I’m 38 years old. When I think of great American Summer Olympians my memories are from the 1984 Olympics and onward. I remember the original Dream Team, Carl Lewis running the 100 meters, Michael Phelps winning seemingly every metal in swimming, Roy Jones Jr. being completely robbed of a gold in boxing…you get the picture.
My frame of reference is very recent and in many ways geared towards the highest profile sports at the Summer games. So, as I looked to take another Michigan-focused sporting article I figured I’d take a less subjective view of what makes someone “great” and just make the bar a very clear one – win multiple gold medals.
As it turns out, there are more Michiganders on that list than I would have guessed. Based on the work of my crack research team, we were able to come up with what we believe to be a complete list of multi-gold medal winners from the Summer games who were born in Michigan. Here’s the complete list, and if you care to read on you can learn a bit about each of these amazing athletes.
Jackson Scholz
- Scholz’s 1920 relay team broke the world record in the finals with a time of 42.2 seconds
- Scholz’s 21.6 seconds in the 1924 Olympic finals for the 200 meters broke the Olympic record
American Express found Scholz worthy of a spot in an Olympic spots many years later, as you can see below.
Karch Kiraly
At the 1984 Olympics Kiraly was the youngest member of the gold medal winning team. With the Russians boycotting the 1984 games, the U.S. proved itself against that volleyball powerhouse by defeating them for the gold at the 1988 games, where the team was captained by Kiraly.
Kiraly left the national team in 1988 and stopped his indoor career for good in 1992 when he and Kent Steffes played doubles on the AVP Tour. In 1996 the Summer games added beach volleyball as an event and Kiraly and Steffes took the gold medal in that inaugural event.
Kiraly eventually retired from the AVP tour after the 2007 season after winning more than $3 million in prize money.
Kate Markgraf
Markgraf bounced around domestically and internationally in her club career, moving between the WUSA where she was named defender of the year for the Boston Breakers in 2001, and then to the Swedish League and finally back to the United States to play for the Chicago Red Stars of the Women’s Professional Soccer League where she made the All-Star team in 2010, her final season.
She appeared first for the Women’s National Team in 1998 and became a starter for the 2000 games where they finished in second place. Fortunately, she returned again for the 2004 and 2008 games (the latter as a co-captain) and steered the team to consecutive gold medals.
Over the course of her distinguished career Markgraf became only the tenth woman to earn more than 200 caps, finishing with 201 appearances for the United States.
Ralph Craig
During the 1912 games Craig was a heavy underdog in the 100 meter race to countryman Donald Lippincott, who broke the World Record in the earlier heats with a time of 10.6 seconds. After an almost unthinkable seven false starts in the finals, Craig blazed his way to victory with a time of 10.8 seconds, edging out countrymen Alvah Meyer (silver) and Lippincott (bronze) in an American medal sweep.
As if one gold wasn’t enough, Craig went full on beast mode and once again topped Lippincott in the 200 meters with a time of 21.7 seconds (beating Lippincott’s 21.8).
Craig retired from competition after the 1912 games, but did make a return appearance at the Olympics in 1948 as an alternate for the U.S. yachting team, where he carried our country’s flag at the opening ceremonies in London.
Serena Williams
Serena continues to be the world’s number one ranked player and has won more than $80 million on tour thus far during her playing career.
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