Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #131 - Chris Hoy

Chris Hoy

Great Britain

Track Cycling

Overall Ranks

#3 among British Olympians

#2 among Track Cyclists

Olympic Results

2000

Team Sprint - Silver

2004

Individual Time Trial - Gold

2008

Sprint - Gold

Keirin - Gold

Team Sprint - Gold

2012

Keirin - Gold

Team Sprint - Gold

Total

Events - 9

Gold - 6

Silver - 1

Christopher Andrew Hoy was born on March 23, 1976 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was inspired to begin cycling after seeing the film E.T., and he began competing in BMX racing starting from age 7. By the time he was 14, he was the #2 ranked BMX racer in Britain.

He made the switch to track cycling in 1990, and after winning his first World Championship medal, a silver in team sprint, in 1999, he was selected for the 2000 Olympic team. His first event, the Keirin, didn't go well, as he lost in the first round, but the team sprint went much better. The event involves two teams of three riders on opposite sides of the track, racing to finish 3 laps first, with each rider leading one of the laps. The Brits won a close race over Australia in qualifying, then beat Slovakia by more than a second to advance to the gold medal race, but the favored French set an Olympic record to defeat Great Britain and leave them with the silver.

After 2000, Hoy decided to focus on the Individual Time Trial, and he won the World Championship in that event in both 2002 and 2004, making him one of the favorites heading to Athens in 2004, along with world record holder Arnaud Tournant of France. Hoy was the last to race, and the Olympic record had been broken 3 times already that day, but Hoy started fast and stayed ahead of the pace the whole way, winning the gold medal by 0.18 seconds over Tournant.

The Individual Time Trial was removed from the Olympics after 2004, so he wasn't able to defend his title, but he switched successfully to other sprint events and had his best Olympic performance in 2008. He started off in the team sprint, where his team had the best time in qualifying, then beat the USA by more than 2 seconds in the semifinals, before beating the French in the gold medal race, avenging their loss 8 years earlier.

Up next was the Keirin, where an electronic bike paces the racers for 3 quarters of the race, gradually picking up speed as it goes, before leaving the track while the racers sprint to the finish. Hoy was the defending world champ, and he didn't disappoint in the final race, as he took the lead immediately after the pace bike left and pulled away from the rest of the racers to win another gold.

His final event was the Individual Sprint, where he was also the defending world champion. Most rounds were contested as a best of 3, and after posting the best time in qualifying, Hoy won every single race in every round, culminating in a 2-0 win over countryman Jason Kenny in the gold medal round. In doing so, he became the first British man to win 3 gold medals in the same Olympics since 1904.

When the Olympics went to London in 2012, Hoy was favored to win both of his events in front of a home crowd. He and Kenny were back to defend their team sprint title, and after setting the best time in qualifying, they set world records in the semifinals and the finals to take the gold again.

His final event was the Keirin, where he had won 4 recent World Championships and was the defending Olympic champion. When the pace rider left the track, the Malaysian rider sprinted out to the lead right at first, but was quickly caught by Hoy, who led most of the rest of the way, only being briefly passed by Maximillian Levy of Germany with just over a lap to go before taking the inside track and pulling away.

He retired from racing in 2013, and since retirement has started his own bike brand, and has been an announcer for cycling events on BBC. He also announced in 2024 that he had been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer that had spread to his bones, and that he had between 2 and 4 years to live. As of today, he is still alive, and his 6 gold medals spread over 3 Olympics makes him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #132 - Jens Luras Oftebro

Jens Luras Oftebro

Norway

Nordic Combined

Overall Ranks

#6 among Norwegian Olympians

#1 among Nordic Combined athletes

Olympic Results

2022

Team - Gold

Sprint - Silver

2026

Team - Gold

Individual - Gold

Sprint - Gold

Total

Events - 6

Gold - 4

Silver - 1

Jens Christian Luras Oftebro was born on July 21, 2000 in Oslo, Norway. His older brother, Einar, won a silver medal at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics, and Jens followed his brother into the sport. He competed in the 2017 and 2018 Junior World Championships, earning a bronze medal in the relay in 2018.

By 2021, he was competing in the adult World Championships, earning an individual bronze and a team gold, and had surpassed his brother by making his first Olympic team in 2022. His first event was the Individual, in which the competitors ski jump off the normal hill, then run a 10 km cross-country ski race, with the ski jump leaders getting a head start. He was 20th after the ski jump, but finished in 10th place after the race, the first and only time so far that he has failed to medal in an Olympic event.

