1920- American sports activist Eunice Kennedy Shriver can be recognized by her name alone. That was not good enough for her, however, and she forged her own way in the world. Shriver's life was deeply touched by her older sister Rosemary, who was mentally challenged. She noticed how Rosemary struggled to keep up with her and her siblings. Shriver wanted to make a difference for others like …
1966- German luger Georg Hackl is regarded as the best ever to compete at luge, the Olympic sport in which participants lie on their backs on tiny sleds and speed feet-first down icy channels at 90 mph, their runs timed in thousandths of a second. Hackl, who is German, is good-naturedly called the "Flying Sausage" for his love of bratwurst and speed and, perhaps, his unathletic build…
1967- Turkish weightlifter Naim Suleymanoglu, known as the "Pocket Hercules" because he combined a very small stature with great strength, is the only weightlifter ever to win gold medals in three different Olympics. Born in Kircali, Bulgaria in 1967, Suleymanoglu was the son of very poor parents who were members of that country's oppressed ethnic Turkish minority. His father …
1920- Spanish athletic administrator In his two decades at the helm of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Juan Antonio Samaranch worked a miraculous transformation, turning what was a largely amateur enterprise into a billion-dollar showcase for the world's finest professional athletes. Sadly, however, when he stepped down as IOC president in July 2001, he left behind an organizatio…
1935- American college lacrosse coach Roy Simmons Jr. has done it all for the Syracuse University men's lacrosse team—he's served as ballboy, mascot, player, freshman coach, assistant coach and, from 1970 to 1998, varsity head coach. Simmons was born into all of these roles. His father, Roy Simmons Sr., served as a coach for the Orangemen for forty-five years prior to his son&…
1969- American mountain climber Ninety percent of climbers who attempt Mount Everest—at 29,035 feet, the world's highest mountain—do not make it to the summit. In 2001, Erik Weihenmayer managed to accomplish the grueling and dangerous trek to the "top of the world," making history in the process. Weihenmayer, who suffers from a retina disease, is completely blind…
1940- American softball player In August, 1961, a 21 year-old woman stood on a pitching mound facing recently retired baseball great Ted Williams, who positioned himself at the plate with the same competitiveness and determination as he did during his major league career. An over-capacity crowd at Municipal Stadium in Waterbury, Connecticut, cheered as young softball pitcher Joan Joyce hurled one …
1962- Zimbabwean triathlete Paula Newby-Fraser is an eight-time Ironman Triathlon winner, and has won 23 Ironman Championships, more than twice the number won by the next-greatest triathlon champions, Mark Allen, Erin Baker, and Dave Scott. The Los Angeles Times and ABC's "Wide World of Sports" have hailed Newby-Fraser as "The Greatest All-Around Female Athlete in the W…
1952- American athletic administrator In 1986 Anita DeFrantz became the first American woman and first African American to serve on the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Her inclusion was considered groundbreaking in an institution that has been dominated by white men and non-athletes. DeFrantz was a former rower, who first became involved in organized sports when she was in college. She comp…
1962- American equestrian With a family tradition in the saddle, a wife who is also his teammate, and a barn full of talented horses, equestrian David O'Connor seemed destined for eventing success. A longtime representative for the United States in international competition, O'Connor reached a new peak in 2000 when he took home an individual gold medal at the Olympic summer games in …
1961- American triathlete Endurance athlete Karen Smyers, who has participated in triathlons since 1984, has a never-give-up attitude. A seven-time U.S.A. Triathlon Elite National Champion and winner of both the Hawaiian Ironman World Championship and the International Triathlon Union (ITU) Triathlon World Championship in 1995, Smyers soon afterward became known for her brave battles against injur…
1936- American discus thrower One of the great figures in Olympic track and field history, Al Oerter was the first athlete to win gold medals in four consecutive Olympic competitions. Between 1956 and 1968, Oerter dominated the discus event at the Olympics, and he continued to maintain his high level of competition into the 1980s—as he approached his fiftieth birthday and long after he had …
1964- Spanish cyclist Perhaps one of the most physically grueling of all sports, cycling requires incredible physical endurance and the ability to withstand searing pain for hours on end. Miguel Indurain has the ability to endure this pain, and then some. In the world of cycling his name rests alongside those of Eddie Merckx, Jacques Anquetil and, in recent years, Lance Armstrong. Indurain'…
1967- American rifle shooter Deena Wigger is a one-time world record holder in women's air rifle, and was a member of the 1988 U.S. Olympic rifle team. In 1983 she won the gold medal at her very first international competition, the Pan American Games, which she competed in when she was just 16 years old. Wigger has also won medals at the rifle shooting world championships. Born in Montana i…
1972- Belarussian rower Ekaterina Karsten is a champion rower who has won three World Championship medals and three Olympic medals. A native of Belarus, Karsten started competing professionally for the Soviet Union. However, in 1996 she became the first athlete to win an Olympic medal, particularly a gold medal, for the newly independent state of Belarus. Her success in rowing has made her a natio…
1902- Australian rugby player Tom Gorman was an Australian rugby player known for his skill, passion for the game, and unselfish play. With his Kangaroos touring team, he played ten consecutive Test matches with Great Britain and was the first player from Queensland to captain the Kangaroos team. After retiring from rugby, Gorman was named a Rugby League administrator. He was listed on Rugby Leagu…
1868-1954 American physical education teacher Known as the mother of women's basketball, Senda Berenson Abbott, in 1893, recognized the potential of the sport for women. An advocate of physical education for women and a physical education teacher at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, she revised the rules the men played by. Her modifications to the rules were meant to shield her f…
