Born: 13 June 1897 Died: 2 October 1973 Country: Finland In 1919 in the first year of his military service, Nurmi and the rest of his army unit set of on a 12.5 mile march in full equipment, each soldier carrying a rifle, a cartridge belt and a backpack full of sand. At the … Read more
Born: 26 April 1918 Died: 25 January 2004 Country: Netherlands Koen couldn’t compete in the Olympics at the age when most track and field athletes do. The world war prevented many great athletes like her from showcasing their talent to the world. When the Summer Olympics were held in 1948, Koen was already thirty … Read more
Born: 29 March 1952 Died: 11 June 2012 Country: Cuba After winning gold medal in the Olympic heavyweight division, Cassius Clay (1960), Joe Frazier (1964) and George Foreman (1968) became famous professional boxers. It was believed that Olympic Gold in that division was a guaranteed route to fame and fortune. It seemed before the … Read more
Born: 21 August 1986 Country: Jamaica Anyone who saw the 100m final at the Beijing Olympics 2008 will always have that picture of Bolt celebrating before finishing the race and yet winning by such a vast margin, engraved in his mind forever. You run out of adjectives to describe Usain Bolt. Here are 5 … Read more
Nadia Comaneci created a sensation in the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics when she dazzled the judges with her performance to the extent that they had no choice but to give her a score of Perfect 10, a score which had never been achieved previously in Olympic history. Here are 10 interesting facts about this … Read more
Born: 1 July 1961 Country: U.S.A At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics Carl Lewis was attempting to do what no man had done since Jesse Owens – win a gold medal in 100m, 200m, 4X100m relay and the long jump. He turned down an endorsement deal with Coca-Cola waiting for bigger offers after the … Read more
Born: 16 March 1910 Died: 14 May 1991 Country: Hungary Aladar Gerevich is the only athlete in the history of the Olympics to win the same event six times. With his impeccable fencing skills he led Hungry to victory in sabre between 1932 and 1960, thus winning six gold medals despite not being able … Read more
Wilma Rudolph’s rise to become an Olympic champion is one of the most marvelous exploits in the history of sports. It remains and will remain in years to come a source of inspiration for not only athletes but for anyone aspiring to achieve excellence. Here are 10 interesting facts about this African American athlete … Read more
Born: December 23, 1934 Country: Soviet Union By the time the world war ended in 1945, Larisa had lost both her parents. She was 11 years old and aspiring to be a ballet dancer. Standard ballet training at that time involved exercises with hoops and balls. Larisa proved so talented in them that her … Read more
Born: 10 February 1950 Country: U.S.A Eighteen years old and holder of ten world records, Mark Spitz proclaimed before the 1968 Summer Olympics that he was going to win six gold medals. Mark failed to win a single individual race. Although he won two team gold medals he knew he had underperformed. At the … Read more