time job. Apparently, his life was too fulfilling to be mayor full-time.
Sonja Henie
8 April 1912 – 12 October 1969, Norway
At the time of the first Winter Olympics, Sonia Heni was under 12 years old and was in the bottom of the competition, but it was difficult to hide her light. In the next three Winter Olympic Games, she will win consecutive championships. In addition, she has won the World Championships 10 times. To this day, she is still the world's most gold medalist in the Olympic Games and world championships.
In her time, even in a Nordic country like Norway, formal skating training was still far from ordinary people. But Hayne did not come from an ordinary family, her father was a fur merchant and her mother also had a rich family fortune. Before becoming a figure skater, she was a ranking tennis player in Norway, as well as swimming and equestrian. When she decided to become a figure skater, she stopped going to school. Her father hired some of the world's best connoisseurs in all fields as tutors, including Tamara Casavina, a russian ballet master.
After retiring at the age of 24, she became a Hollywood movie star while embarking on an ice tour. At the peak of her acting career, she was one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood. Earning $2 million a year on a variety of shows and tours alone, and with a lot of endorsement contracts in hand, she was definitely one of the richest women in the world at the time. But her reputation was tainted by her association with Hitler, and it is said that the Gestapo once found a picture of her and Hitler on the wall of her home.
In the mid-1960s, Hayne was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. In 1969, at the age of 57, she died on a flight back to Oslo from Paris.
Jean-Claude Killy jean-Claude Killy
August 30, 1943, France
Killey's legend was forged by a broken marriage: his father, a Spitfire pilot from Free France during World War II, led his family from the outskirts of Paris to the foothills of the Alps after the war, where he opened a ski shop and later a hotel. The mother hated the unchanging life and ran away with a man. Unable to take care of his three children alone, his father sent him to a boarding school where Kili fell in love with skiing. He dropped out of school at the age of 15 and joined the French youth team a year later.
In the late 1960s, Killy became the absolute king of alpine skiing. In the 1966-1967 season, he won 12 titles in 16 World Cup competitions. A year later, at the Winter Olympics, he directly won three gold medals in alpine skiing. Since it was the first Winter Olympics to be broadcast by ABC via color television signals, he swept the country overnight, signing up to a prestigious IM agency. Since then, his face has appeared in ads for American Express, United Airlines, Chevrolet and others, and has appeared in several movies and TV series. Rolex has produced a watch series named after him, and a reporter once described in the article that Keeley passed by on the ski slope after retiring: "His figure flashed by, fast and steady, but he frequently stopped to check the Rolex watch on his wrist." ”
Everything about speed and passion seems to be related to Killy: at the height of his ski career, he briefly drove a car. In 1967, he drove a Porsche 911 to the Targa Florio, which was known as the toughest car race in Europe, and finished seventh; in the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans. He also served as CEO of the Tour de France.
Now when you go skiing in the French Alps, you'll find more than one ski resort named after him.
Ade Shenko Ard Schenk
16 September 1944, Netherlands
He is more often mentioned by his nickname Apollo on Ice. With a height of 1.9 meters and blonde hair and blue eyes, as soon as he appeared at the speed skating competition scene of the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, japanese female spectators began to scream uncontrollably. He became the biggest star at the Winter Olympics after dominating speed skating at three consecutive World Championships. In Sapporo, he was on the top podium three times.
Shenko was named Dutch Athlete of the Year for three consecutive years and has earned more than 20 world records. The Dutch, who love gardening, in order to express their love for Shenko, named the marigold crocus that bloomed in winter after him. A pop song written to him also topped the Dutch music charts.
Mike Eruzione
October 25, 1954, Usa
In the 1980 Winter Olympics hockey semifinals, the United States team won a thrilling victory over the former Soviet Union, which was called the "ice miracle". The young team has since naturally won the championship. Eruzioni was the captain of that championship team, and his feat in that battle of the century was to score a winning goal for his team. A descendant of Italian descent, he was born into a noisy, low-income family, his father worked in a sewage factory, worked part-time as a wine maintenance worker, and his family, but Eruzioni's path to the pursuit of his hockey dreams was never blocked.
"Miracles on Ice" was later brought to the screen, and two years ago, his autobiography with another author, "The Story Never Told by the Captain of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team in 1980," quickly climbed to the best-seller list. In addition to recalling the details of that semi-final, he also recorded the team's struggle experience along the way. He said he hopes that in the future, when his grandchildren read the book, they will know that there are many wonderful experiences in his life besides that key goal.
Thomas Wassberg
27 March 1956, Sweden
The Swedish cross-country skier competed in three Winter Olympics in 1980, 1984 and 1988, winning four gold medals and was the standard-bearer of the Swedish delegation to the 1988 Winter Olympics. Probably one of the most Olympic-minded champions in the history of the Winter Olympics, he is best known for winning the 1980 Winter Olympics by a 0.01 second victory over Finnish athletes in the 15 km cross-country ski race, and he then suggested to the other side that the gold medal be divided equally, because "one hundredth of a second in a 15 km race is nothing at all". But his proposal was rejected by the IOC, but the incident led the International Ski Federation to change the timing method.
In 1980, Vasberg won the most important sports achievement medal of the year in Sweden, but his teammates did not win this medal, and he immediately made the decision not to accept the award.
Ramini Gaiye Lam ine Guèye
Senegal, July 18, 1960
The Senegalese skier first represented his country at the Winter Olympics in 1984, and he was the first black athlete in the history of the Winter Olympics. He was born in Dakar and his grandfather was the leader of the Socialist Movement party in Senegal. When his grandfather died at the age of 8, he was sent to Switzerland to live. That Christmas, he saw snow for the first time in his life. At the age of 17, he approached the International Ski Federation and expressed his idea of forming the Senegalese Ski Federation, which everyone thought was joking. With his tireless efforts, the Federation was founded in 1979. He retired briefly after the 1984 Winter Olympics, but was inspired to return to skiing four years later when he saw the Jamaican snow team competing in the Winter Olympics in front of the television. At the 1992 Winter Olympics, he participated in 5 skiing events. Two years later, he reappeared at the Winter Olympics.
For many years, Guyer has been committed to equality for African athletes. After the reform of the qualification for the Winter Olympic Games, only 3 African athletes qualified for the Winter Olympics in 1994, compared with 19 in the previous edition. Guyer has always been outraged by this reform, and has written to former IOC President Rogge, "Until the 1992 Winter Olympics, each country could send four athletes to compete in every alpine skiing event, so we believed we were treated equally." But this is the last real Winter Olympics. ”
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