Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #124 - Matt Biondi

Matt Biondi

USA

Swimming

Overall Ranks

#36 among American Olympians

#9 among Swimmers

#8 among American Swimmers

#7 among Male Swimmers

#6 among American Male Swimmers

Olympic Results

1984

4x100 Freestyle Relay - Gold

1988

50m Freestyle - Gold

100m Freestyle - Gold

200m Freestyle - Bronze

4x100m Freestyle Relay - Gold

4x200 Freestyle Relay - Gold

100m Butterfly - Silver

4x100m Medley Relay - Gold

1992

50m Freestyle - Silver

4x100m Freestyle Relay - Gold

4x100 Medley Relay - Gold

Total

Events - 12

Gold - 8

Silver - 2

Bronze - 1

Matthew Nicholas Biondi was born on October 8, 1965 in Moraga, California, and began swimming at a young age. He was a standout swimmer and water polo player in high school, and earned a scholarship for both to Cal. 

As a freshman, he helped Cal win the national water polo title, but was not as successful in his races, only earning a medal in a relay, but he surprised everyone by finishing 4th in the 100m at the US Olympic Trials, which earned him a spot on the relay team in Los Angeles. He swam the 3rd leg of the 4x100 freestyle relay, and entered the pool just slightly behind Australia for the lead, but by the time he handed it off to anchor Rowdy Gaines, the USA was ahead by 0.4 seconds, and they ended up winning by 0.65 seconds and set a new world record.

Buoyed by his performance at the Olympics, Biondi went on a run over the next 3 years, winning every NCAA freestyle sprint title but one in that span, plus all of the freestyle relays, for a total of 14 NCAA titles. He also set numerous world records, becoming the first man to swim 100m in less than 49 seconds, and at one point he held the top 10 times of all time in that event. Heading into the 1988 Olympics, he qualified for 7 events, attempting to match Mark Spitz's record of 7 golds from the 1972 Olympics.

His dream of 7 gold medals didn't last long. His first event was the 200m freestyle, and he led the final through the final turn, but didn't have as much left in the tank as Duncan Armstrong of Australia, who sprinted out of third at the turn to win in world record time, with Biondi falling to bronze. In his next event, the 100m butterfly, he led the entire race, but was passed on the final stroke by Anthony Nesty of Suriname, losing by .01 seconds, the closest margin possible, leaving him with a silver.

Later that day, he swam the anchor leg of the 4x200 freestyle relay, entering the pool nearly a full second behind East Germany, but he quickly made up the difference, taking the lead before he was halfway done, and he ended up more than a second ahead after swimming the fastest relay split in history, while also setting a team world record in the event.

The next day was the 100m freestyle, his best event, and he finally won his first individual gold medal by setting a new Olympic record of 48.63 seconds, which was just short of his own world record from the Olympic trials. The next day he swam an even faster 100m as the anchor in the 4x100m freestyle relay, and the USA beat the USSR by nearly 2 seconds as they set another world record.

Next up was the 50m freestyle, where Biondi was a former world record holder, but he was facing the current record holder, Tom Jager, also American, in the final. Biondi got a great start off the blocks, and led the entire way across the pool, setting another world record of 22.14 in winning his 4th straight gold of the games.

The next day he finished off his Olympic run with the 4x100 medley relay, swimming the butterfly third leg. The US was a huge favorite in this one, and they lived up to it, winning by more than 2 seconds and setting yet another world record, the 4th Biondi was a part of in Seoul. Even though he didn't get his 7 golds, he did win 7 medals, a huge accomplishment.

He returned for one final hurrah in 1992, qualifying in 4 events for Barcelona. He started out with the 100m, his signature event, and led at the turn, but swam one of the slowest back halves of his career coming back, and he fell to 5th, the first time he had ever failed to medal in the Olympics.

He made up for it the next day in the 4x100m freestyle relay final, where he swam the second leg. The US was in 4th place after the first swimmer, but Biondi passed the field to give them a lead of more than half a second at the midway point, and they never gave up the lead, finishing nearly a second ahead of the Unified Team for gold, just short of their world record from 4 years earlier.

The 50m freestyle was supposed to be a rematch between Biondi and Jager, the only 2 swimmers to hold the world record in the past 7 years, but Aleksandr Popov of the Unified Team surprised everyone by winning the event, after he had also pulled off an upset in the 100m. Biondi still came in second ahead of Jager, but had to settle for the silver. The next day he swam the anchor leg in the 4x100 medley relay heat, which qualified the USA for the final, where he was replaced by Jon Olsen, and the USA went on to win another gold in world record time, giving Biondi his 8th gold medal overall.

