Copyright © 2026 OyList. All Rights Reserved.
Share
Items19
1
Avery Brundage
Born
Olympic movement, United States. Brundage competed in the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Olympics, then led the US Olympic Committee, where he opposed a boycott of the 1936 Berlin Games, and was IOC president from 1952 to 1972. He enforced strict amateurism for decades and, after the killing of Israeli athletes at Munich in 1972, insisted that "the Games must go on", a decision still debated.
More about Avery Brundage2
David Cecil, 6th Marquess of Exeter
Born
Athletics, Britain. As Lord Burghley he won the 400 metres hurdles at the 1928 Olympics. He then chaired the organising committee of the 1948 London Olympics, the "Austerity Games" staged with existing venues after the Second World War, and was president of the IAAF, athletics' world body, for 30 years from 1946, overseeing its rules through the amateur era.
More about David Cecil, 6th Marquess of Exeter3
Arthur Ashe
Born
Tennis, United States. Ashe, winner of three Grand Slam singles titles, backed the founding of the players' union, the Association of Tennis Professionals, in 1972 and became its elected president in 1974. As a board member he voted for the 1973 Wimbledon boycott over the suspension of Niki Pilić, in which 81 players withdrew and which showed the governing bodies that professionals could no longer be dictated to, and he campaigned against apartheid in South African sport.
More about Arthur Ashe4
Billie Jean King
Tennis, United States. King won 39 Grand Slam titles and, while still playing, founded the Women's Tennis Association in 1973, the year her threat of a boycott helped make the US Open the first major to pay men and women equally. She also founded the Women's Sports Foundation and World TeamTennis, and the Fed Cup was renamed the Billie Jean King Cup in her honour in 2020.
More about Billie Jean King5
Ali Bacher
Born
Cricket, South Africa. Bacher captained South Africa to a 4-0 series win over Australia in 1970, just before the country's isolation. In the 1980s he organised the controversial "rebel" tours that defied the international boycott, then led the move to a single non-racial board in 1991, which brought South Africa back into world cricket, and later ran the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.
More about Ali Bacher6
Anita DeFrantz
Born
Rowing and the Olympic movement, United States. DeFrantz won bronze in the women's eight at the 1976 Olympics and in 1980 led an unsuccessful lawsuit by athletes against the US Olympic Committee over the Moscow boycott. She joined the IOC in 1986 and in 1997 became its first female vice-president, using the role to push for more women in IOC positions and in Olympic events.
More about Anita DeFrantz7
Pelé
Born
Football and government, Brazil. Pelé, a three-time World Cup winner, served as Brazil's Extraordinary Minister for Sport from 1995 to 1998. His main legacy there is the 1998 "Pelé Law", which ended clubs' ownership of players' registrations after their contracts expired, giving Brazilian footballers free movement and pushing clubs to become more professional businesses.
More about Pelé8
Nawal El Moutawakel
Born
Athletics and the Olympic movement, Morocco. El Moutawakel won the 400 metres hurdles at the 1984 Olympics, becoming the first woman from an African or majority-Muslim country to win Olympic gold. She later served as Morocco's sports minister and, as an IOC member and vice-president, chaired the evaluation commissions that assessed the bids for the 2012 and 2016 Games, one of the IOC's most influential tasks.
More about Nawal El Moutawakel9
Kipchoge Keino
Born
Athletics and the Olympic movement, Kenya. Keino won Olympic 1,500 metres gold in 1968 and steeplechase gold in 1972, opening the way for Kenya's distance-running tradition. He chaired the Kenyan Olympic Committee for nearly two decades until 2017 and sat on the IOC, though his time in charge ended amid an investigation into the handling of Kenya's team at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
More about Kipchoge Keino10
Dick Pound
Born
Swimming and anti-doping, Canada. Pound swam for Canada at the 1960 Olympics, then became a lawyer, an IOC member and its chief negotiator of television and sponsorship deals. He was the founding president of the World Anti-Doping Agency from 1999 to 2007 and in 2015 chaired the independent commission whose report on systematic doping in Russian athletics led to the country's suspension.
