Top 20 Olympic legends

Top 20 athletes who went on to attain legendary status, thanks to their performances at the Games

August 03, 2016 04:14 pm | Updated October 18, 2016 02:21 pm IST

Players have started trickling in to Rio, the host of the 2016 Olympics that will begin in less than three day's time. Every edition of the Olympics gives the athletes a chance to rewrite history and this time, it will be no different. Over the years, many have used the platform to announce their arrival or establish their supremacy.

Here'a a look at the some of the athletes who went on to attain legendary status, thanks to their performances at the Games:

Steve Redgrave, the awesome oarsman

The message couldn't have been any clearer when, at Lake Lanier outside Atlanta in 1996, Britain's Redgrave declared:

Photo: Reuters

Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian

A hyperactive child, Phelps was encouraged into swimming aged seven to give his boundless energy an outlet, and became the most decorated Olympian of all time.

Photo: Reuters

Ian Thorpe, the freestyle king

"Thorpedo" won five gold medals, the most by an Australian, with three in his home Sydney 2000 Games (400m free, 4x200m and 4x100m freestyle relays) and two more in Athens (400m free, 200m free) four years later.

Photo: AP

Michael Johnson, the one-lap master

The American dominated the 200m and 400m sprints in the final decade of the 20th century, winning four gold medals in the Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000) Games.

Photo: The Hindu Archives

Usain Bolt, lightning that struck twice

The fastest man the world has ever seen, the "Lightning Bolt" shot to worldwide fame in Beijing in 2008 as the first man to do

Photo: Reuters

Nadia Comaneci, the perfect 10

Perfection is a rare commodity but 40 years ago in Montreal, Romanian gymnast Comaneci achieved it seven times, in the eyes of the judges, when she was just 14.

Photo: Getty Images

Greg Louganis, the greatest diver?

America's Louganis dominated his sport in the 1980s when he won two gold medals at Los Angeles in 1984 and defended both titles at Seoul in 1988, despite famously smashing his head on the springboard.

Photo: The Hindu Archives

Edwin Moses, the man no one could beat

Rarely has an athlete exerted such sustained dominance as American 400m hurdler Moses, who won an astonishing 122 consecutive races from 1977 to 1987 and picked up two Olympic gold medals,

Photo: Getty Images

Daley Thompson, king of the decathletes

Thompson was a child at boarding school when his father was shot dead in an argument in the street, but he overcame the tragedy to become the most celebrated decathlete in history,

Photo: AP

Carl Lewis, the heir to Owens

Lewis stole the show at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, when he matched Jesse Owens' achievement of winning four gold medals in the 100m, the 200m, the long jump and the 4x100m relay, in front of his home fans.

Photo: The Hindu Archives

Laszlo Papp, Hungarian boxing great

Papp tangled with Hungary's Communist authorities as well as opponents in the ring in a career which made him the first boxer to win three Olympic gold medals.

Photo: The Hindu Archives

Dawn Fraser, the Australian rebel

The Australian swimmer made her mark in the 100m freestyle, taking gold in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, and then in Rome in 1960 and Tokyo in 1964.

Photo: The Hindu Archives

Larisa Latynina, Soviet medal machine

Ukrainian-born Latynina competed in the 1958 world gymnastics while four months pregnant -- and took home five gold medals. It was the sort of determination that was to bring

Photo: The Hindu Archives

Mark Spitz, damp squib to record-breaker

The brash American boasted he would win six gold medals at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics but he ended up with two relay titles, plus an individual silver and bronze, in what he

Photo: Getty Images

Teofilo Stevenson, the Cuban Ali

Stevenson resisted the lure of professional boxing -- including a lucrative fight with Muhammad Ali -- to remain resolutely amateur throughout his career, earning the devotion of his fellow Cubans.

Photo: Reuters

Paavo Nurmi, the 'Flying Finn'

One of the Olympics' first superstars, Finland's Nurmi stole the show at Antwerp 1920, winning three gold medals in the 10000m, individual and team cross country, and silver in the 5000m,

Photo: Getty Images

Johnny Weissmuller, from gold to the silver screen

Long before he swung on to the silver screen as 'Tarzan the Ape Man', America's Weissmuller found fame at the Olympics, where he dominated the swimming events at the Paris and Amsterdam Games in 1924 and 1928.

Photo: The Hindu Archives

Jesse Owens, first track superstar

Owens exploded the Nazi-propagated myth of Aryan racial superiority when he won four track and field gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics under the nose of Adolf Hitler.

Photo: The Hindu Archives

Fanny Blankers-Koen, female athlete of the century

Blankers-Koen defied conventions about age, sex and motherhood, and blazed a pathway for women's sport when she swept to four track gold medals at the 1948 Olympics as a 30-year-old mother of two.

Photo: The Hindu Archives

Emil Zatopek, unique distance treble

Zatopek spoke six languages and "never shut up", according to one miffed rival, and sometimes it seemed that he never stopped running either. The Czech distance great, known for

Photo: The Hindu Archives
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