A LL TIME GREATEST B LACK O LYMPIANS Who are the all time greatest Black Olympians?

Who are the greatest Black Olympians? Are they the current athletes who defy all the odds to achieve speed and strength beyond comprehension or is it the early pioneers who fought for their rights to even participate in the world arena at the height of the civil rights movement? From Wilma Rudolph who overcame childhood polio to be a three times gold medal winner to the fastest man on earth ever Usain Bolt, all of these athletes truly embody the Olympic motto.... Citius, Altius,Fortius Can you decide?

Citius, Altius,Fortius

Jesse Owens - runner Wilma Rudolph – runner Carl Lewis – track and field Tessa Sanderson – javelin Daley Thomson – decathlete Linford Christie – sprinter Kelly Holmes – runner Usain Bolt - sprinter Who would you like to find out more about? Click on the arrow to go to their page ! HOME! Click on “HOME” to go back to the start at any point.

Throughout the tortured history of sports and politics, one moment has always stood above the others: Jesse Owens's performance at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. A black man entered Hitler's Coliseum and destroyed the theory of Aryan physical supremacy by winning four gold medals in track and field. The Fuhrer, according to legend, was so horrified by Owens's triumph, he stormed from the Olympic stadium rather than shaking his hand, as he had with every other medalist. HOME!

Wilma Rudolph - Track Runner Wilma Rudolph Born: June 23, 1940 Died: November 12, 1994 She was an American athlete. Rudolph was considered the fastest woman in the world in the 1960s and competed in two Olympic games in 1956 and in In the 1960 summer Olympics in Rome Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in and field during a single Olympic Games. A track and field champion, she elevated women's track to a major presence in the United States. She is also regarded as a civil rights and women's rights pioneer. HOMEHOME!

Wilma Rudolph - Track Runner Wilma Rudolph Along with other 1960 Olympic athletes such as Cassius Clay, who later became Muhammad Ali, Rudolph became an international star due to the first international television coverage of the Olympics that year. The powerful sprinter emerged from the 1960 Rome Olympics nicknamed "The Tornado," the fastest woman on earth. HOME!

What do you know about America in the 1960s that might make Wilma Rudolph’s success such a powerful story? HOME!

Frederick Carlton "Carl" Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is an American former track and field athlete, who won 10 Olympic medals including 9 gold, and 10 world Championships medals, of which 8 were gold. His career spanned from 1979 when he first achieved a world ranking to 1996 when he last won an Olympic title and subsequently retired. Gold 1984 Los Angeles100 m Gold 1984 Los Angeles200 m Gold 1984 Los Angeles4x100 m relay Gold 1984 Los AngelesLong jump Gold 1988 Seoul100 m Gold 1988 SeoulLong jump Gold 1992 Barcelona4x100 m relay Gold 1992 BarcelonaLong jump Gold 1996 AtlantaLong jump HOME!

Tessa has competed in six Olympic Games, which in itself is a record, and resulted in her winning a gold medal in the javelin event in Tessa has won many other major medals including three times Commonwealth Gold and the last being a World Cup Gold in Cuba in In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and competing in her 5th Olympics she finished an incredible 4th place in the final. In 2009 Tessa celebrated the 25th Anniversary of winning her Olympic Gold Medal at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and says she is now looking forward to watching the future Olympians in London 2012.

Thompson was the first athlete to win Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European titles and hold world record. The decathlon requires proficiency in ten events - the shot put, discus and javelin throws; the long and high jumps; the pole vault; the 100 m, the 400 m and the 1500 m run and the 110 m hurdles. The winner is considered the all-round athletics champion. HOME!

In 1984, a British athlete, Daley Thompson, became only the second person in Olympic history to claim the decathlon gold twice. Born on July 30th 1958 in Notting Hill, London, of Scottish and Nigerian parentage, Thompson first competed in the decathlon in the 1976 Montreal Games as an 18-year-old. He finished 18th! Four years later at the Moscow Olympics, he won the gold medal, finishing 150 points ahead of his nearest rival. HOME!

