Mario Cesar Kindelan Mesa was born on August 10, 1971 in Holguin, Cuba, and began boxing at a young age, then began boxing in international tournaments in 1993, winning the Caribbean Games title that year. He went on to win his first World Championship in 1999, which was near the beginning of a winning streak that lasted more than 5 years.
He entered his first Olympics in 2000 as a big favorite in the lightweight division, having won every major tournament in the past 2 years, and he won all 4 of his bouts easily, including a TKO in the second round and a 14-4 domination in the gold medal match.
He didn't lose a single match between the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, including World Championship victories in 2001 and 2003, plus wins at the Goodwill Games and the Pan Am Games. He was already a heavy favorite heading into Athens when he got more good news: the silver medalist from the 2003 World Championships did not qualify for the Olympics.
His path to the gold medal match in 2004 was extremely smooth. After a first round TKO, he won each of his next three bouts by double digits, setting up a showdown with Amir Khan, a 17-year-old British phenom who had been just as dominant so far. The match was the closest that Kindelan faced in 2004, but he still won handily, 30-22, taking his second Olympic gold.
He retired right after that match, with his 5-year winning streak intact. Turning pro is frowned upon in Cuba, so he never had any earnings from his boxing career, and years later, he attempted to sell his 2004 gold medal, but Khan stepped up and gave him $5000 and told him to keep the medal. Though he only competed in the Olympics twice, he won every bout easily, making him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.
Mijain Lopez Nunez was born on August 20, 1982 in Entronque de Herradura, Cuba, and began wrestling when he was just 10 years old. His older brother, Michel, was an amateur boxer who competed in the 2004 Olympics, winning a bronze medal.
Mijain also made his Olympic debut in 2004, competing in the super-heavyweight class of Greco-Roman wrestling, which was now considered wide open due to the retirement of Aleksandr Karelin, who had dominated for over a decade. The wrestlers were split into 6 pools of three to four wrestlers, with the winner of each pool advancing to the knockout round. Lopez beat both opponents in his pool without surrendering a point, but lost 2-0 in the next round to Khasan Baroyev of Russia, the eventual gold medalist. It would be the only loss of Lopez's Olympic career.
He won the World Championship in both 2005 and 2007, losing to Baroyev in 2006, so the winner was expected to be one of the two. Lopez won each of his three matches by at least 3 points, setting up a showdown with Baroyev for the gold, but Lopez dominated him, winning 6-1 to win the gold medal. Several years later, Baroyev's sample from 2008 tested positive for PEDs, and his silver medal was taken away.
Lopez won the next 2 World Championships, but came in second in 2011, right before the next Olympics, to Riza Kayaalp of Turkey. Although both men who had previously beaten him were competing in 2012, Lopez was still a big favorite, and he cruised to the final match without giving up a point, beating Kayaalp in the semifinal. Baroyev lost early, so Lopez faced Heiki Nabi of Estonia, who had just moved up from heavyweight class, for the gold, and won easily, 3-1, to successfully defend his gold medal.
Lopez and Kayaalp's rivalry grew over the next few years, as they faced off in the World Championship final in both 2014 and 2015, with Lopez victorious first, and Kayaalp the next year. By 2016, they were expected to meet again with Olympic gold on the line, and that's exactly what happened, with neither one giving up a point before the final. The final, though, belonged to Lopez, who beat his rival 6-0 to take his third straight gold, only the second wrester ever to win 3 in a row, after Karelin.
Lopez failed to medal in the World Championships over the next few years, so when he went to Tokyo to defend his title again, he was not the favorite for the first time in a long time. That would be Kayaalp, who was defending World Champion again. Lopez won by shutout in his first two matches, setting up a rematch with the favorite, and just like last time, he shut him out, 2-0 this time. He went on to win the gold in another shutout, meaning he didn't give up a single point on his way to gold medal #4.
Lopez didn't compete in any international events over the next two years, but decided to return for the 2024 Olympics to try for an unprecedented 5th straight wrestling gold. He faced the favorite, Amin Mirzazadeh of Iran, in the second round, and beat him 3-1, clearing a path for another triumph. His final two matches were easier, and he won the gold medal 6-0 in the final match, making him the first Olympian in history to win gold in the same individual event 5 times.
