These athletes transcended the boundaries of their sports to become symbols of courage, resilience, and change.
Taking part in the Olympics is every athlete’s dream. And every feat achieved in the prestigious Games comes with a story that could inspire and be worth more than any medal. Some even make an extraordinary impact decades after.
There’s one about Jesse Owens, who quashed the Nazi’s plans for propaganda, and Nadia Comǎneci’s bittersweet tale of being the first gymnast to score a perfect 10. Then there’s Olympic high jumpers Gianmarco Tamberi and Mutaz Barshim who, in a rare and surprising move, shared a gold at the recent Tokyo Olympics.
Below, we’ve listed down some of the most inspirational Olympic stories of all time and how these athletes can teach a lesson or two about determination, believing in one’s self, and the true meaning of sportsmanship.
Jesse Owens
If there’s one man that is most despised in history, that would be Adolf Hitler. The dictator of Nazi Germany instigated World War II which led to the deaths of more than 50 million people. Dubbed by BBC and society as “man and monster,” Hitler led the state-sponsored killing of six million Jews from 1933 to 1945.
And if there’s one man who won a victory over the world’s most-hated, that would be African American athlete Jesse Owens. The track-and-field star was among the 17 Black Athletes who joined the U.S. team in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, also called the “Nazi Olympics.” It took place two years after Hitler was elected as Germany’s president in August 1934.
The dictator took advantage of the Games’ worldwide publicity to propagandize his government and its objective of gaining racial supremacy. For instance, the Nazi press referred to African American athletes as “black auxiliaries.” Moreover, Hitler promoted anti-Semitism, or prejudice against Jews, at the Olympics by banning Jewish athletes from participating in the competitions.
Owens, on the other hand, dealt Hitler a mighty blow by setting a record for winning four golds at the Games. The African American athlete championed the long jump, 100- and 200-meter dashes, and 4 x 100-meter relay. He set world records of 10.3 and 20.7 seconds in the 100- and 200-meter sprints respectively.
It was a feat that culminated years of hard work that began when he first competed in races at the age of 13. A son of sharecroppers and grandson of a slave, Owens beat the odds and gained fame as the “Buckeye Bullet,” winning track competitions, tying a world record in high school, and setting world records thereafter. This includes his three personal bests at the 1935 Big Ten Conference Championship in Michigan, which made him the only athlete to achieve multiple track-and-field world records in a day.
His four wins at the 1986 Olympics are the most monumental, making him the first American to win four track-and-field gold medals in a single Olympics. More importantly, the star runner—a Black man at that—stole the spotlight from Germany’s notorious leader and his plans to turn the global event into a Nazi propaganda machine.
Wilma Rudolph
Polio was one of the most feared diseases in the world. It began spreading between 1948 and 1955 although it is believed to have existed as early as the 18th dynasty of Egypt. Before the polio vaccine in the mid-20th century, polio killed or paralyzed over half a million people every year. Its crippling consequences included deformed limbs, spinal and respiratory paralysis.
But it didn’t stop American sprinter Wilma Rudolph from breaking world records at the Olympics.
Rudolph was born the 20th of 22 children in June 1940. She contracted polio as a child and was paralyzed by the disease. According to Olympics.com, the young Rudolph also had scarlet fever and double pneumonia. All these made doctors believe that the now-world-renowned sprinter would never walk again.
In a report by the National Women’s History Museum, Rudolph was quoted as saying her mother believed otherwise. So did the young girl. That is why at six years old, Rudolph began hopping on one leg with the help of her leg braces. By the time she was 11, the Tennessee-born athlete was already playing basketball outside their home and eventually became a natural athlete.
Five years later, Rudolph jumpstarted what would be the beginning of her iconic success. She made her Olympic debut at the 1956 Melbourne Games along with the American track-and-field team. She went home with a bronze medal for winning the 4×100-meter relay.
Rudolph ultimately made history at the 1960 Rome Olympics, where she won three gold medals in the 100m, 200m, and 4×100 relays and breaking three world records along the way. The feat made her the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field in a single Olympics. And since then, Rudolph has been celebrated for being “the fastest woman in the world.”
The track-and-field star died of brain tumor in November 1994. She continues to serve as an inspiration to many for being the sports icon who defeated polio to become an Olympic champion.
Nadia Comǎneci
Nadia Comǎneci began revolutionizing women’s artistic gymnastics as early as 14 years old. She is the first gymnast to earn a perfect 10 in Olympic history and instantly gained international spotlight.
At the 1976 Summer Olympic Games in Montreal, the 14-year-old Romanian flipped, spun, and rounded off her performance on the uneven bars with a flawless dismount. All the scoreboards flashed “1.00” because they could only display three digits. There had never been one to score a perfect 10 except for Comǎneci.
