Shorter post today but in keeping with the last few days of publishing the USA Sports Factsheets, here are the Factsheets for the Extreme Sports – freestyle, snowboarding, and short-track. Tomorrow the Nordic Sports, and we will finish on Wednesday with the Team Sports (curling and ice hockey).

• USA Freestyle Skiing Factsheets
• USA Short-Track Speedskating Factsheets
• USA Snowboarding Factsheets

The Canadian Dufour-Lapointe sisters – Chloé, Justine, and Maxime – have qualified for the Canadian 2014 Olympic team in freestyle skiing, specifically in moguls. It appears, barring some unforeseen circumstance, that all three sisters will compete together in freestyle moguls. Has this ever happened before – three siblings competing together in the same Winter Olympic event?

Sorry to disappoint the Dufour-Lapointes, but yes, it has happened before – 5 times, to be precise, but only twice before in individual events.

The first time it happened in an individual event was 1960 in women’s slalom Alpine skiing when the French Leduc sisters (Anne-Marie, Marguerite, Thérèse) all competed together. The next time was in 1976 in men’s 15 km cross-country skiing, when Argentina’s Jerman brothers all competed (Marcos Luis, Martín Tomás, Matías José). But the Dufour-Lapointes can realize that it has been 38 years since this occurred at the Winter Olympics.

The three times it has happened in team events were in 1980 ice hockey when the Šťastný brothers (Anton, Marián, Peter) competed for Czechoslovakia; in the 1988 2-man bobsled when Mexican bobsledders Jorge Tamés and José Tamés made up one Mexican team, and their brothers, Luis Adrián Tamés and Roberto Tamés made up the other Mexican team; and in the 2010 ice dancing event with Chris, Cathy, and Allison Reed, with Chris and Cathy competing for Japan, and Allison for Georgia.

In all, we can trace 19 families who have had 3 or more siblings compete at the Winter Olympics, although in most cases, not in the same event. This group is led by Spain’s Fernández Ochoa siblings (3 brothers, 2 sisters), with 5 siblings. There have been 5 cases of 4 siblings competing at the Winter Olympics, and 13 cases of 3 siblings from the same family.

Below is what we think is the entire list. Now, if you know of others, let us know, because we will admit that this is a difficult query that challenges even our extensive databases. But we think this is complete.

 

Winter Games – 5 Siblings (1)

Francisco Fernández Ochoa (M/ESP-ASK)

Juan Manuel Fernández Ochoa (M/ESP-ASK)

Luis Fernández Ochoa (M/ESP-ASK)

Blanca Fernández Ochoa (F/ESP-ASK)

Dolores Fernández Ochoa (F/ESP-ASK)

 

Winter Games – 4 Siblings (5)

Carolina Birkner (F/ARG-ASK)

Ignacio Birkner (F/ARG-ASK)

Magdalena Birkner (F/ARG-ASK)

Jorge Birkner (M/ARG-ASK)

 

Barbara Cochran (F/USA-ASK)

Lindy Cochran (F/USA-ASK)

Marilyn Cochran (F/USA-ASK)

Bob Cochran (M/USA-ASK)

 

Arnold Huber (M/ITA-LUG)

Günther Huber (M/ITA-BOB)

Norbert Huber (M/ITA-LUG)

Wilfried Huber (M/ITA-LUG)

 

Jorge Tamés (M/MEX-BOB)

José Tamés (M/MEX-BOB)

Luis Adrián Tamés (M/MEX-BOB)

Roberto Tamés (M/MEX-BOB)

 

Józef Pawlusiak (M/POL-NCO)

Stanisław Pawlusiak (M/POL-SKJ)

Tadeusz Pawlusiak (M/POL-SKJ)

Anna Pawlusiak (F/POL-CCS)

 

Winter Games – 3 Siblings (13)

Anne-Marie Leduc (F/FRA-ASK)

Marguerite Leduc (F/FRA-ASK)

Thérèse Leduc (F/FRA-ASK)

 

Evi Mittermaier (F/FRG-ASK)

Heidi Mittermaier (F/GER-ASK)

Rosi Mittermaier (F/FRG-ASK)

 

Gordy Christian (M/USA-ICH)

Rog Christian (M/USA-ICH)

Billy Christian (M/USA-ICH)

 

Denis Couttet (M/FRA-CCS)

Henri Couttet (M/FRA-ICH)

Marcel Couttet (M/FRA-ICH)

 

Dieter Delle Karth (M/AUT-BOB)

Walter Delle Karth (M/AUT-BOB)

Werner Delle Karth (M/AUT-BOB)

 

