Stat of the day
A look at the highest number of Olympic appearances by an individual
The highest number of appearances at the Olympics by an individual stands at a whopping 10.
Leander Paes and Ian Millar
The Olympic Games are considered to be the pinnacle of any sport. Every young athlete who starts out playing any sport dreams of representing his country at the Olympics at least once.
While many consider the opportunity of playing at the Olympics to be the highlight of their sporting career, many others go on to represent their countries at Olympics multiple times. There are athletes who have competed in at the Olympics twice or thrice, which is a great achievement in itself, but the highest number of appearances at the Olympics by an individual stands at a whopping 10. Yes, T-E-N, 10.
The record for highest number of Olympic appearances by an individual is currently held by an Equestrian from Canada, Ian Millar with a total of 10 Olympic appearances. Millar first competed in Olympics during the 1972 Munich Games and was a constant figure at all the editions until the 2012 London Games. The only exception to this was the 1980 Moscow Games, when Canada was a part of the US-led boycott of the Olympics held in Soviet Union.
Before Millar, the record for highest individual Olympic appearance was held by Austrian sailor Hubert Raudaschl who had competed in a total of nine Olympic Games starting from the 1964 Tokyo Games to the 1996 Atlanta Games. Besides, a shooter, Afanasijs Kuzmins, has also competed at nine different Olympic editions, with his final appearance coming at the 2012 London Games. In his nine apperances, Kuzmins represented Russia thrice and Latvia six times.
On the other hand a total of nine athletes have competed in eight different editions of Olympics. The highest individual Olympic appearances for women stand at eight with three different women – Italian Josefa Idem (Canoeing), Canadian Lesley Thompson (Rowing) and Nino Salukvadze (Shooting) of Georgia having competed in eight different editions. In fact, Salukvadze is expected to become the first woman with nine Olympic appearances when she takes the field at 2020 Tokyo Games.
The record for highest number of Olympic appearance by an Indian is held by Leander Paes who has so far competed in seven consecutive editions starting from the 1992 Barcelona Games and is currently eyeing to make it to his eighth Olympics at Tokyo.
