Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #90 - Yury Titov

Yury Titov

USSR

Artistic Gymnastics

Overall Ranks

#18 among Gymnasts

#12 among Male Gymnasts

#9 among Soviet Olympians

#5 among Soviet Male Gymnasts

Olympic Results

1956

Individual All-Around - Bronze

Team - Gold

Vault - Bronze

Horizontal Bar - Silver

1960

Individual All-Around - Bronze

Team - Silver

Floor Exercise - Silver

1964

Team - Silver

Horizontal Bar - Silver

Total

Events - 24

Gold - 1

Silver - 5

Bronze - 3

Yury Yevlampiyevich Titov was born on November 27, 1935 on Omsk, USSR, and took up grymnastics at age 14. By the time he was 19 years old, he had been named to the Soviet national team, and his first major international competition was the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.

That year, all of the gymnastic events were held at once, with each gymnast's score counting toward the individual event, the all-around, and the team event at the same time. Titov's best individual event was the horizontal bar, where he scored a 19.4, good enough for the silver medal, but 0.2 points behind Takashi Ono of Japan, who won the gold.

He won another individual medal in the vault, this one a bronze. He was only 0.1 points behind the gold medalists, so his overall score was still very good. He came in 5th place in two of the other individual events, and finished in the top 10 in all 6, which helped him earn the bronze medal in the individual all-around, though he was more than 0.4 points behind the other medalists, Ono and Viktor Chukarin, his Soviet teammate.

The team event was close. The USSR had won gold in 1952, and Chukarin had won his second straight all-around gold, and with Titov as a strong second scorer on the team, the Soviets were able to defeat the Japanese team by 1.85 points, earning a gold medal for the team. This would be the last time Japan lost the team event until 1980, when they didn't compete.

In 1960, the format had been updated so that the individual events had a final round after the team and all-around events had been completed. In the individual all-around, Titov finished third again, earning a repeat bronze, with Ono again taking the silver, and a new Soviet teammate, Boris Shakhlin, taking the gold.

In the team event, the 6 Japanese gymnasts all finished among the top 9 overall, making them very hard to beat. With Shakhlin and Titov's impressive individual scores, they were able to make it close, but the Soviets still lost by 2.5 points, but were 13.65 points ahead of Italy, who won bronze.

Titov qualified for all 6 event finals, but only managed to medal in one, the floor exercise. In that event, he qualified in second, and managed to hold on to it after the final performance, though the third place finisher closed the gap a little, but he still managed to take silver. He had qualified third in both the rings and the pommel horse, but poor final performances dropped him out of the medals in each, but it was still very impressive that he qualified for all 6 finals.

The format remained the same in 1964, when Titov returned for his third Olympics. By that time, he had been surpassed by several of his teammates, and finished 13th overall in the individual all-around, fifth among the Soviets, and a full point short of the medals. In the team event, there were still just two teams competing for gold, but the Soviets lost to Japan again by an identical 2.5 point margin to repeat as silver medalists.

Titov qualified for only one event final that year, the horizontal bar, where he had earned his first medal back in 1956. He qualified #2 behind Shakhlin, then scored a 9.8 in his final performance, which allowed him to hold onto his spot and earn another silver medal. He remained on the national team for two more years, then retired after the 1966 World Championships, with 9 Olympic medals to his name.

After competing in the Olympics 3 different times, Titov ended his career with only 1 gold medal, which came in the team event in 1956, but he won 5 silvers and 3 bronzes as well, and was in the top six 7 other times. While he was never the best in the world, or even in his own country, he was near the top so often and for so long, that he has earned a spot as one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #91 - Aleksandr Dityatin

Aleksandr Dityatin

USSR

Artistic Gymnastics

Overall Ranks

#19 among Gymnasts

#13 among Male Gymnasts

#10 among Soviet Olympians

#6 among Soviet Male Gymnasts

Olympic Results

1976

Team - Silver

Rings - Silver

1980

Individual All-Around - Gold

Team - Gold

Floor Exercise - Silver

Vault - Silver

Parallel Bars - Silver

Horizontal Bar - Silver

Rings - Gold

Pommel Horse - Silver

Total

Events - 16

Gold - 3

Silver - 6

Bronze - 1

Aleksandr Nikolayevich Dityatin was born on August 7, 1957 in Saint Petersburg, USSR (then known as Leningrad). He trained in gymnastics from a young age, and when he was 15, he received a special exception to be allowed to compete with adults in the senior division of the national championships.

He was selected to the national team when he was just 18, competing in his first Olympics in Montreal that year. The team competition came first, and the Japanese had won 4 straight golds at that point, and were favored to win again. The Soviets, however, didn't listen, and beat Japan in both the floor exercise and the rings, but ended up losing overall by 0.4 points, earning them a silver medal.

The top 36 competitors from the team event advanced to the individual all-around final, with a max of 3 per nation, and Dityatin was the third Soviet to qualify, in sixth place overall. In that event, he tied for the best score on the rings, and was second place in floor exercise overall, and had top 5 scores in three of the other events, but he came in 20th in the horizontal bar, which dropped his score enough that he ended up in 4th place, just outside the medals.

