DONOVAN BAILEY

Name — Donovan Bailey

Country — Canada

Date of birth — 1967-12-16

Birthplace — Manchester (Jamaica)

Height — 182 cm

Weight — 83.0 kg

Discipline — 100m, 4x100m relay

World record — 1 (100m) Olympic Games (2 medals: 2 gold)

After turning his muscled back on a stock-broking career Donovan Bailey reaped rich dividends from athletics, the Canadian’s stock hitting a high in the 1996 Games when he upset race favourite Frank Fredericks to set a new Olympic and world 100m record of 9.84s. To add further misery to the American hosts, Bailey anchored the Canadian team to victory in the 4x100m relay.

Graduating from the local high school in Ontario, he went on to earn a degree in business administration from Sheridan College.

Eschewing the suit and collar life of high finance for the spikes and shorts of the track, Bailey’s gamble paid off — although he was initially a late developer, not breaking the 11-second barrier for the 100m until the age of 23.

With coach Dan Pfaff guiding his every move Bailey has that uncanny knack of raising his game for the big occasion.

“I love the championship atmosphere as it really gets my blood going,” he readily admitted.

Despite reported feuds with track rivals Michael Johnson and 2000 Olympic champion Maurice Greene, Bailey claimed he got along just fine with his fellow competitors.

JAN ZELEZNY

Name — Jan Zelezny

Country — Czech Republic

Date of birth — 1966-06-16

Birthplace — Mlada Boleslav (Czechoslovakia)

Height — 185 cm

Weight — 86.0 kg

Discipline — javelin throw

World records — 4Olympic Games (4 medals: 3 gold, 1 silver)

The great javelin thrower Jan Zelezny picked up his third Olympic title in Sydney, and can also count a trio of world titles and the world record to his impressive list of honours during a fabulous career.

The robust Czech (1.85m-86kg) registered his first major victory in 1992, at the Olympic Games in Barcelona, and had Athens 2004 in sight and a potential fourth title.

His first Olympic win in 1992 Games was sweet revenge on the IAAF which had, a few weeks previously, refused to sanction his world record because the javelin used was non-regulation.

His triumph in Catalonia was perhaps one of the most important in a long line of victories registered between 1991 and 2000: 98 in 125 competitions for the man who had become practically untouchable.

After collecting a series of medals and titles, Zelezny reached the pinnacle of success on May 25, 1996 in Germany when he took the world record to an astounding 98.48m, a distance which incessantly provides amazement for his adversaries.

The euphoria from that record continued until the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, where Zelezny collected his second consecutive gold.

YASUHIRO YAMASHITA

Name — Yasuhiro Yamashita

Country — Japan

Date of birth — 1957-06-01

Birthplace — Kumamoto

Height — 180 cm

Discipline: Judo

Weight — 133.0 kg

Categories — heavyweight, open category

Olympic Games (1 medal: 1 gold)

In the long list of Japanese judo champions, Yasuhiro Yamashita emerges as the indisputable leader.

While the rest of his compatriot judokas were often caught out by competitors from around the world — as aptly demonstrated by the physically-imposing Dutchman Anton Geesink — Yamashita, the supple giant who could run the 100m in 13 seconds, rose from the ashes to hand some pride back to his country.

In the heavyweight and open category divisions, the man whose popularity equalled that of the country’s hero-worshipped Sumo wrestlers singularly dominated his sport.

From 1979-1985 he collected no less than three world titles in the heavyweight division and one in the open category division.

MITSUO TSUKAHARA

Name — Mitsuo Tsukahara

Country — Japan

Date of birth — 1947-12-22

Birthplace — Tokyo

Discipline — gymnastics

Olympic Games (9 medals: 5 gold, 1 silver, 3 bronze)

Looking at the medals table of one of Japan’s most expressive gymnasts might not immediately explain why Mitsuo Tsukahara is still celebrated world-wide.

Numerous national championship titles, cup competitions, and world championship titles have been won by the Tokyo native throughout a successful 10-year career.

He also formed part of the winning men’s Olympic teams in 1968, 1972 and 1976, teams which, from 1960-1976, dominated the team competition.

But what set Tsukahara apart from his peers was his invention of gymnastics moves which challenged the prevailing concept of the human body in full flight — attributed moves which are still widely used today.

Somewhat taller than other Japanese gymnasts, Tsukahara’s formative years were spent at the Nippon College of physical education.

His entry into the Olympic team for the 1968 Mexico Games went almost unnoticed as he finished in 18th place (111.50 points), as part of the team which won their third of five consecutive team titles.

Two years later at the 1970 Ljubljana world championships, Tsukahara’s fate, and fame, were sealed when he performed a revolutionary long horse vault — executing a half-turn before putting his hands on the front of the horse, followed by another half-turn before doing a backward somersault dismount.

JIM THORPE

Name — Jim Thorpe

Country — United States

Date of birth — 1888-05-28

Birthplace — Shawnee (Oklahoma)

Height — 187 cm

Weight — 83.0 kg

Discipline — pentathlon, decathlon Olympic Games (2 medals: 2 gold)

Pentathlon: 1st (1912)

Decathlon: 1st (1912)

Jim Thorpe had exotic origins, being the product of a part Irish part Sac and Fox Indian father and a mother whose roots were a mix of Potawatomie and Kickapoo Indian, and French.

Primarily an American football player, he emerged as an outstanding all-round athlete, and even cut a dash on the dance floor, tiptoeing his way to the 1912 intercollegiate ballroom dancing title before his selection for the Stockholm Games.

Once in the Swedish capital, Thorpe promptly left his dancing shoes behind and instead, waltzed off with the Olympic decathlon and pentathlon titles.

Following his success, Thorpe returned home hailed a hero.

But following the publication of a damaging story in a newspaper, the American Olympic Committee stripped him of his medals when they learned he had earned $25 a week in 1909-1910 playing minor-league baseball.

Pleading for compassion, he wrote to the Amateur Athletic Union, proclaiming his innocence, “I was only doing what I knew several other college men had done except that they did not use their own names,” but to no avail.

(AFP)