Carlos Lopes

Proof that it is never too late. Lopes won Olympic 10,000m silver in 1976, then spent years dogged by injury before reinventing himself on the roads. He won the 1984 Los Angeles marathon aged 37, still the oldest men's Olympic marathon champion, and a year later in Rotterdam became the first man under 2:08. For anyone who thinks a peak has to come in your twenties, his career is a useful counter-argument.