Paralympic athlete biography

This is a list of athletes who have competed in both the Paralympic and the Olympic Games.

History

Long before the Paralympic Games, American gymnast George Eyser, who had a wooden leg, competed at the 1904 Summer Olympics, and won three gold medals, two silver and a bronze, including a gold in the vault, an event which then included a jump over a long horse without aid of a springboard.

Paralympic athlete biography

There have also been other amputee medallists at the Olympic Games prior to the creation of the Paralympics. Olivér Halassy of Hungary, whose left leg was amputated below the knee, won three medals (two gold and a silver) in water polo, in 1928, 1932 and 1936.

Károly Takács, also of Hungary, won gold in shooting at the 1948 Summer Olympics. His right hand had been "shattered by a grenade" ten years earlier, and he had taught himself to shoot with his left. Deaf Hungarian fencerIldikó Újlaky-Rejtő won two individual medals (a