Jim Holland (M/USA-SKJ)

Joe Holland (M/USA-NCO)

Mike Holland (M/USA-SKJ)

 

Marcos Luis Jerman (M/ARG-CCS)

Martín Tomás Jerman (M/ARG-CCS)

Matías José Jerman (M/ARG-CCS)

 

Asbjørn Ruud (M/NOR-SKJ)

Birger Ruud (M/NOR-ASK/SKJ)

Sigmund Ruud (M/NOR-ASK/SKJ)

 

Cristian Simari Birkner (M/ARG-ASK)

Macarena Simari Birkner (F/ARG-ASK)

María Belén Simari Birkner (F/ARG-ASK)

 

Anton Šťastný (M/TCH-ICH)

Marián Šťastný (M/TCH-ICH)

Peter Šťastný (M/SVK/TCH-ICH)

 

Curtis Stevens (M/USA-BOB)

Paul Stevens (M/USA-BOB)

Hubert Stevens (M/USA-BOB)

 

Jukka Ylipulli (M/FIN-NCO)

Raimo Ylipulli (M/FIN-SKJ)

Tuomo Ylipulli (M/FIN-SKJ)

 

Cathy Reed (F-JPN-FSK)

Chris Reed (M-JPN-FSK)

Allison Reed (F-GEO-FSK)

 

We think that Lolo Jones and Lauryn Williams will be chosen for the Sochi 2014 US Olympic bobsled team tonite. We had a post the other day about Winter / Summer Olympians (see here), in which we noted that this has occurred 128 times in the past – 23 women and 105 men.

So how often has it occurred for United States Olympians? Previously 8 times, as follows:

USA Winter / Summer Olympians

Athlete                                              Gdr Summer                          Winter

Connie Carpenter-Phinney  F     CYC-1984                        SSK-1972

Connie Paraskevin-Young     F     CYC-1988/92/96        SSK-1984

Chris Witty                                    F     CYC-2000                        SSK-1994-06

Eddie Eagan                                  M    BOX-1920/24               BOB-1932

Art Longsjo, Jr.                            M    CYC-1956                        SSK-1956

Arnold Uhrlass                           M    CYC-1964                         SSK-1960

Willie Davenport                      M    ATH-1964/68/72/76  BOB-1980

David Gilman                              M    CAN-1976/84                 LUG-1984

Could it be 10 after tonite? Well, not technically – they actually have to compete first for it to count as a Summer / Winter Olympian, so that will be a few weeks away. But Lolo Jones competed in track & field athletics (high hurdles) at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics, and Lauryn Williams competed in athletics (100 metres and 4×100 relay) at London in 2012, so its likely they will soon be added to the above list.

Part two in a series on people who have competed at the Olympic Games despite suffering from a physical disability.

1952-56
Lis Hartel (DEN) – Equestrianism
2 silvers

In the 1930s Lis Hartel was coached by her mother Else Holst, but when she reached a national competitive level, Gunnar Andersen, a professional horseman, took over. In the early part of her career she competed in both jumping and dressage, and was Danish champion in dressage in 1943 and 1944. Later in 1944, she was struck by polio. At that time she was pregnant with her second child, and no one thought that she ever would be able to compete on horseback again. But through her determination and strong will she gradually regained function in most of her muscles, although she remained paralyzed below her knees for the rest of her life.

In 1947 she started to compete in dressage again, and she improved her dressage skill together with her excellent horse Jubilee and was selected for the Danish team in the 1952 games. Although she needed help to get on and off her horse, she surprised everybody by winning the silver medal in the dressage competition in Helsinki. Four years later she won another dressage silver medal at the Equestrian Games in Stockholm, also this time together with her favourite horse Jubilee. She won the unofficial world championships in dressage in 1954, and was Danish champion in dressage in 1952, 1953, 1954, 1956 and 1959, the last time with a new horse, Limelight.

Lis Hartel’s equestrian achievements caught interest among ordinary sport interested people in Scandinavia, where equestrian among many was regarded as an upper-class sport. She was a charming and charismatic woman, extremely popular not only among followers of equestrians, but also among people outside the horse circles. She also became a role model of other victims of polio, showing what was possible to achieve through training and determination. She was invited to do dressage exhibitions in several countries in Western Europe, and raised funds for treatment of polio victims. In Doorn in the Netherlands, a centre for disabled was named after her, the Lis Hartel Foundation.