Immediately after winning gold, Lopez removed his shoes and left them in the middle of the mat, a common practice among wresters to signify their retirement. He was just days short of his 42nd birthday at the time, and had just made history, so it was a perfect time to end his career as one of the greatest Olympians of all time.
Darrell Owen Pace was born on October 23, 1956 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and took up archery at the age of 13, and quickly became an expert, being named to the national team for the World Championships at age 16. After that, he won the national archery championship 4 years in a row., and won the World Championship in 1975, when he was 18.
Even though he was only 19 years old, he was the favorite to win gold in 1976 in Montreal. At the time, archery events consisted of 72 shots each at 4 different distances, ranging from 30 meters to 90 meters, with the highest overall score winning gold. Pace had the best score at each of the 4 distances to run away with the gold medal by 69 points, an absolutely dominant performance.
Pace won the American title again in both 1978 and 1980, and another World Championship in 1979, and was the favorite to repeat as gold medalist in Moscow, but America's boycott of those games prevented him from getting a second gold medal at the time.
By 1984, Pace had a challenger in Rick McKinney, a fellow American, who had beaten him for the World Championship in 1977 and 1983. It was expected to be a close competition, but Pace had a repeat of his previous Olympic performance, shooting the best score at each distance, and winning the gold by 52 points over McKinney, who took silver on his final shot.
Pace competed again in 1988 in Seoul, where the format for the event was changed. It began with a round of 36 arrows from each distance, with the top 24 advancing to the next round. After that, each round consisted of 9 arrows from each distance, with the field cut down to 18, then 12, then down to 8 for the final.
Pace took it easy in the first round, qualifying in 19th place, then squeaked through to the next round in 18th place. He tried harder in the quarterfinals, shooting the top score, but in the semifinals he came in 9th, just 2 points short of making the final, the first time he had failed to win the event. The eventual winner was a surprise: Jay Barrs, a fellow American.
He also competed in the team event in 1988, which was a new addition to the Olympics. 3 archers represented each country, with Pace being joined by Barrs and McKinney. The individual qualifying scores were used to rank the teams, with the USA entering the event seeded #2 behind the home team, South Korea.
12 teams competed in the first round, with each archer shooting 9 arrows at each distance, and the top 8 teams advancing to the final. America shot the best score in that round, while Korea took it easy, knowing they would make the final easily. In the final, the US had the best score in the 30m by 3 points over Korea, and held on to the lead over the next 2 distances, leading by 2 entering the 90m portion, but the Koreans outscored America by 16 in the final distance to take the gold, leaving the Americans with a silver.
Pace retired from competition after his 3rd Olympics. He was so far ahead of everyone else in the world during his two Olympic title runs that you can't help but wonder if he should have had a third gold medal, but even without it, he is one of the greatest Olympians of all time.
Veronica Angella Campbell was born on May 15, 1982 in Clarks Town, Jamaica, into a family of 10 children. She attended school in Jamaica up through high school, then move to the United States for college, first at Barton County Community College, then the University of Arkansas.
She made her first Olympic team at age 18, competing in the 4x100 m relay in Sydney. The USA was the favorite in the event, led by Marion Jones, and the Bahamas was defending World Champion, but with Campbell running the second leg, Jamaica posted the best times in each of the first two rounds. In the final, the Bahamas sprinted out to an early lead, and while Jamaica and the USA kept it somewhat close, they couldn't catch up, and Jamaica ended up with the silver medal.
By 2004 she was starting to come into her own. She qualified for 3 events in Athens, starting with the 100m. She won her first heat, then came in second in her next heat, just .01 second slower than her first race. She also came in #2 in her semifinal heat, but was only .01 second short of the fastest time, before running the final in 10.97 seconds, which earned her the bronze medal in her first individual Olympic event.
Next up was the 200m, an event she hadn't lost in 4 years, but mostly against college competition. She and Allyson Felix were considered the favorites, and Felix ran the best time in the first round, but Campbell had the best time in the final 3 rounds, including the final, where she pulled into the lead on the curve and never looked back, beating Felix by .13 seconds to win gold and become the first Jamaican woman to win an Olympic sprint title.
