Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #103 - Karin Janz

Karin Janz

East Germany

Artistic Gymnastics

Overall Ranks

#20 among Gymnasts

#7 among Female Gymnasts

#2 among East German Olympians

#1 among East German Gymnasts

Olympic Results

1968

Team - Bronze

Uneven Bars - Silver

1972

Individual All-Around - Silver

Team - Silver

Vault - Gold

Uneven Bars - Gold

Balance Beam - Bronze

Total

Events - 12

Gold - 2

Silver - 3

Bronze - 2

Karin Janz was born on February 17, 1952 in Lubben, East Germany, and began training in gymnastics at age 5, with her father coaching her, and by age 10, she had been moved into a sports training school. She became national champion at age 14, and made her first Olympic team at age 16.

In the 1968 Mexico City games, she started out in the individual all-around competition, where she performed well, but finished in 6th place, though only 0.3 points behind the silver medalist. In the team event, she was the second-highest scoring member of the East German team that won the bronze medal, but they were more than 3 points behind Czechoslovakia for the silver.

She qualified for the individual finals in the uneven bars and the balance beam. In the balance beam, she was #4 heading into the final, and she improved on her qualifying score, but not as much as the other finalists, so she ended up staying in 4th place. In the uneven bars, she had a very good performance, but she was competing against Vera Caslavska of Czechoslovakia, who won 4 golds in 1968, so Janz ended up having to settle for silver.

In 1970, she was the world champion in the uneven bars and the runner-up in the vault, which positioned her well for the 1972 Olympics across the border in Munich. This time the competition started with the team event. The Soviets were in the middle of their dominant 40-year run, but East Germany put up a fight, finishing 3.95 points behind the USSR overall, but beating them in the uneven bars, and they took home the silver medal.

Janz was tied with Lyudmila Turishcheva of the USSR as the top qualifier for the individual all-around, but after going through each of the apparatuses again, Janz had fallen to second, thanks to Turishcheva's winning margin of 0.2 points on the floor exercise. It was her second silver medal of 1972, and her third overall.

She qualified for all 4 individual event finals this time, and the only one where she didn't medal was the floor exercise, where she was 4th before the final, and remained in 4th afterward, behind 3 members of the Soviet team. Janz was #2 in qualifying for the vault, behind Turishcheva, but after she put up a 9.9 on her final vault, she vaulted to the gold medal.

In the uneven bars, she had a big lead after qualifying, and she posted another 9.9 in that final, giving her a very comfortable gold medal victory. In the balance beam, she started out slightly behind Turishcheva and Olga Korbut, and the two Soviets increased their lead in the final, leaving Janz to take the bronze medal.

After the 1972 Olympics, she announced her retirement from gymnastics in order to attend medical school. She became a world-renowned orthopedic surgeon, and was one of the inventors of the first artificial spinal disc. Though she was somewhat average in her first Olympics, she finished in the top 4 of every event in 1972, which helped make her one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #104 - Xiong Ni

Xiong Ni

China

Diving

Overall Ranks

#8 among Chinese Olympians

#2 among Divers

#1 among Male Divers

Olympic Results

1988

Platform - Silver

1992

Platform - Bronze

1996

Springboard - Gold

2000

Springboard - Gold

Synchronized Springboard - Gold

Total

Events - 5

Gold - 3

Silver - 1

Bronze - 1

Xiong Ni was born on January 11, 1974 in Changsha, China, and was trained as a diver from a young age. At the age of 8, he was selected for the Hunan Province team, and by age 12 he was selected for the national training center. The next year, he won his first international competition, and at age 14, he represented China in the Olympics for the first time.

The favorite to win the Platform diving event in Seoul was Greg Louganis, the defending champion, but many were excited to see the young Xiong. He finished the qualifying round in second place, and was the only diver anywhere close to Louganis' score, sitting 16 points behind at that point. In the final round, which consisted of 10 dives, the two quickly pulled away from the rest of the field, and there were never more than 10 points separating them. After each had done his ninth dive, Xiong held a 3 point lead on the favorite, but Louganis pulled out the most difficult dive in his arsenal, and it was enough to put him ahead of the youngster by just more than a point, leaving Xiong with a hard-fought silver in his first Olympic appearance.

Louganis retired after the 1988 Olympics, leaving Xiong as the new face of platform diving, but in 1990, a new young Chinese diver named Sun Shuwei appeared, and in 1991 he beat Xiong at the World Championship. The two were co-favorites heading to Barcelona in 1992, at just 18 and 16 years of age.

