Grand Prix Rejects

I'm wondering who would you consider to be a reject Olympic Champion or Medal Winner.

Steven Bradbury's Gold in Short Track at Salt Lake City 2002 sticks out to the Aussies on here because all the others in the final heat crashed didn't they?

Also Swiss Alpine Skier Didier Defago springs to mind: After winning the Downhill Gold in Vancouver 2010 his record after that stands at 2 wins and no other podium finishes

Lindsey Jacobellis finished 2nd in the 2006 final for the women's snowboard cross, after falling off while leading and heading for gold with just metres to go!

While Olympic gold wasn't his only success, this is quite remarkable achievement by Espen Bredesen within two competitions in the same discipline.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ski_jumpi ... individual
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ski_jumpi ... individual

Another one to come into my mind is that this year in Sochi, one skier bonked at the first uphill in men's sprint. Was going to be last of six starters, then three ahead of him crashed so he ended up with bronze medal.

Bleu wrote:While Olympic gold wasn't his only success, this is quite remarkable achievement by Espen Bredesen within two competitions in the same discipline.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ski_jumpi ... individual
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ski_jumpi ... individual

Another one to come into my mind is that this year in Sochi, one skier bonked at the first uphill in men's sprint. Was going to be last of six starters, then three ahead of him crashed so he ended up with bronze medal.

That to me sounds like Emil Johnsson in the cross country events. I didn't see that event but I know that Sweden only got the Bronze in the Team Sprint because Germany and Finland tangled and Germany went down. Without that Sweden would have finished a very distant 4th and Johnsson was definitely the luckiest athlete in the games. Plus it also took some of the shine off Finland's first gold in the winter games since 2002

Novak Djokovic seems like one... especially given his success in the Tennis Singles rankings currently at 2nd and having been #1 during the 2012 Olympics. The irony is he only won a Bronze in 2008's Olympics. The funny part is he lost his bronze match to a guy who lost to Novak in the 2008 Olympics group play and was ranked several positions in the rankings lower.

Park Si-Hun won the gold in middleweight boxing in 1988 due to the judges rigging the final decision. Despite my hometown hero Roy Jones Jr. clearly being the winner of the fight.

Both contestants in the 1900 croquet event. They won a medal for just being there

These guys:

tommykl wrote:Both contestants in the 1900 croquet event. They won a medal for just being there

Wasn't there some tug-of-war event where the same thing happened? IIRC it was at Stockholm 1912.

Yes, even that was an Olympic sport back in the day.

Nuppiz wrote:

tommykl wrote:Both contestants in the 1900 croquet event. They won a medal for just being there

Wasn't there some tug-of-war event where the same thing happened? IIRC it was at Stockholm 1912.

Yes, even that was an Olympic sport back in the day.

And basque pelota, again in 1900. Take a guess at the two teams that took part?

There were a lot of reject biathlon medalists in Vancouver 2010:

Vincent Jay: Went into Vancouver with just 1 win and no other podiums to his name (ironically in Vancouver). Won Gold in the Sprint event when the weather went his way and used his advantage to win Bronze in the Pursuit after he was barely in the top 50 ski times (out of 60 skiers). After Vancouver he achieved just 1 more podium before retiring after Hochfilzen 2012

Sergey Novikov: This Belarussian athlete had just 2 top 10 finishes to his name when he went into the 20k Individual. But a 20/20 shoot saw him tie for the Silver medal with none other than the legend that is Ole Einar Bjorndalen. Sadly it was just a flash in the pan as he managed just 1 top 10 after Vancouver before he retired after this season

Pavol Hurajt: His career looked so bright in 2003/4 when he took 2 podium finishes but after a few years in the wilderness no one expected him to win Mass Start Bronze with a perfect shooting performance. Sadly he's barely scored 300 career points since and barely featured in any races.

Elena Khrusthaleva: And this was probably the most surprising medalist of all. Only 4 top 10's in her career might seem like she was slightly better than Novikov but while Novikov at least had an 11th on the world cup tour Khrusthaleva's best in the season was 23rd so for her to win a Silver was really surprising. Predictably though her performances after Vancouver were nothing special with a best finish of 19th.