Well, well, well. What do we have here? The year is 1968; the time is right after a match between Italy and Yugoslavia. As you can see, the Italian fans are excited because of their team’s victory, so they are climbing up the goal.
Is that safe? Probably not. But is it fun? We bet that it is. This picture truly captures the WC spirit. And amazingly, this wasn’t even a World Cup match. It was the final of the European Championships, which is basically the World Cup, but only for European nations. So yeah, Italy won the final and the fans went nuts.
A Leaping Namath
Nicknamed “Broadway Joe,” the leaping athlete you see in this image was a massive icon in 60s football. The quarterback was known for leading his team to victory in Super Bowl III and turned his talents to sports broadcasting and acting. Probably a good thing because, while his feats of athleticism were incredible, he was also known for being injured on a worryingly frequent basis, particularly in the latter part of his career.
Along with the incredible heights, he was able to leap to, Namath was known for his powerhouse of an arm: the perfect combination for a quarterback. Everyone has a weakness, though and, for Broadway Joe, it was his knees. Given how weak they were, powerful jumps like the one you see in this picture were, sadly, a rarity.
A Star Among His Fans
At first glance, this picture looks like it’s nothing more than a shot of a packed crowd of sports fans. Yet, if you look closer, there’s a gem hidden in that sea of humanity. Can you spot the grinning visage of Babe Ruth in the middle of the crowd? Ruth was like no other sports star in so many respects. As it turns out, being happy to mingle with many fans was yet another way the brilliantly talented baseball legend stood out from his colleagues.
This photo was taken in 1926, a season that would go down as Ruth’s most successful. Perhaps he knew something his competitors didn’t? Maybe joining the crowd and soaking up their frenetic energy somehow charged his batteries up, allowing him to outshine the teams he came up against.
Barefoot All The Way
Marathons: the name alone is enough to make the average person feel exhausted. Few of us ever cultivate the constitution, fitness, and mental fortitude necessary to master one of these multi-hour races. They are notoriously difficult to train for and take an intense toll on the joints and, really, the whole body. Yet, ask any marathon runner, and they’ll tell you: the feeling of success when you finally cross that finish line is like nothing else. In a race where simply finishing feels like a monumental achievement, can you imagine the emotional response you’d have to finish first… at the Olympics?
Ethiopian runner Abebe Bikila, who you can see in this picture, did just that way back in 1960. Not only did he take out the gold medal, but he also ran the whole race, situated that year in Rome, with nothing on his feet. It was so hot that the race had to be run at night, which is why the photo was so dark. A barefoot Bikila crossed the finish line with a time of 2:15:16.2.
Defeating Loss
Here’s one of those pictures we told you would bring a tear to your eyes! The weight of failure is crushing enough for athletes. We can only imagine how weightlifting champion, Matthias Steiner, is feeling in the moment captured by this photo. To put it in perspective for you, the Olympian attempted to lift more than 432 pounds in this image.
The shot was captured at the 2012 London Olympics. Poor Steiner had actually gone into the games as both the defending Olympic champion and the favorite to win. However, with weights as bulky as he was lifting, you can’t afford to lose your balance by even a hair. Unfortunately, Steiner swayed enough to throw him right off balance and bring the insanely heavy bar down on his neck. While he got up and displayed to the crowd that he wasn’t too badly hurt, he did end up pulling out of the competition that day.