MIT Olympians

MIT Olympians Since everyone seems to have Olympic fever these days (Michael Phelps! Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh! Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin!), I thought Id take a look back at MIT athletes who have participated in the Olympics. Now I know that many of you may be thinking that MIT is more likely to be in the Science Olympiad or the International Math Olympiad than the actual Olympics, but heres the official tally: 22 MIT alumni representing 8 different countries have competed in 27 Olympic Games in 9 different sports and have won 4 medals including 2 Gold Medals Perhaps unsurprisingly, more than half of the competitors, and all but one of the medals, have come from the pirate sports of rowing, sailing, fencing and rifle. Were pretty good at the pirate sports: rowing and fencing are Division I sports; we are the birthplace of intercollegiate sailing; and were really good at shooting (weve won the national championship in pistol 2 of the last 4 years). Heres the rundown by sport: Rowing: 7 MIT rowers, 10 Olympic Games Sailing: 6 MIT sailors, 7 Olympic Games, 1 medal Fencing: 2 MIT fencers, 2 medals Track and Field: 2 MIT athletes, 1 medal Skiing: 1 MIT skier, 2 Olympic Games Rifle: 1 MIT marksman Skeleton: 1 MIT slider Tae Kwon Do: 1 MIT Taekwondoist Wrestling: 1 MIT wrestler Two interesting stories come from our track and field athletes. Thomas Pelham Curtis, MIT Class of 1894, won the Gold Medal in the 110 meter hurdles (Liu Xiangs event) at the very first modern Olympic Games in 1896. His time was 17.6 seconds. By comparison, Lius world record time recorded 110 (!) years later was 12.88 seconds. You can read Curtiss account of the 1896 Olympics in a column he wrote for MITs alumni magazine, Technology Review. Some quick, fun facts about Curtiss participation: He traveled to Europe from the US by steamship Times in running events were relatively slow, since the track was soft since the Stadium had not been fully completed He was given the Gold Medal by the King of Greece himself The other MIT track and field Olympian was Henry Steinbrenner 27. The surname Steinbrenner is quite familiar to baseball fans: George Steinbrenner, and his sons Hank and Hal Steinbrenner, has owned the New York Yankees since 1973. Where do you think George got the money to buy the team? Well, Henry used his MIT education in marine engineering to run the very successful Kinsman Marine Transit Company. Later, George took over and used the some of the business fortune to purchase the Yankees. Henry Steinbrenner made such an impact on MIT athletics that MITs football and track field stadium is named for him: Henry G. Steinbrenner Stadium. The most recent Olympian was Pat Antaki 84, who competed in the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics. Sadly, there are no MIT people in the 2008 Summer Games, but we had 3 representatives in the 2004 Summer Games. What will happen in the 2010 and 2012 Games? Stay tuned