Great Olympians

Biographies - BO

Willy Böckl

Austria
Figure Skating (2 silver)
1924 1928 HP
Men's Individual silver silver 12000
12000

Bodnár Andras

Hungary
Waterpolo (1 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)
1960 1964 1968 1972 HP
Waterpolo bronze gold bronze silver 9700
9700

Anatoli Bogdanov

B. 1931-01-01, Leningrad (now St-Petersburg), Russia
Shooting (2 gold)
1952 1956 HP
Free Rifle, three positions gold 9600
Small-bore Rifle, three positions gold 6400
Small-bore Rifle, prone 29th 0.016
16000.02

The first Olympic Champion for the Soviet Union.
He was a foundling, found on a train to Leningrad in 1931. He was given a birthdate of 1/1 and the name Bogdanov (God-given). During WW2, aged 12,  he was surrounded in Leningrad. He succeeded in breaking through the lines and became signalman on a warship.
At Melbourne, he had an equal total of 1172/1200 but he had a better prone score.

Svetlana Boginskaya

Belarus
Gymnastics (3 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
1988 1992 1996 HP
Individual Combined bronze fifth 14th 3576
Team Combined gold gold sixth 5040
Vaults gold fourth fifth 2812.5
Beam fifth - - 250
Parallel Bars fifth fifth - 500
Floor silver - - 1000
13178.5

On the Soviet team in 1988, the Unified team in 1992, the Belarus team in 1996.

Brian Boitano

USA
Figure Skating (1 gold)
1984 1988 1994 HP
Men's Singles fifth gold sixth 14775
14775

Jörgen Bojsen-Møller

B. 1966-06-??, Denmark
Sailing (1 gold, 1 bronze)
1980 1984 1988 1992 HP
Flying Dutchman sixth fourth gold bronze 17500
17500

In 1980, '84 and '92, he sailed with his brother Jacob.

John Mary Pius Boland

B. 1870-09-16, Dublin, Ireland, then still part of Great Britain; D. 1958-03-17
Tennis (2 gold)
1896 HP
Men's Singles gold 8000
Men's Doubles gold 4800
12800

A student at Oxford, coïncidentally in Athens at the time of the Olympic Games. As he was carrying a tennis racket, he decided to enter the games and won the singles event. For the doubles event, he partnered a German (Friedrich Traun), who was previously eliminated from the 800 metres. That  was the first and last transnational team in the history of the Olympic Games.
An Irishman, he would become a member of the British parliament for South Kerry from 1900 to 1918.

Usain Bolt

B. 1986-08-21, Trelawny, Jamaica
Athletics (2 gold)
2004 2008 HP
100 m gold 6400
200 m 40th gold 6400,00016
4 x 100 m gold 1600
14400

At the start of 2008, he asked if he could switch to the 100 m. His trainer thought of him more as a 400 m runner, but he accepted anyway. Half a year later, he had broken the 100 m world record twice and had won the olympic gold. He had crossed the line in celebration, but he could not do the same when attacking Michael Johnson's 12-year old World record of the 200 m. He beat that mark with only 0.02" to spare.

Count Carl Bonde

B. 1872-04-28, Stockholm, Sweden; D. 1957-06-13
Equestrianism - dressage (1 gold, 1 silver)
1912 1928 HP
Dressage, Individual gold 19th 9602
Dressage, Team silver 1000
10602

George V. Bonhag

B. 1882-01-31, USA; D. 1960-10-30
Athletics (2 gold, 1 silver)
1904 1906 1908 1912 HP
800 m AC 112.0
1500 m 6th 480
5000 m fourth 1600
5 miles fourth 1200
3000 m Team gold 2350
3 miles Team silver
3200 m Steeple dnf 0.18
Cross-Country dnf -4.13
1500 m Walk gold 4800
10542

Klaus Michael Bonsack

Germany
Luge (1 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)
1964 1968 1972 HP
Singles silver bronze fourth 13464
Doubles dnf gold bronze 11208
24672

Won the doubles at Grenoble with Thomas Köhler

Manus Boonjumnong

B. 1980-06-23, Thailand
Boxing, (1 gold, 1 silver)
2004 2008 HP
-64 kg gold silver 15600
15600

Arne Borg

B. 1901-08-18, Sweden; D. 1987-11-06
Swimming (1 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze)
1920 1924 1928 HP
100 m Free-style fourth 1600
400 m Free-style ht:4th silver bronze 6566
1500 m Free-style SF:4th silver gold 10728
4x200 m Free-style Relay fourth bronze fifth 1419
20313

In 1924 the Swedish relay team comprised also Arne's brother Åke, who also came fourth in the 400 and sixth in the 1500 metres.