The two Chinese teammates were far ahead of the competition in qualifying, with Xiong ahead by almost 6 points, but in the final, Sun showed why he was the world champion, performing every dive perfectly and pulling far ahead of everyone else. Xiong attempted a couple of very difficult dives that didn't end well, and as a result, he dropped down to bronze medal position by the end of the competition.

After Barcelona, Xiong switched his focus to the springboard rather than the platform, and it would be a great move for him. Another teammate, Yu Zhuocheng, was the favorite in Atlanta, but Xiong held a big lead through qualifying and the new semifinal round. In the final, Yu took the lead after their 4th of 6 dives, and still held it heading into the final dives, but Xiong performed his final dive nearly perfectly, and ended up winning the gold medal by 10.53 points.

He graduated from Hunan University with a degree in foreign trade in 1997 and announced his retirement, but changed his mind a year later and returned to competition. He competed in Sydney in the springboard again, and he also participated in the first Olympic synchronized springboard competition, with Xiao Hailiang as his partner.

The springboard came first, and Dmitry Sautin of Russia was the favorite, though Xiong was the defending champion and always a threat. Xiong led after qualifying by 12 points, with Fernando Platas of Mexico a surprise in second place, followed by Sautin. Sautin moved up to 2nd after the semifinal, and took the lead after the 5th dive in the final. On the final dive, Sautin missed slightly, opening the door for Xiong, who nailed his final dive and ended up with a gold medal, just 0.3 points ahead of Platas.

The synchronized springboard event was nowhere near as close. Each of the 8 pairs performed 5 dives, with only a single round determining the winner. The Chinese pair were the highest-scoring on every single dive, and they ran away with the gold medal by 35.61 points over the Russians.

After winning his second and third golds in 2000, Xiong retired again in 2001, this time for good. After his amazing performance as a 14-year-old in 1988, it seemed like greatness was on the way for Xiong, and he lived up to that potential, winning 5 medals in his 5 events, including 3 golds to close out his career, making him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #105 - Andy Stanfield

Andy Stanfield

USA

Athletics

Overall Ranks

#32 among American Olympians

#30 among Track & Field Athletes

#24 among Male Track & Field Athletes

#20 among American Track & Field Athletes

#16 among American Male Track & Field Athletes

Olympic Results

1952

200m - Gold

4x100m Relay - Gold

1956

200m - Silver

Total

Events - 3

Gold - 2

Silver - 1

Andrew William Stanfield was born on December 29, 1927 in Washington, DC, and was raised in New Jersey. He competed in the sprint events and the long jump in high school, then spent 2 years in the army before attending Seton Hall University, where he won 6 AAU titles before graduating in 1952.

Prior to the 1952 Olympics, he had set the world record in the 200m at 20.6 seconds, so he was a heavy favorite heading into that event. He easily won all 4 of his races, and tied the Olympic record of 20.7 seconds in the final while running with an injured thigh to win his first gold medal.

He also ran the anchor leg in the 4x100m relay, where the USA and USSR were the two favorites. The Soviet team led through the first half of the race, but 100m gold medalist Lindy Remigino caught up on the final curve, handing Stanfield the baton in a virtual tie, and then Stanfield pulled away to win by 0.2 seconds to take a second gold medal.

He returned to defend his gold medal in the 200m in 1956, along with silver medalist Thane Baker. Those two, along with fellow American Bobby Joe Morrow, who had beaten both of them at the Olympic trials, were expected to challenge for the gold. Stanfield ran the best time in the quarterfinals, then Baker set the pace in the semifinals, but in the final, it would be Morrow taking the gold to go along with his 100m gold earlier in the Games, with Stanfield coming in silver with the same time that had earned him gold 4 years earlier. 

By that time, he had already begun a career as a PE teacher, and he retired from racing to focus on that full-time after the 1956 Olympics ended. His Olympic career was short but strong, winning two tough races and nearly winning another, and he deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #106 - Tamara Lazakovich

Tamara Lazakovich

USSR

Artistic Gymnastics

Overall Ranks

#21 among Gymnasts

#11 among Soviet Olympians

#8 among Female Gymnasts

#5 among Soviet Female Gymnasts

Olympic Results

1972

Individual All-Around - Bronze

Team - Gold

Floor Exercise - Bronze

Balance Beam - Silver

Total

Events - 6

Gold - 1

Silver - 1

Bronze - 2

Tamara Vasilyevna Lazakovich was born on March 11, 1954 in Gusevo, USSR (currently part of Russia), and was raised in what is now Belarus. She began gymnastics at age 6, and was quickly noticed and taken into training. By the time she was 16 she had made the Soviet national team, and she won 5 medals at the 1971 European Championships.

