The United States Olympic team has seen rising stars born in the summer Olympics. Too many to name.
Before their legendary rivalry in the ring as professionals, Cassius Clay (top) and the late Joe Frazier (bottom) both won gold medals. Clay defeated Zbigniew Petrzykowski (POL) in the light-heavyweight (boxing) final at Rome 1960. Frazier defeated Hans Huber (GER) in the heavyweight (boxing) final at Rome 1964.
Boxing gold for the US aren't just limited to those two. At Mexico City 1968, George Foreman won gold, defeating Jonas Cepulis (URS) in the finals of the heavyweight (boxing) division. Pernell 'Sweet Pea' Whitaker won gold at Los Angeles 1984 and Oscar de la Hoya won gold at Barcelona 1992.
USA Wrestling has also generated great top Olympians in wrestling. Dan Gable won gold at Munich 1972 in the freestyle lightweight (wrestling) final. Other great notables who won wrestling gold for the US include Kurt Angle, who won the freestyle heavyweight (wrestling) final, defeating Abbas Jadidi (IRI) at Atlanta 1996. Angle would go on to a successfull 'professional' wrestling career. Rulon Gardner also won gold, after defeating the legendary Alexsandr Karelin (RUS) in the final of the Greco-Roman super heavyweight (wrestling) at Sydney 2000.
At Athens 2004, Cael Sanderson (pictured above), defeated Mun Ui-Je (KOR) in the final of the freestyle light-heavyweight (wrestling) at Sydney 2004. Sanderson to this day is the only NCAA wrestler at any level (from Division I to Division III) to finish career undefeated; he currently coaches at Penn State, where he led that program to a recent Division I national title back in March.
The most recent success for USA wrestling is that of Henry Cejudo, who won gold at Beijing 2008, by defeating Tomohiro Matsunaga (JPN) in the final of the men's freestyle featherweight (wrestling).
Finally, some of the other individual gold-medal winning performances of the summer games. Some include gymnasts Mary Lou Retton and Mitch Gaylord, who won the respective all around (gymnastics) events at Los Angeles 1984. Not forget about Andre Agassi, who won tennis singles gold, defeating Sergi Bruguera (ESP) in the final at Atlanta 1996.
And then there are some very heartwarming stories, such as that of Rebecca Soni (pictured). Soni, a last minute addition to the USA Swimming roster for Beijing 2008 (replaced Jessica Hardy), came out of nowhere to win the 200m breaststroke (swimming) final at Beijing 2008. Remember, she had heart surgery a couple years back, which was damaging for her career. Since then, she has won Fina World Championships gold at Rome 2009 and Shanghai 2011.
In part 3, I'll examine the gold medal of the USA team sports in the summer games.
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