1971- American softball player Pitcher Lisa Fernández is widely thought to be the best softball player in the world. Besides throwing countless strikeouts in international play since joining the national team in 1990, Fernández is also a solid third baseman and a powerful hitter. She is best known to most Americans for her role in winning the first Olympic gold medal in softball in 1…
1971- American cyclist Cancer was arguably the best thing that ever happened to Lance Armstrong. The world champion cyclist's career can be divided into two distinct periods: pre- and post-cancer. In the first, he was a brash young rider who won by sheer force and drive, but who did so arrogantly and without respect for his sport. After beating the odds and surviving testicular cancer, Arms…
1954- American dogsledder Sled-dog racer Susan Butcher's aversion to civilization and love of dogs drew her from Boston to Alaska when she was twenty years old. The former city girl embraced the Alaskan wilderness, and tested herself against it, as she learned the art of mushing, or driving a sled led by a team of three to twenty dogs. She became one of only two people to win the Iditarod T…
1963-2000 Canadian curler Sandra Schmirler, known as "the Queen of Curling" and "Schmirler the Curler" in her native Canada, dominated Canadian women's curling in the 1990s until her death from cancer in 2000, at the age of 36. She and her team (known as a "rink" in curling parlance) won the Canadian and world champions three times during the 1990s;…
1973- American bobsledder Bobsledder Vonetta Flowers was the first African American to earn a gold medal in the Winter Olympics, and did so in her sport's first women's Olympic event. After a lifetime spent chasing the gold in track and field events, Flowers switched her focus to achieve it on the first-ever women's Olympic bobsled team. Flowers was born October 29, 1973, in B…
1962- British rower Sir Steve Redgrave is the greatest competitive rower in history, one of the greatest Olympians ever and, arguably, Britain's greatest sportsman of the twentieth century. His feats as an oarsman are legendary—gold medals at five consecutive Olympic Games; nine World Championships; a string of four unbeaten seasons; and countless awards in Thames River competitions.…
1956- French yacht racer During a decade of competitive marathon sailing, Isabelle Autissier demonstrated nearly supernatural sailing prowess and unmitigated bad luck. She is the first woman to sail around the world alone and she piloted a yacht from New York to San Francisco by way of Cape Horn in world-record time. She also capsized and barely eluded death—twice—in violent, remote …
1971- British archer British archer Alison Williamson is a world champion, four-time Olympian, and Olympic and European record holder. Beginning archery at a young age, she went on to compete in the women's individual event around the world consistently placing in the top ten and ranking first in the Tournament of Nations and the Arizona Cup International. She achieved a world record score …
1949- American decathlete Bruce Jenner won a gold medal in the decathlon in the 1976 Olympic Games. He also set a new world record for the decathlon, with 8,176 points. After the Olympics, he used the fame he had won to develop a new career as an entrepreneur, product spokesperson, and motivational speaker. Jenner was born and grew up in Mt. Kisco, New York, the second of four children of William …
1948-2001 New Zealander yachtsman Sir Peter Blake, perhaps more than any other sailor, was responsible for changing the public perception of ocean yacht racing from a daring adventure sport practiced by a few foolhardy souls, into an avidly followed professional sport whose top players are internationally acclaimed. Blake first made headlines in 1993, when he set a world record for the fastest cir…
1961- American rock climber World Cup champion Lynn Hill is the best female rock climber in the world, and in the top five overall. In a sport dominated by men, Hill has accomplished feats in climbing that climbers of both genders marvel at. After winning dozens of competitions—against both women and men—Hill retired from competition to pursue climbs in some of the world's mos…
1910-1953 German fencer Helene Mayer was Germany's only known Jewish member of its Olympic national team in the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin. The fencer competed in what derisively came to be called "Hitler's Games," for German chancellor Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party commandeered this particular Olympiad and refashioned it into a blatant display of nationalist propaga…
1961- American softball player Two-time Olympic softball gold medalist Dot Richardson is much more than just a star shortstop. Richardson, who hit the first home run ever in Olympic softball, became an orthopedic surgeon while simultaneously training for the U.S. Olympic team. Richardson chronicled her success in a memoir, Living the Dream. (With Don Yaeger) Living the Dream, New York: Kensington …
1963-1989 American bull rider Lane Frost was a rising star in bull riding who won championships at rodeos across the West during the 1980s. He was the sixteenth ranked cowboy in the nation in his first year as a professional bull rider, at age nineteen, and in the top fifteen every year after that. He became the world champion of bull riding at the age of twenty-four, but his promising career was …
1967- American mountain biker In her prime, Juli Furtado had more endurance and a higher peak heart rate than any of her competitors. Juli Furtado Combined with her drive and determination, these physical attributes made her a standout in the world of professional mountain biking. Furtado made her foray into the world of professional mountain bike racing after nearly a decade on the U.S. ju…
1963- American transatlantic rower Tori Murden's list of firsts is remarkably disparate, involving unprecedented accomplishments in transatlantic rowing, mountain climbing and cross country skiing. In 1988, she became the first woman and first American to reach the top of Antarctica's Lewis Nunatuk Summit. The following year, she became the first woman and first American to ski to th…
1956- American dogsledder The 13th annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in 1985 was particularly grueling—"jinxed from the start by bad weather, bad trail and bad luck," according to Associated Press reports. Temperatures plunged to -50 degrees Farenheit and storms twice forced race officials to halt the competition, for a total of eighty-seven hours, and fly in emergency ratio…