His next event was the Sprint, which is just like the Individual, but with the ski jump taking place on the large hill instead. He was in 10th place heading into the race portion, nearly 2 minutes behind the leader, who had a 44 second lead over the field to start the race. That lead was erased by a wrong turn at the end of the first lap, and by the start of the final lap, Oftebro and his countryman Jorgen Graabak were only 12 second behind the leaders. Both made a strong push on the final straightaway, with Graabak edging out Oftebro by 0.4 seconds, giving the 21-year-old a silver medal.

In the team event, Norway was one of the favorites after winning the previous year's World Championship, and they were in second place after the jumping portion. The top 4 teams remained in a tight pack through the first two laps, but Oftebro posted the fastest time of the day to give Norway a 10 second lead heading into the final lap, which was run by Graabak, who extended the lead to give Norway an easy gold medal.

He won the World Cup Best Skier Trophy in both 2023 and 2025, and was expected to contend for medals in 2026. He started again with the Individual, landing in 7th place after the ski jump, then surging to the lead with a lap to go before holding on to upset Johannes Lamparter of Austria, the pre-race favorite, to win his first solo gold medal.

Next up was the Sprint, where he was defending silver medalist, and since Graabak had retired, he was the top returning competitor. He was #5 after the ski jump, but he caught up to the leaders and passed them before the halfway point, and was never seriously challenged for the rest of the race, ending up nearly 6 seconds ahead of Lamparter at the end.

The team event came last, and it was shortened from a 4x5km relay to a 2x7.5km for the first time. Oftebro and Andreas Skoglund competed for Norway, coming in #2 in the ski jump portion, which put them 13 seconds behind Germany heading into the skiing. Skoglund took the lead early and maintained it through the handoff, and Oftebro led for most of his lap, though he was challenged by the Finnish skier at the end, but was able to hold him off to win by 0.5 seconds, giving him a slim win for his third gold medal.

By winning all 3 events, Oftebro became the second Nordic Combined competitor in history to earn 3 golds in the same Olympics. Add in his previous gold and silver, and he has shown that he is already one of the greatest Olympians of all time, and at 25 years old, he probably has plenty of time to continue to climb the rankings.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #133 - Li Xiaoxia

Li Xiaoxia

China

Table Tennis

Overall Ranks

#9 among Chinese Olympians

#6 among Table Tennis Players

#4 among Female Table Tennis Players

Olympic Results

2012

Singles - Gold

Team - Gold

2016

Singles - Silver

Team - Gold

Total

Events - 4

Gold - 3

Silver - 1

Li Xiaoxia was born on January 16, 1988 in Anshan, China, and began her training in table tennis as a young girl at one of China's national sports schools. She made her first World Championship appearance at age 18, and by 2008, at the age of 20, she became the #1 player in the world for the first time, not long after that year's Olympics had passed.

Even ranked #1, she only managed to take 3rd place in the 2009 World Championships, and second place in 2011, but she still qualified for the 2012 Olympic team. She entered the singles event as the #2 seed, and after being pushed to 6 sets by her first opponent, Ariel Hsing of the USA, she rolled through the remainder of the tournament, culminating with an upset of #1 seed Ding Ning in the gold medal match in 5 sets.

After that, the two medalists teamed up to sweep through the team event without losing a single set, earning her a second gold medal. The next year, she won her first World Championship, and she continued to be ranked among the world's best clear up until the following Olympics in 2016, where she again made the cut for both events.

This time, she was seeded #3 for the individual event, but that didn't stop her at all, as she didn't lose a single set on her way to a rematch with Ding Ning in the gold medal match. She led the final match 3 sets to 2 before Ding won the final two sets to take the gold, leaving Li with the silver even though she lost only 4 sets total in the entire tournament.

The team event went exactly as expected, with the dominant Chinese team blanking all opponents on the way to yet another gold medal, the third for Li in her 2 Olympic appearances. She announced her retirement soon afterward, but even with just 4 Olympic events, she easily established herself as one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #134 - Meldrick Taylor

Meldrick Taylor

USA

Boxing

Overall Ranks

#40 among American Olympians

#4 among Boxers

#1 among American boxers

Olympic Results

1984

Featherweight - Gold

Total

Events - 1

Gold - 1

Meldrick Taylor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 19, 1966, and took up boxing at an early age, along with 2 of his brothers. When he qualified to box in the 1984 Olympics, he was only 17 years old, but already had an amateur record of 99-4.

