Golden memories

Previous Next

Swiss cyclist Robert Dill-Bundi kisses the track after winning gold in the 4,000m individual pursuit in Moscow in 1980. It was the first time anyone had worn a tailor-made one-piece racing suit Keystone

Swedish swimmer Gunnar Larsson has a shave before winning the 400m individual medley at the 1972 Games in Munich by 0.002 seconds. The rules were then changed and times are now measured in hundredths of a second Keystone

Queenie Newell, who won gold for Britain in London in 1908 (admittedly no foreigners took part in the archery event), and US weightlifter Frederick Winters, who won silver at the 1904 Games in St Louis, Missouri Keystone

Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson beats US rival Carl Lewis to win the 100m final in a record 9.79 seconds in Seoul in 1988. Three days later he was stripped of his gold medal and banned for two years after testing positive for the steroid stanolozol Keystone

Giving the Nazi salute on the podium at the 1936 Games in Berlin Keystone

Officials - complete with cigarette in mouth - at the shooting event at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam Keystone

A member of the Palestinian group which seized members of the Israeli Olympic Team at the Munich Olympic Village in September 1972. The kidnappers killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches and a West German police officer Keystone

At his first Olympics – Paris 1900 – US athlete Ray Ewry won all three standing jumps (all held on the same day). He went on to win a total of ten golds at three Games, making him one of the most successful Olympians of all time RDB

US tennis star Helen Wills Moody hits a forehand en route to winning gold with Hazel Wightman at the 1924 Paris Olympics, the last year tennis was an Olympic sport until 1988. She also won the singles and went on to win 31 grand slam titles Keystone

Roger Federer (top) and Stanislas Wawrinka celebrate winning gold for Switzerland at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing Keystone

Ethiopian long-distance runner Abebe Bikila heading for the first of his two Olympic marathon golds – barefoot – in Rome in 1960 Keystone

Demanding civil rights, US athletes Tommie Smith (centre) and John Carlos look down during the Star-Spangled Banner after Smith won gold and Carlos bronze for the 200m at the Mexico City Games in 1968 Keystone

Benefitting from Mexico City's high altitude in 1968, US athlete Bob Beamon destroyed the world long jump record by 55cm. His jump of 8.90m stood for 23 years and remains the Olympic record RDB

Switzerland's Gaby Andersen-Schiess stumbles across the finish line during the first women's marathon in 1984 at Los Angeles. Suffering severe heat exhaustion, she finished 37th, ahead of seven other runners in a time of 2:48:45 which would have won gold in the first five men's Olympic marathons Keystone

• Picture 1
• Picture 2
• Picture 3
• Picture 4
• Picture 5
• Picture 6
• Picture 7
• Picture 8
• Picture 9
• Picture 10
• Picture 11
• Picture 12
• Picture 13
• Picture 14

Few sporting events have generated as much drama over the years as the Olympic Games, where millimetres and hundredths of seconds separate ecstatic joy from bottomless disappointment.

From remarkable successes to cheating and murder, swissinfo.ch offers some unforgettable Olympic images going back more than a century. (Pictures: Keystone)