Famous Athletes

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Carl Lewis	Jesse Owens	Linford Christie	Michael Johnson
Sonia O' Sullivan	Gail Devers	Michael Jordan	Sebastian Coe

Carl Lewis

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Born Frederick Carl Lewis, this athlete from Alabama has been named as the greatest and most famous athlete of the last century. He has won 20 gold medals in four different events - 100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100m relay. He has taken part in an amazing four Olympic games and has won 9 Olympic gold medals.

Jesse Owens

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Jesse Owens, (1913 - 1980) was one of the most renowned American sprinters of all time. In May 1935, he broke three world records in the space of 70 minutes!In the 1936 Berlin Olympics, he won four gold medals: 100 meter sprint in 10.3 seconds (tying the world record), long jump (Olympic record), 200 meter sprint (Olympic record), and 400 meter relay (first leg) (Olympic and world record).

Linford Christie

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Linford retired in 1997 as Britain's greatest ever athlete. He had become the World's No 1 in the most fiercely competitive and prestigious event in athletics, the men's 100m.
Linford's impressive title collection includes an Olympic, a World Championship, three European, three Commonwealth, ten European Cup and four World Cup gold medals. In the 1988 he came second in the 100m and 4x100m. He took gold in the 100m in Barcelona in 1992.He won more major championship medals (23) than any other British male athlete.

Michael Johnson

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Born in Dallas in 1967, Johnson is a superb 200m, 400m, and 4x100m relay athlete. He is renowned for his golden shoes which he wears in each race.After his stunning double-gold performance in the 1996 Olympics, Johnson became the first man ever to defend an Olympic title in the 400m at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. He has been ranked #1 in the world in 400m ten times and #1 in 200m five times.

Sonia O Sullivan

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Sonia O Sullivan, the Cork athlete, is undoubtedly the greatest Irish athlete of all time.She has won many championship medals at the following distances: 1,500m, 3,000m, 5,000m, 10,000m, 1mile. Sonia had a near-miss fourth place in the 1992 Olympics and suffered from illness during the 1996 Olympics. In the Sydney Olympics in 2000, however, Sonia experienced Olympic glory when she won a silver medal in the 5000m.

Gail Devers

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Devers was born in Seattle, Washington in 1966. She is a truly remarkable woman as she overcame Graves disease and went on to win many Olympic titles. She earned the title "World's fastest woman" in 1992 when she won Olympic gold in the 100m at Barcelona. In 1996 she retained her title and also won the 4x100m relay.

Michael Jordan

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Born in New York in 1963, Michael Jordan was five times voted NBA player of the year. This basketball star is most widely recognised as a Chicago Bulls heroas he was a member of six Chicago Bulls NBA championship teams. As well as this he won two Olympic gold medals with the USA dream team in the 1984 and 1992 Olympics. Although he has retired from the professional arena, Michael Jordan will go down in the history books as one of the greatest, if not the greatest basketball legend of all time.

Sebastian Coe

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Sebastian Coe was born in London in 1956. This famous British middle-distance runner won four Olympic medals and set eight world records. His main events were 400m, 800m, 1500m and the mile. He dominated middle distance running for much of the 80s and excelled at the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games.