# Who was the shortest male Olympic gold medal winner **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 29, 2019, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-shortest-male-olympic-gold-medal-winner/840998 "2019-09-29T16:29:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nansbread1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Nansbread1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nansbread1)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-shortest-male-olympic-gold-medal-winner/840998/1 "2019-09-29T16:29:10Z")
In the summer Olympics, who was the shortest male gold medal winner in any sport and what was his height? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-shortest-male-olympic-gold-medal-winner/840998/2 "2019-09-29T16:37:12Z")
All Summer Olympics or just the last one? I would take a look at the lightweight judo competitors. The bronze winner in 2016 was 5’3”. [Naohisa Takato - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naohisa_Takato) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-shortest-male-olympic-gold-medal-winner/840998/3 "2019-09-29T16:44:50Z")
Could have been an unknown boy who coxed the Dutch rowing team in 1900. [Estimates say he was between 7 and 10 years old.](https://www.grunge.com/149086/the-youngest-gold-medalists-at-the-olympic-games/) ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-shortest-male-olympic-gold-medal-winner/840998/4 "2019-09-29T16:46:20Z")
You’d think this would be easier to Google… Joe DiPietro is often mentioned for this, though I don’t know if he’s actually the shortest ever. He won gold in weightlifting in the 1948 Summer Olympics, and he was 4 foot, 7 inches. [Joseph DePietro - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_DePietro) IIRC, an edition of the Guinness Book mentioned an unnamed coxswain in, I want to say, the 1936 Summer Olympics, as possibly the youngest and shortest Olympian ever. EDIT, TriPolar already mentioned the case I was thinking of. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-shortest-male-olympic-gold-medal-winner/840998/5 "2019-09-29T16:46:40Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > All Summer Olympics or just the last one? > > I would take a look at the lightweight judo competitors. The bronze winner in 2016 was 5’3”. [Naohisa Takato - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naohisa_Takato) The Light Flyweight boxing division has some pretty small guys also. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-shortest-male-olympic-gold-medal-winner/840998/6 "2019-09-29T17:30:08Z")
I would guess men’s gymnastics would have someone the smallest guys. I was able to find the heights of all of the olympic all around champions and it seems that the shortest was Li Xiaoshuang of China who was 5’ 1.5". I’m sure there was a single event winner who was shorter. ---
**Author:** ![Chris\_7\_14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Chris\_7\_14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chris_7_14)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-shortest-male-olympic-gold-medal-winner/840998/7 "2019-09-30T02:43:53Z")
Another weightlifter was “Pocket Hercules”, he stood 4’10", and was a 3 time Olympic Gold Medalist (1988, 1992, 1996). > **[Naim Süleymanoğlu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naim_S%C3%BCleymano%C4%9Flu)** > > Naim Süleymanoğlu (Bulgarian: Наим Сюлейманоглу; 23 January 1967 – 18 November 2017) was a Bulgarian-born Turkish Olympic weightlifter. He was a seven-time World Weightlifting champion and a three-time Olympic gold medalist who set 46 world records. At 147 cm in height, Süleymanoğlu's short stature and great strength led to him being nicknamed "Pocket Hercules". He is widely considered as one of the greatest Olympic weightlifters of all time. He is the best pound-for-pound weightlifter in the his... ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-shortest-male-olympic-gold-medal-winner/840998/8 "2019-09-30T04:39:50Z")
> [@Chris\_7\_14](#): > > Another weightlifter was “Pocket Hercules”, he stood 4’10", and was a 3 time Olympic Gold Medalist (1988, 1992, 1996). > [Naim Süleymanoğlu - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naim_S%C3%BCleymano%C4%9Flu) I came here to mention him. Didn’t know he died in 2017. ☹