George Orton

By the time he completed his Ph.D., Orton was the top middle-distance runner in the world. He won a then-record seventeen national titles in the United States, along with seven in Canada. Also at the British AAA Championships steepechase event, he won the title at the 1898 AAA Championships. He won the U.S. one-mile championship six times, the two-mile steeplechase seven times, the Cross Country twice, the five-mile run and the ten-mile run. While a student at the University of Toronto in 1892, Orton set a mile record of 4:21.8 which lasted for forty-two years. In total, he won 131 races, including a staggering thirty-three National and International championships.

Orton was born in Strathroy, Ontario, the son of Oliver Henry Orton, a labourer, and his wife, Mary Ann Irvine. Orton was paralyzed when he fell out of a tree at the age of three. The fall caused a blood clot on his brain, and severely damaged his right arm. He was later diagnosed with spinal meningitis. He could not walk until age ten, but fully regained his mobility around age twelve. Orton did his undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, earning a B.A. in 1893 in Romance Languages. He was then offered a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania in 1893 to complete his Masters (1894) and Ph.D. (1896), at the age of twenty-three.

Orton was named to the Helm Foundation and University of Pennsylvania Hall of Fame. He died on June 24, 1958, in Laconia, New Hampshire, at age 85. A book about Orton, The Greatest Athlete (you've never heard of), was published in 2019.