The Olympic Dictionary E

EAGAN EDWARD PATRICK FRANCIS “EDDIE” (boxing, USA, b. Denver, , 26/4/1898, d. Rye, New York, 14/6/1967). Two Olympic appearances (1920, 1924) and one (medium heavyweight 81 kg, 1920). The only athlete to win a gold medal in both the Summer and Winter Games. At he beat South African Holdstock, British Franks, and, in the final, the Norwegian Sorsdal, taking the medium heavyweight medal. Four years later he moved up one category, but lost in the first round with British boxer Clifton (who had to withdraw after that very tough match). In 1932 he took part in the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, winning the four-man bobsled with Billy Fiske, Clifford Grey and Jay O’Brien (an unlucky team: all except Eagan died between 1940 and 1941). He grew up in a poor family, and studied at Yale, Harvard and Oxford, becoming a successful lawyer. He lived according to the precepts of Frank Merriwell, a hero of popular novels set in Yale “with the body of Tarzan and the brain of Einstein”. In 1932 he wrote, “I have never smoked tobacco, because Frank doesn’t. I drank my only glass of wine in Europe: Frank never drinks”.

EAST 409 medals: 153 gold, 129 silver, 127 bronze. Best Olympics: Moscow 1980, with 47 gold, 37 silver and 42 bronze medals. Best sport: track & field, with 38 gold, 36 silver and 35 bronze medals. Most decorated athlete: (q.v.), , with 6 gold medals (50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 100 , 100 butterfly, 4x100 freestyle, 4x100 medley in 1988). The Olympic Committee was formed in 1951, and the following year, at the Games, Germany took part with a unified team, though in actual fact the East German athletes refused to participate. From 1956 (one year after the IOC had recognized the GDR), at the 1964 Games, Unified Germany won 118 medals, of which 42 were won by East German athletes (the first gold was won in boxing by Wolfgang Behrendt, bantamweight 54 kg, in 1956). In 1968, at the Games, the two Germanys attended separately for the first time, but with the same national anthem and the same flag; the IOC forced the Eastern bloc team to compete with the name East Germany. Between 1972 and 1988 (excepting the 1984 boycott), the Democratic Republic of Germany took part in the Olympics with its own name, anthem and flag.

EAST TIMOR (Democratic Republic of East Timor, Asia, capital Dili, area 14.604 km2, population 1.154.776). In 2000, 4 athletes were admitted to the Sydney Games, competing under the abbreviation IOA (Independent Olympic Athletes). The Olympic Committee, formed in 2003 (one year after official independence), received IOC recognition the same year: East Timor was able to send 2 athletes, competing under the country’s own name, to the 2004 Olympics.

ECONOMICS and FINANCE See Television.

ECUADOR (Republic of Ecuador, South America, capital Quito, area 256.370 km2, population 13,341,199). Medals: one, the gold won by Jefferson Perez for the 20 km walk in 1996. Ecuador had 3 athletes at the Games as early as 1924, but its Olympic Committee was formed only in 1948 and it obtained IOC recognition in 1959. Ecuador returned to the Olympics and from then on it has always taken part.

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EDSTRÖM JOHANNES SIGFRID (IOC president, Sweden, b. Morlanda 21/11/1870, d. 18/3/1964). In 1921 he was elected a member of the IOC. He became part of its executive board in the same year, and was vice-president from 1937 and in 1946, at the first IOC congress after the war, he was elected president by universal approval. He retired in 1952.