More about Dick Pound11
Jacques Rogge
Born
Olympic movement, Belgium. Rogge sailed at three Olympic Games and played rugby for Belgium before qualifying as an orthopaedic surgeon. As IOC president from 2001 to 2013 he took over in the aftermath of the Salt Lake City bidding scandal, stressed anti-doping work and launched the Youth Olympic Games, first held in 2010, and he was the first IOC president to stay in the athletes' village at the Games.
More about Jacques Rogge12
Franz Beckenbauer
Born
Football, Germany. After winning the World Cup as captain and manager, Beckenbauer became president of Bayern Munich and led Germany's successful bid for the 2006 World Cup, chairing its organising committee. A 2015 investigation into a 6.7 million euro payment linked to the bid damaged that legacy; he was fined by FIFA's ethics committee in 2016 for failing to co-operate with an inquiry, and a Swiss criminal case against bid officials lapsed in 2020.
More about Franz Beckenbauer13
Sergey Bubka
Born
Athletics and the Olympic movement, Ukraine. Bubka, six-time world pole vault champion, became president of Ukraine's National Olympic Committee in 2005, a senior vice-president of the IAAF and an IOC member. He stood for the IAAF presidency in 2015 and lost to Sebastian Coe, a contest between two former champions held as athletics faced its worst doping crisis.
More about Sergey Bubka14
Michel Platini
Born
Football, France. Platini, three times Ballon d'Or winner, was UEFA president from 2007 to 2015. He introduced Financial Fair Play rules limiting clubs' losses, opened Champions League places to more champions of smaller leagues and expanded the European Championship to 24 teams from 2016. He was banned from football in 2015 over a 2 million Swiss franc payment from FIFA's Sepp Blatter, and both men were later acquitted of fraud by Swiss courts.
More about Michel Platini15
Sebastian Coe
Born
Athletics, Britain. Coe, double Olympic 1,500 metres champion, led London's winning bid for the 2012 Olympics and chaired its organising committee. As president of World Athletics since 2015 he oversaw the suspension of Russia's federation over state-sponsored doping, introduced prize money for Olympic champions in 2024 and tightened eligibility rules for the female category, decisions that drew both support and criticism. He stood for IOC president in 2025 and lost to Kirsty Coventry.
More about Sebastian Coe16
Thomas Bach
Born
Fencing and the Olympic movement, Germany. Bach won Olympic team foil gold for West Germany in 1976, then rose through the IOC to become its president from 2013 to 2025. His reform programme, Olympic Agenda 2020, changed how host cities are chosen and added new sports, while his handling of Russian state-sponsored doping, allowing Russian athletes to compete as neutrals rather than imposing a blanket ban, remained the most contested decision of his presidency.
More about Thomas Bach17
Kirsty Coventry
Born
Swimming and the Olympic movement, Zimbabwe. Coventry won seven Olympic medals, including 200 metres backstroke gold in 2004 and 2008, the most by any African athlete. She chaired the IOC athletes' commission, served as Zimbabwe's sports minister from 2018, and in 2025 was elected IOC president, the first woman and first African in the role, beating candidates including Sebastian Coe.
More about Kirsty Coventry18
Bill Beaumont
Born
Rugby union, England. Beaumont captained England to the 1980 Grand Slam and the Lions in South Africa that year, then became chairman of the Rugby Football Union and, from 2016 to 2024, of World Rugby. His time at the top of the world game included the 2019 World Cup in Japan, moves towards a global season and changes to tackle laws in response to concerns about head injuries.
More about Bill Beaumont19
Andrew Strauss
Born
Cricket, England. Strauss captained England to an Ashes win in Australia in 2010–11 and to number one in the Test rankings. As the ECB's director of England cricket from 2015 to 2018 he appointed coach Trevor Bayliss, backed Eoin Morgan's aggressive rebuild of the one-day side and prioritised white-ball cricket, decisions that led to England's first men's 50-over World Cup in 2019, though his decision to leave Kevin Pietersen out of the Test side was much criticised.
More about Andrew Strauss
