PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: athletics
Jamaican athlete
Usain Bolt, Jamaican sprinter who won gold medals in the 100-metre and 200-metre races in an unprecedented three straight Olympic Games and is widely considered the greatest sprinter of all time. Bolt,...
South African athlete
Oscar Pistorius, South African track-and-field sprinter and bilateral below-the-knee amputee who, at the 2012 London Games, became the first amputee to compete in an Olympic track event. He also was the...
Russian athlete
Yelena Isinbayeva, Russian pole-vaulter who achieved numerous world records and became the first woman to clear the 5-metre (16-foot 4.75-inch) mark in the sport’s history. Isinbayeva was enrolled by her...
Ethiopian athlete
Meseret Defar, Ethiopian long-distance runner, world champion, and Olympic medalist who broke a number of world records, including those in the 3,000-metre, 5,000-metre, and 2-mile races. Defar began her...
American athlete
Jesse Owens, American track-and-field athlete who set a world record in the running broad jump (also called long jump) that stood for 25 years and who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in...
Ethiopian athlete
Kenenisa Bekele, Ethiopian long-distance runner who won Olympic gold medals in the 10,000 metres in 2004 and in both the 5,000 metres and the 10,000 metres in 2008. He later had success in the marathon....
American athlete
Jim Thorpe, one of the most accomplished all-around athletes in history who in 1950 was selected by American sportswriters and broadcasters as the greatest American athlete and the greatest gridiron football...
Swedish athlete
Carolina Klüft, Swedish track-and-field athlete who won a gold medal in the heptathlon at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. Her father, Johnny Klüft, was a Swedish first-division football (soccer) player,...
Algerian athlete
Noureddine Morceli, Algerian middle-distance runner and Olympic gold medalist who broke multiple world records in the 1990s. At age seven Morceli was inspired by his brother Abderrahmane, a world-class...
British distance runner
Paula Radcliffe, British distance runner who set world records in the marathon. Radcliffe was born into an athletic family. Her great-aunt Charlotte Radcliffe won an Olympic silver medal in the 4 × 100-metre...
Australian athlete
Cathy Freeman, Australian sprinter who excelled in the 400-metre dash and who in 2000 became the first Australian Aboriginal person to win an individual Olympic gold medal. Freeman began competitive running...
British athlete
Mo Farah, Somalian-born British distance runner who won gold medals in both the 5,000-metre and 10,000-metre races at both the 2012 London Olympics and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. According to initial...
Kenyan athlete
Yobes Ondieki, Kenyan distance runner who surprised observers in 1993 by setting a world record in the 10,000 metres, an event he had not run on a track in 10 years. At the time, his performance was considered...
American athlete
Michael Johnson, American sprinter, perhaps the most eminent figure in athletics (track and field) in the 1990s. For much of the decade he was virtually unbeaten in the long sprints—the 200-metre and 400-metre...
American athlete
Carl Lewis, American track-and-field athlete, who won nine Olympic gold medals during the 1980s and ’90s. Lewis qualified for the U.S. Olympic team in 1980 but did not compete, because of the U.S. boycott...
Jamaican-born Canadian sprinter
Donovan Bailey, Jamaican-born Canadian sprinter who specialized in the 100-metre dash, winning a gold medal in the event at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Bailey moved to Oakville, Ontario, Canada, in 1981...
Kenyan runner
Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot, Kenyan runner who became the first man to win the Chicago Marathon and the Boston Marathon in the same year (2006). Cheruiyot, a Nandi tribesman, enjoyed success as a high-school...
Ethiopian athlete
Tirunesh Dibaba, Ethiopian distance runner who at the 2008 Beijing Olympics became the first woman to win gold in both the 5,000-metre and 10,000-metre races. She defended her gold medal title in the 10,000...
British athlete
Sebastian Coe, British athlete, who won four Olympic medals and set eight world records in middle-distance running. His great rivalry with fellow Briton Steve Ovett dominated middle-distance racing for...
American athlete
Jackie Joyner-Kersee, American athlete who was considered by many to be the greatest female athlete ever. She was the first participant to score more than 7,000 points in the heptathlon. Joyner showed...
Dutch athlete
Fanny Blankers-Koen, versatile Dutch track-and-field athlete who, at the 1948 Olympics in London, became the first woman to win four gold medals at a single Games. During her career, she set world records...
American athlete
Babe Didrikson Zaharias, American sportswoman who was one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century, achieving particular success in basketball and track and field, though she is perhaps best known...
Czech athlete
Emil Zátopek, Czech athlete who is considered one of the greatest long-distance runners in the history of the sport. He won the gold medal in the 10,000-metre race at the 1948 Olympics in London and three...
American football player, jurist, and writer
Alan Page, American gridiron football player, jurist, and writer who in 1971 became the first defensive player to win the Most Valuable Player award of the National Football League (NFL). He later served...
New Zealand athlete
Peter Snell, New Zealand middle-distance runner who was a world record holder in the 800-metre race (1962–68), the 1,000-metre race (1964–65), the mile (1962–65), and the 880-yard race (1962–66) and, as...