EDWARDS JONATHAN (track & field, Great Britain, b. 10/5/1966). Four Olympic appearances (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000), one gold medal (, 2000) and one silver (triple jump, 1996). 1996, 0-1-0, 2000 1-0-0. He only started training seriously for the triple jump in 1986, when he was already 20: previously he had played cricket, basketball and rugby. He made his debut at the Games in Seoul in 1988, but he reached only 15.88 and did not qualify for the final. Likewise in Barcelona, 1992, he did not reach the finals, jumping just 15.76. Son of an Anglican priest, up until the 1993 World Championships in he did not compete on Sundays, a day to be dedicated to the Lord. “My faith has developed, and I realized, partly through discussing it with other people, that I could make that choice, because I was not committing a sin. I was not going against religion by taking part in a sports activity on Sundays. In addition, I have the duty to express the talent that God gave me, because otherwise I would be limiting myself as a man”. He was the favourite at the 1996 Atlanta Games: in Salamanca one year previously he had jumped 17.98, 1 cm further than Willie Banks’ world record; a few weeks later he won the World Championship in Gothenburg, exceeding the 18 metre mark and setting 2 world records within the space of 25 minutes (18.16, 18.29, still standing today). When he arrived in Atlanta he had not been beaten for 22 competitions, but he jumped no further than 17.88 and came second behind American Kenny Harrison. He succeeded in winning the Olympic gold in Sydney, 2000, at the age of 34, with 17.71, beating Cuban Yoel Garcia and Russian Denis Kapustin. As well as his 2 Olympic medals, during his career he won 2 world titles (1995-2001), as well as a silver (1997) and 2 bronze (1993-1999) World Championship medals; and one gold (1998) and one bronze (2002) in the European Championships. Plus an indoor world silver, a European indoor gold (1998) and a gold and 2 silvers at the Commonwealth Games (2002).

EDWARDS TERESA (basketball, USA, b. Cairo, Georgia, 19/7/1964). Five Olympic appearances (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000), 4 gold medals (1984, 1988, 1996, 2000) and a (1992). 1984 1-0-0, 1988 1-0-0, 1992 0-0-1, 1996 1-0-0, 2000 1-0-0. She is the only player, men included, to have won four gold medals for basketball. She played 32 matches at the Games, winning 31 and losing (79-73) just the 1992 semi-final against the Soviet team, scoring a total of 265 points with an average of 8.2 per match. At the end of her last Games, after the final in which the USA beat Australia 76-54 in Sydney, after all the other players had returned to the changing rooms, she remained seated alone at the centre of the basketball court to savour the satisfaction for her fourth success. She also won 2 World Championship gold medals (1986-90) and a bronze medal (1994) with the US team, with which she took part in 18 international events winning 14, with one silver and 3 bronze medals in the other 4 tournaments. When she was on the roster, the USA won 205 matches (46 consecutive matches between 1983 and 1991) and lost just 14. Her record in the 216 matches played is 2,008 points (an average of 9.3), 890 assists and 576 rebounds. She was still at college (twice in the Final Four with the Georgia Bulldogs) when she took part in her first Olympics. She has played in (Vicenza and Magenta), Japan, and ; in the USA she was player-coach for Atlanta Glory in the ABL for three seasons (1997-99), and she was invited to join the WNBA only when she was almost 39, in 2003, by Suzie McConnell Serio, with whom she had played in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics. In two seasons with Minnesota, she played 73 matches, including playoffs, scoring 401 points; then she became assistant-coach for the same team, Lynx, in 2006.

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EGERSZEGI KRISZTINA (swimming, , b. 16/8/1974). Three Olympic appearances (1988, 1992, 1996), 5 gold medals (200 backstroke 1988, 1992 and 1996, 100 backstroke 1992, 400 medley 1992), one silver (100 backstroke 1988), one bronze (400 medley 1996). 1988 1-1-0, 1992 3-0-0, 1996 1-0-1. Her coach, Lászlo Kiss, noticed her at the pool when she was just 4. A child prodigy, in 1988 she won the 200 backstroke at the Seoul Games, becoming the youngest swimming Olympian at the age of 14 years and 40 days (record beat of 34 days by Japanese Iwasaki, gold in 200 breaststroke in 1992). In the same edition she won a silver medal in the 100 backstroke, behind East German Kristin Otto (q.v.). Nicknamed Little Mouse (“eger” in Hungarian means “mouse”), she did even better in Barcelona, 1992, where she won the 100 backstroke, 200 backstroke and 400 medley. “She lives like a dancer”, said her coach Kiss, “in the water she is always smiling, but there is a lot of sacrifice behind the scenes. Swimming is a monotonous sport, it can burn you out mentally, there is a lot of psychological work to be done. When she can’t stand it any more, I let her go to the cinema…”. At Atlanta 1996, even though she was just 22, she took part in her last Olympics: “Next season will be my last”, she said before the Games, “I want to retire, carrying on would not be right neither for my body nor for those around me”. In America she won the 200 backstroke for the third time in a row (something that had been achieved in swimming only by Dawn Fraser q.v. in the 100 freestyle and on the platform by Klaus Dibiasi q.v.) with 2:07.83, and she won bronze medal in the 400 medley. As well as her Olympic titles, she dominated the World and European Championships from 1991 to 1995: in the Worlds, 2 gold medals (100 backstroke 1991, 200 backstroke 1991) and a silver; in the European Championships, 9 gold medals (100 backstroke 1991-93, 200 backstroke 1991-93-95, 400 medley 1991-93-95, 200 butterfly 1993), 4 silver medals. In 1991 she awarded the World record in 100 and 200 backstroke: the last one (2:06.62) being been beat only in 2008.