He retired right after the 1992 Olympics, having won 11 medals in 12 events, 8 of them gold, though 6 of the golds came in relays. He later went on to become a math teacher and swimming coach. He made a valiant attempt at winning 7 events in Seoul, and even though he didn't quite get there, his impressive haul over 3 Olympics makes him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #125 - Edwin Moses

Edwin Moses

USA

Athletics

Overall Ranks

#37 among American Olympians

#36 among Track & Field Athletes

#27 among Male Track & Field Athletes

#22 among American Track & Field Athletes

#17 among American Male Track & Field Athletes

Olympic Results

 1976

400m Hurdles - Gold

1984

400m Hurdles - Gold

1988

400m Hurdles - Bronze

Total

Events - 3

Gold - 2

Bronze - 1

Edwin Corley Moses was born on August 31, 1955 in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who were both educators. He attended Morehouse College to study physics, and also competed on the track team, mostly in the 400 m dash and the 110m hurdles. Before 1976, he had only run the 400m hurdles once, but when he switched his focus to it that year, he quickly became unstoppable.

Just a few months after beginning to run the 400m hurdles, he qualified for the US Olympic team in that event, and his very first international race was at the Montreal Olympics. He had the fastest time in all 3 rounds of the event, and won the final by more than a second, breaking the world record in the process, with a time of 47.63 seconds. He came into the race as an unknown and left a star.

One year later, he lost a race to Harald Schmid of West Germany. That race is only notable because it was the last one that Moses lost for nearly 10 years. He easily qualified for the 1980 Olympics, and would have been a heavy favorite to win another gold medal if the USA hadn't boycotted the games.

By the time the 1984 Olympics rolled around, Moses had won 89 races in a row, and was asked to recite the Olympic Oath at the opening ceremony of the games in Los Angeles. When the racing started, he was a machine as usual, posting the best time in every round and winning the gold medal easily, though 2 runners finished within half a second of him.

When he finally lost a race, in 1987, it was to Danny Harris, who had won the silver medal behind him in 1984. After that, he won his next 10 races, including the US Olympic Trials over Harris, and went to Seoul looking for a third gold. Even though his time was better than it had been during his two gold medal runs, it still wasn't enough that time, as Andre Phillips, another American, set a new Olympic record of 47.19 seconds to take the gold, while Moses finished with the bronze. 

He retired soon after that Olympic defeat, but was still involved in the sports world. He helped develop new drug testing programs that helped reduce cheating in sports, which added another layer to his greatness. He should have been a three-time gold medalist, but even with the two he did win, he is one of the greatest Olympic athletes of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #126 - Misty May Treanor

Misty May Treanor

USA

Beach Volleyball

Overall Ranks

#38 among American Olympians

#1 among Beach Volleyball players

Olympic Results

2004

Women - Gold

2008

Women - Gold

2012

Women - Gold

Total

Events - 4

Gold - 3

Misty Elizabeth May was born on July 30, 1977 in Los Angeles, California, to a father who had been an Olympic volleyball player and a mother who was a pro tennis player. Her parents both struggled with alcoholism, so she was primarily raised by her grandparents.

She won two state volleyball championships in high school, and as a senior in 1995 was named the USA Today national player of the year. She attended college at Long Beach State, where she was named National Player of the Year as both a junior and a senior, and led her team to the first undefeated volleyball season in NCAA history as well as a national championship as a senior.

She briefly joined the USA National Volleyball team after graduation, but left a few months later to focus on beach volleyball. She partnered with Holly McPeak, and a year later the pair qualified for the 2000 Olympics. Back then, matches were just one set until the final round, which was best of three. They won their first match easily, 15-5, followed by a 15-13 win in the next round, but they fell in the quarterfinal round to the eventual bronze medalists from Brazil, by a score of 16-14.

Following that loss, she changed partners, pairing up with Kerri Walsh, who had just switched to beach volleyball from the indoor national team. 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 Misty marrying Matt Treanor, who was also a pro baseball 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 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.