He qualified for two event finals, the rings and the pommel horse. The rings were his best event, and he was third after qualifying, but after his teammate, Vladimir Markelov, dropped out, he was able to move up to 2nd after posting the best score in his final performance, giving him a silver medal. In the pommel horse, he was the 6th and final qualifier, and he didn't improve his standing in the final. He still walked away with 2 silver medals at his first Olympics.

In 1980, he was again on the Soviet team, this time competing at home in Moscow. The Japanese team had joined the American boycott, so the home team was a big favorite in the team event, and they left no doubt, as they posted the highest score in each of the 6 parts of the competition, winning the gold medal by 8.45 points over East Germany.

In the individual all-around, Dityatin was the #1 qualifier, just ahead of his teammate, Nikolay Andrianov, who was the defending champion. Dityatin beat or tied his teammate in all 6 disciplines, and with no other major challengers, the gold medal went to Dityatin by 0.425 points, a pretty decent margin for an individual event.

He qualified for all 6 of the individual event finals. He was the #4 qualifier for the floor exercise, but after earning a 9.9 in his final performance, he moved up to third and took the bronze medal. He had tied for #2 in qualifying for the vault, but after a 9.925 in the final, tied for best score in that round, he earned the silver medal alone.

He was #3 in qualifying for the parallel bars, but after a poor performance from Stoyan Delchev of Bulgaria, the leader, plus a 9.9 score from Dityatin, he moved up to take another silver. In the horizontal bar, he was again behind Delchev in qualifying, and was unable to pass him in the final, instead settling for another silver medal.

He was the top qualifier in the rings, where he had won the silver in 1976, and this time he scored an impressive 9.5 in the final to put it out of reach for everyone else, giving him his first individual event gold by 0.15 points over his nearest competitor. In the pommel horse, he scored a 9.9 in all three rounds, but it wasn't enough to overcome Zoltan Magyar of Hungary, who finished with a perfect 10 and left the silver to Dityatin.

In all, Dityatin had earned 8 medals in Moscow, the first Olympian ever to win 8 in a single Olympics, a feat that has only been matched by Michael Phelps twice. Soon after the 1980 Olympics, he was severely injured in training, and was forced to retire as a result, spending the next decade plus as a coach. Though he was the first to win 8 medals at one Olympics, only 3 were gold, but it was still an impressive achievement, and made him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #92 - Sylvia Fowles

Sylvia Fowles

USA

Basketball

Overall Ranks

#29 among American Olympians

#10 among Female American Olympians

#2 among Basketball Players

Olympic Results

2008

Women - Gold

2012

Women - Gold

2016

Women - Gold

2020

Women - Gold

Total

Events - 4

Gold - 4

Sylvia Shaqueria Fowles was born on October 6, 1985 in Miami, Florida, which is also where she grew up, and led her high school teams to 3 state championships and was MVP of the high school All-American game. She then attended college at LSU, where she led the Tigers to the Final Four in each of her 4 seasons.

She was the #2 draft pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft by the Chicago Sky, and made her Olympic debut that same year. She shot 64.3% from the field for the tournament, and led the USA in scoring with 13.4 points per game, as the Americans swept their way to an easy gold medal, with a 27-point win over Australia in the gold medal game.

In 2012, she was again chosen for the USA team, and played a slightly smaller role, but still averaged 6.0 points per game while shooting 61.1% from the field as the USA again went through the tourney without a loss, and beat France by 36 in the final game. She shot 69.0% in the 2016 Olympics, and the USA won another gold medal with a 29-point win over Spain.

She was selected for her 4th Olympic team in 2020, and again had an enormous shooting percentage of 63.2% for the tournament. This time, the games were a little closer, and the Americans only managed to beat the host Japanese team by 15 in the gold medal game, but Fowles had earned her 4th gold medal.

She retired after the 2022 WNBA season as the league's all-time leader in field goal percentage, at 59.9%, and rebounds per game, at 9.8. She led the league in blocks twice, rebounding twice, and field goal percentage 7 times, and won 2 championships, in 2015 and 2017. Four gold medals in separate Olympics is a rare feat, and Fowles was a large part of those teams, which makes her one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #93 - Sue Bird

Sue Bird

USA

Basketball

Overall Ranks

#30 among American Olympians

#11 among Female American Olympians

#3 among Basketball Players

Olympic Results

2004

Women - Gold

2008

Women - Gold

2012

Women - Gold

2016

Women - Gold

2020

Women - Gold

Overall

Events - 5

Gold - 5

Suzanne Brigit Bird was born on Oct 16, 1980 in Syosset, New York, and began playing AAU basketball in sixth grade. By the time she reached high school, she was a big star, and in her senior season, she led her team to an undefeated season and a state and national championship.

She attended the University of Connecticut, and after missing most of her freshman season to a torn ACL, she led the Huskies to a 36-1 record as a sophomore and a national championship. After a disappointing junior season where they lost 3 games and didn't win a title, her senior season was perfect, with a 39-0 record and another national title. She was drafted by the Seattle Storm with the #1 pick in the 2002 WNBA Draft. 

