George Louis Eyser (August 31, 1870 – March 6, 1919) was a German-

American gymnast who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics, earning six
medals in one day, including three gold and two silver medals.[1] Eyser competed
with a wooden prosthesis for a left leg, having lost his leg after being run over by
a train. Despite his disability, he won gold in the vault, an event which then
included a jump over a long horse without aid of a springboard.
The 1904 Olympics, held in St. Louis, were the third Olympics and the first ones
where gold, silver and bronze medals were introduced for the first three places.
Cups or trophies were given to the winners at the previous games. The 1904
games in general had a confusing program of events, which were spread out over
several months, and the gymnastics competition was no different. There were
two sets of gymnastic events: International Turners' Championship, which was
held on July 1–2 and comprised the all-around, triathlon, and team events,
and Olympic Gymnastics Championships, held on October 29, which comprised
seven individual apparatus events and the combined event. The individual all-
around was a combination of the gymnastic triathlon competition and
the athletics triathlon. The team competition was a combination of individual
scores from the individual all-around. The parallel bars, horizontal bar, vault, and
pommel horse scores for each gymnast were summed to get the "combined"
score.
He also competed in the athletics triathlon, but finished the last with the results
of 8 m (26.1 ft) in shot put, 15.4 s in 100 meters sprint and 4 m (13 ft) in the long
jump.[4]

Eyser performed much better in the second competition set. On a single day of
October 29, he won 6 medals in total, of which 3 were gold (parallel bars, long
horse vault, and 25-foot rope climbing), two silver (pommel horse and 4-event all-
around), and one bronze (horizontal bar).

Prior to 2008, Eyser was the only person with an artificial leg to have competed at
the Olympic Games. Later, in 2008 Natalie du Toit, a South African swimmer who
lost her left leg in a traffic accident, participated in the 10 km swimming marathon
at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and finished 16th
Olivér Halassy[a] (né Haltmayer; 31 July 1909 – 10 September 1946) was
a Hungarian water polo player and freestyle swimmer who competed at
the 1928, 1932 and 1936 Summer Olympics.

Halassy lost his left leg below the knee when he was hit by a train at the age of
11.[1] He later became the first amputee swimmer to compete in the Olympics. He
was a member of the Hungarian water polo teams that won one silver and two
gold medals in 1928, 1932 and 1936.

Károly Takács (21 January 1910 – 5 January 1976)[1][2][3] was the first shooter to
win two Olympic gold medals in the 25 metre rapid fire pistol event, both with his
left hand after his right hand was seriously injured.

By 1936, he was a world-class pistol shooter, but he was denied a place in the
Hungarian shooting team for the 1936 Summer Olympics on the grounds that he
was a sergeant, and only commissioned officers were allowed to compete. This
prohibition was lifted in Hungary after the Berlin Games, and Takács had
expectations of success at the 1940 Summer Olympics, scheduled to be held in
Tokyo.

During army training in 1938, his right hand was badly injured when a
faulty grenade exploded. Takács was determined to continue his shooting career,
and switched to shooting with his left hand. He practiced in secret, surprising his
countrymen when he won the Hungarian national pistol shooting championship in
the spring of 1939.

The Olympic Games scheduled for 1940 and 1944 were canceled due to
the Second World War. However, Takács surprised the world by winning the gold
medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London,[4] aged 38, beating the
favourite, Argentine Carlos Enrique Díaz Sáenz Valiente, the reigning world
champion.

Takács won a second gold medal in the same event at the 1952 Summer
Olympics in Helsinki.

Takács also attended the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, but finished
eighth and failed to win a third medal.

Neroli Susan Fairhall MBE (26 August 1944 – 11 June 2006) was a New Zealand
athlete, who was the first paraplegic competitor in the Olympic Games.
Born in Christchurch in 1944, Fairhall took up archery following a motorbike
accident that paralysed her from the waist down, ending her previous athletic
career.

She finished in 35th place at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Fairhall was
the first paraplegic to compete in the Olympic Games.[1]

Fairhall was a multiple national champion and won medals and held titles at
the Paralympics, IPC-Archery World Championships and many international
tournaments. She participated in four Summer Paralympics, in 1972, 1980, 1988,
and 2000. At her first Paralympic Games she competed in track and field
athletics.[2] At the 1980 Games, she took part in both athletics and archery,
winning a gold medal in the latter sport. At the 1988 and 2000 Paralympics she
competed in archery only.[3]

Lis Hartel (March 14, 1921 – February 12, 2009) was

an Olympic equestrian competitor from Denmark.[1][2]

At the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, Hartel was one of four women who were
the first to compete in modern equestrian sports at the Summer Olympics. Lis
Holst was born on 14 March 1921 to equestrians in the coastal town
of Hellerup, Denmark.

