Another Odd Exercise Zone

[DoubleRBar]

A very happy birthday today (Wednesday) to two Olympic champions you all know very well. One was born 14 years before the other.

One was born on a Tuesday while the other was born on a Saturday. The older athlete died on the 37th anniversary of President Kennedy's death while the younger person died when George Walker Bush was our president.

The younger athlete was in a very serious auto accident when he was 20. The older athlete worked in a factory when he was 16.

With a total of eight Olympic gold medals, these two athletes competed in a total of six Olympic Games.

Suffering from high blood pressure, our younger athlete was a fairly good painter. The older person set six world records and was the sixth child in his family. The older athlete and his wife were born about six hours apart.

Death came at the age of 78 for our older athlete while the younger died at the age of 71.

Our younger athlete won his last two Olympic gold medals on the same date and the same month, but four years apart. The older athlete won two of his Olympic gold medals on a Sunday in the same year.

Can you name these two famous gold medalists? The younger one set four world records. One of them was born 90 years ago this day. Name them.

[jmd]

I think Emil Zatopek was the older !

He once said, according to wikipedia :
"I was not talented enough to run and smile at the same time" !

JM

[DoubleRBar]

You got the older athlete, jmd. It is Emil Zatopek who was born 90 years ago today. Of course you know that his wife, Dana, was born the same day in 1922 and also won an Olympic gold medal on the same day that Emil won the 5,000 meters in Helsinki (July 24, 1952). They had been married in 1949.

Now, who is the younger athlete with four Olympic gold medals?

[jmd]

The first athlete to win gold medal in the same event in four consecutive Olympics,
it was Al Oerter, Mister Discus, born in 1936 !

[DoubleRBar]

Nice job, jmd. It is Al Oerter who was born today, 76 years ago. Al Oerter won four consecutive discus gold medals in the Olympics and the first (1956) and the last (1968) were both won on a Tuesday. His last two Olympic gold medals (1964 and 1968) were both won on October 15.

[Daisy]

I have to ask. How does this all relate to the title of the thread?

[mcgato]

First letters of the words in the title give you the initials of the two answers.

[Daisy]

First letters of the words in the title give you the initials of the two answers.

Thanks, I had not noticed, obviously. No wonder everyone gets these things faster than me.

[DoubleRBar]

The title of the thread doesn't always have the athlete's initials, but you never know.