She was part of a strong Soviet team that went to the 1972 Olympics in Munich. They had won the past 5 Olympic gold medals in the team event, and 1972 was no different. The team had the highest scores in 3 of the 4 portions of the event, falling slightly behind East Germany in the Uneven Bars, but they outscored the East Germans by 3.95 points to win their 6th gold medal in a row as a nation.

In the individual all-around, the top 26 competitors from the team event were selected to compete, with half of their score coming from their performances in the team event, and the rest coming from another round of the same events. Lazakovich qualified in 4th place, behind Karin Janz of East Germany and 2 Soviet teammates, but after Olga Korbut fell twice on the uneven bars, Lazakovich was able to move up and take the bronze medal.

In the individual event finals, the top 6 were taken for each apparatus from the team event to compete for the medals. Lazakovich qualified for 3 finals, just missing out in uneven bars, where she finished 7th. She qualified 3rd in the floor exercise, behind the same two teammates, but Olga Korbut had the best final and moved up to gold over Lyudmila Turishcheva, while Lazakovich held her position for bronze, a medal sweep for the USSR.

In the vault, she was the final qualifier to make the final, and her score in the final was lower than the others, so she remained in 6th. She was the top qualifier in the balance beam, and even improved on her score in the final, but Korbut had another great performance, which pushed her ahead of her teammate, leaving Lazakovich with the silver.

She suddenly retired immediately after the Olympics, and while no official reason was ever given, the rumor is that she tried to defect to West Germany after the Olympics, but was caught, so the Soviets refused to let her compete internationally again. She worked for many years as a gymnastics coach, but she was unhappy with her life, which led to alcoholism, which led to her early death, on November 1, 1992 in Vitebsk, Belarus. She only appeared in the Olympics once, but finished in the top 7 of every one of her events, and won 4 medals. Even though it's a small sample, she still proved herself to be one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #107 - Valarie Allman

Valarie Allman

USA

Athletics

Overall Ranks

#33 among American Olympians

#31 among Track & Field Athletes

#21 among American Track & Field Athletes

#7 among Female Track & Field Athletes

#5 among American Female Track & Field Athletes

Olympic Results

2020

Discus - Gold

2024

Discus - Gold

Total

Events - 2

Gold - 2

Valarie Carolyn Allman was born on February 23, 1995 in Newark, Delaware, and grew up in Hershey, Pennsylvania. While attending Stanford, she participated in the World Junior Championships as a freshman, and took a silver medal in her first major international competition.

Though she had never won a major international competition before competing in the 2020 Olympics, she was considered one of the favorites, as she had been able to beat the other favorites in some recent meets. Her throw of 66.42 meters was the best in the qualifying round, and she opened the final with a throw of 68.98, which stood up for the rest of the day, and she won gold by more than 2 meters.

Before her Olympic win, she had never won a medal at the World Championships, but in the next two years, she won bronze and then silver. This made her the favorite heading into the 2024 Olympics, along with Feng Bin, who had won the 2023 World Championship. She took only 1 throw in qualifying, but it was more than enough, with 69.59 meters beating all others by more than 4 meters.

In the final, she completed 4 throws, each traveling more than 68 meters, a mark no one else reached in the entire competition, meaning that Allman's five throws were the 5 longest of the Olympics. She easily won her second straight gold. 

In 2025, she won her first World Championship, and also set a new national record with a throw of 73.52 meters in April. Earlier this year, she married Zeb Sion, her longtime coach. She has only competed twice in the Olympics so far, but won both by a big margin, and she only appears to be getting stronger, so she could climb even higher among the ranks of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #108 - Aly Raisman

Aly Raisman

USA

Artistic Gymnastics

Overall Ranks

#34 among American Olympians

#22 among Gymnasts

#9 among Female Gymnasts

#2 among American Gymnasts

Olympic Results

2012

Team - Gold

Floor Exercise - Gold

Balance Beam - Bronze

2016

Individual All-Around - Silver

Team - Gold

Floor Exercise - Silver

Total

Events - 10

Gold - 3

Silver - 2

Bronze - 1

Alexandra Rose Raisman was born on May 25, 1994 in Needham, Massachusetts. Her mother had been a gymnast in high school, and got her started in gymnastics almost as soon as she could walk. After her junior year of high school, she was part of the gold medal-winning team at the World Championships, and she completed her senior year online in order to train for the 2012 Olympics.