Gustavo Borges

Brazil
Swimming (2 silver, 2 bronze)
1992 1996 2000 2004 HP
50 m Free-style 13th 12th - - 65.6
100 m Free-style silver bronze 16th - 6566.4
200 m Free-style 22nd silver - - 4000.4
4 x 100 m Free-style Relay sixth fourth bronze 12th 1331
4 x 200 m Free-style Relay 7th - - - 100
4 x 100 m Medley Relay - - 12th - 10
12073.4

Vasili Borisov

B. 1922-12-12, Russia, Soviet Union
Shooting (2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)
1956 1960 HP
Free Rifle, three positions gold bronze 13440
Small-bore Rifle, prone silver fourth 5600
Small-bore Rifle, three positions fourth - 1600
20640

Kathrin Boron

B. 1969-11-04, Eisenhüttenstadt, Brandenburg, Germany
Rowing (4 gold, 1 bronze)
1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 HP
Double Sculls gold gold 32000
Quadruple Sculls gold gold bronze 23040
55040

Boros Ottó

Hungary
Waterpolo (2 gold, 1 bronze)
1956 1960 1964 HP
Waterpolo gold bronze gold 11520
11520

Valeri Borsov

B. 1949-10-20, near Lvov, Ukraine
Track and Field (2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)
1972 1976 HP
100 m gold bronze 8960
200 m gold - 6400
4 x 100 m silver bronze 1640
17000

At München, he was deprived of running against the world's best when the two fastest Americans failed to turn up on time for their quarter finals.
He is married to Lyudmilla Turishcheva.
In 1994, he became the IOC member for the Ukraine.

Jonkheer Gerard Bosch van Drakestein

B. 1887-07-24, Mechelen, Belgium, competed for the Netherlands; D. 1972-03-20
Cycling - track (1 silver, 1 bronze)
1908 1924 1928 HP
1000m Time Trial silver 6000
Tandem bronze 3200
Team Pursuit fourth R1 (silver) 2498.98
5000 m 7th 300
100 km SF 0.807
Sprint (1000 m) heat:2nd 0.582
Sprint (660 yds) heat:2nd 0.510
20 km heat:5th 0.020
12000.899

A nobleman, his family did not approve of his cycling, so at the start of his career he raced as "Ulysses". He remained an amateur and won a silver at Amsterdam aged 40. He also raced in the team pursuit in the quarter-final at Amsterdam, helping his team to qualify for the semis and the eventual silver medal.

Ralph Boston

B. 1939-05-09, USA
Track and Field (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
1960 1964 1968 HP
Long Jump gold silver bronze 24300
24300

The man who broke Jesse Owens' world record and lost it to Bob Beamon at Mexico.
Inducted in 1974 in the USATF Hall of Fame.

Jennifer Botterill

Canada
Ice Hockey (3 gold, 1 silver)
1998 2002 2006 2010 HP
team silver gold gold gold 23200
23200

Member of the Canadian Ice Hockey team that won gold in Salt Lake City, Torino and Vancouver, with silver in Nagano.

(12600)

Filippo Bottino

B. 1888-12-09, Italy; D. 1969-10-18
Weightlifting (1 gold)
1920 1924 HP
Heavyweight (+82.5 kg) gold sixth 10560
10560

(108 HP)

Gaetan Boucher

B. 1958-05-10, Canada
Speed Skating (2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
1976 1980 1984 1988 HP
1000 m sixth silver gold fifth 15050
1500 m - 15th gold 9th 6570
500 m 14th 8th bronze - 2832
24452

Maurice Monney-Bouton

B. 1892-02-24, France; D. 1965-06-15
Rowing (2 silver)
1920 1924 HP
Coxed Pairs silver 5000
Coxless Pairs silver 5000
10000

(-)

Raelene Ann Boyle

B. 1951-06-24, Australia
Track and Field (3 silver)
1968 1972 1976 HP
100 m fourth silver fourth 7920
200 m silver silver SF:dq 8008.2
4 x 100 m fifth sixth fifth 726
4 x 400 m sixth - 160
16814.2

She had two false starts in the semi-final of the 200 m at Montreal.

Daniel Bozhinov Petrov

B. 1971-09-08, Varna, Bulgaria
Boxing (1 gold, 1 silver)
1992 1996 HP
Light-flyweight silver gold 15600
15600

Written 2000-12-02 - last modified 2002-09-30

This page is part of the site "Full Olympians" by Herman De Wael. See here for a full Introduction.