47 replies to this topic

[Soaring]

I thought that I would start a thread about people who became famous for their work outside of being an Olympian.


My first submission is General George Patton - WWII



He participated in the Stockholm 1912 Olympics for modern pentathlon.



What other famous people were Olympians?

Edited by Soaring, 16 November 2011 - 01:51 PM.

[faster]

Johnny Weissmuller, 5 time Olympic Gold medalist and the most famous Tarzan (appear in 12 films)
Buster Crabbe, Olympic champion and movie star in the 30's and 40's.
Pal Schmitt, two-time Gold medalist, and current president of Hungary.

[Sir Rols]

I think I mentioned in an "olympians in politics" thread earlier this year, that in Oz, Marjorie Jackson and John Landy both went on to become State governors in Oz, while Ron Clarke and Dawn Fraser both went into politics.

Sonja Henie went from skating superstar to Hollywood aspiring star (not sure if I'd call her a screen legend).


Bruce Jenner won gold at Montreal, appeared with the Village People in Can't Stop the Music and is now entabgled with the Kardashians.


And, of course, Nicki Webster found fame at the Sydney 2000 opening, and has since soared to become a mens mag pin-up model and a Dancing With The Stars contestant.



I hear Seb Coe went on to become an events organiser.

Edited by Sir Rols, 16 November 2011 - 05:25 PM.

[deawebo]

Jaques Rogge LOL, he wasnt really succesful as a sportsman, but he is now the most important in sports now.

This does not have to do with sports... The gorgeos miss venezuela who became miss world was studing to be a nun that's shocking...

[Sir Rols]

Jaques Rogge LOL, he wasnt really succesful as a sportsman, but he is now the most important in sports now.

Avery Brundage was an athlete in 1912 as well. Actually, anybody else know if any other IOC presidents started of as Olympian athletes?

[baron-pierreIV]

On the lower luminary scale:

Dr. Benjamin Spock was an O.;

Little known but fascinating fact: Alfred Carlton Gilbert was in the first ever gold medal tie in the Olympics -- in pole vault with fellow Yank Edward Cook at London 1908. Gilbert went on to invent the Erector set toy. By winning in 1908, he continued the longest-held gold medal record by one country in one sport in the Olympics.

From 1896 to 1968, US male pole vaulters brought home the gold...and in many cases, gold AND silver, until the controversial Munich 1972* when the Federation changed the rules for the kind of permissible Poles to be used--and all on a complaint by that old evil empire, East Germany. Long and short of it, after a lot of back and forth, etc., but all really suspicious, an East German broke the 72-year record of the US in this sport, but silver and bronze were won by 2 U.S. men who, were it not for the shenanigans instigated by the East Germans, would probably have taken home the gold and silver, and extending that record streak for another 4 years to 76 years. Starting with the Moscow boycott, U.S. men did not win the pole-vault again until Sydney 2000 when the US took gold and silver again.

Strange note: A Frenchman, Pierre Quinon, denied Mike Tully and Earl Bell the gold and silver on home soil in 1984. (Tully and Bell had to settle for silver and bronze.) However, just this past August, M. Quinon committed suicide. Was he feeling guilty that he denied 2 Americans what should have been theirs in 1984? I sure hope he was!!

*There are were just TOO MANY things wrong with Munich 1972, the killings, the cheating of the US teams in basketball and pole-vaulting for the city to be a worthy candidate for Winter 2022.

(Am too lazy rite now to delve into my records.)

And of course, Tonya Harding...bad-ass b*tch!!

[Sir Rols]

Actually, talking about Munich, didn't Mark Spitz have a short lived acting career in some 70s cop show?

[baron-pierreIV]

Actually, talking about Munich, didn't Mark Spitz have a short lived acting career in some 70s cop show?

I know Jenner did. Spitz may have guested in a couple of shows but he concentrated on his dentistry career and just indulged in celebrity spotlight when I think it made him some extra $$.

[Sir Rols]

There's also Monaco's most famous Olympic bobsledder:



And his mum's, Princess Grace's, father and brother, both Jack Kelly's, were Olympic rowers.

Edited by Sir Rols, 16 November 2011 - 07:59 PM.

[deawebo]

This is not going to be another discution on why Munich is not good, in fact it is PAST.