10 Most Inspiring Olympic Athletes

Scott Hamilton

Scott Hamilton was adopted when he was six weeks old and was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of two. The doctors gave him six months to live, but the disease began to correct itself. He began ice skating during his teenage years, but had to quit because his parents were unable to afford the costs. Later, he was able to get funded through a grant from Helen and Frank McLoraine to continue his training.

Hamilton is known for his signature back flip move. He won a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics. In 1997 he announced that he had testicular cancer, and in 2004, he had a benign brain tumor. When the surgery to remove the tumor was performed in 2010, he announced that an artery was nicked which caused an aneurysm a few days later. Hamilton continues to skate and was featured in a special on the Bio Channel showcasing his return.

Wilma Rudolph

Wilma Rudolph was born prematurely and is the 20th of 22 siblings. She was diagnosed with infantile paralysis from a polio virus at the age of four. She recovered, wore a brace on her left leg and foot until she was nine and then had to wear an orthopedic shoe for two years. During her childhood she also suffered from scarlet fever, whooping cough, chicken pox and the measles.

Many have coined her as the fastest woman in the world in the 1960s. She competed in the 1956 Olympics winning a bronze medal and 1960 Olympics winning three gold medals. She is the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field during a single Olympic Game. Rudolph helped pave the way during the civil rights and women’s rights movement. In 1977 the movie Wilma was made about her life story.

Lopez Lomong

Lopez Lomong is known as one of the “Lost Boys”. He was six years old when his parents were killed and he was kidnapped by the militia soldiers. He spent a decade in a Kenyan refugee camp after escaping violence in Sudan. Later, Lomong discovered that his mother was still alive and they were reunited. He came to the USA when he was 16 years old.

Lomong ran in the 1500 meters race during the 2008 Olympics and finished in fifth place. Since then he has signed a contract with Nike and competes professionally. Lomong is a member of Team Darfur, a group of athletes urging China to exert pressure on the Sudanese government to address the war in Darfur. On April 29, 2012, Lomong set a 2012 world leading time for the 5k race with a time of 13 minutes and 11.63 seconds, his first race at that distance. He will compete in the 2012 Olympic Games.

Marla Runyan

Marla Runyan is the first legally blind athlete to qualify and compete for the US Olympic Team in Track and Field. Runyan was diagnosed with Stargardt’s disease when she was a child. The disease is hereditary and weakens an individual’s ability to see. Completing school work was a challenge because there was no technology, like computers, to assist her with reading and writing.

Runyan was a professional track and field athlete, road runner and marathon runner. She competed in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. She is also a three-time US National Champion in the 5,000 meters and a former American record holder in the Indoor 5,000 meters. Runyan now works as a motivational speaker and communicative disorder specialist.

Bonnie Blair

Bonnie Blair is a retired Olympic medalist speed skater. She is one of five children and one of four speed racers in her family. Blair began skating at two years old. Blair first competed in the Olympics in 1984 but finished eighth. In the 1988 Olympics she won a gold and bronze medal, two gold medals in the 1992 and another two gold medals in the 1994 Olympics. She became the first woman to have back to back wins in the same sport. In 2004, Blair was elected into the US Olympic Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame because she holds the most medals, second to Apolo Ohno, for speed skating. Blair is a popular motivational speaker and coach for the US Women’s speed skating team.

Jesse Owens

Jesse Owens was the seventh of eleven children. When he was nine years old, his family moved to Ohio so that they could have better opportunities. Owens worked odd jobs throughout his youth to help support his family. Early on Owens knew that he had a passion for running, and later he went on Ohio University and participated in track and field.

In 1936, when Owens competed, the Olympics were hosted in Berlin, Germany during the regime of Hitler. During the Olympics he was approached by Adidas, the popular athletic apparel company, and became the first sponsored black male athlete. Owens wore Adidas shoes during the Olympic Games. Later the highest award for the year’s best track and field athlete was named after him as The Jesse Owens Award. In the late 1960s he was appointed as a US goodwill ambassador.