Lis Hartel became the Danish dressage champion in 1943 and 1944.[7] In
September 1944, at age 23 and pregnant with her second child, Lis
contracted polio, which permanently paralyzed her below the knees, as well as
affecting her arms and hands.[1][8][7] Despite contracting polio while pregnant at
the time, she bore a healthy daughter, Anne Hartel (later Værnet), in 1945.[9]

Hartel was determined to continue her equestrian career despite medical advice
otherwise, and in 1947 she finished second at the Scandinavian championships,
although she had to be helped onto her horse when she rode.[8][10]

Dressage at the Olympics was open only to commissioned military officers until
1952, and in that year Hartel was one of the first women to compete against men
in an equestrian sport at the Olympics.[9] Her silver medal in 1952 for Individual
Dressage was the first by any woman in any individual sport when in direct
competition with men at the Olympics, and she was also the Danish champion in
dressage that year.[4][7] She continued to be Danish champion in dressage in 1953,
1954, 1956 and 1959.[4]

In 1956, she also won another silver medal, this time at the 1956 Olympics in
Melbourne, Australia.

Marla Lee Runyan (January 4, 1969) is an American track and field athlete, road
runner and marathon runner who is legally blind. She is a three-time national
champion in the women's 5000 metres. She is also an athlete that competed in
both the Paralympics and the Olympics, both reaching the finals.

1992 Summer Paralympics

Runyan won four gold medals at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in the long jump
and the 100, 200, and 400 meter races.[2] She also competed in cycling at those
games.

1996 Olympic trials and Paralympics

She attempted to qualify for the "Able Bodied" Olympics at the 1996 U. S.
Olympic Trials, finishing 10th in the Heptathlon. While failing to qualify, she ran
the 800 meters in 2:04.60, a heptathlon-800m American record. This success
convinced her to try distance running.

At the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta, she took silver in the shot put and gold in
the pentathlon.[2]

1999 Pan American Games and 2000 Summer Olympics

Her career as a world-class runner in able-bodied events began in 1999 at the Pan
American Games in Winnipeg, where she won Gold in the 1,500-meter race and
was ranked second in the United States in that event in 1999 by Track and Field
News. The next year, she placed eighth in the 1,500-meter in the 2000 Sydney
Olympics, making Runyan the first legally blind athlete to compete in the
Olympics and the highest finish by an American woman in that event.

She finished as the top American at the 2002 New York Marathon with a time of 2
hours, 27 minutes and 10 seconds to post the second-fastest debut time ever by
an American woman.
She won the road 5K again in 2003 and qualified for the 2004 Summer Olympic
Games by finishing second in the United States Olympic Trials (track and field).

Natalia Dorota Partyka (born 27 July 1989)[3] is a Polish para table tennis player.
Born without a right hand and forearm, she participates in competitions for able-
bodied athletes[4] as well as in competitions for athletes with disabilities. Partyka
reached the last 32 of the London 2012 Olympic women's table tennis.

Partyka competed for Poland both the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2008
Summer Paralympics in Beijing.

In 2008, she won a gold medal in the singles event and a silver in the team event
at the Beijing Paralympics, repeating her Athens Paralympics result.

At the 2016 Summer Olympics she competed in the women's team event and
later won her fourth consecutive Paralympic singles gold medal at the 2016
Summer Paralympics

Natalie du Toit was born in Cape Town, South Africa and attended Timour Hall
Primary school. She began competing internationally in swimming at the age of
14. In February 2001 her left leg was amputated at the knee after she was hit by a
car while riding her scooter back to school after swimming practice. She was 17 at
the time.[3] Three months later, before she had started walking again, she was
back in the pool with the intention of competing in the 2002 Commonwealth
Games. Du Toit swims without the aid of a prosthetic limb.

On 3 May 2008, Du Toit qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics after finishing
fourth in the 10 km open water race at the Open Water World Championships
in Seville, Spain. Her time was only 5.1 seconds off the winner in a race that made
its first Olympic appearance in Beijing.[4] At the Beijing Olympics women's 10 km
race, she finished in 16th place, 1:22.2 minutes behind the winner. She also took
part in the 2008 Summer Paralympics, winning five gold medals.

South Africa's Olympic Committee chose Du Toit to carry their flag at the 2008
Summer Olympics opening ceremony, making her the first athlete to carry a flag
in both Olympics and Paralympics in a single year.
Pistorius was chosen to carry the South African flag for the closing ceremony.
Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius (/pɪˈstɔːriəs/ pist-OR-ee-əs, Afrikaans: [pəˈstuəriœs];
born 22 November 1986) is a South African former professional sprinter.
At the 2012 Summer Olympic Games on 4 August 2012, Pistorius became the
debut amputee runner to compete at an Olympic Games.[96] In the 400-metre
race, he took second place in the first heat of five runners, finishing with a time of
45.44 seconds (his best time that season) to advance to the semi-finals on 5
August.[97] He ran in the second semi-final, where he finished eighth and last with
a time of 46.54 seconds.[98][99]

In the first semi-final of the 4 × 400 metres relay race on 9 August, the second leg
runner of the South African team, Ofentse Mogawane, fell and was injured before
reaching the third leg runner, Pistorius. South Africa was passed into the final on
appeal to the IAAF, due to interference by Vincent Kiilu, the Kenyan athlete who
downed Mogawane.[100][101] The South African relay team eventually finished
eighth out of the field of nine in the final on 10 August. However, it established a
season's best time for the team of 3 minutes 3.46 seconds,[102] with Pistorius
running the final leg in 45.9 seconds.