This cache was placed to show case Raymond "Ray" Ewry, an eight
time Olympic Gold medal winner.
Ray was born in Lafayette in 1873. At the age of 7 Ray
contracted Polio, he was confined to a wheelchair for a time and
was told by the doctors that he may never walk again. As a last
resort one doctor suggested leg exercises. A century later, the
workout would be known as plyometrics. Ray was able to overcome his
disease and in 1890 he entered Purdue University. While at Purdue
he led the school to its first-ever track title. He broke world
records in standing high jump, standing long jump and standing
triple jump.
After receiving a graduate degree in engineering at Purdue, he
joined the New York Athletic Club. At his first Olympics, held in
Paris (1900), he won gold medals in all three standing jumps.
Incidentally, all three finals were held on the same day. By the
end of the competition he was affectionately called "The Human
Frog" by the Parisians.
Ray doubled his gold medal count from three to six by winning
the same three events again in St. Louis in 1904. He set a world
record in the standing long jump.
Two years later he journeyed to Athens. Greece was celebrating
the 10th anniversary of the modern Games with a full list of
events. So although 1906 was not an Olympic year, the medals
counted. Ewry won two more. (He would have won three, but the hop,
step and jump was eliminated after '04.) By this time, Ray was
waving off all preliminary heats and jumping only once, in the
final. He only needed one attempt to win. The boy with polio had
become the unbeatable Olympic champion. Ray won two more golds in
London in '08, and would have won more in '12 if not for severe
pain from what he called "a note from Old Dame Nature in the shape
of a rheumatic twinge," he wrote in the Purdue Alumnus in 1920. Ray
retired with 10 golds. He won four straight championships in each
of two events -- a mark that might never fall. No other Olympian in
history has won as many gold medals without losing a single
competition. Even Carl Lewis silvered once. But not Ray Ewry.
Ray Ewry was honored in 1990 by being featured on a US postage
stamp.
Ray Ewry is buried near by in the Ewry family plot in section
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