Her final event was the 4x100m relay, where the USA was again the favorite. The US ran the fastest time in the heats by far, but missed the second baton exchange, leaving Jamaica alone in the lead, and Campbell ran a great anchor leg with a big lead to give Jamaica the gold by more than half a second, the first time Jamaica had won the event.
In 2007, she married Omar Brown, another Jamaican sprinter, and also 3 medals in the World Championships, gold in the 100m, with silvers in the 200m and the relay. At the Olympic Trials, she finished 4th in the 100m, which meant she didn't qualify for the individual event, but she did qualify for the relay, and to defend her title in the 200m.
The 200m was far from a sure thing, as she had lost every race to Felix since beating her in the 2004 Olympics, including 2 World Championships, but she cruised through all 3 rounds of heats, including a quarterfinal where she finished just ahead of Felix. In the final, she was just to the left of Felix, giving her a clear view of her around the curve, where she was able to close the gap to take the lead as the headed into the straightaway, and then she maintained her lead to the tape, winning a repeat gold by .19 seconds, becoming just the second woman to win the event twice.
Jamaica was expected to dominate the 4x100m relay, since they had the three medalists from the 100m race, but Campbell-Brown running the anchor leg. The USA was their only possible competition, but they had a botched handoff in the heats, so Jamaica was running for the world record in the final, until they mistimed the first handoff and failed to finish the race.
In 2011, she won her first 200m World Championship, making her one of the favorites to win a third straight Olympic gold in the event. She started out the 2012 Olympics with the 100m, where the favorite was Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce, the defending champion, also from Jamaica, and the event went just as expected, with Fraser-Pryce winning, and Campbell-Brown coming in with the third-fastest time in every round, earning a bronze medal.
Next was the 200m, where she was finally defending World Champion, and she cruised through the heat to advance to the semifinal, where she won a tough heat to advance to the final again. This time, it was Felix who had the best time on the curve and pulled away to win gold, while Campbell-Brown ended up in 4th place, half a second behind Felix's winning time.
After that disappointment, she joined the Jamaican team for the relay, where they were co-favorites with the USA, as long as the two teams were able to pass the baton cleanly, which they had each failed to do 4 years earlier. Jamaica looked to be in the lead after the first leg, but Felix pulled ahead by a bit before the halfway point. Campbell-Brown took the third leg for Jamaica, and made up some ground on the US, but they were still behind when Carmelita Jeter took the baton for the US and pulled away down the stretch to set a new world record, while Jamaica took silver just short of the old world record.
She qualified for her 5th Olympic team in 2016, in the 200m and the relay, but the 200m didn't work out for her this time. She came in 3rd in her first heat, and her time ended up being .03 seconds too slow to advance to the next round, the first time she had failed to make the final.
She ran in the 4x100m relay for the fifth straight Olympics, and once again, it was expected to be a contest between Jamaica and the USA. Jamaica won their heat to advance to the final, while the USA advanced after being interfered with on a handoff. In the final, the two were practically tied at the halfway point, when Campbell-Brown took the baton, but English Gardner from the US ran a blistering leg to leave her in the dust, and American won easily on the homestretch, giving Jamaica another silver in the event.
Campbell-Brown retired after the Rio Olympics, with 8 total medals across 5 Olympic games. Jamaica had already started to build a reputation in sprint events before she arrived, but she was the woman who established Jamaica as a power in the women's sprint events, and her performances, especially in winning the 200m back-to-back, makes her one of the greatest Olympians of all time.
Lorenzo Mario Morigi was born on Dec 28, 1895 in Ravenna, Italy. He fought in World War I with the Italian Army, where he was known as a marksman, and joined the Italian Fascist Party soon afterward. He rose through the ranks of the party, and even killed a would-be assassin of his party leader in 1927.
