First para-athlete to compete at an Olympic Games

Gymnast George Eyser (USA, b. Germany, 31 August 1870, d. unknown) competed at the 1904 Olympic Games in St Louis, USA, with a prosthetic wooden left leg. He won six medals in one day - three gold (rope climbing, vault, parallel bars), two silver (pommel horse, combined event - parallel bars, horizontal bar, vault, pommel horse) and one bronze (horizontal bar) to become not only the first athlete with a disability to compete at an Olympic Games but also the first disabled medallist.

Eyser won his six medals on 28 October 1904.

Eyser’s haul of gold medals would have been five had it not been for his American compatriot Anton Heida, who won five gold medals (including three in the events for which Eyser won silver and bronze) and one silver in the same events on the same day.

Remarkably, Eyser was the only athlete with a prosthetic leg to compete at the Olympic Games until 2008, when South African swimmer Natalie du Toit took part in the 10 km swimming marathon in Beijing, China, in 2008.