She retired following the third gold medal, and has primarily worked as a college volleyball coach since then. Although her longtime playing partner Kerri Walsh Jennings ended up with a bronze medal to add to the three golds they won together, Misty ranks slightly higher on my list due to having retired closer to her peak, ending up with one less mediocre finish in her career, where she is definitely one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #127 - Ireen Wust

Ireen Wust

Netherlands

Speed Skating

Overall Ranks

#4 among Speed Skaters

#3 among Dutch Olympians

#2 among Dutch Speed Skaters

#2 among Female Speed Skaters

#1 among Dutch Female Speed Skaters

Olympic Results

2006

1500m - Bronze

3000m - Gold

2010

1500m - Gold

2014

1000m - Silver

1500m - Silver

3000m - Gold

5000m - Silver

Team Pursuit - Gold

2018

1500m - Gold

3000m - Silver

Team Pursuit - Silver

2022

1500m - Gold

Team Pursuit - Bronze

Total

Events - 20

Gold - 6

Silver - 5

Bronze - 2

Irene Karlijn Wust was born on April 1, 1986 at Goirle, Netherlands, and began skating at age 11. By the time she was 17, she had won silver at the World Junior Championships, and the next year she won the all-around gold. This led to her Olympic debut in 2006, when she was 19 years old.

Her Olympic debut came in the 3000m, which featured the past 3 World Champions and the world record holder, so Wust was an afterthought beforehand. Once she took the ice, though, people took notice, as she set a new track record, more than 7 seconds faster than any of the 18 athletes who had raced already. All of the favorites ran after her, but none was able to match her time, and she ended up taking the gold medal by just over a second, becoming the youngest Dutch Olympic champion ever.

Her next event was the 1000m, and she put herself in bronze medal position with just one pair to go, but she was edged out by Anni Friesinger of Germany in the final race, leaving her in 4th. In the next event, the 1500m, the roles were reversed, with Wust skating in the final pair and knocking Friesinger out of bronze medal position to take her second medal of 2006.

When 2010 came around, her first event was again the 3000m, where she was the defending champion. She was in the final pairing, but didn't run her best race, and ended up in 7th place. Her second event, the 1000m, went about the same, but in the 1500m, she was able to change her luck. She started out as fast as possible, then held on at the end to record the best time of the event so far by over a second, and when none of the 6 remaining skaters was able to match her time, she took home her second gold medal.

Her best Olympic performance came in Sochi in 2014. The 3000m came first, and featured the past 3 Olympic champions, two of whom were the most recent World Champions as well. Defending champion Martina Sablikova of Czechia had the time to beat when Wust took the ice, and Wust started out fast as always, but didn't slow down until the final quarter of the race, and by that time she had built a big enough lead that she was able to still win by more than 1.5 seconds.

In the 1000m, which came next, Zhang Hong of China set the time to beat early, more the 1.5 seconds ahead of any of the earlier racers, and nobody came within a second of her until the final 3 pairs, when Margot Boer and Wust, both Dutch, managed to get somewhat close, but neither was able to surpass the Chinese skater, leaving Wust with a silver.

The 1500m event was very similar. Jorien ter Mors, a fellow Dutchwoman, set a new Olympic record at the halfway point of the event, and the only skater in the second half to get within a second of her was Wust, who finished just more than half a second behind to take another silver medal.

Her next event was the 5000m, which she had not previously entered in the Olympics, and she was paired with Sablikova, the defending champion and overwhelming favorite. Wust started fast as usual, and led the race through 3800m, but then Sablikova made her move and left Wust in the dust, winning by more than 2.5 seconds, though Wust's performance was still good enough for her third straight silver of the games.

The final event of 2014 was the team pursuit, which the Dutch had not done well in during the previous 2 Olympics, but with the top 4 skaters from the 1500m all forming a team, they came in favored to win, and they made sure to leave no doubt, setting a new Olympic record in qualifying, then again in the semifinals, and then beating the record again in the gold medal race, which they won over Poland by more than 7 seconds.

She returned to defend her 3000m medal in 2018, but she had been battling injuries, so she wasn't regarded as the favorite. Carlijn Achtereekte, another Dutch athlete, set the early pace, and Wust started strong as usual, sitting 1.5 seconds ahead of the pace with 2 laps left, but she slowed down considerably toward the end, and ended up losing by 0.08 seconds, leaving her with yet another silver medal.

She was assigned to one of the earliest pairs in the 1000m, and she had the lead by more than a second when she left the ice, but it didn't hold up, as 8 other skaters ran faster, leaving her far behind the eventual winner. In the 1500m, defending champion ter Mors failed to qualify at the Dutch trials, so Wust was one of the favorites, and she again left the ice with a lead of more than a second, but this time her time stood up, with Miho Takagi of Japan making it close in the final pairing, but just falling short by 0.2 seconds to give Wust another gold medal.

