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8 athletes you didn't know were from Utah

8 athletes you didn't know were from Utah

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Utah is always in sports mode. With a professional soccer team, a professional basketball team (go Jazz!), and several college football teams, it’s easy to say we’re way into our sports. And when Utahns share the sports gospel with outsiders, they’ll often throw out the big Utah natives, heavy hitters like Steve Young, Byron Scott, Shawn Bradley, or Karl Malone. (Sure, the Mailman was born in Louisiana, but he and Stockton get honorary Utahn status.)

But did you know there are several Utah-born athletes who have made their mark in sports other than football and basketball? Here a few other athletes noteworthy for a variety of reasons — even if they’re not necessarily household names.

See if you recognize any of them below.

Lee Barnes

Near the end of Buster Keaton’s 1927 film College, a man pole vaults through a second-story window to get his girl back. It’s one of the few stunts Keaton didn’t pull off himself. The spry pole-vaulter, clad in short shorts and a tank top, is actually Lee Barnes, an Olympic athlete born in Salt Lake City. Barnes scored gold for the U.S. Track and Field Team in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. He held the men’s pole vault world record from 1928–1932. Plus he stole Buster Keaton’s girlfriend, apparently.

Alma Richards

Another jumping Utahn from way back, Alma Richards made his mark in the high jump for BYU and then went on to earn a gold medal in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. BYU coach Eugene Roberts supposedly helped give Richards his start when he saw Richards playing basketball one day and told him to jump over a six-foot bar.

Shalaya Kipp

You know the steeplechase? The one with people, not horses. It’s that cool race you see for a second every Summer Olympics where they jump over the fixed hurdle into a puddle. Well Utah has some serious representation there. Shalaya Kipp, a 26-year-old middle-distance runner from Salt Lake, has made her stamp for Utah on the national stage over the last several years. Like many of our athletes she’s no slouch as a skier as well, having competed in alpine skiing for 10 years before setting her sights on track and field.

Dorothy Poynton-Hill

A high-diving prodigy at 14 years old, Dorothy Poynton-Hill competed in three consecutive Olympic Games: 1928, 1932 and 1936. She is the only Utah woman to stick it to Hitler with her diving chops, earning gold in the 10-meter platform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Previously, in 1928, she earned the distinction of becoming the youngest woman Olympian to earn a medal. Later in life, Poynton-Hill would go on to be a familiar figure in TV commercials and in 1968 she gained a spot in the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Cael Sanderson

Utah has some serious wrestling talent to brag about. Cael Sanderson, currently head wrestling coach at Penn State, was born into a successful wrestling family. He was the third of four state-winning wrestling brothers and won four state championships while attending Wasatch High in Heber City. Sanderson's accomplishments are many, but most notably he went 40-0 in college in 1999 and won a gold in the 184.8lb weight class at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

Gene Fullmer

What about boxing? What about the only Utahn to grace an Alice in Chains album cover? Gene Fullmer is our man there. His middleweight boxing accomplishments are lengthy at 55 wins (24 by knockout), six losses and three draws. Fullmer is known in part for his storied contests with Sugar Ray Robinson in 1957, first a 15-round January marathon, which he won, and then a rematch in May of that same year where Robinson took him down with one of boxing history's most notable left hooks. Like many athletes, Fullmer had a couple stints on television and in film, once as a bartender in "The Devil's Brigade" and also as a guest on "What's my Line?"

Denise Parker

Utahans aren't too bad at shooting stuff either. Denise Parker, a skilled archer born in Salt Lake City, medaled with her team (at age 14) in the 1988 Summer Olympics and also propped up the U.S. in 1992 and 2000. Additionally, Parker played basketball for Southern Utah University. She's served as the CEO of U.S. Archery since 2008.

Steve Young

Sorry, we couldn’t resist. We'd be remiss if we didn't mention Steve Young here (even though anybody who has walked the earth and paid even the slightest attention to sports knows about him). Young's football career was formidable, but those of us "indoor kids" are equally impressed by the fact that he was on an episode of Frasier as Lois' former high-school boyfriend. He also turned down a role in "There's Something About Mary" — one can guess why Young, a high-profile Mormon, might have demurred — and was replaced by Brett Favre.

Next time you're stuck in the airport and find yourself serving as a conversational ambassador for the Beehive State, for some instant local cred, trot a few of these names out instead of falling back on Stockton, Malone and all the same old Hot-Rod-Hundley-isms.

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