Born without the lower part of his spine, he crawled the Kokoda Track and won Paralympic marathons
Raised in a tiny town where he got about by crawling, he became one of the great wheelchair marathoners, winning in New York five times and at two…
Won Olympic volleyball gold as a player, then as a coach, on opposite sides of the world
The star of China's 1984 Olympic volleyball champions, she later coached the United States to beat her own country in Beijing, then came home to lead…
A wartime childhood in Ukraine gave way to the most decorated Olympic gymnastics career ever recorded
Growing up in Kherson during the Second World War, she took up gymnastics after her father was killed at the front, and went on to win 18 Olympic…
A West Indian cricketer who took a London hotel to court for racism and became Britain's first Black peer
The most exciting cricketer of his day, he settled in a Lancashire mill town, won a landmark court case against a hotel that turned him away in 1943,…
Recovered from tuberculosis as a child in the Urals to win six Winter Olympic golds on ice
A sickly child in the Ural Mountains who took up speed skating to build up her strength, she became the only skater to win every women's event at a…
A boy whose body stopped growing, signed on a paper napkin, who won the World Cup at 35
Diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency his family could not afford to treat, he moved across the world at 13 to a club that would pay for the…
Paralysed below the knees by polio, she won Olympic silver competing against men
Struck by polio while pregnant, she relearned to ride with no use of her lower legs and won a dressage silver at the 1952 Olympics, the first woman…
Voted the best hockey player in the world eight times, without ever winning the Olympic gold she wanted
A skinny girl from Rosario who was told she was too small, she was named world player of the year eight times, won two World Cups, and retired with…
Free-climbed The Nose of El Capitan when the best men in the world had failed
A five-foot-two climber who survived a near-fatal fall in France, then in 1993 made the first free ascent of the most famous rock climb in the world,…
Six times the best woman footballer in the world, from a town where girls were told not to play
Raised by her mother in a poor town in north-east Brazil, she played with boys who did not want her there, left home at 14 and became the most…
A farmer's daughter from Manipur who won six world boxing titles, one of them as a mother of twins
She hid her boxing from her parents until a newspaper gave her away, became world champion at 20, and came back after having twins to win more titles…
Orphaned by Partition and jailed as a thief, he became independent India's first great athlete
He saw his parents killed in the violence of 1947, survived in refugee camps by stealing, was rejected by the army three times, and went on to win…
Trafficked into Britain as a child, he became the greatest distance runner the country has produced
Brought to London under another child's name and made to work as a domestic servant, he was rescued by a PE teacher who noticed he could run, and…
Gave up his title and his best years rather than fight in a war he believed was wrong
Stripped of the heavyweight championship for refusing the draft, he lost three and a half years of his prime, came back to regain the title twice,…
Scored the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics at 14 and later fled her country on foot
A girl from a small Romanian town who made the scoreboard in Montreal show 1.00 because it could not display a 10, then lived under surveillance for…
The Pocket Hercules, who defected from Bulgaria and won three Olympic golds for Turkey
A weightlifter under five feet tall from the Turkish minority in Bulgaria, forced to change his name, he defected in 1986 and became the first lifter…
Born without a right forearm, she has played table tennis at both the Olympics and the Paralympics
A Paralympian at 11 and a Paralympic champion at 15, she went on to compete for Poland at three Olympic Games against able-bodied opponents while…
Lost her leg at 17 and swam in both the Olympics and Paralympics in the same summer
A promising teenage swimmer whose leg was amputated after a road accident, she was back in the pool within months, won 13 Paralympic golds and…
The first woman from Africa and the Muslim world to win an Olympic gold medal
A hurdler from Casablanca who won the first women's Olympic 400 metres hurdles in 1984, months after her father's death, and became a minister and…
The first woman ever to win an Olympic boxing gold medal
A girl from Leeds who started boxing when her mother could not find a babysitter, she waited years for women's boxing to be allowed at the Olympics,…
Given the last rites after a fiery crash, he was back racing six weeks later
A driver who borrowed money against his own life insurance to get into Formula One, survived being trapped in a burning car in 1976, returned within…
Had both legs amputated as a child and became a Paralympic long jump world record holder as a teenager
Born with underdeveloped legs and given prosthetic blades through a charity at ten, he won a Paralympic silver medal at 14 and set a long jump world…
Born in the shadow of Chernobyl and adopted from an orphanage, she has medalled in four Paralympic sports
Born in Ukraine with severe birth defects and left in institutions for seven years, she was adopted by an American woman, had both legs amputated,…
Took off her shoes and waded into a pond to win the US Open, and started a generation of golfers
A 20-year-old rookie who won two majors in her first season on the American tour, her barefoot shot from the water in 1998 inspired a wave of South…
