Greatest Comebacks of All Time in the Olympics

The Olympic Games have always been a theater of extremes: world records, photo finishes, and once-in-a-lifetime upsets. Yet nothing resonates more deeply than the comeback—the moment when an athlete, seemingly defeated by injury, illness, or grief, finds a way to rise again. These stories transcend medals, reminding the world that perseverance can be more powerful than perfection.

Jason Lezak’s anchor leg in the men’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay at Beijing 2008 is the quintessential example. France’s Alain Bernard entered the final length with a near-body-length lead, but Lezak surged down the last 25 meters, out-touching Bernard by 0.08 seconds. The gold not only kept Michael Phelps’s eight-medal quest alive but also produced a world record that still stands among swimming’s most iconic moments.

Matthias Steiner’s victory in the super-heavyweight weightlifting category that same year carried even heavier emotional freight. A year after his wife, Susann, died in a car accident, Steiner clutched a photo of her on the medal podium, tears mixing with sweat as 431 kg of iron and grief were lifted together.

The Winter Games have produced equally stirring reversals. Austria’s Hermann Maier appeared to destroy his Olympic dream when he crashed violently in the 1998 Nagano downhill, cartwheeling through the safety netting. Instead, he returned days later to capture gold in both the Super-G and giant slalom, earning the nickname “The Herminator” and a permanent place in alpine lore.

Betty Cuthbert’s journey spanned two Olympics and two continents. After winning three sprint golds at Melbourne 1956, injuries forced the Australian into retirement. Eight years later she re-emerged as a 400-meter runner, claiming victory in Tokyo 1964 and completing one of track’s most unlikely encores.

Gymnastics has supplied its own catalogue of resilience. At Seoul 1988, Greg Louganis split his head on the springboard during the preliminaries, required stitches, and still swept both the 3-meter springboard and 10-meter platform events. Eight years later in Atlanta, Kerri Strug landed her second vault on an injured ankle to clinch the United States’ first women’s team gold, collapsing in pain—and into history—moments after sticking the landing.

Illness, too, has been conquered on Olympic soil. American Gail Devers was diagnosed with Graves’ disease in 1990; doctors once considered amputating her feet. Two years later she won the 100-meter dash in Barcelona, adding two more golds in Atlanta. Cathy Freeman battled a string of infections and a self-imposed break in the late 1990s, yet returned to win the 400 meters on home soil at Sydney 2000, a triumph that carried profound symbolism for Australia’s Indigenous community.

Cycling’s Annemiek van Vleuten spent weeks in a neck brace after a horrific crash in the Rio 2016 road race. Five years later she captured gold in the Tokyo individual time trial, a testament to patience as much as power. Dutch teammate Annemiek van Vleuten’s victory mirrored the resilience shown by speed-skater Dan Jansen, who fell in the 500 meters at Calgary 1988 on the day his sister died, faltered again in 1992, and finally captured 1,000-meter gold in world-record time at Lillehammer 1994, dedicating the medal to his late sibling.

Even geopolitics have framed Olympic comebacks. The 1980 U.S. hockey team, composed mostly of college players, stunned the four-time defending Soviet powerhouse 4-3 in the “Miracle on Ice” semifinal before defeating Finland for gold. Two decades earlier, David Wottle entered the final straight of the Munich 1972 800 meters in last place, then unleashed a blistering kick to win by 0.03 seconds, a margin still measured in centimeters rather than meters.

Each of these moments shares a common thread: the refusal to yield when circumstance demands surrender. Whether forged in pools, on slopes, or inside packed arenas, the greatest Olympic comebacks endure because they reveal the boundary where athletic skill meets human will—and prove the latter can still carry the day.