Great Olympians

Biographies - LA

Émile Lachapelle

Switzerland
Rowing (2 gold)
1924 HP
Coxed Pairs gold 8000
Coxed Fours gold 4800
12800

Cox of the winning swiss boats in the twos and fours at Paris.

Boris Lagutin

B. 1938-06-24, Moskva, Russia
Boxing (2 gold, 1 bronze)
1960 1964 1968 HP
-71 kg bronze gold gold 34560
34560

Started boxing in 1955 and was European Lightweight Champion in 1961 and 1963.

Janne Lahtela

Finland
Free-style Skiing (1 silver, 1 gold)
1998 2002 2006 HP
Moguls silver gold 16th 15609.6
15609.6

Samppa Lajunen

B. 1979-04-23, Turku, Finland
Nordic Combination (3 gold, 2 silver)
1998 2002 HP
Sprint gold 6400
Individual silver gold 11400
Team silver gold 2600
20400

Jean-François Lamour

B. 1956-02-02, France
Fencing (2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)
1984 1988 1992 HP
Sabre, individual gold gold bronze 28800
Sabre, team silver fourth bronze 2244
31044

Fredrik Landelius

Sweden
Shooting (3 silver, 2 bronze)

(91 HP)

Bernd Landvoigt

B. 1951, Germany
Rowing (2 gold, 1 bronze)
1972 1976 1980 HP
Coxless Twos gold gold 24000
Eights bronze 1920
25920

Shared a place in the Coxless Two (and in the Eights) with his twin brother Jörg.

Jörg Landvoigt

B. 1951, Germany
Rowing (2 gold, 1 bronze)
1972 1976 1980 HP
Coxless Twos gold gold 24000
Eights bronze 1920
25920

Shared a place in the Coxless Two (and in the Eights) with his twin brother Bernd.

Alfred P. Lane

B. 1891-09-26, USA; D. 1965-10
Shooting (5 gold, 1 bronze)
1912 1920 HP
Dueling Pistol gold 6400
Dueling Pistol, team fourth 400
Free Pistol gold bronze 11200
Free Pistol, team gold 1600
Military Pistol comp. 160
Military Pistol, team gold gold 4800
24560

He achieved remarkable success in 1912 when he won three gold medals, after only two years of competitive experience.
His Olympic medals, gun and other memorabilia from the A.P. Lane collection are currently on display at the National Firearms Museum (NRA HQ) in Fairfax, Virginia. His great-nephew oversees the collection on the family's behalf and can be contacted at Gold1912@eclipse.net.

Frederick Claude Vivian Lane

B. 1880-02-02, Australia; D. 1969-05-14
Swimming (2 gold)
1900 HP
200 m Freestyle gold 6400
200 m Obstacle Course gold 9600
16000

André Lange

Germany
Bobsleigh (4 gold, 1 silver)
2002 2006 2010 HP
4-man gold gold silver 18900
2-man gold gold 16000
34900

Always together with Kevin Kuske.

Thomas Lange

Germany
Rowing (2 gold, 1 bronze)
1988 1992 1996 HP
Skiff gold gold bronze 34560
34560

Christoph Langen

B. 1962-03-27, Köln, Germany
Bobsleigh (2 gold, 2 bronze)
1988 1992 1994 1998 2002 HP
two-man 7th bronze - bronze gold 17625
four-man 11th - - gold disq 4848.002
22473.002

Pablo Lara Rodríguez

B. 1968-05-30, Villa Clara, Cuba
Weightlifting (1 gold, 1 silver)
1992 1996 HP
Middleweight silver gold 15600
15600

Igor Larionov

Russia
Ice Hockey (2 gold, 1 bronze)
1984 1988 2002 HP
team gold gold bronze 11520
11520

Eirik Veraas Larsen

B. 1976-03-26, Flekkefjord, Norway
Canoeing (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
2004 2008 HP
K1 1000 m gold silver 10400
K1 500 m fourth fourth 3200
K2 1000 m bronze 9th 2040
15640