2008-2012
Natalia Partyka (POL) – Table tennis
Natalia Partyka was born without a right hand or forearm. She began to play table tennis at the age of seven and four years competed in the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney. At eleven years of age, she became the youngest Paralympian in history. By 2004 she was clearly the Paralympic table tennis player and began to make an impact in able bodied competition by winning the European Cadets title. Partyka has gone on to win three consecutive Paralympic titles, compete in both the Beijing and London Olympics and win medals at the able bodied European Championships.

1996
Paola Fantato (ITA) – Archery
At age 8, Paola Fantato was diagnosed with polio, and has been wheelchair-bound since. She picked up archery in her twenties, and quickly became quite successful at archery events for disabled. She won a Paralympic bronze medal in 1988, upgrading that to gold in 1992. She was then invited to join the Italian Olympic team and qualified for the Atlanta Games. While eliminated in the first round, she became the first athlete to compete in the Olympics and Paralympics in the same year, winning team gold and an individual bronze. Her successes have only increased, adding two golds in Sydney and one in Athens, as well as two world titles to her tally.

1948
Jack Dearlove (GBR) – Rowing
1 silver
Jack Dearlove was 12 years old when he lost the lower part of his leg. He was hitching a lift to cricket practice on a friend’s bicycle when the wheels of the bike stuck in some tram lines. The two boys were thrown into the path of a steam wagon and his friend was killed outright. By the time of the London Olympics of 1948 Dearlove had twenty years’ experience as a coxswain which included steering the Thames Rowing Club to a victory at the Henley Regatta. He refused to wear an artificial leg, walking with the aid of crutches instead, and this proved problematic for the British Olympic Association who forbade him for taking part in the opening ceremony of the London Games.
Dearlove went on to have a successful career in business with the Sainsbury’s organization. His son, Sir Richard Dearlove, served as head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1999 to 2004.

We described yesterday how nations have swept the medals at various Winter Olympic events. An individual can never do that at one Olympics, obviously (although see below re Beckie Scott), but an individual medal sweep is possible, if an athlete can win a full set of Olympic medals – gold, silver, and bronze.

Now this is not so uncommon, but it is rare when an athlete achieved an individual medal sweep in the same individual event. In fact, it has only happened 10 times at the Winter Olympics, as follows:

Athlete                                              Gdr   NOC   Sport  Event              Meds

Claudia Pechstein                             F      GER   SSK    5K               3/1/1 – 5

Silke Kraushaar                                  F      GER   LUG   Singles      1/1/1 – 3

Karin Enke-Kania                              F      GDR  SSK    500 m        1/1/1 – 3

Claudia Pechstein                             F      GER   SSK    3K               1/1/1 – 3

Christa Rothenburger-Luding   F      GER   SSK    500 m       1/1/1 – 3

Kari Traa                                                 F      NOR   FRS    Moguls    1/1/1 – 3

Armin Zöggeler                                 M     ITA      LUG    Singles     2/1/2 – 5

Knut Johannesen                             M     NOR   SSK    10K            1/1/1 – 3

Ådne Søndrål                                     M      NOR   SSK    1,500 m   1/1/1 – 3

Bob de Jong                                        M     NED    SSK    10K            1/1/1 – 3

Note that German Claudia Pechstein has actually done this twice, in the 3,000 and 5,000 metres speedskating events, with 5 medals in the 5,000. Italian luger Armin Zöggeler has also won 5 medals in one individual event, in men’s singles luge.

Pechstein’s record would likely be more impressive except that she missed the 2010 Winter Olympics because of a suspension due to suspicion of blood doping due to abnormal reticulocytes in her blood sample. She returned in 2011 and continues to compete and should be in Sochi. In 2013 she won bronze medals in both the 3,000 and 5,000 at the World Single-Distance World Championships, so she could certainly extend these records. She also won bronze medals in the 5K at that tournament in both 2011 and 2012, making her a strong threat to medal in the 5K in Sochi.

Five athletes have won 5 Olympic medals in the same event at the Winter Olympics. In addition to Pechstein and Zöggeler, this has been done by the following:

Ricco Groß                     M   GER   Biathlon               Relay           4/1/0 – 5

Georg Hackl                  M   GER   Luge                        Singles        3/2/0 – 5

Harri Kirvesniemi      M   FIN     X-Country Ski   Relay           0/0/5 – 5

Kirvesniemi is the only Olympian to win 5 bronze medals in the same event, Winter or Summer. Except for Pechstein, all are long since retired and will not be winning a sixth medal. But if Pechstein can win a medal in the 5,000 metres at Sochi it would give her 6 medals in the same event, which would be a new best for the Winter Olympics, and equal the record for the Summer Olympics.

Both Aládar Gerevich (HUN) in fencing team sabre and Hans Günter Winkler (FRG) in equestrian team jumping won 6 medals in the same event. Gerevich’s performance is even more remarkable because all of his medals were gold medals.

