When George Horine cleared a height of six feet, two and a half inches to earn bronze in Stockholm’s 1912 Olympics, he probably had no idea what he was starting. It was to be his first and only Olympic medal, but the first of 182 Olympic medals won by Stanford athletes at the summer games.

Since Horine took the podium, Stanford athletes have not failed to bring home at least one and as many as 21 medals from each Olympic Games. In fact, in every Olympiad since 1912, Stanford athletes have won at least one and as many as 17 gold medals.

The Sydney Olympics in 2000 marked Stanford athletes’ 100th gold medal and brought the Cardinal’s gold coffers up to 104 — more golds than several small countries can boast.

The 42-member Stanford contingent heading to Athens this week may achieve another historic mark for the Cardinal. If the athletes earn 18 total medals, Stanford athletes will have earned 200 Olympic medals since their first in 1912.

To make this mark sound more poetic, let’s just say Stanford athletes may be on their way to hitting their second hundredth medal in this second summer Olympics of the second millennium.

If history is any indication, they’ve got a pretty good chance at making the 18-medal mark. Stanford athletes won 10 medals in Sydney in 2000, 19 in Atlanta in 1996, 19 in Barcelona in 1992, and 17 in Seoul in 1988.

The bulk of these medals, about 75 percent, have been won in the pool. Of the 46 medals that Stanford athletes won in the past three Olympics, 34 have been in swimming. Thirty-seven have been in aquatic sports — swimming, synchronized swimming, water polo and diving.

Cardinal dominance in the pool has been consistent throughout Olympic history, but swimming success has really peaked over the past 20 years.

From 1912 through 1976, Stanford averaged about five and a half aquatic medals per Olympics. But from 1984 through 2000, Cardinal aquatic athletes have averaged about 12 medals.

Total medal averages generally follow the aquatic averages — Stanford athletes averaged about seven medals per Olympics from 1912 through 1976 and about 15 medals from 1984 to 2000.

Stanford swimmers had their best Olympics in 1992. Led by athletes like Pablo Morales, Summer Sanders, Janet Evans, and Jenny Thompson, who have since become household names in the sport, Stanford swimmers racked up 17 of Stanford’s 19 medals in Barcelona’s pool. Ten of them were gold.

Team USA’s assistant swim coach in Barcelona was none other than Stanford’s current women’s swimming coach, Richard Quick (nicknamed Dick Quick). Quick was head coach of Team USA in 1988, 1996 and 2000. He will return as assistant coach of Team USA in Athens, hopefully for a repeat performance of Barcelona’s success.

If 1992’s 38 member Stanford contingent had been a country in the Barcelona Olympics, it would have placed 13th in the world with its 19 medals and ninth with 10 golds.

And Barcelona wasn’t even Stanford’s best Games.

In Paris in 1924, Stanford athletes claimed 21 total medals, 12 of which were gold. Rugby, water polo and diving athletes led the way in that Olympic Games, respectively claiming nine, six and four medals.

Rugby was statistically Stanford’s most successful Olympic sport in the early years — 1920 and 1924. But since nine rugby players earned gold in 1924, the Cardinal has not had any Olympic medalists in that sport.

Track and water polo

essentially split all of Stanford’s 11 medals in 1932, with the exception of one swimmer. After 1932, Stanford’s medal count struggled to break into the double digits until 1984. In those interim years, mostly swimmers and rowers kept a Cardinal presence on the podium.

Both water polo and track athletes have been a consistent presence in the medal-winning Stanford contingent throughout Olympic history.

Sprinter Chryste Gaines is the most recent medal winner on the track with a gold in 1996 and bronze in 2000. She did not qualify to compete this year, but Stanford graduate Toby Stevenson is a gold medal hopeful in the pole vault.

Water polo’s most recent medalists were Ellen Estes and Brenda Villa who took silver on Team USA in 2000. Both Estes and Villa will be in Athens along with several other Cardinal men and women seeking to carry on the medal-winning tradition in water polo.

The Stanford swimmers have the biggest shoes to fill. Jenny Thompson, the most decorated athlete in Olympic history with eight gold medals, a silver and a bronze, will be back again, joined by Markus Rogan, Caroline Bruce, Kristen Caverly and sisters Tara and Dana Kirk.

Seconds will likely tell whether that second hundredth medal is earned.