For her entire time as a pro, which covered 20 seasons, she was also a member of the US national team, starting with the 2002 World Championships, and stretching clear until the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She wasn't one of the big stars on the 2004 Olympic team, averaging only about 3 points per game, but she came out of that year with both a gold medal and a WNBA championship.

By 2008, she had become the national team's starting point guard, and in the 2008 Olympic tournament, she led the team with 14 steals in 8 games, and they team went undefeated again en route to the gold medal. In 2012, she raised her scoring average to 6.1 per game and her assists to 4.5 while helping guide the US to its fifth straight gold medal, and her third.

She led the USA team in assists in each of the next two Olympics as well, tying the old record with 4 Olympic gold basketball medals in 2016, then breaking it in 2020, along with Diana Taurasi, when the pair won their fifth. Though she was never a big scorer, especially in the Olympics, her mastery at distributing the ball made her a very important piece of all of those gold medals.

In her professional career, she won 4 WNBA titles, 5 Euro League titles, and 5 Russian league championships. Add in her high school championship and 2 NCAA championships to her 5 Olympic gold medals, and you have one of the greatest champions ever in any sport, and one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #94 - Christian Taylor

Christian Taylor

USA

Athletics

Overall Ranks

#31 among American Olympians

#28 among Track & Field Athletes

#22 among Male Track & Field Athletes

#19 among American Track & Field Athletes

#15 among American Male Track & Field Athletes

Olympic Results

2012

Triple Jump - Gold

2016

Triple Jump - Gold

Total

Events - 2

Gold - 2

Christian Taylor born on June 18, 1990 in Fayetteville, Georgia, and learned how to triple jump in elementary school. In high school, he set Georgia state records in the long jump, triple jump, and 400m. He then attended the University of Florida, and while there, won his first World Championship in the triple jump in 2011.

He and Will Claye took turns winning each meet through 2011 and 2012, with Taylor winning in the 2012 Olympic Trials, and they were co-favorites heading into the London Olympics. Taylor led the qualifying round with a jump of 17.21 meters, but in the 12-man final, he fouled on his first two jumps, giving him one more chance to get into the top 8 or be eliminated. He jumped 17.15, which earned him 3 more jumps, and on his very next jump he got 17.81, which ended up winning him the gold medal, leaving Claye to take the silver.

The following year he moved to England to train, and in 2015 he won the World Championship again, this time with a jump of 18.21, the second-longest in history. He was the favorite to win gold again in Rio, and he again led after qualifying. In the final, he hit 17.86 with his first jump, which was longer than any of the others had ever jumped, and it ended up winning him the gold. He also jumped 17.77 twice in the final round, which gave him the three longest jumps of the competition.

He repeated as World Champion in both 2017 and 2019, but an Achilles injury prevented him from competing in the Tokyo Olympics. When he returned in 2022 for the World Championships, he only managed to finish in 18th place, and in 2024 he officially retired. He owns the American record, 3 of the 10 best jumps in history, and two Olympic gold medals, making him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #95 - Nedo Nadi

Nedo Nadi

Italy

Fencing

Overall Ranks

#6 among Fencers

#6 among Italian Olympians

#5 among Male Fencers

#5 among Male Italian Olympians

#3 among Italian Fencers

#2 among Male Italian Fencers

Olympic Results

1912

Individual Foil - Gold

1920

Individual Foil - Gold

Team Foil - Gold

Team Epee - Gold

Individual Sabre - Gold

Team Sabre - Gold

Total

Events - 8

Gold - 6

Nedo Nadi was born on June 9, 1894 in Livorno, Italy, the son of Beppe Nadi, a famous Italian fencing master, who began training his two sons as fencers from the age of 7. His father trained him on the foil and the sabre, but refused to teach the epee, as he considered it "undisciplined," so Nedo and his brother Aldo trained together in secret on the epee.

He made his Olympic debut in Stockholm in 1912, just after his 18th birthday. His first event was the individual foil, which was made easier due to a French boycott over a rule disagreement. Nadi dominated the event, losing only 1 bout the entire way, during the quarterfinal round, and he finished it off with a perfect 7-0 romp in the finals to become the youngest fencing gold medalist in history, a distinction he still holds over 100 years later.

The sabre events were up next, but they didn't go quite as well. Italy lost in the semifinal pool of the team event, which left them tied for 5th place. In the individual event, the Hungarians had already begun their dominance 4 years earlier, and 1912 may have been their peak. Nadi lost only 3 bouts through the 3 rounds leading up to the final, in which he was the lone competitor not from Hungary in the field of 8. He fought well, winning 4 of 7 bouts, which was good enough for 5th place, but not enough for a medal.

Nadi served in the Italian army during World War I, then returned to fencing after the war concluded. Hungary was not allowed to compete in 1920 due to their role in the war, leaving some events more open than usual, so Nadi entered 5 events, competing with all 3 weapons in Antwerp.