If she can win a 6^th medal in the 5K, Pechstein’s performance would surely outshine Gerevich and Winkler, because hers would be in an individual event.

There is also the unique case of Canada’s Beckie Scott, who can claim a full set of medals from the same event at the same time. At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Scott finished third in the pursuit race, behind Russians Olga Danilova and Larisa Lazutina. But both Russians then tested positive for PEDs after the 30 km race, however, they were allowed to initially keep their medals for the pursuit. It was then revealed, however, that Lazutina had tested positive twice at World Cup events prior to Salt Lake City, so she was disqualified from all 2002 Winter Olympic events and Scott moved up to the silver medal. The Canadian Olympic Committee then appealed against Danilova, stating that she should be disqualified from all Olympic events if she tested positive in any event at the Olympics. This was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and Scott then was moved up to the gold medal position, receiving her gold medal on 25 June 2004.

Now in team events, it is much more common to win a full set of Olympic medals in the same event. Here are the 23 Winter Olympians who have done that – 10 women and 13 men:

Name                                      Gdr   NOC  Sport                      Event     Meds

Galina Kulakova                    F     URS   X-Country Ski   Relay     2/1/1 – 4

Angela Ruggiero                    F     USA   Ice Hockey          —            1/2/1 – 4

Jenny Schmidgall-Potter  F     USA   Ice Hockey          —            1/2/1 – 4

Kati Wilhelm                            F     GER   Biathlon              Relay     1/1/1 – 3

Andrea Henkel                       F     GER   Biathlon               Relay     1/1/1 – 3

Albina Akhatova                   F      RUS  Biathlon                Relay     1/1/1 – 3

Alevtina Kolchina                 F      URS  X-Country Ski   Relay     1/1/1 – 3

Marina Klimova                    F      EUN  Figure Skating  Dance   1/1/1 – 3

Tricia Dunn-Luoma             F      USA  Ice Hockey           —           1/1/1 – 3

Katie King                                 F     USA  Ice Hockey           —            1/1/1 – 3

Igor Kravchuk                       M     RUS  Ice Hockey           —            2/1/1 – 4

Jan Behrendt                         M    GER  Luge                        Doubl.   2/1/1 – 4

Stefan Krauße                      M     GER  Luge                        Doubl.   2/1/1 – 4

Wolfgang Hoppe                M     GER  Bobsledding       Four        1/2/1 – 4

Fritz Fischer                          M     GER  Biathlon                Relay      1/1/1 – 3

Eugenio Monti                     M     ITA    Bobsledding        Four        1/1/1 – 3

Eugenio Monti                     M     ITA    Bobsledding        Two         1/1/1 – 3

Markus Zimmermann     M     GER  Bobsledding        Two         1/1/1 – 3

Eero Mäntyranta               M     FIN    X-Country Ski     Relay      1/1/1 – 3

Sergey Ponomarenko      M    EUN  Figure Skating    Dance    1/1/1 – 3

Darius Kasparaitis             M    RUS  Ice Hockey             —            1/1/1 – 3

Aleksey Zhamnov              M    RUS  Ice Hockey             —            1/1/1 – 3

Hannu Manninen               M    FIN    Nordic Comb.     Team      1/1/1 – 3

Note that Eugenio Monti has done this twice, in two-man and four-man bobsledding.

Are any 2014 Olympians in position to achieve an individual medal sweep in an individual event? There are a few who could do this, but the biggest threats are Marlies Schild, Austrian alpine skiier who has a silver and a bronze medal in women’s slalom; and Ole Einar Bjørndalen, Norwegian biathlete who has a gold and a silver in the biathlon pursuit, and needs only a bronze to complete his medal sweep. Schild needs a gold medal in slalom, but she has already won 2 World Cup slaloms in December 2013, and she was the World Cup slalom champion in the last 2 seasons.

Bjørndalen’s is looking after bigger game. If he wins any medal in Sochi, it will give him 12 Winter Olympic medals, tying Bjørn Dæhlie’s Winter Olympic record for most medals won. Can he do it? Can he complete the medal sweep in biathlon pursuit? Can Pechstein win a sixth Olympic medal in the 5,000 metre speedskating? Stay tuned.

Winning an Olympic medal is a major accomplishment, and a nation usually exults in response. But sweeping all the medals in an event, with all athletes from one nation standing on all steps of the podium, is much rarer, especially at the Winter Olympics.

This has happened 260 times at the Summer Olympics, but only 39 times so far at the Winter Olympics. This has been done by 10 different nations. The entire list of all Winter Olympic medal sweeps is given below.