The first event in London was the Individual All-Around, which allowed a maximum of 2 athletes per country into the final. Jordyn Wieber was the defending world champion and was expected to win, but she finished 3rd among the Americans, and 4th overall in qualifying, so Gabby Douglas and Raisman went to the final. Douglas ended up winning the gold, while Raisman tied for third, but lost the bronze medal in a tiebreaker to Aliya Mustafina of Russia.

Having 3 of the top 4 scores in qualifying gave the USA the best overall score entering the team competition, and they ended up running away with the gold, more than 5 points ahead of Russia. Raisman put up the best overall score in floor exercise and a solid performance in balance beam, as the USA had the best overall score in 3 of the 4 parts.

Raisman qualified for 2 event finals, the balance beam and the floor exercise. In the balance beam, she qualified fifth, and she was the final athlete to compete, and when the scores were announced, she was in 4th, but her coach appealed her difficulty score, and upon review, her score was raised by 0.1, which put her into a tie for 3rd, which she won on a tiebreaker to get the bronze she missed in the all-around.

In the floor exercise, she was the top qualifier by 0.26 points, and even though she went third, she left no doubt that she would win the gold medal. Her routine had the highest difficulty score of any competitor, but she also earned the best execution score, and she ended up winning the gold medal by a margin of 15.6 to 15.2 over the nearest competitor.

She was injured soon after the Olympics, and spent 2 years working her way back to make sure she was ready to compete again at the highest level, and upon her return, it was clear that she was ready, and she immediately made the national team again. The team repeated as world champions in 2015, heading into the 2016 on a high note.

In the 2016 individual all-around, Gabby Douglas missed out on the final even though she was #3 in qualifying, because the two ahead of her were Americans Raisman and Simone Biles. In the final, Biles had the best score in three of the four sections, and Raisman was #2 in the same 3 events, putting those two far ahead of anyone else for the gold and the silver.

In the team event, the Americans were huge favorites due to having the top 3 qualifiers. Raisman was jokingly nicknamed "Grandma" by her teammates, due to her being the oldest on the team at 22. Raisman performed in 3 events in the final, and the USA had the best score in all 4 portions of the event, giving them a runaway gold medal, more than 8 points ahead of Russia.

She only qualified for one event final, the floor exercise, where she was the defending champion. Her final score ended up almost as high as in the previous Olympics, but Biles' difficulty score was so high that she took the gold by almost 0.5, with Raisman taking the silver.

She didn't compete again after the 2016 Olympics, but didn't officially retire until early 2020. Her 6 total Olympic medals are the third most by an American gymnast, and she very nearly had a 7th one. She was a master at the floor exercise, and twice finished among the top 4 in the individual all-around, making her one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #109 - David Rudisha

David Rudisha

Kenya

Athletics

Overall Ranks

#32 among Track & Field Athletes

#25 among Male Track & Field Athletes

#1 among Kenyan Olympians

Olympic Results

2012

800m - Gold

2016

800m - Gold

Total

Events - 2

Gold - 2

David Lekuta Rudisha was born on December 17, 1988 in Kilgoris, Kenya, the son of Daniel Rudisha, who had won a silver medal for Kenya in the 1968 Olympics. Like his father, he chose to run in the middle distance races, though his father favored the 400m, while David became a specialist in the 800m.

When he was 21 years old, he broke the world record in the 800m, which had been held by Wilson Kipketer, a Kenyan-born Danish runner, for 13 years, and then broke it again a week later. He went on to win the Kenyan Olympic trials in 2012, earning himself his first shot at the Olympics.

At the Olympics, he won what is considered the greatest 800m race of all time. Rudisha led the entire way, and by the end he had set a new world record of 1:40.91, the first, and so far only, time in history that a runner had gotten under 1:41. All three medalists beat the old Olympic record, 3 runners set new national records, and 7 of the 8 finalists set new personal best times. All 8 finalists ran faster than the previous 3 gold medal times.

Rudisha sat out most of 2013 with an injury, but came back mostly healthy in 2014, and by 2015 he had won the World Championship in the 800m. He qualified again for the Olympics, but this time his teammate, Alfred Kipketer, led most of the race, with Rudisha staying close behind. Just before the final curve, Rudisha pulled ahead, then sprinted for the finish, winning by nearly half a second to successfully defend his gold medal, becoming the first to achieve that since 1964.

He was very unlucky over the next several years. He was in a car crash in 2019, then was injured in training in 2021, forcing him to miss the Olympics, then was in a plane crash in 2022, where he was one of only 5 survivors. He has since retired from competitive racing. Though he only ran two races in the Olympics, his world record time from 2012 still stands, and he has held the world record continuously for the past 16 years, and has the three fastest times of all time, all of which helps to make him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.