Went unbeaten in wheelchair tennis for ten straight years and 470 matches
Paralysed by a spinal haemorrhage at six after a swimming lesson, she became world number one in wheelchair tennis and did not lose a singles match…
A hairdresser from Milton Keynes who became the first woman to win a match at the darts world championship
A single mother who was abused online over an illness that changed her face, she walked onto the Alexandra Palace stage in 2019 and beat two men to…
A 30-year-old mother of two told to stay at home, she won four golds at the 1948 Olympics
Her best years were swallowed by the war and critics said she was too old and should be looking after her children. In London in 1948 she won every…
Finished third at the Ironman World Championship six times without ever quite winning it
A university student who tried a triathlon on a whim, she became the first Brazilian woman to reach the Ironman World Championship podium and kept…
Captained Wales and the Lions while hiding who he was, then became the first openly gay rugby player
A Welsh rugby legend who came out in 2009 after years of fear, and ten years later, facing a tabloid threat, told the world he was living with HIV…
The first woman to swim the English Channel, nearly two hours faster than any man before her
A butcher's daughter from Manhattan with damaged hearing, she failed on her first attempt at the Channel in 1925, then crossed in 1926 in a time that…
Shot in a hunting accident, he came back to win the Tour de France by eight seconds
The first American to win the Tour de France, he was shot by his brother-in-law a year later and lost two seasons, then won the 1989 race in the…
Ran 10 kilometres to school and back every day, then broke 27 world records
One of ten children on a farm in Ethiopia, he became a double Olympic champion and marathon world record holder, and returned home to build…
A bricklayer rejected by the ski academy, who crashed in Nagano, won two golds, then nearly lost a leg
Thrown out of ski school at 15 for being too small, he laid bricks for years before racing, survived one of the worst crashes in Olympic history to…
Trained with water bottles and bamboo in lockdown, then won the Philippines' first Olympic gold
A weightlifter from a poor family in Zamboanga who was stranded abroad during the pandemic, improvised her training, and in Tokyo won the first…
Lost both arms at ten and plays international table tennis holding the bat in his mouth
An Egyptian who lost both arms in a train accident as a boy, was told he could not play table tennis, and taught himself to serve with his foot and…
Chose fencing because its uniform let her compete in hijab, then became an Olympic medallist
Struggling to find a sport whose uniform fit her faith, she found fencing at 13 through a foundation for underserved youth and became the first…
The most-capped netballer in the world, who left South Africa to become a New Zealand hero
A primary school teacher and South Africa's captain, she emigrated in 2000 with a young daughter, became a Silver Fern within months and played more…
Broke the colour line in American baseball and was ordered not to fight back
The grandson of an enslaved man, he became the first Black player in modern Major League Baseball in 1947, enduring abuse from crowds and teammates…
Told he was too frail to play, he went five and a half years and 555 matches without losing
A sickly boy from Karachi whose older brother and mentor died on court, he became world squash champion at 17 and put together the longest unbeaten…
Won a 268-mile winter race outright while expressing milk for her baby, then conquered the Barkley
A vet and fell runner who beat every man in the Spine Race along the Pennine Way in January 2019, and in 2024 became the first woman to finish the…
Won four Olympic golds in Berlin in 1936 in front of Hitler
The son of a sharecropper, he set three world records in 45 minutes as a student and then dismantled Nazi claims of racial superiority at the Berlin…
Lost a leg to meningitis at five and won the Paralympic 100 metres twice
Told he might not survive the night as a small boy, he found sprinting at a talent day at 15 and four years later beat Oscar Pistorius to gold in…
Diagnosed with MS at 23, she became the first Briton in 30 years to win Paralympic golds in two sports at one Games
A sprinter and cyclist who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2014 and told her athletics career was over, she instead switched disciplines and…
A grenade destroyed his shooting hand, so he taught himself to shoot with the other and won two Olympic golds
Hungary's best pistol shot lost his right hand to a faulty grenade in 1938, practised in secret with his left, and ten years later won Olympic gold…
Three Olympic silvers, then gold at 36, then another silver at 40 after two years out of the boat
A Scottish rower who finished second at three Olympics in a row, she refused to retire, won gold in London at 36, and came back from a two-year break…
Abused by her coach as a teenager, she became the first American to win Olympic judo gold
Sexually abused by her judo coach from the age of 13, she nearly ended her life, then rebuilt her career under new coaches and won Olympic gold in…
A former army sergeant who won double Olympic gold at 34 after years of injury and despair
Injured season after season and privately at her lowest a year before the Games, she won both the 800 and 1500 metres in Athens in 2004, a double no…
Ran through crippling gallstones to win Olympic gold, then built a home for orphans
Orphaned as a small child and raised by an aunt, he became Kenya's first Olympic champion, beating a world record holder while barely able to stand…