Niels Hansen Ditlev Larsen

Denmark
Shooting (1 gold, 1 silver, 3 bronze)
1912 1920 1924 HP
Free Rifle, 3 positions bronze silver 10736
Free Rifle, prone bronze
Free Rifle, team bronze fifth sixth 1155
Military Rifle 63rd 20
Military Rifle, 300m, prone comp
Military Rifle, 600m, prone 14th
Military Rifle, 300m, standing 11th
Military Rifle, team 8th 465.6
Military Rifle, 300m, prone, team 13th
Military Rifle, 300m, standing, team gold
Free Pistol fifth 41st 1000
Free Pistol, team 8th 64
13440.6

(131.5 HP)

Roald Larsen

Norway
Speed Skating (2 silver, 4 bronze)
1924 1928 HP
1500 m silver fourth 5600
500 m bronze bronze 5120
5000 m bronze - 2560
10000 m bronze - 2560
Combined silver 1000
16840

Gunnar Larsson

Sweden
Swimming (2 gold)
1968 1972 HP
200 m Individual Medley - gold 6400
400 m Individual Medley - gold 6400
4 x 100 m Free-style Relay 11th - 16
4 x 200 m Free-style Relay 8th fourth 464
4 x 100 m Medley Relay - 14th 4
13284

Irina Lashko

Russia, emigrated to Australia and competed for them in 2004
Diving (2 silver, 1 bronze)
1988 1992 1996 2004 HP
Springboard fourth silver silver 7th 11000
Synchronized Springboard bronze 1920
12920

She competed for the Soviet Union in 1988, for the Unified team in 1992, for Russia in 1996, and for Australia in 2004, thus making her one of only 2 competitors to have represented 4 different teams! (Jasna Sekaric has five different teams, but this includes an individual competition)

Larissa Semyonovna Latynina

B. 1934-12-27, Kherson, Ukraine
Gymnastics (9 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze)
1956 1960 1964 HP
Individual Combined gold gold silver 25200
Team Combined gold gold gold 9600
Floor Exercises gold gold gold 9600
Vaults gold bronze silver 4050
Asymetrical Parallel Bars silver silver bronze 2904
Beam fourth silver bronze 2244
Team with Portable Apparatus bronze 640
54238

This spectacular gymnast took nine Olympic titles (a record equalled by Mark Spitz and only exceeded by Ray Ewry - when counting the interim games of 1906), five silver and four bronze medals (an absolute record 18).
Her complete record shows her domination of the sport between her debut in 1954 and her retirement twelve years later. In Olympic, World and European Championships she took twenty-four gold medals, fifteen silver and five bronze. What makes this feat even more astonishing is that her career was interrupted by her giving birth to two children.
Mrs Latynina was renowned for her technical proficiency. Her ease in moving from one intricate position to another gave the sport a new concept. Moreover her desire for perfection meant that she kept on improving, forcing her contemporaries to raise their standard as well. Her best event, the floor excercises, in which she won three Olympic gold medals, emphasised this grace of movement. Her efforts and example firmly established the USSR's prominence in the women's branch of the sport.

Andrei Lavrov

B 1962-03-26, Russia
Handball (3 gold)
1988 1992 1996 2000 HP
Handball gold gold fifth gold 20200
20200

Goalkeeper of the winning handball teams of 1988 (Soviet Union), 1992 (Unified Team) and 2000 (Russia).
The second sportsman, after Sergei Chepikov, to win medals for three different teams, and the only one to do it with three golds.

Larissa Lazutina

B. 1965-06-01, Kondopoga, Russia
Nordic Skiing (5 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze)
1992 1994 1998 2002 HP
5 km, classical style 7th sixth gold 10975
10 km, classical style fourth
combined pursuit (5 km + 10km) 8th fourth gold 14740
combined pursuit (5 km + 5km) silver
15 km, classical style - silver 4000
30 km, classical style - disq.
15 km, free-style fifth silver 8866
30 km, free-style fifth bronze
4 x 5 km gold gold gold - 4000
42581

Member of the Relay teams of the United Team (1992) and Russia (1994, 1998) that won gold at Albertville, Lillehammer and Nagano.
She was checked for hemoglobine before the start of the relay at Salt Lake City and was refused the start. The team was not allowed to substitute her, thereby denying them (even without Lazutina) an obvious gold medal. Later it would turn out she failed a doping test, and she was not awarded a gold medal for her first place in the 30 km, but her other medals from Salt Lake City were not scrapped.

Written 2000-12-22 - last modified 2002-10-28

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