He was selected to travel to Los Angeles for the 1932 Olympics, where he participated in the Rapid-Fire Pistol event. The event began with 3 rounds of 6 targets, which were visible for a total of 8 seconds. Shots were fired from 25 meters away, and all shooters to hit all 18 targets advanced to the next round. 12 of the 18 shooters made it through round one.
After the first round, the time was reduced for each round, so the 6 targets were only visible for 6 total seconds in the next round. Only 1 shooter failed in that round, and the other 11 moved on. It was reduced to 4 seconds in the next round, which knocked the field down to 6, followed by a 3-second round, which cut the field in half again.
The final round consisted of just the final 3 shooters, who were given only 2 seconds to hit all 6 targets. Domenico Matteucci, also of Italy, was only able to hit 3 in that round, with Heinz Hax of Germany hitting 4. Morigi stepped up and hit all 6 targets once again, hitting the final one just as it turned away, making him the winner with a perfect 42 shots out of 42 attempts in only 39 seconds.
He remained active in the Fascist Party after the Olympics, serving in the legislature for years. He never competed again in the Olympics, and eventually passed away on April 13, 1962 in Bologna, Italy. Though he only competed in a single event in his career, he never missed a single shot, making him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.
Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Bolshunov was born on December 31, 1996 in Podyvotye, Russia, near the borders with Ukraine and Belarus. His father coached and trained him in skiing from a young age, then took him to Bryansk Sports School for further training when he was 14 years old.
After several years racing as a junior, he advanced to the senior circuit in 2017, and climbed the rankings quickly, becoming good enough to make the Russian Olympic team in 2018, though not competing under the Russian flag due to the country's Olympic ban due to widespread doping.
Bolshunov's first event was the Sprint, the shortest event in Cross Country, and he finished 3rd in qualifying, then easily advanced through two rounds to make it to the final. Johannes Hosflot Klaebo won the final by a little more than a second, with Bolshunov finishing third by .02 seconds behind Federico Pellegrino in a photo finish, earning a bronze medal in his first Olympic event.
His next event was the relay, with each skier covering 10 km. Bolshunov skied the second leg, starting out just barely in second place, but quickly taking a big lead, which he held throughout his portion, giving his team a 25 second lead heading into the second half of the event. Unfortunately, the Norwegians dominated the second half of the race, and the Russians had to settle for silver, nearly 10 seconds behind the winners.
The team sprint was next, with Bolshunov teamed up with Denis Spitsov, each running 3 legs of about 1500 meters each. A little more than halfway through the final, with Bolshunov running his second leg and holding a slight lead, Klaebo took off from behind him, and Bolshunov was not able to keep up, instead staying with the trailing pack. Not much changed the rest of the way, and the Russians took another silver medal.
The final race of the Olympics was the 50 km, the longest of all the races. Bolshunov stayed with the lead pack as it dwindled from 15 to 7 down to just 3 at the halfway point. Bolshunov chose to change his skis early in the race, while Iivo Niskanen of Finland waited until they reached 42km, allowing Bolshunov to take a lead of 14 seconds at one point. Niskanen started his attach with 1 km to go, and Bolshunov didn't have enough left to keep up, and took his third straight silver medal of the games after losing by 18 seconds.
In 2021, he won his first World Championship gold in the 30 km skiathlon, just in time for a return to the Olympics. The skiathlon combines the two forms of cross-country skiing, classical (straight line) and freestyle (skating style). The skiathlon was his first event at the 2022 Olympics, and he led the entire way, leading Niskanen by a second at the pit stop before speeding away in the freestyle portion, winning the gold medal by a minute and 11 seconds, his first Olympic win.
He decided to skip the sprint event a couple of days later, so his next event was the 15 km classical, which was Niskanen's specialty, and he was not able to keep up with the Finn, trailing the entire way and coming in second by a margin of 23 seconds. Next up was the relay, where he again ran the second leg, and this time he was given a 34 second lead to begin with, which he extended to a full minute, a margin his teammates were able to maintain on their way to an upset gold over Norway.
In the team sprint, he was paired with Aleksandr Terentyev this time, and in the final the top three teams, Russia, Norway, and Finland, stayed close together through the first 5 sections, but at the beginning of the final leg, Klaebo pulled away, giving Norway the gold, while Russia ended up a couple of seconds behind Finland to end up in bronze position.
