“You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.” – Michael Phelps

Nov. 5, 1994 – At age 45, Foreman knocked out Moorer to win heavyweight title

Having lost his last fight against Tommy ‘Gunn’ Morrison, George Foreman was unranked and in no position to demand another title shot. His relatively high profile, however, made a title shot against Moorer, 19 years his junior, a lucrative prospect at seemingly little risk for the champion.

Foreman entered the fight wearing the same red trunks he had worn in his title loss to Muhammad Ali 20 years earlier. This time, however, Foreman was a substantial underdog. For nine rounds, Moorer easily outboxed him, hitting and moving away, while Foreman chugged forward, seemingly unable to “pull the trigger” on his punches. Entering the tenth round, Foreman was trailing on all scorecards. However, Foreman launched a comeback in the tenth round and hit Moorer with a number of punches. Then a short right hand caught Moorer on the tip of his chin, gashing open his bottom lip and he collapsed to the canvas. He lay flat on his back as the referee counted him out.

Foreman vs Moorer 10th round KO:

In an instant, Foreman had regained the title he had lost to Muhammad Ali two decades before. He went back to his corner and knelt in prayer as the arena erupted in cheers. With this historic victory, Foreman broke three records: he became, at age 45, the oldest fighter ever to win the World Heavyweight Championship; 20 years after losing his title for the first time, he broke the record for the fighter with the longest interval between his first and second world championships; and the age spread of 19 years between the champion and challenger was the largest of any heavyweight boxing championship fight.

Aug. 26, 1999 – Michael Johnson sets 400m World Record in 43.18 seconds

Johnson currently holds the world and Olympic records in the 400 m. He formerly held the world and Olympic record in the 200 m, and the world record in the indoor 400 m. He also currently holds the world’s best time at the 300 m. His 200 m time of 19.32 at the 1996 Summer Olympics stood as the record for over 12 years. Johnson is generally considered one of the greatest long sprinters in the history of track and field.

Clip of the 400m race:

 

He is the only male athlete in history to win both the 200 meter dash and 400 meter dash events at the same Olympics, a feat he accomplished at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Johnson is also the only man to successfully defend his Olympic title in the 400 m. Aside from his Olympic success Johnson accumulated eight gold medals at World Championships, and is thus tied with Carl Lewis for the most gold medals won by any runner in history.

Johnson’s stiff upright running stance and very short steps defied the conventional wisdom that a high knee lift was essential for maximum speed. As of 2012, Johnson holds 13 of the top 100 times for the 200 meters and 27 of the top 100 times for the 400 meters. Of those, he holds 14 of the top 25 times for the 400 meters. He broke 44 seconds for the 400 metres twenty-two times, more than twice as many as any other athlete.

Aug. 8, 1992 – The ‘Dream Team’ won gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain

ROSTER: Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Scottie Pippen, Clyde Drexler, John Stockton, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Chris Mullen, Christian Laettner.

Head coach: Chuck Daly
Assistant coaches: Mike Krzyzewski, Lenny Wilkens, P.J. Carlesimo

The Dream Team was the first American Olympic team to feature active NBA players. Described by American journalists as the greatest sports team ever assembled, and called by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame “the greatest collection of basketball talent on the planet”, it defeated its opponents by an average of almost 44 points.

Sports Illustrated later stated that the Dream Team was “arguably the most dominant squad ever assembled in any sport.” The team was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. Barkley later said, “I don’t think there’s anything better to representing your country. I don’t think anything in my life can come close to that.” Bird called the medal ceremony and the playing of The Star-spangled Banner “the ultimate” experience. Johnson said “The 92 Dream Team was the greatest moment of my life in terms of basketball, bar none.” Jordan said that the biggest benefit for him from the Olympics was that he learned more about his teammates’ weaknesses. He later defeated Barkley, Malone, and Stockton in three NBA finals. As of 2012, 11 of the 12 players on the roster (except Laettner), and three of the four coaches (except Carlesimo), have been elected to the Hall of Fame.

Kobe Bryant and LeBron James said they believed their 2012 Olympic team would win against the Dream Team. Bryant said, “They were a lot older, at kind of the end of their careers. We have just a bunch of young racehorses, guys that are eager to compete.” Barkley said that he “just started laughing” upon hearing Bryant’s comment and that the Dream Team would win by double digits. Jordan added, “For [Bryant] to compare those two teams is not one of the smarter things he ever could have done… Remember now, they learned from us. We didn’t learn from them.” Bird joked, “They probably could. I haven’t played in 20 years and we’re all old now.”

