For those familiar with Russian literature, Siberia mostly invokes images of punishment, suffering and bitter winters. One of the world’s least inhabited places also gave birth to one of the greatest Olympians. Boris Shakhlin won 13 medals from three Olympics, more than half of them in 1960. It remains one of the most astonishing performances by an athlete in Olympic history. He took four gold — all of them in individual events — as well as two silver and a bronze at Rome.
Only Michael Phelps has won more medals from one Olympics. Shakhlin held the record for being the male athlete with the highest number of medals till fellow-Soviet gymnast Nikolai Andrianov overtook him in Moscow in 1980. Shakhlin’s last Olympics was in Tokyo, where he clinched four medals. A couple of years later, he had to retire at 35 after suffering a heart attack. That wasn’t the first setback in his life. He had lost his parents when he was 12. When his brother died, he had to sell some Olympic medals to meet his funeral expenses.
But inside the arena, nothing mattered to Shakhlin. He had steely determination to match his strong frame. It was with a bleeding hand that he won the bronze in horizontal bar at Rome.
Little wonder they called him the ‘Man of Iron’.