EGYPT (Arab Republic of Egypt, Africa, capital Cairo, area 1.001,449 km2, population 75.497.914). 22 medals: 7 gold, 7 silver, 8 bronze. Best Olympics: London 1948 with 2 gold medals, 2 silver and one bronze. Best sport: weightlifting, with 5 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals. Most decorated athlete: Ibrahim Hassan Shams, weightlifting, with one gold (lightweight, 67.5 kg, 1948) and one bronze (featherweight, 60 kg, 1936). Egypt took part in the 1896 Games and at the Intermediate Games in 1906 before forming its Olympic Committee in 1910, recognized the same year by the IOC. From 1912 inclusive it missed only the 1932 and 1980 editions (in 1956 it did not take part in the Melbourne Games, but it participated in the riding events in Stockholm; from 1960 to 1968 it competed as the United Arab Republic, UAR, and in 1960 together with Syria; in 1976 it decided to boycott the Games after having already despatched some athletes). It has never hosted the Games, notwithstanding 3 bids by Alexandria and one by Cairo.

EL GUERROUJ HICHAM (track & field, Morocco, b. Berkane 14/9/1974). Three Olympic appearances (1996, 2000, 2004), 2 gold medals (1500 m 2004, 5000 m 2004) and one silver (1500 m 2000). 2000 0-1-0, 2004 2-0-0. After playing football as a child, he began athletics at the age of 13, emulating his idol Said Aouita. At 17 he was already in the junior National squad, with which he won the 5.000 m bronze medal at the 1992 Seoul Junior World Championships, behind (q.v.) and Ismail Kirui. Morocco’s middle distance coach, Abdelkader Kada, persuaded him to abandon the longer distances to concentrate on the 1500, in which he immediately achieved good results, winning the gold medal at the 1995 indoor World Championships. He made his Olympic debut at Atlanta 1996, where he was competing against Algerian , who had dominated this event in the first half of the 1990s. At Atlanta El Guerrouj had a better seasonal best, but in the final stages of the race, his attack launched 450 metres from the finish ended with a fall, caused by contact with Morceli, who went on to win the race. Over the next four years the Moroccan dominated the distance, setting the world record in Rome in 1998 (3:26.00). But he failed yet again at the Sydney 2000 Games, beaten at the final by Kenyan Noah Kiprono Ngeny. He achieved his goal of gold on his last attempt, Athens 2004, when as a result of

58 The Olympic Dictionary an allergy that had taken its toll over previous months, he was not included in the list of favourites. But he actually won a double (like q.v. in 1924), winning the 1500 in 3:34.18, staying ahead of Kenyan ’s final attack, and the 5000 in 13:14.39, concluding a tactically complex race with a sprint finish. Satisfied with these performances, he did not compete for six months, later starting to train but without enthusiasm. In 2006 he announced his retirement. During his pursuit of the Olympic gold, he also attained 4 World Championship titles in the 1500 (1997- 1999-2001-2003) and 2 silver medals, 3 World indoor titles (1500 m in 1995 and 1997, 3000 m in 2001). He holds the World record in 1500 m (3:26.00 achieved in 1998), mile (3:43.13 in 1999), 2000 m (4:44.79 in 1999), 1500 indoor (3:31.18 in 1997) and mile indoor (3:48.45 in 1997).

