Jefferson Pérez

Pérez won Ecuador's first ever Olympic medal, 20km gold in Atlanta in 1996, aged 22. Twelve years later he took silver in Beijing, and in between he won three consecutive world titles from 2003 to 2007. That span of global medals, built on a high-cadence, compact action that judges rarely faulted, is why he is a national hero in Ecuador and why the country now produces walkers like Brian Pintado.