His first event was the team foil. The Italians had 8 matches total, and won all 8 of them, with the only close match in the final coming against France, but they came out ahead 9-7 to win the gold medal. Next up was the individual foil, where he was the defending champion, and he crushed the competition, winning 22 out of 23 bouts to take his third career gold medal easily.

The next event was the team epee, the weapon that his father hated. Italy advanced to the final with just a single loss, against Portugal, but then swept the final pool, beating all 5 of their opponents to walk away with another gold medal. In the team sabre event, there were only 8 countries competing, so the event was a single round-robin to determine the winner. Italy won all 7 of their matches very easily, with the closest score of 12-4 against both Belgium and the Netherlands, giving Nadi a 4th gold in 1920.

In the individual sabre event, Nadi was once again dominant, losing only a single bout in the entire tournament and dominating the final pool without a loss, giving him another gold medal, his fifth in Antwerp and 6th overall. Notably, his younger brother, Aldo, won the silver medal, which went along with his 3 golds in the team events with his brother.

Nadi retired right after the 1920 Olympics, and became a fencing coach who travelled all over the world. He later coached the Italian fencing team at the 1936 Olympics, then passed away in 1940 at the age of 45. His 1920 Olympic performance alone would have been enough to make him one of the greatest Olympians of all time, but add in his earlier gold as the youngest fencer to win and you have an undoubtable great.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #96 - Laszlo Rajcsanyi

Laszlo Rajcsanyi

Hungary

Fencing

Overall Ranks

#7 among Fencers

#6 among Male Fencers

#3 among Hungarian Olympians

#3 among Hungarian Fencers

Olympic Results

1936

Team Sabre - Gold

1948

Team Sabre - Gold

1952

Team Sabre - Gold

Total

Events - 4

Gold - 3

Laszlo Rajcsanyi was born on February 16, 1907 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, and began fencing when he was 17 years old. He won the World University Championship in 1928, and the Hungarian national championship in 1934, and qualified for his first Olympics in 1936 at Berlin.

His first event was the team sabre, which Hungary had been dominating for a decade, and would dominate for a few more decades. He participated in one match each in the quarterfinals and semifinals, winning all 4 of his bouts in each round. He was used in matches against Poland and Italy in the final round, going 2-1 against Poland, the only bout lost by Hungary in that match, and finishing 2-2 against Italy in a close-fought 9-6 finale that gave Hungary the gold. Overall, Rajcsanyi won 12 of his 15 bouts.

The individual sabre was contested over the next couple of days. In each of the first two rounds, he finished second in his pool, with the top 3 advancing. He finished 3rd in his semifinal pool, and was one of 3 Hungarians to reach the final pool, out of 9 total fencers. He went 5-3 in the final round-robin, with two of his losses coming against the gold and silver medalists, but it wasn't quite enough, and he finished in 4th place, just short of a medal.

The next two Olympics, which would have been during his prime, were cancelled due to World War II, so by the time he got to compete again, he was 41 years old. He only competed in the team event in 1948, going 6-1 on the way to the final pool. In the final pool, he went 5-2 in bouts against Belgium and the USA, but wasn't used against silver-medalist Italy as the Hungarians won another easy gold, with Rajcsanyi going 11-3 overall, nearly identical to his performance 12 years earlier.

He returned for one final Olympic run in 1952, as a 45 year old. Again just competing in the team event, he went 7-1 in the first round as Hungary easily won their pool. He won both of his bouts in round 2, but went 8-4 in the semifinals, where he was used in all 3 matches. In the final, they only used him against France, the eventual bronze medalist, where he went 2-2, while Hungary won a close match against Italy to keep their gold medal streak alive, getting Rajcsanyi a third gold medal to end his career.

He had earned a degree in mechanical engineering in 1930, and worked as a chief engineer throughout his entire fencing career, and he continued to do so after retiring from fencing. Even though all 3 of his gold medals came in team competitions, he was a big part of all 3, and nearly won an individual medal as well. All things considered, he was one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #97 - Herb Elliott

Herb Elliott

Australia

Athletics

Overall Ranks

#29 among Track & Field Athletes

#23 among Male Track & Field Athletes

#2 among Australian Olympians

#1 among Australian Track & Field Athletes

Olympic Results

1960

1500m - Gold

Total

Events - 1

Gold - 1

Herbert James Elliott was born on February 25, 1938 in Subiaco, Australia, near Perth, and began running in high school, and did most of his training in his youth on sand dunes, which made running on a track easier by comparison. In August, 1958, he set his first world record in the mile, at 3:54.5, and later that month, he set the world record in the 1500m, at 3:36.

He attended the University of Melbourne while also preparing for the 1960 Olympics in Rome. His only event was the 1500m, and after easily qualifying for the final as the overwhelming favorite, he was content to sit behind Michel Bernard of France for the first half of the race. When there was about 600m remaining, he made his move, sprinting away from the field and cruising to an easy victory, only slowing down near the end when he knew he had the world record in hand. He won by nearly 3 seconds, and dropped the world record to 3:35.6.