EL SALVADOR (Republic of El Salvador, Central America, capital San Salvador, area 21,041 km2, population 6.857.330). Its Olympic Committee was formed in 1949, and IOC recognition arrived in 1962. Took part in its first Olympics in 1968, before missing the 1976 and 1980 Games. No medals.

ELEK-SCHACHERER ILONA (fencing, Hungary, b. Budapest 17/5/1907, d. Budapest 24/7/1988). Three Olympic appearances (1936, 1948 and 1952), 2 gold medals (individual foil 1936 and 1948) and one silver (individual foil 1952). 1936 1-0-0, 1948 1-0-0, 1952 0-1-0. She began top- level competition only when she was 26. Between 1934 and 1935 she won 4 gold medals, individual and team, in the European Championships which could at that time be considered as World Championships; and she won a team silver medal in 1936, the year in which she took part in and won her first Olympics. She beat the German Mayer and the Austrian Preis, gold medallists in 1928 and 1932 respectively, and lost just one assault in 7 in the final round (with German Hass, who finished fourth). She did not compete in the next two editions due to the war, but won gold medal again in 1948 (again with 6 victories out of 7), beating Dane Lachmann, silver medallist, 4-2 in the last deciding match. In 1952, at the age of 45, she looked likely to win gold for the third time, with 20 victories in her first 20 assaults, but she lost the last two in the final round with American Mitchell and Italian Camber (q.v.), and was beaten again by the Italian, 4-3, in the tie for the gold medal. In the World Championships she won 6 gold medals (individual in 1951, team in 1937-52- 53-54-55), 4 silver and 2 bronze medals; and she won 5 individual titles in the Hungarian championships. She won many of her team medals with her sister Margit, who came second behind her at the 1934 European Championships and sixth in the 1948 Olympic final.

ELVSTRØM PAUL BERT (sailing, , b. Hellerup today Gentofte 25/2/1928). Eight Olympic appearances (1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1968, 1972, 1984, 1988) and 4 gold medals (Finn 1948, 1952, 1956 and 1960). 1948 1-0-0, 1952 1-0-0, 1956 1-0-0, 1960 1-0-0). With (q.v.) for the discus and (q.v.) for the long jump, he holds the record of 4 consecutive Olympic gold medals in the same individual race. However Paul Elvstrøm was the first to achieve it, dominating Finn class sailing from 1948 (when it was called Firefly) to 1960. From when he was a child he spent more time in boats than on dry land: at the age of 11 he joined the Yacht Club in Hellerup, his city of birth, and learnt sailing in the junior boats. He won his first races with a boat given to him by a friend. “At school I was at the bottom of the class. So I tried to express myself in other ways, I spent hours sitting on a rowing boat watching the sea. I was a fighter by nature: for this reason, I decided that I would do everything possible to become a successful yachtsman”. His first important result was an Olympic gold at the 1948 London Games. Even taking part was no mean feat: first he had to persuade his employer (he worked as a carpenter in ) to give him special leave for the duration of the Games, and then he had to convince the Danish Royal Yacht Club to send him to the Games, even though he was young and spoke little English. “We will be happy if you don’t come last”, they told him before he left for London. At Torquay, where the sailing events of the Games were being held, he did badly in the first regatta, but then improved and by the fifth day of racing he was in fifth place. On the sixth day he won his first regatta and moved