Aug. 1, 1996 – Michael Johnson won the gold medal for running the 200 m in 19.32 s

Johnson ran 19.66 seconds in the 200 m at the U.S. Olympic Trials, breaking Pietro Mennea‘s record of 19.72 seconds, which had stood for 17 years. With that performance he qualified to run at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and prepared to attempt to win both the 200 meters and 400 meters events, a feat never before achieved by a male athlete.

On July 29, Johnson easily captured the 400 m Olympic title with an Olympic Record time of 43.49 seconds, almost one full second ahead of silver medalist Roger Black of Great Britain. At the 200 m final on August 1, Johnson ran the opening 100 meters in 10.12 seconds and finished the race in a world record time of 19.32 seconds, breaking by more than three tenths of a second the previous record he had set in the U.S. Olympic Trials, on the same track one month earlier—the largest improvement ever on a 200 m world record. Some commentators compared the performance to Bob Beamon‘s record-shattering long jump at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.

After the 1996 season ended, Johnson received the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in any sport in the United States, and was named ABC’s Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year.

Did You Know:
Johnson entered the Olympic finals donning a custom-designed pair of golden-colored Nike racing spikes made with Zytel, causing him to be nicknamed “The Man With the Golden Shoes.” The left shoe was a US size 10.5 while the right shoe was a US size 11, to account for Johnson’s shorter left foot.

July 30, 1976 – Bruce Jenner wins gold in the decathlon at the Montreal Olympics

His 8,617 points set a world record in the event.

The secret to Jenner’s success was his preparation. In the 1970s, most decathletes trained with other decathletes. Bruce Jenner, however, trained with some of the world’s best athletes in each of the 10 decathlon events. “If you train with a decathlon man,” Jenner told Dave Anderson of The New York Times in 1976, “you can’t visualize that you can do much better. But if you throw the discus with Mac Wilkins or throw the shot with Al Feuerbach, then they’re 20 feet ahead of me. You learn much more that way.”

Although the blond, chiseled, 6-foot-2-inch Nikolai Avilov, the world record-holder and 1972 Olympic champion from the Soviet Union, was considered nearly impossible to beat, Jenner’s intense training paid off at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. After the first day of competition, Jenner was in third place, 35 points off the pace and 17 points behind his rival. With all of Jenner’s best events slated for the second day, though, Jenner knew he could pull off a victory. He later admitted thinking, “If I am within 150 points of the leader after five events, I’ll run away with it.” On July 30, the next five events went exactly as Jenner hoped: He ran efficiently in the 110-meter hurdles, set a personal best in the pole vault, threw the discus and the javelin well and sprinted the last 300 meters of the 1,500-meter event to seal a win. Jenner then took an impromptu victory lap with an American flag before finding his wife Chrystie—who had supported him during his training by working as a flight attendant—for a congratulatory kiss. Avilov finished third, almost 300 points behind the new champion.

After his win, Jenner enjoyed the unofficial title of “world’s greatest athlete” and appeared in movies, on television and, of course, adorned a Wheaties® box. He was voted the 1976 AP Male Athlete of the Year. The 1976 Olympics was his last decathlon.

“When you lose a couple of times, it makes you realize how difficult it is to win.” – Steffi Graf

“Your biggest opponent isn’t the other guy. It’s human nature.” – Bobby Knight

July 22, 1963 – Liston KOs Patterson in the first round to retain heavyweight title

Sonny Liston became World Heavyweight Champion in 1962 by knocking out Floyd Patterson in the first round. Patterson and Liston had a rematch held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Liston again won by a knockout as he knocked Patterson down three times, with the three-knockdown rule being in effect. Patterson lasted four seconds longer than in the first bout. After this victory, Liston was loudly booed.

Video: Sonny Liston vs Floyd Patterson, II:

July 19, 1996 – Ali lit the opening flame at Summer Olympics

Former U.S. boxing gold medalist, Muhammad Ali was also given a replacement gold medal for his boxing victory at the 1960 Summer Olympics. Ali had supposedly thrown his previous gold medal into the Ohio River after being refused entry into a restaurant. The United States would dominate the medal count, winning 44 gold medals (Russia was second with 26) and 101 total medals, beating second place Germany who finished with 65. However, it was the Canadians who stole the show in the two biggest events of the Olympics.

The men’s 100-meter race, which is widely considered the main event at any Summer Olympics, was won by Donovan Bailey in a world record time of 9.84 seconds. Bailey would also lead Canada to gold in the men’s 4 x 100 meter relay.