Finnish athlete
Paavo Nurmi, Finnish track athlete who dominated long-distance running in the 1920s, capturing nine gold medals in three Olympic Games (1920, 1924, 1928), as well as three silvers. For eight years (1923–31)...
Romanian athlete
Iolanda Balas, Romanian athlete, the dominant performer in the women’s high jump during the late 1950s and ’60s. She won two Olympic gold medals in the event, set 14 world records, and was the first woman...
Ukrainian athlete
Sergey Bubka, Ukrainian athlete, the first pole-vaulter to clear 6.1 metres (20 feet). Bubka began pole-vaulting at age 9. When his coach, Vitaly Petrov, was transferred to Donetsk, Ukraine, Bubka, at...
Polish athlete
Irena Szewińska, Polish sprinter who dominated women’s athletics for nearly two decades. Between 1964 and 1976, she earned seven Olympic medals, tying the record of Australian Shirley Strickland de la...
Norwegian athlete
Grete Waitz, Norwegian marathoner who dominated women’s long-distance running for more than a decade, winning the New York City Marathon nine times between 1978 and 1988 (she did not compete in 1981 or...
Chinese athlete
Liu Xiang, hurdler who in 2004 brought China its first Olympic gold medal in a men’s track-and-field event. Liu enrolled in a junior sports school in fourth grade and initially succeeded at the high jump....
American athlete
Parry O’Brien, American shot-putter who developed a style that revolutionized the event. He held the world record from 1953 to 1959, increasing the distance from 18 metres (59 feet 34 inches) to 19.30...
American athlete
Dick Fosbury, American high jumper who revolutionized the sport by replacing the traditional approach to jumping with an innovative backward style that became known as the “Fosbury flop.” Fosbury found...
French athlete and pianist
Micheline Ostermeyer, French athlete who won gold medals in the shot put and the discus throw at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. She was also an accomplished concert pianist. Ostermeyer’s first love...
British athlete
Steve Ovett, British athlete, who, along with his great rival, Sebastian Coe, dominated middle-distance running in the early 1980s. The winner of gold and bronze medals at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow,...
Irish-American athlete
John J. Flanagan, Irish-American athlete, the first Olympic hammer throw champion, who won three Olympic gold medals and set 14 world records. A powerfully built man, standing 5 feet 8 inches (1.78 m)...
American athlete
Evelyn Ashford, renowned American sprinter who excelled in the 100 metres. She was a four-time Olympian and won four gold medals. At her high school in California, Ashford was invited to join the all-male...
American athlete
Florence Griffith Joyner, American sprinter who set world records in the 100 metres (10.49 seconds) and 200 metres (21.34 seconds) that have stood since 1988. Griffith started running at age seven, chasing...
Moroccan athlete
Hicham El Guerrouj, Moroccan middle-distance runner, who became the first man to hold world records in the mile and the 1,500-metre races both indoors and outdoors. El Guerrouj—inspired by the accomplishments...
British athlete
Jessica Ennis-Hill, English track-and-field athlete who, at the 2012 London Olympic Games, won a gold medal in the heptathlon. In 1996 Ennis participated in her first track-and-field competition. Her first...
British athlete
Harold Abrahams, British athlete who won a gold medal in the 100-metre dash at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. Abrahams was born into an athletic family; his older brother Sidney represented Great Britain...
American athlete
Bob Richards, American athlete, the first pole-vaulter to win two Olympic gold medals. Sportswriters called him “the Vaulting Vicar” because he was an ordained minister. Richards was interested in athletics...
Australian athlete
Shirley Strickland de la Hunty, Australian athlete, who won seven Olympic medals between 1948 and 1956, in an era when Australian women dominated track events. Strickland first competed at the 1948 Olympic...
American athlete
Al Oerter, American discus thrower, who won four consecutive Olympic gold medals (1956, 1960, 1964, and 1968), setting an Olympic record each time. During his career he set new world records four times...
American athlete
Charley Paddock, American sprinter, world record holder for the 100-metre dash (1921–30) and the 200-metre dash (1921–26). He also held the world record for the 100-yard dash (1921, 1924–26) and the 220-yard...
Kenyan athlete
Kip Keino, Kenyan distance runner, who won four Olympic medals. Keino’s father, a long-distance runner, encouraged his son in the sport. Keino herded goats and trained in Kenya’s hill country, which prepared...
French athlete
Marie-José Pérec, French athlete who was the first sprinter to win consecutive Olympic gold medals in the 400-metre dash. Pérec grew up on the West Indian island of Basse-Terre in Guadeloupe, an overseas...
German athlete
Marita Koch, East German athlete who collected a remarkable 16 individual and team world records in outdoor sprints, as well as 14 world records in indoor events. In her only Olympic Games, at Moscow in...
American athlete
Ralph Metcalfe, American sprinter, member of the American 4 × 100-meter relay team that won a gold medal at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. At his peak, in 1934–35, he was called “the world’s fastest...
American athlete
Stanisława Walasiewicz, Polish-American athlete who, during an unusually long career (over 20 years), won two Olympic medals and some 40 Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championships and was credited with...
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