59 The Olympic Dictionary into third place, and then he actually won the gold medal, overtaking American Ralph Evans who had been first up until then, on the last day of competition. He won gold medals in the next three editions of the Games: in Helsinki, 1952, and Rome, 1960, he had such a lead over his immediate rivals that he didn’t need to race in the last regatta (and he did so in 1960 indeed). In 1954 he started making sails, and he transformed his home into a workshop where he designed, invented and studied technological innovations for boats and clothing for yachtsmen. He won 13 world titles in different classes: 505 (1957-58), Finn (1958-59), Snipe (1959), Flying Dutchman (1962), 5.5 (1966), Star (1966-67), Soling (1969-74), and Half Tonner (1971-81); he also conquered 8 European titles. In Tokyo, 1964, he was only a reserve due to a serious accident that had temporarily halted his racing, while in Mexico City, 1968, he came fourth in the Star class with Mik Meyer. In Munich 1972, where he raced in the Soling class, he was involved in an accident with the French crew and he finished thirteenth. In 1984, at the age of 56, he took part in the Los Angeles Games in the Tornado class, racing with Inge Trine, his fourth and last daughter from her marriage with Anne: with his wife he achieved 2 European golds (1983-84). “Living with five women drives you crazy”, he explained to those who asked him whether he had not become tired of regattas all over the world. In Los Angeles, Elvstrøm and his daughter, the only father-daughter pair to have taken part in the Games, finished in fourth place, at 7/10 points from the bronze medal. They tried again in 1988, Elvstrøm’s eighth Olympiad, 40 years after the first, but they were placed only fifteenth. In 1996 he was elected “Danish sportsman of the century”.

ENDER KORNELIA (swimming, Germany, b. Plauen Im Vogtland, former East Germany, 25/10/1958). Two Olympic appearances (1972, 1976), 4 gold medals (100 freestyle 1976, 200 freestyle 1976, 100 butterfly 1976, 4x100 medley 1976) and 4 silver medals (200 medley 1972, 4x100 freestyle relay 1972 and 1976, 4x100 medley relay 1972). 1972 0-3-0, 1976 4-1-0. She made her appearance in 1971, winning the gold medal in the 200 medley at the junior European Championships. A year later, before she had reached her 14th birthday, she was one of the stars at the Munich Games: she won the silver medal in the 200 medley (behind Australia’s (q.v.) and 2 relays behind USA. As for all the female athletes from East Germany in the 1970s and 1980s, her career, very short but extraordinarily successful, was in part tarnished by doubts on state doping. “Something was wrong”, she said in 1990 in an interview with the Gazzetta dello Sport, talking about her wrist injury and her preparations for the Montreal Games. “I was training hard to recover. But I was stronger than usual. I was developing large muscles that I had never had previously. My weight increased from 70 to 78 kilos, an anomalous increase that could not have been due simply to my normal physical development. When I looked in the mirror I felt that I could see male characteristics that I had never had previously. It was not a pleasant sensation. I could not be sure. But that was one of the reasons why I gave it all up. I was feverish, my liver was struggling. I thought about all the medicines that they had given me”. But her style and femininity set her apart from her colleagues in the DDR team, who were more muscular and masculine. She reached the height of her career in Montreal, at the age of 17. She began with a victory in the 4x100 medley relay (4:07.95, world record, ahead of ), then she won the 100 freestyle (55.65, world record, ahead of her team mate Petra Priemer), the 100 butterfly (1:00.13, world record, ahead of her team mate Andrea Pollack) and 27 minutes later, she did the same in the 200 freestyle (1:59.26, world record, ahead of the American Shirley Babashoff q.v.). The only race in which she didn’t succeed was the 4x100 freestyle relay, in which her team mates were unable to preserve the over 2 metre lead attained by Ender on the first leg, and they came second behind the United States. After the Games she decided to retire, satisfied with her sports victories but weary of the martial regime and the prohibition on travel except for competition. “In the Klubs, where top sports were practiced, there were Stasi collaborators, paid to monitor National squad athletes. They checked the post, listened to phone calls and spied on private life”. Not even government pressure – they wanted her to win more victories at Moscow, 1980 – and the limitations that the regime forced upon her to make her change her mind had any effect. As well as her Olympic medals, she retired having won 8

