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Paavo Nurmi
Born
Athletics, Finland. Nurmi won nine Olympic golds between 1920 and 1928. Individually he took the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 metres and cross-country titles, including the 1,500 and 5,000 within about an hour in Paris in 1924. He also won team golds in events that no longer exist, the team cross-country and the 3,000 metres team race, where his result counted towards Finland's score.
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Jesse Owens
Born
Athletics, United States. At the 1936 Berlin Olympics Owens won three individual golds, in the 100 metres, 200 metres and long jump, and a fourth in the 4x100 metres relay, where the American team set a world record that lasted 20 years. He and Ralph Metcalfe were added to the relay team shortly before the race in place of Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, a decision that remains controversial.
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Fanny Blankers-Koen
Athletics, Netherlands. At the 1948 London Olympics Blankers-Koen, a 30-year-old mother of two, won the 100 metres, 200 metres and 80 metres hurdles individually, then ran the anchor leg to bring the Dutch team from behind to win the 4x100 metres relay. She held world records in several individual events during her career, and her relay leg showed the same speed under team pressure.
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Larisa Latynina
Born
Artistic gymnastics, Soviet Union. Latynina won 18 Olympic medals between 1956 and 1964, nine of them gold. Individually she won the all-around title in 1956 and 1960 and several apparatus golds; in the team event, where each gymnast's scores counted towards the total, she was part of three straight Soviet victories, in 1956, 1960 and 1964.
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Mark Spitz
Born
Swimming, United States. At the 1972 Munich Olympics Spitz won seven golds, all in world-record time: four individual events in freestyle and butterfly, and three relays. Four years earlier in Mexico City his two golds had both come in relays, with only silver and bronze in his individual races, so Munich was where his individual results caught up with his team ones.
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Seve Ballesteros
Born
Golf, Spain. Ballesteros won five majors on his own, three Open Championships and two Masters. In the Ryder Cup, played as a team between Europe and the United States, he was at the centre of Europe's revival from the 1980s, and his foursomes and fourballs partnership with José María Olazábal lost only twice in fifteen matches. He then captained Europe to victory at Valderrama in 1997.
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Carl Lewis
Athletics, United States. Lewis won nine Olympic golds, seven of them individual, including the 100 metres twice and the long jump four times in a row from 1984 to 1996. He also anchored American 4x100 metres relay teams to Olympic gold in 1984 and 1992, both times in world-record time, so his sprinting translated directly into team results.
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Ole Einar Bjørndalen
Biathlon, Norway. Bjørndalen won eight Olympic golds and a record number of world titles between 1998 and 2014. Five of the Olympic golds came in individual races and three in relays, where each team member skis and shoots in turn. At Salt Lake City in 2002 he won every men's event on the programme, three individual races and the relay, and he won the mixed relay at Sochi in 2014 at 40.
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Valentina Vezzali
Born
Fencing, Italy. Vezzali won the individual foil at three Olympics in a row, 2000, 2004 and 2008, and team foil golds in 2000 and 2012, along with many world titles in both formats. Team fencing is a relay of bouts in which each fencer picks up the score where a team-mate left off, and Vezzali was often the one sent out to close the match.
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Michael Phelps
Born
Swimming, United States. Phelps won 23 Olympic golds between 2004 and 2016, 13 in individual events and 10 in relays. His eight golds at Beijing in 2008 depended on both: the individual medley and butterfly titles were his alone, while the 4x100 metres freestyle relay was won only because team-mate Jason Lezak overhauled France on the final leg.
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Chris Hoy
Born
Track cycling, Great Britain. Hoy won six Olympic golds: the kilometre time trial in 2004, the individual sprint and keirin in 2008 and the keirin again in 2012, plus the three-rider team sprint in 2008 and 2012. In the team sprint he rode the final lap, the role that decides whether the earlier riders' work turns into gold.
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Serena Williams
Born
Tennis, United States. Serena Williams won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the most of the Open era, and Olympic singles gold in 2012. With her sister Venus she won 14 Grand Slam women's doubles titles without losing a final, and three Olympic doubles golds, in 2000, 2008 and 2012, a record of partnership success that matches her singles career in consistency.
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Roger Federer
Born
Tennis, Switzerland. Federer won 20 Grand Slam singles titles, including a record eight at Wimbledon. With Stan Wawrinka he won Olympic doubles gold in Beijing in 2008, and the two led Switzerland to its first Davis Cup in 2014, with Federer winning the decisive singles rubber in the final against France.
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Rafael Nadal
Born
Tennis, Spain. Nadal won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, 14 of them at the French Open, and Olympic singles gold in 2008. In team tennis he won the Davis Cup with Spain five times between 2004 and 2019, often winning both of his singles rubbers, and he took Olympic doubles gold with Marc López in Rio in 2016.
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Usain Bolt
Born
Athletics, Jamaica. Bolt won the Olympic 100 and 200 metres at three straight Games, 2008, 2012 and 2016, and still holds both world records. In the 4x100 metres relay he anchored Jamaica to Olympic gold in 2012 and 2016 and to several world titles; his 2008 relay gold was later withdrawn because team-mate Nesta Carter failed a retest, a reminder that a relay medal depends on everyone in the team.
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Allyson Felix
Born
Athletics, United States. Felix won 11 Olympic medals, more than any other track and field athlete. Her individual gold came in the 200 metres in London in 2012, after silver in 2004 and 2008, and her other six golds came in the 4x100 and 4x400 metres relays between 2008 and 2021, where she was a fixture of American teams for more than a decade.
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Marit Bjørgen
Born
Cross-country skiing, Norway. Bjørgen won 15 Olympic medals, eight of them gold, and a long run of world titles. Her individual wins ranged from the sprint to the 30 kilometres, which she won at her final Games in 2018, and she also won relay golds with Norway, including at Pyeongchang that year, so she finished her career at the top in both formats.
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Kōhei Uchimura
Born
Artistic gymnastics, Japan. Uchimura won six consecutive world all-around titles from 2009 to 2015 and the Olympic all-around in 2012 and 2016, the individual event that tests all six apparatus. Japan's men had not won Olympic team gold since 2004, and in Rio in 2016 Uchimura led them back to the top of the team final, then won the all-around two days later.
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Ma Long
Born
Table tennis, China. Ma Long won the Olympic men's singles in 2016 and 2020, the first man to defend that title, along with three world singles championships. In the team event, a series of singles and doubles matches between national sides, he won Olympic gold with China in 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024, making him the most decorated Olympian in the sport.
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Simone Biles
Born
Artistic gymnastics, United States. Biles won the Olympic all-around in 2016 and again in 2024, and holds the most world championship medals of any gymnast. In the team final, where three gymnasts per country perform on each apparatus and every score counts, she helped the United States win gold in Rio in 2016 and in Paris in 2024.
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Laura Kenny
Born
Track cycling, Great Britain. Kenny won five Olympic golds, more than any other British woman. Two came in the omnium, an individual multi-race event, in 2012 and 2016; the others came with team-mates, in the four-rider team pursuit in 2012 and 2016 and the two-rider madison with Katie Archibald in Tokyo in 2021.
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