The final race was the 50km, though it was actually shortened to 30km due to weather. The entire field stayed together for the first 10km, with Bolshunov and 14 others pulling away at that point. The leaders dwindled down to 8 in the final section, when Bolshunov pulled away on his own with 6 km to go, finishing the race 5.5 seconds ahead of anyone else, winning his third silver in Beijing.
Right after the Olympics, Russia invaded Ukraine, resulting in the country and its athletes being banned from the Olympics, instead of just the country like before. Bolshunov is a vocal supporter of the invasion, and has called the most recent Olympics illegitimate due to the exclusion of his country. Despite all of this, he has shown already that he is one of the greatest Olympic athletes of all time.
Emil Zatopek was born on September 19, 1922 in Koprivnice, Czechoslovakia, the seventh child in a large family, and started working at the local show factory when he was 16. One day, a coach picked out a few of the young workers at the factory and ordered them to run in a local race. Zatopek came in second, but he caught the running bug.
In 1944, he broke the national records in the 2000, 3000, and 5000 meter races. He continued improving, and by 1948 was expected to challenge for Olympic medals. His first event was the 10000m, where the favorite was Viljo Heino of Finland, the world record holder, and Heino led for the first 3000 meters before Zatopek overtook him. The two remained close for the next 3000 meters, but after Heino made a push to take back the lead, Zatopek pushed harder and pulled away, and Heino dropped out soon after. By the finish, Zatopek was ahead of the next racer by 48 seconds, and had lapped all but two other runners.
His next race was the 5000m, which took place in a heavy rainstorm. He took the lead early, with a pack of three other runners keeping pace behind him, but Gaston Reiff of Belgium made a move at the start of the ninth lap and pulled away from the others. He was ahead by 30 meters at the start of the final lap, and Zatopek made a hard push through the entire lap, but ended up falling short by 0.2 seconds and had to take the silver.
He broke the world record in the 10000m five times over the next four years, and didn't lose a single race over that time, so he was a big favorite to repeat in Helsinki in 1952. It was his first event, and once he took the lead in the 6th lap, he never looked back, beating the runner-up by more than 15 seconds and setting a new Olympic record, though he was still nearly 15 seconds short of his own world record.
Next up was the 5000m, where he was also the favorite, but this one would be much closer. Zatopek took the lead early, with 4 others keeping pace for several laps, and by the final lap, there was still a group of 4 runners led by Zatopek all together. The others all moved past him early in the final lap, but as the rounded the final corner, Zatopek shifted gears and passed all 3, winning the event by 0.8 seconds over Alain Mimoun of France, who had been runner-up to Zatopek in all 3 of his gold medal wins.
A few hours after winning that race, Zatopek watched his wife win the gold medal in the javelin throw, bringing yet another Olympic victory to the family. A few days later, Zatopek decided to try running the marathon, a race he had never run before. Jim Peters of Great Britain, the pre-race favorite, shot out fast, while Zatopek hung back with a couple of other runners. About halfway through, Peters started to slow down, and was passed by Zatopek and Gustaf Jansson of Sweden, but Zatopek never slowed down, eventually pulling away from Jansson and winning the race by over 2.5 minutes and setting a new Olympic record. He was the first to ever win all 3 distance events in the same Olympics, and so far the only one.
He planned to defend his Olympic titles in 1956, but suffered a hernia not long before the Olympics, which required surgery. He began training again as soon as he was allowed, but decided to only run the marathon in Melbourne, finishing in 6th place, about 4.5 minutes behind Mimoun, the winner. After finishing, Mimoun waited for Zatopek at the finish line, excited to share his victory, and Zatopek responded by saluting Mimoun.
He retired the next year, though his wife kept competing, winning the silver medal in 1960 before she hung it up. Zatopek had a falling out with the Communist Party in 1968, and was forced to work in menial jobs for the remainder of his life, but he deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest Olympians of all time.