After the Olympics, he transferred to the University of Cambridge in England, and though he still raced a bit over the next two years, he decided to retire in 1962 to focus on his studies. He only competed actively for about 5 years, and never lost a single race during that time. He held the world record in the 1500m until 1967, a span of 9 years from the first time he set it, and his dominant performance in his only Olympic event made him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #98 - Jochem Uytdehaage

Jochem Uytdehaage

Netherlands

Speed Skating

Overall Ranks

#3 among Speed Skaters

#2 among Male Speed Skaters

#1 among Dutch Olympians

Olympic Results

2002

1500m - Silver

5000m - Gold

10000m - Gold

Total

Events - 3

Gold - 2

Silver - 1

Jochem Simon Uytdehaage was born on July 9, 1976 in Utrecht, Netherlands, and was among the best Dutch speed skaters for years before he finally broke through in 2001, performing well enough at the Olympic trials to make his first Olympic team, heading to Salt Lake City for the 2002 Games.

He qualified for the 3 longest events in speed skating, starting with the 5000m, the second-longest event. The Dutch had won this event 3 straight times, but it wasn't a sure thing this time, as the defending Olympic champ had missed the Olympic team due to being ill at the trials, and Uytdehaage was relatively unknown. The previous world record of 6:22.2 was broken twice before he took the ice in the penultimate pair, and he crushed the new record by over 3 seconds, lowering it to 6:14.66 and surprising everyone with a gold medal in his first Olympic race.

Even though he had just obliterated a world record, he still wasn't expected to compete for a medal in the 1500m, where the two men who had won the last 4 World Championships and the last Olympic gold were both competing. Uytdehaage was in the 9th pair out of 24, and he skated the race of his life, beating the world record by 3.3 seconds. He held onto the top spot for a long time, until Derek Parra of the USA finally beat his time by just over half a second in one of the final pairings, dropping Uytdehaage to a silver, which was still great due to coming in without expectations.

His final event was the 10000m, which the Dutch had also dominated recently, winning all 3 medals at the last Olympics, and each of the past 4 World Championships. The world record was 13:15.33 prior to this event, but it was lowered by Gianni Romme, another Dutch skater who held the record, in the second pair, down to 13:10.03. Uytdehaage raced in the 4th pair, and kept up a blistering pace throughout, finishing in 12:58.92, breaking the world record by over 11 seconds, and becoming the first to ever break 13 minutes. Nobody else came close to his time, and he won his second gold medal.

He won the 5000m at the 2003 World Championships, but that was his last major win. He failed to make the Olympic team in 2006, and retired in 2007. Even though he only ran 3 total Olympic races, all 3 set Olympic records, two of them by a lot, and both world records stood for nearly 4 years. All of that makes him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #99 - Rudolf Karpati

Rudolf Karpati

Hungary

Fencing

Overall Ranks

#8 among Fencers

#7 among Male Fencers

#4 among Hungarian Olympians

#4 among Hungarian Fencers

Olympic Results

1948

Team Sabre - Gold

1952

Team Sabre - Gold

1956

Sabre - Gold

Team Sabre - Gold

1960

Sabre - Gold

Team Sabre - Gold

Total

Events - 6

Gold - 6

Rudolf Klein was born on July 17, 1920 in Budapest, Hungary, and later changed his surname to Karpati in order to hide the fact that he was Jewish from the Nazis. Following World War II, he joined the Hungarian national fencing team, which had dominated the sabre events for the decade prior to the war, and would continue to do so for the duration of Karpati's career.

His first Olympic experience came in London in 1948, where he competed in the team sabre event. Hungary got a bye in the first round, then had an easy victory over Egypt in the quarterfinals, where Karpati didn't compete, but he won 6 of his 8 matches in the semifinal pool as Hungary cruised into the final pool of 4 teams. Hungary beat all 3 of its opponents in the final pool, though Karpati struggled against runner-up Italy, losing 3 of his 4 matches, finishing with 5 wins in 10 tries in the final, but he still earned a gold medal as part of the dominant team.

He was again on the Hungarian team in Helsinki in 1952, and again competed in just the team event. This time he went 13-1 in his matches as Hungary went undefeated on their way to the final pool, and they also went undefeated in the final pool, though they were trailing Italy 7-6 with only two bouts left. After Tibor Berczelly won his bout, it was up to Karpati to determine the color of Hungary's medal, and he came through, keeping their streak of gold medals alive.

In 1956, Hungary was advanced straight to the semifinals, where they only needed a quick 9-1 victory over the USA to advance to another final. The toughest match of the final came against the USSR, who had just invaded Hungary a couple of weeks earlier, and they were able to pull out a hard-fought 9-7 victory, with Karpati supplying 3 of the victories, and Hungary won another gold without a loss.

He also competed in the individual event for the first time in 1956, alongside the past two champions of the event, Kovacs and Gerevich of Hungary. Karpati won both of his pools on his way to the final, where he was joined by his two countrymen in the field of 8, and after a round-robin among them all, Karpati came out on top, with a 6-1 record, and kept Hungary's gold medal streak alive, even though it was a bit of a surprise. After the Olympics, the other 3 Hungarian sabre fencers fled to the United States rather than return to Soviet-controlled Hungary, but Karpati, Kovacs, and Gerevich returned home.