Britain and Europe's most successful sprinter ever? Linford Christie was the first of a new breed of athlete that defied age as a barrier to perform, winning his first major title at the age of 26. He went on to become the World's No 1 in the most fiercely competitive and prestigious event in athletics, the men's 100m. Linford's impressive title collection includes an Olympic, a World Championship, three European, three Commonwealth, ten European Cup and four World Cup medals. Linford was the first man to retain the World Cup 100m title and in 1997 won a record 7th European Cup title. From 1995 to 1997 he was the inspirational captain of the men's British Athletic team and is the only European to have run under 10 seconds. HOME!

Dame Kelly Holmes, DBE MBE (born 19 April 1970) is a British middle distance athlete. She specialised in the 800 metres and 1500 metres events and won a gold medal for both distances at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. She set British records in numerous events and still holds the records over the 600, 800, 1000, and 1500 metres distances. HOME!

Usain St. Leo Bolt - Sprinter Born 21 August 1986, Usain Bolt is a Jamaican sprinter and a five-time World and three-time Olympic gold medalist. He is the world record and Olympic record holder in the 100 metres, the 200 metres and (along with his team mates) the 4×100 metres relay. He is the reigning Olympic champion in these three events. His 2008 season began with his first world record performance setting a 100 m world record of 9.72 s and culminated in world and Olympic records in both the 100 m and 200 m events at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics he ran 9.69 s for the 100 m and s in the 200 m, and also set a 4×100 m relay record of s with the Jamaican team. This made him the first man to win three sprinting events at a single Olympics since Carl Lewis in 1984, and the first man to set world records in all three at a single Olympics. HOME!

Florence Griffith-Joyner, also known as Flo-Jo (December 21, 1959 – September 21, 1998) was an American track and field athlete. She is considered the "fastest woman of all time" based on the fact that she still holds the world record for both the 100 metres and 200 metres, both set in 1988 and never seriously challenged. She sadly died in 1998 at the age of 38. Olympic Games Gold 1988 Seoul100 metres Gold 1988 Seoul200 metres Gold 1988 Seoul 4x100 metres relay Silver 1984 Los Angeles200 metres Silver 1988 Seoul 4x400 metres relay

Michael Duane Johnson (born September 13, 1967) is an American sprinter. He won four Olympic gold medals and eight world championship gold medals. Johnson currently holds the world and Olympic records in the 400 m and 4 x 400 meters relay. He formerly held the world and Olympic record in the 200 m, and the world record in the Indoor 400 m. He also currently holds the world's best time at the 300 m. His 200 m time of at the 1996 Summer Olympics stood as the record for over 12 years. Johnson is generally considered one of the greatest long sprinters in the history of track and field. He is the only male athlete in history to win both the 200 m and 400 m events at the same Olympics, a feat he accomplished at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Johnson is also the only man to successfully defend his Olympic title in the 400 m. Aside from his Olympic success Johnson accumulated eight gold medals at World Championships, and is thus tied with Carl Lewis for the most gold medals won by any runner in history. Johnson was noted for his unique running style. His stiff upright stance and very short steps defied the conventional wisdom stating that a high knee lift was essential for maximum speed.

Haile Gebrselassie born 18 April 1973 is an Ethiopian long-distance track and road running athlete. He won two Olympic gold medals over 10,000 metres and four World Championship titles in the event. He won the Berlin Marathon four times consecutively and also had three straight wins at the Dubai Marathon. Further to this, he won four world titles indoors and was the 2001 World Half Marathon Champion.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, (born December 27, 1986) is a Jamaican sprinter, who specialises in the 100 m. Born in Kingston Jamaica, Fraser is the reigning Olympic champion over 100 m, clocking a time of s The 2009 World 100 m champion, she is only the second female sprinter to hold both World and Olympic 100 m titles simultaneously (after Gail Devers), and is tied with Christine Arron as the fourth fastest woman in history over 100 m.

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