Year     Sport                                Event            NOC                              Gdr

1952     X-Country Skiing    10 km.           Finland                              F

1960     X-Country Skiing    10 km.           Soviet Union                  F

1964     Alpine Skiing              Downhill     Austria                              F

1964     X-Country Skiing    10 km.           Soviet Union                  F

1964     Luge                                Singles         Germany                           F

1964     Speed Skating           500 m           Soviet Union                   F

1972     Luge                                Singles         German Demo. Rep.    F

1984     Luge                                Singles         German Demo. Rep.    F

1984     Speed Skating           3,000 m       German Demo. Rep.    F

1988     Luge                                Singles         German Demo. Rep.    F

1988     X-Country Skiing    20 km.          Soviet Union                    F

1998     Alpine Skiing             Combined  Germany                           F

2002     Luge                                Singles         Germany                          F

2006     Luge                                Singles         Germany                          F

2010     Luge                                Singles         Germany                          F

1908     Figure Skating          Singles          Sweden                          M

1924     X-Country Skiing    50 km.           Norway                          M

1924     Nordic Combined   Individual   Norway                          M

1928     X-Country Skiing    15 km.           Norway                         M

1928     X-Country Skiing    50 km.           Sweden                         M

1928     Nordic Combined   Individual   Norway                         M

1932     Nordic Combined   Individual   Norway                         M

1932     Ski Jumping                Large hill     Norway                         M

1936     X-Country Skiing    50 km.           Sweden                         M

1936     Nordic Combined   Individual   Norway                         M

1948     X-Country Skiing    15 km.           Sweden                         M

1948     Ski Jumping                Large hill     Norway                         M

1956     Alpine Skiing              GS                  Austria                           M

1956     Figure Skating          Singles         United States             M

1964     Speed Skating           5,000 m      Norway                          M

1972     Luge                                Singles        German Dem. Rep.  M

1972     Ski Jumping                NH               Japan                                M

1992     X-Country Skiing    30 km.        Norway                           M

1992     Speed Skating           5,000 m    Germany                         M

1994     Alpine Skiing             Combined Norway                          M

1998     Speed Skating           10,000 m  Netherlands                M

1998     Speed Skating           3,000 m     Germany                        M

2002     Snowboarding           Halfpipe   United States              M

2006     Alpine Skiing               Slalom       Austria                            M

A couple things are immediately obvious – first of all, Germany or the former German Democratic Republic, is/was really good at sweeping Winter Olympic medals. Germany has had 7 medal sweeps, 5 by women and 2 by the men. The former GDR swept the medals 5 times, 4 by the women, all in luge. Either Germany or the GDR has swept the medals in women’s luge 7 times in all (out of only 13 times the event has been held).

In fact, German dominance of women’s luge approaches that of the Chinese in Summer Olympic diving, or the United States former dominance in that sport. German women have swept the medals in singles luge at the last three Winter Olympics (2002-10). Can they do it again for a four-peat in Sochi?

That’s pretty good, but Norway is the national leader in medal sweeps, with 11 at the Winter Olympics, all by their men in five different sports / disciplines. Here is the national breakdown:

NOC                                       Men    Women    Totals

Austria                                            2             1            3

Finland                                            0             1            1

German Demo. Rep.                1             4            5

Germany                                        2             5            7

Japan                                                1             0            1

Netherlands                                 1             0            1

Norway                                        11             0          11

Soviet Union                                0             4            4

Sweden                                          4              0            4

United States                              2             0            2

Totals                                           24           15         39

Another thing to note is that the United States does not show up much on this list – only 2 medal sweeps by American men – one in 1956 men’s figure skating and one in 2002 snowboarding halfpipe. By contrast, of the 260 Summer Olympic medal sweeps, fully 150 of them were done by the United States, many of them in the early days of the Modern Olympic Games.

One of the most dramatic medal sweeps occurred in 1972 at Sapporo, when the Japanese ski jumpers, who had never won an Olympic medal in that sport / discipline previously, swept the medals in ski jumping on the normal hill, led by Yukio Kasaya.

Only 4 times have the home nations swept the medals. In addition to Japan in 1972 in ski jumping, this was also done in 1964 by the Austrian women in downhill alpine skiing at Innsbruck, the Norwegian men alpine skiiers in the 1994 combined at Lillehammer, and the aforementioned American sweep of men’s snowboarding halfpipe at Salt Lake City in 2002. Russia has never done this at the Winter Olympics, although it was done 4 times by the former Soviet Union, all in women’s events. Can the Russians sweep any of the medals in Sochi?