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Eric Moussambani
Born
Swimming the 100 meters freestyle heat alone, Sydney 2000
Éric Moussambani of Equatorial Guinea had never swum in a 50-meter pool and had trained in a 20-meter hotel pool. When the two other swimmers in his heat false-started, he swam alone, struggled to finish, and touched in 1:52.72, more than a minute slower than most of the field. Television made "Eric the Eel" famous around the world, and he later became his country's national swimming coach. It is the Olympic ideal of taking part, on film.
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Steven Bradbury
The last-lap pile-up in the 1,000 meters final, Salt Lake City 2002
Steven Bradbury had broken two vertebrae in his neck in a training crash in late 2000, and in the five-man final he trailed in last place throughout. On the final lap the other four skaters fell, Bradbury stayed upright, and he crossed the line for Australia's first ever Winter Olympic gold medal. Australians now call an unlikely win "doing a Bradbury." It is the best clip on this list for a lighter lesson: keep skating your own race, because you never know.
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Vanderlei de Lima
Born
Marathon bronze after being pushed off the course, Athens 2004
Brazil's Vanderlei de Lima was in contention for the Olympic marathon when a protester ran onto the road and pushed him off course. He got going again and finished third. He later said that if it were not for the intruder, he was sure he would have won gold. Watch how he carries himself to the finish anyway: it sits alongside Akhwari and Redmond as a lesson in how to respond when a race is taken from you through no fault of your own.
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Michael Phelps
Born
Eight gold medals at Beijing 2008
Mark Spitz's seven gold medals at one Games had stood as the record since 1972. In Beijing, Michael Phelps won eight, the high point of a career that ended with 23 Olympic golds and 28 medals in all, both records. The individual races are worth showing one by one rather than as a highlight reel, because the margins were sometimes tiny: the 100 meters butterfly was won by a hundredth of a second, and the eight only happened because every one of them went his way.
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Usain Bolt
Born
The 100 meters world record at Beijing 2008
Usain Bolt won the 100 meters in 9.69 seconds, a world record, while visibly easing up and celebrating before the line, then set another world record of 19.30 in the 200 meters. He went on to win both events at three consecutive Games, in 2008, 2012 and 2016. Show the 100 meters final and pause on the last 20 meters: no other clip shows so clearly how far ahead of the field an athlete can be.
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Jonnie Peacock
Born
The T44 100 meters final at the London 2012 Paralympics
At 19, Jonnie Peacock won the much-hyped T44 100 meters final of the London Paralympics in a Paralympic record 10.90 seconds, in the Olympic Stadium, with a crowd he called so loud it was fantastic. Channel 4's coverage peaked at 6.3 million viewers, a record audience for Paralympic sport in the UK. That is the significance beyond the result: a race for sprinters with lower-limb impairments drew a prime-time crowd, and the footage shows a Paralympic final treated as the main event of the night, which is exactly how it should be shown in a classroom.
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Abdellatif Baka
Born
The T13 1,500 meters at the Rio 2016 Paralympics
Algeria's Abdellatif Baka won the 1,500 meters for visually impaired runners in a world record 3:48.29. The Olympic champion in the same event that August, Matthew Centrowitz, had won in 3:50.00, so Baka ran faster, and so did the next three finishers, Baka's twin brother Fouad among them. Centrowitz's time was the slowest Olympic winning time since 1932, but the comparison still makes a sharp point for any class that assumes a Paralympic race must be the slower one. The Paralympic Games channel includes the race in its Greatest Paralympic Moments of the Decade series, and the picture comes from it, with both Baka brothers in the field.
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Ester Ledecká
Born
Gold in two sports at Pyeongchang 2018
Ester Ledecká of the Czech Republic, a snowboarder first and foremost, entered the alpine skiing super-G and won it, then won the snowboard parallel giant slalom at the same Games. Winning gold in two different sports at one Winter Olympics put her in a category of her own. The super-G is the clip to show, because a snowboarder beating the world's best skiers at their own event is a surprise that needs no explanation, and a fine example of refusing to be one thing.
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Gianmarco Tamberi
Born
Sharing the high jump gold with Mutaz Barshim, Tokyo 2020
Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi and Qatar's Mutaz Barshim both cleared 2.37 meters, the first time two jumpers had topped that height at one Olympics, and both failed at the next. Offered a jump-off, Barshim asked whether they could have two golds, and the two friends decided there was no need to jump again. Tamberi had missed the Rio Games with an ankle injury, and his celebration is worth the whole clip. The Games were held in 2021 after a year's delay. It is the modern companion to the Owens and Long story at the top of this list.
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Simone Biles
Born
Withdrawing, then returning for beam bronze, Tokyo 2020
Simone Biles pulled out of the team final after a difficult first vault, then out of the all-around and three other event finals, saying she had "the twisties," a loss of awareness in the air, and talking openly about her mental health. She came back for the balance beam final, the last women's gymnastics final of the Games, and won bronze. It may be the most useful Olympic moment of the decade for a classroom, because the most decorated gymnast in history chose to stop, and then chose to return, on her own terms.
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Johannes Høsflot Klæbo
Born
Six gold medals in six events at Milan Cortina 2026
Norway's Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won every cross-country skiing event he entered, six of six, the first time anyone had won that many golds at a single Winter Games. It took his career total to 11 Winter Olympic gold medals, the most by any Winter Olympian. Cross-country rarely gets prime-time attention in North America, which makes this worth showing: a sweep on the scale of Phelps in Beijing, in a sport many viewers have never watched.
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Lucas Pinheiro Braathen
Born
Giant slalom gold for Brazil at Milan Cortina 2026
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen was born in Norway to a Brazilian mother and skied for Norway at Beijing 2022 before switching to Brazil. In Milan Cortina he led after the first run and held on to win the giant slalom by 0.58 seconds from the defending champion, Marco Odermatt. It was the first Winter Olympic medal ever won by a South American athlete. It is the newest moment on this list and a clear example of a "first" for a whole continent, won by an athlete who chose to compete for his mother's country.
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