He returned to defend his gold medals in 1960 in Rome, even though he was now 40 years old. This time, the individual event was held first, and he went 15-3 through the first 4 rounds of round robin pools, each of which he won, to advance easily to another final. In the final pool, he won 5 of his 7 bouts, which turned out to be enough, as 4 others tied at 4-3, so Karpati was able to walk away with another individual gold medal.

The Hungarian team was weaker than normal headed into the team event, after the defections of 1956. The three holdovers were all over 40 years old, but all were still very skilled. Karpati didn't need to compete in the first round win, which advanced them to the quarterfinals, where they beat Romania easily, 9-3, with 3 wins from Karpati. In the semifinals against Italy and the final against Poland, they were carried by their new younger teammates, and won both in close contests, 9-6 and 9-7 to successfully win another team gold.

Karpati retired in 1961, having competed in 6 Olympic fencing events, and winning gold in all 6. Four of his 6 gold medals came in team events, with Karpati making big contributions to two of them, and his two individual golds were closely contested and somewhat surprising, but he made it through each time, which makes him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #100 - Franz Pfnur

Franz Pfnur

Germany

Alpine Skiing

Overall Ranks

#3 among German Olympians

#2 among Alpine Skiers

#1 among German Alpine Skiers

Olympic Results

1936

Combined - Gold

Total

Events - 1

Gold - 1

Franz Xaver Pfnur was born on November 21, 1908 in Au, Germany. Not much is known of his early life, but he competed in 3 events at the 1934 World Championships, winning gold in the slalom and silver in the combined and the downhill.

Alpine Skiing was added to the Winter Olympics in 1936, held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, not far from Pfnur's hometown, with the Combined event being held for both men and women. Each skier ran the downhill course once, and were given a score between 0 and 100, with 100 points going to the skier with the best time. Then they ran the slalom course twice, with the two times being added together and then scored from 0 to 100 again, with a final score in the event calculated by averaging the two scores.

The first four skiers in the downhill had the 4 best times at the end, and Pfnur came in with the second-best time, 4.4 seconds behind the leader, Birger Ruud of Norway, and was awarded 98.49 points. In the slalom portion, Pfnur had the two fastest runs of any competitor, finishing with a combined 5.9 second lead over his nearest competitor. Ruud missed a gate on his first run, causing him to tumble down the rankings, though he rebounded on the second run to finish in 4th overall. Pfnur's 100 points in the slalom gave him an overall score of 99.25, 3 points ahead of the silver medalist, Gustav Lantschner, also from Germany.

After the Olympics, Pfnur joined the Nazi SS, and committed numerous war crimes over the next several years, for which he was never punished. He passed away in 1996. Even though he was a terrible human being, he was a great skier and one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #101 - Fu Mingxia

Fu Mingxia

China

Diving

Overall Ranks

#7 among Chinese Olympians

#1 among Divers

Olympic Results

1992

Platform - Gold

1996

Springboard - Gold

Platform - Gold

2000

Springboard - Gold

Synchronized Springboard - Silver

Total

Events - 5

Gold - 4

Silver - 1

Fu Mingxia was born on August 16, 1978 in Wuhan, China. She began practicing gymnastics at age 5, but the coaches felt that she wasn't flexible enough for gymnastics, and that her body control would make her a good diver, so she switched sports at age 7 and never looked back.

She won a gold medal at the World Championships when she was just 12 years old, and qualified for the Chinese Olympic team at age 13. She competed in the platform diving event in Barcelona, which was only allowed because she was weeks away from turning 14, and absolutely crushed the competition, placing first in qualifying by nearly 32 points, then winning in the final by just short of 50 points. She was the youngest gold medalist in Barcelona, and is still the 5th-youngest of all time.

In 1994, she won another World Championship in platform diving, making her a big favorite to repeat her gold medal in Atlanta in 1996, and it went just as expected. She led after qualifying and the semifinal, increasing her lead as she went, and in the final she put it completely out of reach, winning by more than 42 points.

She also competed in the springboard in Atlanta, where the favorite was Tan Shuping, another Chinese woman and defending world champion. Tan had two bad dives in a row in the qualifying round, however, and failed to advance to the semifinal. Fu, meanwhile, qualified in 4th place, then held that spot through the semifinal round, before making her move in the final, which consisted of 5 dives. Vera Ilyina, the leader to start the final, succumbed to the pressure, and after two dives, Fu had moved ahead of her and into the lead, a lead which she extended over the next three dives to win the gold medal going away, with a final margin of 35.49 points, making her the first woman to win both diving events at the same Olympics since 1960.

After the 1996 Olympics, she retired in order to attend college, feeling burned out from nonstop training for nearly a decade. After a couple of years away from the sport, she started diving on the university's team, and rediscovered her love for it, and decided to give the Olympics another try. She once again made the team, and headed to Sydney for the 2000 Games.