Her record-breaking score was followed by six more 10/10’s at the Montreal Olympics. Comǎneci finished her performances with three golds at the individual all-around, balance beam, and uneven bars. She also bagged a silver as part of the team all-around and a bronze for the floor exercise. The athlete made history as the youngest all-around gold medalist in Olympic gymnastics.
For Comǎneci, it’s all about finding ways to make each move truly hers when everyone else is doing “the same routine by the book.” She said in an interview with Olympics.com, “What does it mean to be better because everybody will do the same thing. Like, what can I add to that?”
“I call it the Nadia touch,” she continued. “I added amplitude to every skill, so it looks like in the book, but I just added a little something. It was my personal touch.”
But becoming a sports superstar came with a price for Comǎneci. Her win was considered by Romania’s communist president, Nicolae Ceausescu, a victory for communism. Thus, the country’s secret police, the Securitate, would closely monitor Comǎneci’s every move to protect her from being kidnapped or prevent her from defecting.
In addition to being highly scrutinized by the Securitate, the renowned gymnast had to endure grueling training from her coach Béla Károlvi and a meager salary of around $150 per month.
Comǎneci then defected from her country in November 1989 along with other Romanians. They traveled by foot from Hungary and Austria and flew by plane to the US, where she worked with and eventually married American Olympic gold-medal gymnast Bart Conner.
Today, Comǎneci remains a prominent figure in gymnastics, serving as a member of the International Gymnastics Federation Foundation and the honorary president of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation and the Romanian Olympic Committee. In addition, she and Conner founded the Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy and the Perfect 10 Production Company.
Usain Bolt
Usain St. Leo Bolt is arguably the fastest man in the world. He proved it not once, but three times in the track-and-field arena of consecutive Olympic Games.
Born in August 1986, the Jamaican athlete began racing toward becoming one of the world’s best at the age of 14. He started winning competitions at the regional level, including four gold medals at the 2003 CARIFTA Games in the Bahamas.
He caught the world’s attention in 2008 when he represented Jamaica at the Olympic Games. He debuted in one of the world’s biggest sporting events winning three golds in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m, and breaking world records in each of the races. Bolt continued to showcase his lightning speed at the 2012 London Olympics where he clinched three golds at the same events. He ultimately certified he’s the fastest man on Earth after achieving the “Triple Triple” with his three golds from the same relays at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
Bolt is currently the men’s world record holder for 100m and 200m with times of 9.58 seconds and 19.19 seconds at the 2009 World Champs in Germany. He also holds the record for 4x100m with 35.84 seconds at the 2012 London Olympics.
Gianmarco Tamberi and Mutaz Barshim
Besides natural talent and enormous amounts of physical strength, what makes an athlete is his or her relentless desire to be number one. For Olympic high jumpers Gianmarco Tamberi and Mutaz Barshim, to be an athlete is to share the gold when one of them could have been the world’s best.
Qatar’s Barshim and Italy’s Tamberi each leaped 2.37m during the high jump final of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Instead of agreeing to break the tie with a jump-off, Barshim asked the judge, “Can we have two golds?” The official replied, “If you want to, you can.”
Barshim embraced Tamberi as the judges confirmed the double gold. No words came out of both athletes, just excessive joy, having been best friends on and off the arena.
“Neither of us wanted to take this immense joy away from the other,” Tamberi told Japan Times. “We didn’t even need to discuss it, an eye contact and we both knew we wanted to share this gold. In fact, many times before, we’ve joked, ‘Imagine if we could share an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo.’”
Barshim and Tamberi wouldn’t have it any other way. For both athletes, it was only fitting to do so after all the obstacles each one of them had to hurdle.
Tamberi, for one, ruptured his ligaments in the left ankle 20 days before the 2016 Rio Olympics. His injury caused him to doubt that he could be good again. And Barshim was there to tell him otherwise. “I didn’t want him to be in the silver medal position because I knew what he had been through physically and mentally,” the Qatari told The Guardian.
Tamberi likewise kept Barshim’s spirits up when the latter suffered the same injury trying to set a world record 2.46m in 2018 and had to sit out the rest of the Olympic Games that year.
“I’ve been at this wedding,” the Italian said. “It’s not just two opponents. It is two friends who can share the best moment of their life together, and I think it is magical to have done it. We were good friends before the Olympics. But now, it’s like we are blood brothers.”
This was the first time two athletes shared an Olympic track and field gold medal since 1912. It was a historic and awe-inspiring moment at the Games that showed what true sportsmanship really is.
