The Greatest Rugby Player at the Olympic Games
Who is the greatest Olympic rugby player of all time? The sport of rugby (the code rugby union) made four appearances at the Olympics between 1900 and 1924. In 2016, it reappeared in the shortened form of Rugby 7s.
We have used a weighted total medal count of each male Rugby Union player from all modern Olympic Games to rank their overall performance, using data from all Olympics including the Tokyo 2020 Games.
The best all-time performing rugby player at the Olympic Games is Fijian Jerry Tuwai who was part of the gold medal winning Fiji rugby 7s team in 2016 and 2021.
Quite a few other rugby players have won two golds when rugby union was played a the Olympics early last century. The greatest of these may be Australian Daniel Carroll, who played in the Australian winning team in 1908, then played for the US winning gold in 1920, then coached the US to another gold in 1924. Many others played in the two gold medal winning USA teams in 1920 and 1924. See the table below to see the list of all players who have won two golds.
See also the best athlete from each sport, and the best overall.
Top Olympic Rugby Players
Here are the top-ranked athletes from the sport of rugby for performances at all Olympiads that it was held, including the Rugby 7s.
Table: The Top Ranked Rugby Players at the Olympic Games (including 2021)
| rank | name | country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | total medals |
rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| =1 | Jerry Tuwai | Fiji | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12 |
| =1 | Daniel Carroll | Australia / USA | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12 |
| =1 | Rudolph Scholz | USA | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12 |
| =1 | John Muldoon | USA | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12 |
| =1 | John O'Neil | USA | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12 |
| =1 | John Patrick | USA | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12 |
| =1 | Joseph Hunter | USA | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12 |
| =1 | Charles Doe | USA | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12 |
| =1 | Charles Lee Tilden, Jr. | USA | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12 |
| =1 | Charles Mehan | USA | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12 |
| =1 | Colby Slater | USA | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12 |
Related Pages
- List of Olympic Games Rugby Winning Teams — men and women
- List of the best athlete from each Olympic sport
- The greatest ever Olympic athlete
- About Olympic Medal Ranking Systems
- Medal tables from all Olympic Games
Any comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.
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