The Dutch and Japanese were co-favorites heading into the team pursuit, and the Dutch set a new Olympic record in qualifying, just ahead of Japan. They took it a little easy in the semifinals, and the USA team was nowhere near their quality, earning a spot in the gold medal match against Japan. The race was as good as expected, with the two teams alternating the lead for most of the race, before Japan pulled away in the final laps to win by 1.5 seconds, while the Dutch still beat their earlier Olympic record in the losing effort.

She came back for one final Olympics in 2022. She raced in the 1000m again, which had never been her strongest event, finishing in 6th place. Up next was her best event, the 1500m, where she was the defending champion, and it went almost exactly as it had 4 years earlier, with Wust building up a 1.5 second lead, then watching Takagi get close but fall short again. This made Wust the first athlete in Olympic history to win an individual gold medal in 5 straight Olympics.

She closed out her Olympic career with one final medal, a bronze in the team pursuit, giving her 13 total, the most of any speed skater in Olympic history. Though there were several times where she came up just short of the gold, or failed to medal at all, her longevity and ability to compete and so many distances made her one of the greatest Olympic athletes of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #128 - Thorsten Margis

Thorsten Margis

Germany

Bobsled

Overall Ranks

#4 among German Olympians

#1 among Bobsledders

Olympic Results

2018

Two Man - Gold

Four Man - Gold

2022

Two Man - Gold

Four Man - Gold

2026

Four Man - Gold

Total

Events - 6

Gold - 5

Thorsten Margis was born on August 14, 1989 in Bad Honnef, West Germany, not long before the reunification of Germany. Germany has dominated the bobsled events for a long time, especially on the men's side, so making one of the teams is no small feat.

His first Olympic appearance came in 2014, when he joined the sled piloted by Francesco Friedrich, another Olympic newcomer. He only raced in the four-man event that year, and the team finished in 8th place overall, a pretty nondescript start to a stellar career.

By the time the Olympics returned in 2018, the team had improved quite a bit, having won the past 3 World Championships in the two-man, and the previous year's four-man as well. They still weren't considered the favorites in the two-man, and were in 5th place after the first two runs, but they set a new track record in their third run to move into 2nd place with one run to go. Their final run was enough to put them in first place with only the Canadian favorites left to run, and after they finished, they ended up with the exact same time, down to .01 of a second, and a tie for the gold medal was declared.

Riding their high from winning gold, they moved on to the 4-man event, where they posted the fastest time in each of the first three runs, giving them a lead of almost half a second headed into the final run, which is an eternity in bobsled. They ran a safe, controlled final run to take an easy second gold medal of the games.

Friedrich and Margis won two more World Championships in the two-man after their Olympic triumph, making them the favorites in 2022, and they didn't disappoint. The pair had the best time in 3 of their 4 runs, with the eventual silver medalists led by Johannes Lochner beating them by .09 seconds on the second run. Overall, they beat the other German team by 0.49 seconds for an easy gold.

The 4-man event was the same story. Margis' sled was best in 3 of the 4 runs, with Lochner's sled beating them one the other run, with Margis' team winning the event by 0.37 seconds, pulling them into a tie for most golds in bobsled history.

In 2024, Margis announced that he was switching bobsled teams from the one led by Friedrich to the one piloted by Lochner, who had finished right behind them in both events in 2022. The new team also included Georg Fleischhauer, who was #138 on my list, though Margis only competed in the four-man sled. They won the gold by more than half a second over his old teammate, Friedrich, in 2026, making Margis the first bobsledder to win 5 Olympic gold medals.

Margis announced his retirement after winning that final gold medal earlier this year, and with a perfect record in the past 3 Olympic games, he has established himself as one of the greatest Olympic athletes of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #129 - Laurie Morgan

Laurie Morgan

Australia

Equestrian Eventing

Overall Ranks

#3 among Australian Olympians

#1 among Equestrian Event riders

Olympic Results

1960

Individual - Gold

Team - Gold

Total

Events - 2

Gold - 2

Lawrence Robert Morgan was born on February 5, 1915 in Yea, Australia, and grew up riding horses out in the country. As an adult, he became an Australian rules football player, playing 3 seasons for Fitzroy in the AFL, and was named one of the top rookies in the league in his first season. After retiring from football, he became a cattle rancher for many years.

He suddenly reappeared on the sporting scene in 1960, when he was chosen as the captain of the Australian Equestrian Event team for the Rome Olympics. Equestrian Eventing is a 3-day event, with dressage on day one, where the horse and rider must perform specific movements with minimal prodding from the rider, then a cross-country portion on day two, where the horse must complete a long course with obstacles with as few penalties as possible, followed by show jumping on the third day.