Her first event was the Synchronized Springboard, a new event that year, paired with Guo Jingjing, an up-and-coming diver who would go on to win 4 Olympic gold medals herself in future Olympics. The pair was expected to win, but the Russian pair started strong and kept a safe distance ahead of the Chinese throughout, winning by 11 points and giving Fu her first-ever silver medal.

Her final event was the springboard, where she was defending champion, but not the favorite. That would be Guo, who had beaten her at the Chinese Olympic trials. Fu led the competition through the qualifying and semifinal rounds, but Guo closed the gap throughout, and took the lead after two dives in the final round. That's when Fu made her move, posting the best score among all divers on each of her final three dives, and she ended up defeating Guo by 11 points to win a final gold medal. 

Following those games, Fu, now 22 years old, retired from diving for good. Even when she was just a child, she dominated the competition, with two of the biggest blowouts in Olympic diving history, and her 5 medal in 5 events make her the greatest Olympic diver of all time, and one of the greatest Olympians.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #102 - Quentin Fillon Maillet

Quentin Fillon Maillet

France

Biathlon

Overall Ranks

#3 among French Olympians

#2 among Biathletes

#1 among French Winter Olympians

Olympic Results

2022

Sprint - Silver

Mixed Relay - Silver

Pursuit - Gold

Individual - Gold

Relay - Silver

2026

Sprint - Gold

Mixed Relay - Gold

Mass Start - Bronze

Relay - Gold

Total

Events - 15

Gold - 5

Silver - 3

Bronze - 1

Quentin Denis Fillon Maillet was born on August 16, 1992 in Champagnole, France, and grew up in the French Alps near the Swiss border. He took up cross country skiing when he was 10, then transitioned into biathlon at age 14. From 2015 to 2017, he won medals in every world championship, but only in the relay events.

He was still able to make the French Olympic team for the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, but didn't do anything of note. He finished 48th in the sprint, 44th in the pursuit, and 29th out of 30 in the mass start. It was an ignominious start to what would become a great career.

In 2019, he won his first individual World Championship medal, a bronze in the sprint. He won several more over the next few years, but was by no means a star headed into the 2022 Olympics. He entered all 6 biathlon events in Beijing, and by the time he finished, he had become a star.

He started out in the mixed relay, which was raced by 4 skiers, each of whom covered 6 km. The women went first, and at the halfway point, they held a slight lead. After the third leg, they had fallen to third place, 17 seconds behind the leaders, but Fillon Maillet skied an incredible leg, getting through without missing a shot and skiing the second-fastest time of the day. In the end, he fell just short, losing by less than a second to the Norwegian team, but it earned him his first Olympic medal, a silver.

Next up was the individual 20km race, where each miss carried a one minute penalty applied at the end. Fillon Maillet was the best skier of the event, finishing 31 seconds ahead of Johannes Thingnes Bo, who had beaten him at the end of the mixed relay, and since each missed 2 shots, he remained ahead of Bo. Anton Smolski of Belarus finished without a missed shot, but since he was more than 2 minutes behind Quentin, he ended up taking the silver, with Fillon Maillet earning his first gold.

The third event was the 10km sprint, where each missed shot added a 150m penalty loop to the course. Fillon Maillet had one miss on the first round of shooting, which allowed Bo to build a big lead. Fillon Maillet was the fastest skier the rest of the way, and Bo missed a shot in the second shooting portion, but his lead was too big, and Fillon Maillet came in 25 seconds behind to take the silver, 13 seconds ahead of Bo's older brother, Tarjei, who took bronze.

The next event was the 12.5 km pursuit, where each skier started out based on the results of the sprint event the day before, so Bo started out with a big head start, but he struggled in the shooting portion, missing 7 times, which added 1050 meters to his race. Fillon Maillet was perfect on his shooting, and ended up beating Tarjei Bo by 28.5 seconds for another gold medal.

Up next was the relay, where Fillon Maillet again took the anchor leg. The Russian athletes took a big lead early and built it up throughout the race, with a lead of over 40 seconds when the final leg started. France was in second the entire way up to that point and looked to be fighting for silver when the final Russian skier missed two shots at the final stop, allowing Germany, France, and Norway to catch up. Despite being the only country that didn't miss a shot, the French ended up getting another silver after the final Norwegian skier turned on the jets to win the race by 27 seconds.

In the final event, the mass start, it appeared that Fillon Maillet was going to win his 6th medal of the games, but on the final shooting portion, the wind kicked up, causing him to miss 3 shots, which added 450 meters to his race, and he ended up 13 seconds out of third place, just one place away from the medal. Even without it, he was the first biathlete ever to win 5 medals in a single Olympics, 3 days before Bo matched him.

He returned to compete again in the 2026 Olympics, again qualifying for all 6 events. In the mixed relay, which went first, the race started with the men's legs first, and Fillon Maillet handed off to the first female skier in third place, but after she posted the best time by a woman in the entire race, the French had a 19 second lead, which they extended to 26 seconds by the end to earn the gold medal.