60 The Olympic Dictionary world titles (100 freestyle 1973-75, 100 butterfly 1973-75, 4x100 freestyle 1973-75, 4x100 medley 1973-75), 2 World Championship silvers, 4 European titles (100 freestyle, 200 freestyle, 4x100 freestyle and 4x100 medley, all in 1974) and 29 world records (10 in 100 m freestyle, 4 in 200 m freestyle, one in 100 m backstroke, 6 in 100 m butterfly, 2 in 200 medley, 3 in 4x100 freestyle relay and 3 in 4x100 medley relay). After her retirement, she married Roland Matthes (q.v.), German swimming star with 8 Olympic medals in swimming; they had a daughter, Franziska, but separated in 1982. With her second husband, ex decathlon athlete and bobsled world champion Steffen Grummt, she had her second daughter, Tiffany. In 1990, after the fall of the Wall, she moved to Mainz, in what was previously West Germany, and taught swimming.

ENDO YUKIO (gymnastics, Japan, b. Akita 18/1/1937). Three appearances (1960, 1964, 1968), 5 gold medals (individual all-round 1964, parallel bars 1964, team 1960, 1964 and 1968) and 2 silver medals (floor exercise 1964, vault 1968). 1960 1-0-0, 1964 3-1-0, 1968 1-1-0. He made his international debut at the Rome Olympics, where he won a gold medal with Japan, attaining the third best score in the team and fifth best overall. Four years later, in Tokyo, he won 3 gold medals, including the individual all-around, 55 hundredths of a point ahead of the two Soviets, Lisitsky and Shaklin, and the other Japanese Tsurumi. In the World Championships he won 3 gold (floor exercise 1962, team 1962-66), 5 silver and 2 bronze medals; he was all-round champion of Japan 4 times.

ENGEL KRÄMER INGRID (diving, Germany, b. Dresden, former East Germany, 29/7/1943). Three appearances (1960, 1964, 1968), 3 gold medals (springboard 1960 and 1964, platform 1960) and one silver (platform 1964). 1960 2-0-0, 1964 1-1-0. At the age of 15 she came fourth in platform diving at the European Championships, having lead until the last dive. Then she took part in 3 Olympics, under 3 different names. As Krämer she won two gold medals in 1960, breaking America’s run of 8 springboard victories; as Engel (having married a wrestler) she won the 3 metres event in 1964, and ended up 1.35 points behind American Lesley Bush in the platform; and as Gulbin (surname of her second husband) she came fifth in the springboard in 1968. She also won 2 European gold medals in 1962.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA (Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Africa, capital Malabo, area 28.051 km2, 507.497 inhabitants). The Olympic Committee was formed in 1980 and recognised by the IOC in 1984, and from that year Equatorial Guinea has competed in all the Games since 1984, without winning any medals.

EQUESTRIAN Became part of the Modern Olympics in 1900. After a period of absence, equestrian events returned at Stockholm 1912. Is now regulated by the Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI - www.horsesport.org). Cf. Sports, Section IV.

ERITREA (Republic of Eritrea, Africa, capital Asmara, area 121.100 km2, population 4.850.762). Medals: one (the bronze won by Zersenay Tadesse in the 10.000 metres in 2004). The Olympic Committee was formed in 1996 and recognized by the IOC in 1999. The country took part in the 2000 and 2004 Games, but many Eritrean athletes had competed for before independence, obtained in 1993.

ESTIARTE DUOCASTELLA MANUEL (water polo, Spain, b. Manresa 26/10/1961). Six appearances (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000), one gold (1996) and one silver (1992). 1992 0- 1-0, 1996 1-0-0. The only water polo player to have taken part in 6 Olympiads: 4th in 1980 and 1984, 6th in 1988, his team lost the 1992 final with Italy 9-8 after six periods of extra time, and won the gold medal in 1996 beating Croatia 7-5. He made his final Olympic appearance in 2000 with 4th place (3-8 against Yugoslavia in the final for the bronze medal) a few days before his 39th birthday.