In the individual event, Morgan finished 18th out of 73 in dressage on day 1, which kept him in the running. The Cross Country portion is always the most important, with the most opportunities to score points, and it this competition it was separated into 5 sections. Morgan, on his horse Salad Days, had the best time in 3 of the 5 sections. Only 41 horses completed day two, and two even died during the process, which overshadowed Morgan's performance somewhat.

35 riders completed the show jumping portion, with Morgan near the middle, but he had few enough mistakes during the jumping phase that his cross country score wasn't beaten, finishing 23 points ahead of silver medalist Neale Lavis, also from Australia, who finished more than 35 points ahead of the bronze medalist.

In the team event, 4 riders from each country compete in the same process as in the individual event, with the top 3 in each phase counting toward the team score, meaning that at least 3 must finish each section in order for the team to qualify for a medal. The Aussies were in 6th place out of 18 teams heading into the super important second day. 

Morgan again posted the best score in the cross country phase, with his two teammates ending up with the next two best scores, but their 4th rider failed to finish, making him ineligible to participate in the final day. Another Australian rider, Bill Roycroft, managed to finish, but had been severely injured in a fall during the course, suffering a concussion and a broken collarbone, and was admitted to the hospital that evening.

The Australian lead was so large after day two that all they had to do was finish the jumping portion to guarantee themselves the gold medal, but that required 3 riders, and with one rider out, Roycroft checked himself out of the hospital and carefully ran the course in order to earn his team the gold medal. 

Morgan never competed in the Olympics again, maintaining his perfect record of winning every event, and eventually passed away on August 15, 1997 in Castlemaine, Australia. His two gold medals in the 1960 Olympics were the two largest victories in those events in history, making him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #130 - Buddy Davis

Buddy Davis

USA

Athletics

Overall Ranks

#39 among American Olympians

#37 among Track & Field Athletes

#29 among Male Track & Field Athletes

#23 among American Track & Field Athletes

#18 among male American Track & Field Athletes

Olympic Results

1952

High Jump - Gold

Total

Events - 1

Gold - 1

Walter Francis Davis was born on January 5, 1931 in Beaumont, Texas, and after contracting polio at 9 years old, was unable to walk for 3 years. He did leg-strengthening exercises to aid in his recovery, and it seems like they helped him become a great athlete as an added benefit.

He attended Texas A&M after high school, playing basketball and participating in track, and as a senior in 1952, he won the NCAA high jump title by jumping 2.03m (6'8"), then won the AAU title by jumping 2.09m (6'10.25"). He was also drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors that spring, though he held off on signing a contract to allow him to compete in the Olympics.

There were 36 competitors in the high jump event at the 1952 Olympics, and Davis was among 5 athletes who held off on jumping until the bar was set to 1.87m. Three of those cleared it on their first jump, leaving them tied for first after the qualifying round, with 25 others also qualifying for the final.

In the final, 19 athletes cleared the bar at 1.9m, but that number dropped to 7 after the bar was raised to 1.95, with Davis one of 4 to clear it on the first attempt. At 1.98m, only 4 athletes were successful, with Gosta Svensson of Sweden needing all 3 tries to advance. At 2.01m, Svensson and Jose de Conceicao of Brazil were unable to make the jump, leaving just two Americans still competing, neither of which had missed a jump yet.

Ken Wiesner, the other American, missed on all 3 of his attempts at 2.04m, while Davis was able to make it over on his second attempt, which also happened to be his height (6'8.25"), and a new Olympic record. He then attempted to clear 2.07 to increase the record, but was unsuccessful, but he had already earned the gold medal.

He continued jumping after the Olympics, setting a new world record in 1953 with a jump of 2.12m (6'11.5"), a record that would stand for over 3 years, then signed a contract to play with the Warriors. He played 5 seasons in the NBA, mostly as a backup, averaging 4.8 points and 4.3 rebounds for his career, while also winning 2 NBA Championships, with the Warriors in 1956 and the Hawks in 1958.

He is also said to be the first person to ever clear 7 feet, doing so in several exhibitions, but never in an official meet, so it was not counted. Davis lived to be 89 years old, passing away on November 17, 2020 in Port Arthur, Texas, at his home. Though he only competed in one Olympic event, he beat the majority of the field by over 9 inches and set a world record in the process, making him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.