The field for the 1984 Olympics was somewhat watered down due to the Soviet-led boycott, but there were still several strong fighters present, and Taylor had no trouble at all in his first two bouts, winning both by unanimous decision. 

He won his third match by TKO, which moved him into the semifinals, and he had no trouble with his opponent there either, winning another unanimous decision to move into the final against Peter Konyegwachie of Nigeria. Once again, he dominated his opponent, earning another unanimous decision and a gold medal.

Right after the Olympics, Taylor turned pro, and earned his first pro victory less than a month after turning 18. He eventually won the IBF light welterweight title in 1988, which he held for 18 months before challenging Julio Cesar Chavez, who held the same title in the WBC. Taylor led throughout the fight, but lost by TKO with just 2 seconds left, giving both titles to Chavez, and leaving Taylor with his first pro loss. 

He continued fighting for the next 12 years, and even had a rematch with Chavez for the title in 1994, but he lost again, and he retired after his 8th career loss, when he was 35 years old. Like many boxers, he only competed in the Olympics once, but he left no doubt as to the winner of any of his fights, making him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #135 - An San

An San

South Korea

Archery

Overall Ranks

#3 among Archers

#2 among Korean Olympians

#2 among Korean archers

#1 among Female archers

Olympic Results

2020

Women Individual - Gold

Women Team - Gold

Mixed Team - Gold

Total

Events - 3

Gold - 3

An San was born in Gwangju, South Korea on February 27, 2001. She made her first international appearance in 2017 at the World Youth Championship, where she contributed to a team silver medal. By 2019, she was competing in the Archery World Cup, where she took first place in both the individual and team events.

She made the South Korean Olympic archery team for the 2020 Olympics, which is a feat in itself, and when the athletes finally made their way to Tokyo in 2021, An dominated the competition. She first competed in the mixed pairs event with Kim Je-Deok, and they entered the event as the #1 seed, then coasted to the final match, where they defeated the Netherlands 5-3 after falling behind 2-0 in the first set. She also notably shot a "Robin Hood arrow" during the semifinal, in which her arrow split her teammate's previously shot arrow.

Next up was the women's team event, which South Korea had never lost in their history, and there was no change there. The Korean trio obliterated all competition, only giving up one single point in the entire tournament as they coasted to another gold medal.

The final event was the individual women's event. She entered the Olympics ranked #5 in the world, but she set an Olympic record in the preliminary round, scoring 680 points on 72 shots. She didn't face a challenge until the round of 16, where she beat Ren Hayakawa of Japan 6-4. She beat her semifinal opponent 6-5, advancing to the final, where she beat Yelena Osipova of Russia on a tiebreak shot to take the gold.

By winning that event, An became the first archer in history to win 3 gold medals in the same Olympic games. Since 2021, she has continued to compete as one of the top archers in the world, but she fell just short of making the Korean team for the 2024 Olympics. She came back to win gold in the Archery World Cup in 2025, and hasn't ruled out another run at the Olympics in 2028, but either way, she is already one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #136 - Kerri Walsh Jennings

Kerri Walsh Jennings

USA

Beach Volleyball

Overall Ranks

#14 among American Olympians

#2 among Beach Volleyball players

Olympic Results

2004

Women - Gold

2008

Women - Gold

2012

Women - Gold

2016

Women - Bronze

Total

Events - 5

Gold - 3

Bronze - 1

Kerri Lee Walsh was born on August 15, 1978 in Santa Clara, California. She was a star in both basketball and volleyball in high school, winning the state title in basketball as a senior, and in each of her final 3 years in volleyball, and she was name National Volleyball Player of the Year as a senior.

She went to Stanford on a volleyball scholarship, where she led the Cardinal to national championships as a freshman and again as a sophomore, winning the Final Four MVP as a freshman. She was named National Player of the Year as a senior, when her team finished as the national runner-up.

The next year she was selected to the 2000 USA Olympic volleyball team, but she missed several of the early matches after a false positive drug test, but she was cleared a few days later after a retest and cleared to play. The USA team reached the semifinals, where they fell to the Russians in a tough 5-set match, then fell to Brazil in the bronze medal game.