Siegfried Brietzke was born on June 12, 1952 in Rostock, East Germany. He started rowing when he was 15 years old after seeing a TV commercial that was recruiting tall boys to become competitive rowers. Within 3 years, he had taken gold in the coxless pairs at the World Junior Rowing Championships with Wolfgang Mager, his longtime rowing partner.
The pair qualified for the 1972 Olympics in Munich, and were considered to be one of the favorites, since another East German pair had won the event in the previous Olympics. They won their heat by more than 5.5 seconds, which advanced them to the semifinals, where they again posted the best time to advance to the final race. They were in 6th place halfway through the final, more than 6 seconds behind the leaders, but then they turned on the jets, outpacing all of the other boats by at least 9 seconds down the backstretch, giving them a victory by nearly 4 seconds.
After coming in 4th place at the 1973 European championships, the pair switched events to the coxless fours, adding Stefan Semmler and Andreas Decker to the team. They went on to win the World Championship in 1974 and 1975, making them big favorites to win gold in Montreal in 1976. They followed through with ease, setting Olympic records in all 3 of their races, and winning in the final over a surprising team from Norway by almost 4 seconds.
Before the next Olympics, the same team won two more World Championships, but had been upset by the USSR team in 1978, so it was bad news when Brietzke's longtime partner Mager injured his hand just before the Olympics and had to be replaced by Jurgen Thiele as the headed to Moscow. Both the East Germans and the Soviets won their heats by more than 13 seconds, setting up a showdown for the gold, but it wasn't really a contest, as the East German team led by at least 2 seconds the entire way, winning Brietzke his third straight gold medal.
Brietzke stopped rowing competitively after Moscow, and since East Germany boycotted 1984 anyway, he wouldn't have been able to compete again anyway, so his Olympic career ended with 3 gold medals in 3 attempts, and none of them was particularly close. The fact that he never lost and was never challenged makes him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.
Shuji Tsurumi was born on January 29, 1938 in Tokyo, Japan, and made the Japanese Olympic gymnastic team just as they were rising. The Japanese had won the team silver medal in 1956, the first time they had won a team gymnastics medal.
Tsurumi contributed immediately upon making the team, taking 4th place in the Individual All-Around competition in Rome in 1960, falling one point short of winning a medal. All 6 Japanese team members finished among the top 9 in the Individual All-Around, with Tsurumi the second-highest scorer on the team behind Takashi Ono. Those performances led to the Japanese winning the team gold for the first time, 2.5 points ahead of the defending champion Soviets.
Tsurumi qualified for the event finals in two events, the vault and the pommel horse. He was the sixth and final qualifier in the vault, with a 9.5, which he improved to 9.65 in the final, but he still finished 6th. He was also the final qualifier in the pommel horse, but his final routine pushed him ahead of 3 other finalists, earning him a bronze medal.
In 1964, the Olympics went to Tokyo for the first time, and the Japanese were excited to compete in front of their home fans. In the Individual All-Around, the gold went to Tsurumi's teammate, Yukio Endo, by just over half a point, but Tsurumi took the silver in his hometown. This time all 6 Japanese team members were in the top 11, and they again won the team gold by 2.5 points ahead of the USSR.
This time Tsurumi qualified for 4 individual event finals, the same two as before, plus rings and parallel bars. He qualified 5th in the rings, and didn't improve in the final. He was the #3 qualifier in the pommel horse, where he had won bronze 4 years earlier, but this time he improved to win the silver, losing only to Miroslav Cerar of Yugoslavia, considered by many to be the greatest pommel horse athlete of all time.
Just like 4 years earlier, he was the final qualifier in the vault, but unlike last time, he was able to improve his standing, moving up to 4th place, falling less than one tenth of a point short of another medal. He was #2 in qualifying in the parallel bars, behind Endo, but after Endo had a nearly flawless routine to clinch the gold, Tsurumi was forced to settle for the silver, his third individual silver of 1964.
He continued competing for a couple more years, winning all-around individual silver in the 1966 World Championships, but he retired before the 1968 Olympics came around. He was a big part of the first two team championships of the Japanese gymnastics dynasty, and was in the top 4 of the individual competition both times. That, plus his 6 total Olympic medals, make him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