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He was top scorer in four Games (1980 with 21 goals, 1984 with 34, 1988 with 27, 1992 with 22), scoring 127 goals in the 44 matches played, with a record haul of 9 against Brazil in 1984. He played for his country 580 times, scoring 1.561 goals and winning a World Championship gold (1998) and 2 silver medals, and a European silver and 2 bronze medals. With his clubs, he won 9 championships (1980-81-82-83-92 with Barcelona, 1987-97-98 with Pescara, 1991 with Savona), 2 Champion’s Cups (1982 Barcelona, 1988 Pescara), one LEN Cup, 3 Cup Winners’ Cups, 4 European Super Cups, a League Cup in Spain and 5 League Cups in Italy, where he also played with Volturno.

ESTONIA (Republic of Estonia, Europe, capital Tallinn, area 45.227 km2, population 1.335.335). 29 medals: 8 gold, 7 silver, 14 bronze. Best Olympics: Berlin 1936, with 12 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze medals. Best sport: wrestling, with 5 gold, one silver and 4 bronze medals. Most decorated athlete: Kristjan Palusalu (q.v.), wrestling, with 2 gold medals (freestyle and Greco-Roman heavyweight, >87 kg, both in 1936). In 1912, some Estonian athletes took part in the Games for Russia. After independence in 1918, Estonia took part in the 1920, 1924, 1928, 1932 and 1936 Games. After being annexed into the USSR in 1940, Estonian athletes once again competed for that country until 1988. In 1991, the year in which Estonia once again attained independence, it formed its Olympic Committee, immediately recognised by the IOC, then taking part in the 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 Games.

ETHIOPIA (Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Africa, capital , area 1.127.127 km2, population 83.099.188). 31 medals: 14 gold, 5 silver, 12 bronze. Best Olympics: Sydney 2000, winning 4 gold, one silver and 3 bronze medals. Best sport: track & field, in which it won all 31 of its medals. Most decorated athlete: (q.v.) with 2 gold (5000 and 10.000 metres in 1980) and one bronze (10.000 in 1972); Derartu Tulu with 2 gold medals (women’s 10.000 metres in 1992 and 2000) and one bronze (10.000 in 2004). The Olympic Committee, formed in 1948, received IOC recognition in 1954. The country took part in the 1956 Games, missing the 1976, 1984 and 1988 editions (boycotting them for various reasons).

EVANS JANET ELIZABETH (swimming, USA, b. Fullerton, California, 28/8/1971). Three appearances (1988, 1992, 1996), 4 gold medals (400 freestyle 1988, 800 freestyle 1988 and 1992, 400 medley 1988) and one silver (400 freestyle 1992). 1988 3-0-0, 1992 1-1-0. She was already in the water at the age of 2; when she was 3 she had already learnt breast stroke and butterfly; at 15 she set the world records for the 400, 800 and 1500 freestyle, then weighing just 41 kg. The following year she was still less than 46 kg (her height was 1.66) when she won 3 gold medals in Seoul, setting a record for the 400 freestyle, in 4:03.85, beaten only 18 years later by Manaudou. In Barcelona she repeated her success for the 800 and came second to Dagmar Hase by just 19 hundredths of a second in the 400. In 1995, when she came fourth at the national championships, her 8-year unbeaten record in the 800 came to an end: in this distance the following year, at her third Olympiad, she came sixth. She set a total of 7 world records: 2 in the 400, 3 in the 800 (as at the end of 2007, her 1989 time of 8:16.22 had not been beaten) and 2 in the 1500 (her 1988 time of 15:52.10, making her the first woman below 16 minutes, was improved only in 2007 by Kate Ziegler). In the World Championships she won 3 gold medals (400 freestyle in 1991, 800 freestyle in 1991-94), one silver and one bronze, plus 2 gold for short course events; and 45 U.S. titles (only Tracy Caulkins q.v. did better), winning 12 times – and this is an absolute record – in both the 400 and 800 freestyle.

