Ray Ewry

Ray Ewry

Ray Ewry at the 1908 Olympics
Personal information
Born	(1873-10-14)October 14, 1873 Lafayette, Indiana, United States
Died	September 29, 1937(1937-09-29) (aged 63) Long Island, New York, United States
Alma mater	Purdue University
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	79 kg (174 lb)
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	standing high, long and triple jump
Club	Purdue Boilermakers, West Lafayette, Indiana; NYAC, New York
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	sHJ – 1.675 m (1900) sLJ – 3.47 m (1904) sTJ – 10.86 m (1901)
Medal record Representing the  United States Olympic Games 1900 Paris Standing long jump 1900 Paris Standing high jump 1900 Paris Standing triple jump 1904 St. Louis Standing long jump 1904 St. Louis Standing high jump 1904 St. Louis Standing triple jump 1908 London Standing long jump 1908 London Standing high jump Intercalated Games 1906 Athens Standing long jump 1906 Athens Standing high jump

Raymond "Ray" Clarence Ewry (October 14, 1873 – September 29, 1937) was an American track and field athlete who won eight gold medals at the Olympic Games and two gold medals at the Intercalated Games (1906 in Athens). This puts him among the most successful Olympians of all time.

Ewry was born in Lafayette, Indiana, and contracted polio as a young boy. In his childhood, he used a wheelchair, and it was feared that he might become paralysed for life.

However, Ewry did his own exercises and overcame his illness. Ewry attended Purdue University in 1890–1897, where he captained the track and field team, played American football, and became a member of Sigma Nu Fraternity. After receiving a graduate degree in mechanical engineering at Purdue, he moved to New York. There he worked as a hydraulics engineer and became a member of the New York Athletic Club. He specialized in now defunct events, the standing jumps: the standing high jump, the standing long jump and the standing triple jump. These events are identical to their modern, normal versions but are contested without a run-up.

Ewry proved to be the best standing jumper in the world. At his first Olympics, held in Paris (1900), he won gold medals in all three standing jumps. Incidentally, all three finals were held on the same day (July 16).

At the 1904 Summer Olympics, Ewry successfully defended all three of his titles. The standing triple jump event was discontinued after those Olympics, but Ewry continued to dominate the two remaining standing jump events at both the 1906 Intercalated Games and 1908 Games, thus bringing his total to 10 Olympic gold titles including two from the Intercalated Games, the highest number achieved until 2008. The 1906 Intercalated Games are currently not officially recognised by the IOC, although they were organized as an Olympic event by the IOC. Most historians do consider them as real Olympics, though. Even if the 1906 games are removed from his totals, he stands (as of 2008^[update]) as the 12th most successful Olympian of all time in terms of total individual medals and second most successful in terms of individual gold medals. The standing jumping events were no longer held in the Olympics after 1912.