Who is the flukiest Olympic Gold medal winner of all-time?

There are no FLUKE gold medalists. It does not work that way.

Klown wrote:

There are no FLUKE gold medalists. It does not work that way.

More like very opportunistic. They seized the day and opportunity, good for them.

Peter Rono.

Well, in the case of Steven Bradbury, it did.

Depending on how the remainder of his career goes, Matthew Centrowitz.

The guy had other international medals and a 3:30 pr

oldschoollrc wrote:

Depending on how the remainder of his career goes, Matthew Centrowitz.

What he did prior to the win and what he does in the future, is meaningless. He won the MF 1500 Gold Medal against a very strong field.

cramister wrote:

The guy had other international medals and a 3:30 pr

It's not Centro. Why would people say this? Because his time was 350? Chalk it up to jealousy and ignorance. The dude has a 330 PR and multiple world medals. Not an accident.

Matthew Centrowitz was no fluke . Smart runner almost always in contention for a medal. Bronze medalist in the World Championships.

Every one that was stripped of their medal due to drug use.

Also.... all of the runners that were considered “likely doping” in that report years ago. All of their records should have an asterisk next to their names.... for every medal finish.

For instance..... every athlete coached by a disgraced, suspended coach.

Probably the dude who won the 800m at the 1896 Olympics. Unexceptional runner who lucked into living at a time when 2:11 could win an international gold.

There's no fluke gold medal winner, especially in the running events. Track & field is a very basic sport. There's no hail mary plays that win you a lucky, undeserved win.

I will vote for Voula Patoulidou in the '92 Barcelona 100 meter hurdles.

She ran a .12 PR in the semi to become the first Greek woman to ever make an Olympic final race. Her victory was the first for any Greek athlete since 1912.

Devers had a huge lead on the field. She was running so fast that she was crowding each hurdle more than the one prior. She was even straying her lead leg somewhat to the side (she did this a bit anyway) to try to find room to get her lead leg up and over. Finally, on hurdle #10 there was not enough room and she crashed.

In the final, Patoulidou shaved another .24 from her PR and .32 from her PR prior to the games. As everyone was watching Devers tumble, Patoulidou who was 4th at hurdle 7, came on for the win. She was a longshot on most pre-Olympic form charts to make the final, let alone and the gold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM-7UyNvoPY

If you include the World Championships then I think you need to consider Emma Coburn's gold in 2017 as a bit of a fluke. I am a huge Coburn fan and have even run in her race that she organizes in Crested Butte. I think she is one of the most humble gold medal winners the US as ever had. That being said, he gold in London was a weird fluke.

Beatrice Chepkoech somehow missed the first water jump and had to double back to it. She lost a full seven seconds on the first lap. And yet she battled back to retake the lead and only surrendered it in the final 300 meters. Once the top-3 started to run away from her and she realized that the race was gone, she just jogged in the final straight. She still finished only 7.9 seconds behind Coburn. I think if she doesn't miss the 1st water jump, Chepkoech gets gold, Coburn gets silver, and Frerichs gets the bronze.

I have never seen another athlete miss the water jump at any level from HS to the Olympics. Still boggles my mind when I watch the video of that race.

Hard to fluke your way into a gold medal. Any medal, maybe, but gold there will always be at least one person who is a truly top runner who has a good day that you have to beat. Centro had to beat Willis on a great day and Makhloufi on a good day, and he’s the most recent example of what someone might call a fluke. Every other runner that ever won a gold was in a similar situation. There are no flukes.

London 2017 wrote:

If you include the World Championships then I think you need to consider Emma Coburn's gold in 2017 as a bit of a fluke.

I have never seen another athlete miss the water jump at any level from HS to the Olympics.

Excellent choice.

Briana Shook, then AR holder, at OT or WC trails. I remember it as her taking the water jump on the first lap when they were supposed to go around the curve skipping the water. She did something weird that DQed her. I do remember that there was not an official there to steer them the right direction as there typically is.

Opinionated guy wrote:

I'm not sure if I am seeing this correctly or not and I've never noticed it before. I just watched the video you posted of Devers' fall and at 1:40 (the slow-motion, head-on video), it appears that she glances to her right just as she starts to jump the last hurdle. Her eyes are straight ahead the entire time but it looks like she lost her concentration at the last moment and it may have caused her crash. Maybe my old eyes are playing a trick on me but that's it what I see.

This is the right glance I am talking about.

https://ibb.co/yFkCvtG

London 2017 wrote:

I'm not sure if I am seeing this correctly or not and I've never noticed it before. I just watched the video you posted of Devers' fall and at 1:40 (the slow-motion, head-on video), it appears that she glances to her right just as she starts to jump the last hurdle. Her eyes are straight ahead the entire time but it looks like she lost her concentration at the last moment and it may have caused her crash. Maybe my old eyes are playing a trick on me but that's it what I see.

I have watched that race many times and never noticed that. Thanks. I can't tell if it is a blip in concentration or not, but defintely a great catch. Something had to cause it. I just assumed it was crowding the hurdles but you may be on to something. I would love to hear Dever's speak on it. Her interview after the fall was great. Something like "It was unfortunate. I am happy for the others. I will work hard to try to get another chance." She was a 100 hurdler who also ran the 100 as a secondary event yet had 2 Oly 100 golds and 0 in the hurdles. She did have 3 WC golds in the hurdles.