The next year she switched to beach volleyball, teaming up with Misty May, and by the end of the year they were ranked #5 in the world, and then reached #1 the following year, a ranking they held until Misty's retirement in 2012. The pair were heavily favored to win the gold medal in 2004, and they did not disappoint, winning all 7 of their matches without losing a single set, finishing off the Brazilian pair 21-11 in the final set.

Walsh and May both married in the months following the 2004 Olympics, with Kerri marrying Casey Jennings, who was also a beach volleyball player. They returned to the Olympics in 2008, again winning every set and every match, though this time the margins were much closer, and they even trailed 18-17 in the first set of the gold medal match before scoring 4 in a row to keep their streak alive.

Misty May Treanor tore her Achilles while competing on Dancing With the Stars between Olympic appearances, but came back in time to win a World Championship in 2011 with Walsh Jennings. They returned to defend their Olympic title again, and once again won every match, but they lost a set for the first time, dropping the first set to an Austrian pair in pool play. Both sets of their semifinal match against China went to extra points, but they still advanced to beat April Ross and Jen Kessy of the USA for their third straight gold.

May Treanor retired after the 2012 Olympics, so Kerri poached April Ross to become her new partner in preparation for the 2016 Games. They were ranked #3 in the world going into the Olympics, but many still expected them to win the gold due to Walsh Jennings' perfect Olympic record. They lost just one set in group play before advancing easily to the semifinals, but the perfect run came to an end 22-20, 21-18 against a pair from Brazil. They faced the other Brazilian pair, who were ranked #1 in the world, in the bronze medal match, and came out victorious to earn them a bronze medal.

Walsh Jennings picked up a new partner, Brooke Sweat, in an attempt to qualify for the 2020 Olympics, but they failed to make the team, and she retired soon afterward. The switch to beach volleyball was a great move, even though she was a great indoor volleyball player, as it helped make her a world-famous 4-time Olympic medalist, and one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #137 - Mitsuo Tsukahara

Mitsuo Tsukahara

Japan

Artistic Gymnastics

Overall Ranks

#25 among Gymnasts

#15 among Male Gymnasts

#8 among Japanese Olympians

#7 among Japanese Gymnasts

Olympic Results

1968

Team - Gold

1972

Team - Gold

Horizontal Bar - Gold

Rings - Bronze

1976

Individual All-Around - Bronze

Team - Gold

Vault - Silver

Parallel Bars - Bronze

Horizontal Bar - Gold

Total

Events - 24

Gold - 5

Silver - 1

Bronze - 3

Mitsuo Tsukahara was born on December 22, 1947 in Tokyo, Japan. He didn't begin training in gymnastics until he was 13 years, old, which is considered old in gymnastics, but he picked it up quick, and by the time he was 21, he made the Japanese national team, which was no small feat, as they had won the past 2 Olympic Team gold medals.

The Japanese team was again victorious in 1968, winning their third consecutive gold medal in the team event. It was the only medal Tsukahara would earn in Mexico City, but he came close in two individual events, coming in 4th in the Floor Exercise, behind 3 of his teammates, and also coming in 4th in the Rings.

During the 1970 World Championships, he became a gymnastics legend when he invented his own move on the vault, which is now named the Tsukahara after him. He entered the vault with a backward somersault with a half twist, then did a 1.5 twist on dismount. The move is still used today.

He made a bigger impact at the 1972 Olympics, first earning another gold medal in the team event, the 4th straight for Japan, then earning his first individual medal with a bronze in the rings. His biggest accomplishment came in the Horizontal Bar, where he had the highest score in both the qualifying and the final round, dismounting with a double somersault with a full twist to earn the gold medal, with 4 teammates coming in right behind him.

He was one of the biggest stars at the 1976 Olympics, leading the Japanese team to a 5th straight gold medal in the team event, and taking the bronze medal in the Individual All-Around, his best finish in that event. He successfully defended his gold medal in the horizontal bar, and also earned a silver in the vault and a bronze in the parallel bars. That gave him 5 total medals in Montreal, and 9 for his Olympic career.

Tsukahara married fellow Japanese gymnast Chieko Oda, and they had a son named Naoya, who was born in 1977. Naoya followed his parents into gymnastics, also representing Japan in 3 Olympics, and he also won a team gold medal in 2004 in Athens. Tsukahara won 5 gold medals in his 3 Olympic appearances, but only 2 came in individual events, which puts him a bit behind several of his teammates, but still makes him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.