He was the defending champion in the individual 20km, and was the favorite to repeat, but despite having the fastest time, he missed 4 shots, which added 4 penalty minutes, causing him to drop to 8th place at the end. He made up for it in the sprint, where he was one of the favorites since both Bo brothers had retired, leaving him as the only returning medalist. He was one of 5 skiers to shoot perfectly, then passed teammate Emilien Jacquelin on the home stretch to take home a gold medal.

That gave him a 16 second lead to start the next event, the pursuit, but he struggled with his shooting again, with 5 total missed, which caused him to fall to 7th place at the end. In the relay, Norway was expected to win, and started with a 50 second lead after the first leg, with France clear back in 13th place. 3 misses by the next Norwegian skier brought them back to the pack, and a perfect leg by Jacquelin gave France a slight lead at the halfway point. Fillon Maillet held that slight lead through his leg, and the final French skier was able to pull away to give them an upset victory by 10 seconds.

In the final event, the mass start, Fillon Maillet struggled again with his shooting, missing once in the first section, which put him way behind. He moved up to 9th by the second shooting section, where he didn't miss, and was in 5th by the next time he shot. He missed twice, which slowed his progress, but he still pushed through to get to 4th at the final shooting spot, then passed Philipp Horn of Germany on the home stretch to steal the bronze medal, despite having 4 missed shots, 3 more than any of the other top 4.

He has recently announced that he will continue to compete and plans to ski again in the 2030 Olympics. Even though his first Olympics did not go well, he earned 9 medals in the past 2 Olympic games, 5 of which were golds, and has already established himself as one of the greatest Olympians of all time, with more possibly to come.

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: #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.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #110 - Agnes Keleti

Agnes Keleti

Hungary

Artistic Gymnastics

Overall Ranks

#23 among Gymnasts

#10 among Female Gymnasts

#5 among Hungarian Olympians

#1 among Hungarian Gymnasts

Olympic Results

1952

Team - Silver

Team Portable Apparatus - Bronze

Floor Exercise - Gold

Uneven Bars - Bronze

1956

Individual All-Around - Silver

Team - Silver

Team Portable Apparatus - Gold

Floor Exercise - Gold

Uneven Bars - Gold

Balance Beam - Gold

Total

Events - 14

Gold - 5

Silver - 3

Bronze - 2

Agnes Edit Klein was born on January 9, 1921 in Budapest, Hungary, and began training in gymnastics at the age of 4. By age 16, she was the Hungarian National Champion, and was expected to compete in the 1940 Olympics, but those and the 1944 Olympics were not held due to World War II. Also as a result of the war, Agnes changed her surname to Keleti in order to sound less Jewish, and she lost her father in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

After the war, she returned to competition, and qualified for the 1948 Olympics, but was injured shortly before the games started and was forced to sit out again. By the time 1952 came around, Keleti was already 31 years old, far older than most Olympic gymnasts, but she still made the team and went to Helsinki to finally make her Olympic debut.

In her first Olympics, Keleti won her best event, the floor exercise, which gave her her first gold medal, and she also finished in bronze position in the uneven bars, giving her a pair of individual medals. She also came in 4th in the balance beam, all of which combined to put her in 6th place in the individual all-around, with her poor score in the vault dragging her down.

In the team all-around event, the Soviet Union won in their first ever Olympic appearance as a nation, and they would never lose the event in an Olympics in which they participated. Hungary, led by Keleti and Margit Korondi, won the silver medal. They had the best overall score in the floor exercise, and were #2 in the other 3 events, behind the USSR in each.

The final event that year was the team portable apparatus, which is similar to what is known as rhythmic gymnastics today, with the full team dancing around with ribbons, balls, hoops, etc. The Hungarian team performed well, finishing with the bronze medal, giving Keleti 4 total medals at her first Olympics.

Though she was already beyond the normal age for a gymnast, Keleti continued to compete, and again made the team for the 1956 Olympics. This time, she won gold in 3 individual events, the floor exercise, uneven bars, and balance beam, but finished 23rd in the vault, always her worst event, which meant that she finished with the silver medal in the individual all-around, even though she was the best in 3 of the 4 events.

Just as in the previous Olympics, the USSR took the gold medal in the team event, but this time Hungary made it really close, losing by just over a point, with Keleti contributing the highest score. After that, the team portable apparatus event was held for the final time, and this time Hungary was able to take the gold, just ahead of Sweden, who had won 4 years earlier. This gave Keleti 4 golds and 2 silvers at age 35, making her the oldest female gymnast ever to win gold.

Just before the 1956 Olympics, the USSR invaded Hungary, and as a result, Keleti decided not to return from Melbourne. The next year, she emigrated to Israel, where she competed for a couple more years before retiring and becoming a coach for the next 30+ years. She eventually returned to Hungary in 2015. 

In 2019, she became the oldest living Olympic champion, then celebrated her 100th birthday in 2021. In 2023, she became the oldest Olympic champion in history, and she finally passed away on January 2, 2025 in her hometown of Budapest, just a week short of her 104th birthday. Even though she got a late start to her Olympic career, she was amazing when she finally competed, winning 5 golds and 10 total medals, and she is definitely one of the greatest Olympians of all time.