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Most powerful & inspiring moments in Olympic history!

Rio Olympics

GDN Online DeskWed, 10 Aug 2016Wed, 10 Aug 2016

“With so many people saying it couldn’t be done,

all it takes is an imagination.”

These were the words of ace swimmer Michael Phelps when he shattered Mark Spitz's 36-year-old record of seven gold medals at a single Games in 2008 Beijing Olympics.

And that’s the true spirit of Olympic Games, to strive for excellence and perfection, overcoming all hardships.

Here is a compilation of such inspiring moments from Olympic history when athletes who gave everything they had to their sport but never gave up and etched their names in history forever.

Let's start with the USA's Dave Wottle, the man who miraculously turned the outcome of an 800m race in the very last lap!

Continue to read more

Dave Wottle made up a 10-meter deficit on the final lap to win Olympic gold in the 800-meter race in 1972. (AP Photo)

Dave Wottle was born in 1950 in Canton, Ohio and took up running in childhood on the advice of his family physician because he was so feeble.

(Click here to watch Dave Wottle race in Munich Olympics)

Little did he know then that 22 years later he will face the greatest race of his life.

However, battling a knee injury and amidst claims of losing focus post marriage, Dave was not amongst the favourites for a podium finish in the 800m race.

Critics definitely had the ‘told you so’ grin on their faces as Dave was seen chasing the pack for a major part of the race.

But Dave went into overdrive towards the dying end of the event.

At 100m from the finish line, Dave is seen picking up and leaving the competition behind. Now the unmistakable man with a cap had the attention of everyone. With 50m left, he booked a podium finish. But a gold still looked out of reach.

However, Dave was in no mood to settle for anything other than gold that day, he crossed the finish line just 0.03 seconds before the second best runner of that race.

Former gymnastics star Kerri Strug, who vaulted into Olympic history on an injured ankle in 1996 to secure a first U.S. women's team gold medal, has parlayed that defining moment into a career motivating youth to work hard and do their best.

(Click here to watch the video)

At the 1996 Atlanta Games the 18-year-old Strug vaulted once in the team competition, injuring her ankle as she fell on the landing. The United States team needed a higher score so her coach Bela Karolyi sent a limping Strug down the runway to vault again. She took a deep breath, sprinted, spun in the air, and landed solidly on both feet. The vault left Strug with three torn ligaments in her ankle.

Her score allowed the U.S. women to overcome decades of gymnastics domination by the former Soviet Union, its successor Russia, and Romania.

-Reuters

Jesse Owens at the start of his record-breaking 200 meter race at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. (Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons)

The 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin were the birth of the modern games.

The six-day event was the first to be broadcast and the first to hold the ceremonial torch relay.

(Click here to watch Jesse Owens in action at the Berlin Olympics)

Participating in such a big event would have been nerve-racking for the athletes, and the presence of Adolf Hitler only added to it.

However, a young man from USA named Jesse Owens was not fazed by the majestic grandeur of the event or the presence of Hitler.

The 22-year-old went on to win gold in the 100m, 200m and 4×100m relays and long jump.

Even though Germany won more medals, Owens was the most successful athlete at the games. He has been credited with single-handedly crushing Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy.

Derek Redmond being helped to the finish line by his father, Jim. (AFP Photo)

Derek Redmond will always be remembered as the athlete who despite injury and excruciating pain kept going on to reach the finish line in the 1992 Olympics.

(Click here to watch Derek Redmond race)

It was this moment that Derek’s dad burst through security and onto the track to help his son finish the race.

The poignant visuals of a father helping his limping son to finish his race became an inseparable part of Olympic history.

(AP Photo)

Gabriela Andersen-Schiess was one of the runners who participated in the first women’s Olympic Marathon. Fourteen minutes into the 1984 Olympic marathon, Joan Benoit began to pull away from the rest of the pack. Benoit eventually won the race in 2 hours, 24 minutes, and 52 seconds. Twenty minutes after Benoit crossed the finish line, Schiess entered the stadium limping with a twisted torso.

(Click here to watch the video)

She refused to take help from medics, knowing well that she will be disqualified if they touched her.

It took Schiess five minutes and 44 seconds to complete the final lap and finish 37^th, ahead of seven others.

Diver Greg Louganis, of the United States, hits the end of the springboard with his head during preliminary competition at the Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, in this 19 Sept 1988 photo.
(AP Photo)

Greg Louganis is one of the last U.S. divers to triumph at the Olympics, and many call him the best diver ever.

At the 1988 Games in Seoul, South Korea, he hit his head on the springboard in a preliminary round and had stitches.

(Click here to watch the video)

Many feared this would end Louganis campaign at the games. But the incident didn’t shake a determined Louganis from getting a gold medal.

Billy Mills (AP photo)

Billy Mills qualified for the 1964 Summer Olympics on the US Track and Field Team in the 10,000 meter and the marathon. The favorite in 1964 for the 10,000 m was Ron Clarke of Australia, who held the world record. The runners expected to challenge him were defending champion Pyotr Bolotnikov of the Soviet Union, and Murray Halberg of New Zealand, who had won the 5,000 m in 1960.

(Click here to watch Billy Mills race in the Tokyo Olympics)

Mills was a virtual unknown. He had finished second in the US Olympic trials. His time in the preliminaries was a full minute slower than Clarke's.

The main race was completely dominated by Clarke as expected. However, as completion kept fading away in the 10,000m race, Mills and Clarke were running together with Gammoudi right behind as they entered the final lap.

But soon it looked like a competition between Clarke and Gammoudi for the top spot as Mills was lagging behind the box.

The situation for mills was not looking good, it was then he shifted lane and surged ahead to win gold.

Mills became the first American to win the 10,000m race.

Michael Phelps at 2008 Beijing Olympics (Reuters Photo)

On August 17, 2008, Michael Phelps created history winning his eighth gold medal in the 4×100-meter medley relay, breaking Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals won in a single Olympic Games, which had stood since 1972.

(Click to watch Phelps' 4X100m relay final in Beijing Olympics)

Phelps, along with teammates set a new world record in the event with a time of 3 minutes and 29.34 seconds, 0.7 seconds ahead of second-place Australia.

When Phelps dived in to swim the 100-meter butterfly leg, the third leg of the 400-meter medley, the United States had been trailing Australia and Japan. Phelps completed his split in 50.1 seconds, the fastest butterfly split ever for the event, giving teammate Jason Lezak a more than half-second lead for the final leg, which he held onto to clinch the event in world record time.

(Reuters Photo)

Florence Griffith Joyner's career was as brief as it was colourful. The Californian sprinter was known more for her outrageous outfits and long, painted fingernails as much as she was recognised for her sprinting achievements.

But all that stopped in 1988, when the Flo-Jo phenomenon took root amid a string of incredible performances culminating in double sprint gold at the Olympic Games in Seoul.

(Click here to watch Florence race in the Seoul Olympics)

She was undoubtedly a sprinter of note, claiming silver in the 200m at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and again earning the runners-up spot in the world championships in Rome three years later.

But it was in the relatively humble surrounds of the US Olympic trials in 1988 that she made her astonishing breakthrough.

In the heats of the 100m she broke the world record held by compatriot Evelyn Ashford, knocking almost three tenths off the previous mark with an unheard of time of 10.49secs.

- www.olympic.org

“With so many people saying it couldn’t be done,

all it takes is an imagination.”

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