EVANS LEE EDWARD (track & field, USA, b. Madera, California 25/2/1947). One appearance (1968) and 2 gold medals (400 metres and 4x400 relay). After a world record in 1966 with the USA 4x400 (2:59.6, the first time under 3 minutes), he won the 1968 Trials with another record, 44.06, and won the gold medal at Mexico City after having threatened to abandon the competition in

62 The Olympic Dictionary solidarity with Tommie Smith (q.v.) and John Carlos, who were expelled from the Olympic Village for their demonstration in favour of “black power” on the 200 medal podium. Having been persuaded to run, he set a world record of 43.86, which stood for twenty years, beaten only in 1988 by Harry “Butch” Reynolds, who was then disqualified for doping. “I was convinced that someone would shoot me on the podium. I said to myself: Lee, smile, because it’s more difficult to shoot at a man who is smiling”: these are his recollections, following the death threat telegrams signed by the Ku Klux Klan. Two days later, he won the 4x400 with a time of 2:56.16, a record that lasted for 24 years. Only fourth in the 1972 Trials, he was set to run the relay at the Munich Games, but the USA did not take part in the 4x400 because only 3 athletes of the 6 registered for the event remained: Vince Matthew and Wayne Collett were disqualified by the IOC for their behaviour on the podium after the double in the 400, and John Smith had sustained an injury in that final. Evans went on to coach in 20 different countries, guiding Nigeria to Olympic gold in the 4x400 in 1984.

EWRY RAYMOND CLARENCE “RAY” (track & field, USA, b. Lafayette, Indiana, 14/10/1873, d. New York, NY, 1/10/1937). Four appearances (1900, 1904, 1906, 1910), 10 gold medals (standing long jump 1900, 1904, 1906 and 1908, standing high jump 1900, 1904, 1906 and 1908, standing triple jump 1900 and 1904). 1900 3-0-0, 1904 3-0-0, 1906 2-0-0, 1908 2-0-0. Son to parents of American Indian origin, with 10 gold medals in 4 editions he is the athlete with most victories in the history of the , ahead of Finn Paavo Nurmi (q.v.) and American Carl Lewis (q.v.) who both won 9 golds. As a child he ended up in a wheelchair due to a severe attack of poliomyelitis, which almost killed him. He survived, and in order to recover mobility of his legs, his doctors gave him a progressive exercise programme. Ewry went further, training continuously with extraordinary intensity, and by means of this rehabilitation, he not only recovered full use of his legs, but he also developed incredible strength. Having returned to complete health, he enrolled at the Purdue University where he began to play sports, in particular American football. During a match he injured his shoulder and decided to change to track & field in which there is no physical contact. Considering the great strength and elasticity of his legs, his trainers encouraged him to take up standing jumps, which were popular sports in the late 19th-early 20th century. He soon earned the nickname “human frog”. He made his breakthrough in 1898, when, after his degree in engineering, he moved to New York for a job. Here he discovered the existence of the Olympic Games which had just been reintroduced, was fascinated by them, and joined the New York Athletic Club, the most prestigious team in America, to improve his performance and try for the Olympics. That year he won the first of his 15 national titles in standing jumps, eight outdoors and seven indoors. His excellent results persuaded selectors to choose him for the 1900 Games. In France, on 16 July, he won, one after the other, all three standing jump events in the programme: he began with the standing high jump, in which he won and set a new world record, 1.655, in a period in which the record for the high jump was 1.97; he continued with the standing long jump (3.30) and ended with his third gold medal in the standing triple jump (10.58). Height 1.85, ideal weight 73 kg, Ewry repeated the feat of 3 golds in the 1904 St. Louis Games: in the standing long jump he set a new world record (3.476, which stood until 1962), he won the standing high with 1.60 and the standing triple with 10.54. At the intermediate Athens Games, 1906, he once again won the long and high, while the standing triple was no longer included in the Olympic programme. He appeared at his last Olympiad in 1908, London: at the age of about 35, he had to struggle more than usual to win, partly because of the competition of Greek Konstantinos Tsiklitiras, who nonetheless would have to wait for Ewry’s retirement before he could win a gold medal. The London gold medals, for long and high jumps, brought his total of Olympic victories to 10 and confirmed his unbeaten record at the Games. In 1912 he tried to take part in the Stockholm Games, but at the age of 39, his legs had lost power and elasticity, and he was unable to qualify for what would have been his fifth Olympiad. After Stockholm, the standing jump events were discontinued and Ewry retired, continuing to work as an engineer.

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