In pursuit of their Olympic dreams, many top athletes go through hardship and adversity – but some more than others.
In a segregated 1940’s America, track and field athlete, Jesse Owen overcame adversity and racial discrimination when he won a ticket to the 1936 Olympic Games in Munich. He won four gold medals
In the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Equatorial Guinea-born Eric Moussambani won his 100-metre freestyle heat despite having never swum in an Olympic-sized pool before.
With only days left until the Paris Olympics, ITV News highlights some of the game’s most inspiring stories.
Betty Robinson
Robinson was an American sprinter who “rose from the dead” and went on to win an Olympic gold medal.
The runner earned her ticket to the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam at the age of 16, after only four months of training.
At the time, it was unusual for women to compete in professional sports – they were only allowed to compete in the 100m, 800m, discus, high jump and 4x100m relay at the Olympic Games.
Yet, Robinson went on to win the 100m race in a record time of 12.2 seconds – earning her the gold medal. She remains the youngest athlete to win Olympic 100m gold.
However, on June 28, 1931, the athlete was involved in a plane crash with her cousin and was believed to be dead.
But rescuers taking her to the morgue realised she was still alive. Robinson spent six months in a wheelchair and underwent two years of rehabilitation.
Doctors told her she would never walk again, but the athlete was determined to compete again.
Due to fractures and surgeries on her left leg, she could not kneel, so her only chance to run at the 1936 Berlin Olympics was by making the relay team – and she did.
In the 4×100 metre final, Robinson ran the third leg, helping the USA secure first place. This victory earned Robinson her second gold medal, eight years after her first.
Robinson died in 1999, aged 87.
Eric Moussambani
Born in Equatorial Guinea in 1978, Moussambani rose to international fame at the Sydney 2000 Olympics for an unlikely victory in swimming.
Moussambani arrived in Sydney having never seen a 50-metre Olympic-sized swimming pool in his life. He had only practised in a lake and a 12-meter pool.
In his 100-metre freestyle heat, he struggled to finish and recorded the slowest time in Olympic history at 1:52.72.
However, he won his heat after both competitors were disqualified for false starts.
Although his time was too slow to advance, he set a new personal best and an Equatoguinean national record.
In March 2012, he was appointed coach of the national swimming squad for Equatorial Guinea.
Jerry Tuwai
Born in 1989 in one of Fiji’s poorest and most dangerous neighbourhoods, Tuwai helped lead the country to its first Olympic medal in rugby.
Growing up, Tuwai lived in a one-bedroom house with his family and used empty water bottles or bundled-up t-shirts in place of a rugby ball.
He had to drop out of school to help his father sell pottery at the side of the road.
In an interview, Tuwai said his mother spent months saving money to buy him his first rugby boots, telling him: “This is your knife and fork” when she handed them over.
He was eventually scouted by Fiji’s national coach after he saw him playing at the biggest annual club tournament in Fiji.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Tuwai played a crucial role in the Fiji Sevens squad, defeating Brazil, the USA, Argentina, New Zealand, and Japan to reach the Olympic Rugby Sevens final.
In the final, they defeated Great Britain 43-7. The victory brought joy to Fiji after the devastation caused by Cyclone Winston.
Jesse Owens
Born in a small town in Alabama in 1913, Owens is considered one of the greatest Olympians in history for triumphing over racial discrimination.
Owens was a Black American track and field athlete who specialised in the 100m, 200m, long jump and relay.
Before the historic 1936 Olympics, Owens set three world records and tied a fourth in just an hour – a feat that remains unequalled.
However, it was in Nazi Germany for the Olympics that Owens permanently cemented himself in Olympic glory.
Owens, already from a racist America living under segregation, travelled to the event, overseen by Adolf Hitler, who wanted the Olympics to be a demonstration that supported his theory of the Aryan master race.
However, Hitler’s prospects proved futile as Owens stole the show at the Olympics. He won four gold medals in Berlin in the 100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100m relay.
He was the most successful athlete at the games and later was credited for “single-handedly crushing Hitler’s myth of Aryan supremacy” by ESPN.
Despite his achievements, Owens returned to a segregated America, was not invited to the White House by Franklin D. Roosevelt, and struggled to make a living.
In 1936, Owens said: “Hitler didn’t snub me, it was our president (FDR) who snubbed me. The president didn’t even send me a telegram.”
Owens died in 1980, aged 66.
Caster Semenya
Born in 1991, South African middle-distance runner Caster Semenya gained global attention not just for her gold medals in the 800m at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympics, but for her advocacy for intersex athletes.
All her victories were overshadowed by controversy over her sex and high testosterone levels.
Lynsey Sharp, who finished sixth in the 2016 race, said that “everyone can see it’s two separate races”.
Semenya – assigned female at birth and with an intersex condition that results in naturally high testosterone levels – still identifies as a woman.
In 2019, the World Athletics implemented rules barring athletes with certain disorders of sex development (DSDs) from competing in the 400m, 800m, and 1500m events unless they take medication to lower their testosterone.
Semenya has since filed multiple legal cases challenging these rules, arguing they are discriminatory and seeking to restore her and other intersex athletes’ right to compete without testosterone suppression.Gail Devers
Born in Seattle in 1966, Devers achieved greatness despite being diagnosed with Grave’s disease, an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroids.
After being diagnosed with the disease in 1990, Devers underwent radiation treatment, which caused blisters and swelling in her feet, making it difficult for her to walk.
Despite her illness, Devers competed in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and won gold in the 100m.
She repeated this achievement at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, becoming the first woman to retain the Olympic 100m title.
Abebe Bikila
In 1960, 28-year-old Bikila attracted the world’s attention being the first East African to win a gold medal – and running the event barefoot.
Bikila often trained barefoot and his team-issued shoes caused him pain, so he went without.
In Tokyo, 1964, he won again – but this time wearing shoes. He became the first person in Olympic history to win successive marathons.
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