- Carl Lewis
Frederick Carlton ("Carl") Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is a retired American track and field athlete who won 10 Olympic medals including 9 golds, and 10 World Championships medals, of which 8 were golds, in a career that spanned from 1979 when he first achieved a world ranking to 1996 when he last won an Olympic title and subsequently retired. He currently lives in Los Angeles and is pursuing an acting career.
- Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Jackie Joyner-Kersee (born March 3, 1962) is a retired American athlete, ranked amongst the all-time greatest heptathletes. She won three gold, one silver and two bronze Olympic medals. Named after Jackie Kennedy, she currently lives in East St. Louis, Illinois. Joyner-Kersee was the first woman to score over 7,000 points in a heptathlon event (during the 1986 Goodwill Games).
- Florence Griffith-Joyner
Florence Griffith-Joyner (born Delorez Florence Griffith), also known as Flo-Jo (December 21, 1959 - September 21, 1998) was an American track and field athlete. She is best known for her media flamboyance and setting World Records in the 100 m and 200 m, which still stand as of 2007. Her career was dogged by allegations of drug use, which was speculated to have caused her premature death.
- Allyson Felix
Allyson Felix (born November 18, 1985 in Los Angeles, California) is a track and field sprint athlete, competing internationally for the United States in the 200 meters.
- Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (born 8 June, 1962) is a former American athlete who competed mainly in the 200 metres. He competed for the United States in the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles, United States in the 200 metres where he won the bronze medal.
- Gail Devers
Yolanda Gail Devers (born November 19, 1966 in Seattle, Washington, USA) is a three-time Olympic 100 m champion in athletics for the US Olympic Team. Devers grew up near San Diego and graduated from Sweetwater High School in nearby National City, CA. A young talent in the 100 m and 100 m hurdles, Devers was in training for the 1988 Summer Olympics, started experiencing health problems, suffering from among others migraine and vision loss.
- Jeremy Wariner
Jeremy Wariner (born January 31, 1984 in Irving, Texas) is an American track athlete. He is a graduate of Lamar High School in Arlington, Texas. Height: 1.83m (approx. 6') He won the gold medal in 400 meters the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, heading an American clean sweep. The USA also won the gold medal in the 4x400m with Jeremy Wariner running the third leg. He is known for wearing sunglasses for all of his races, regardless if it is sunny or not.
- Tommie Smith
Tommie Smith (born June 6, 1944 in Clarksville, Texas) is an American former track & field athlete and professional football player. Smith was the winner of the 200-meter dash at the 1968 Summer Olympics
- Jim Thorpe
Jacobus Franciscus "Jim" Thorpe (May 28 1888–March 28 1953) was an American athlete. Considered one of the most versatile athletes in modern sports, he won Olympic gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon, played American football collegiately and professionally, and also played professional baseball and basketball.
- John Carlos
John Wesley Carlos (born June 5, 1945 in Harlem, New York) is an American former track and field athlete and professional football player. He was the bronze-medal winner of the 200-meter at the 1968 Summer Olympics.
- Chryste Gaines
Chryste Dionne Gaines (born September 14, 1970) is an American athlete who competed mainly in the 100 metres. She competed for the United States in the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta, USA in the 4 x 100 metres where she won the gold medal with her team mates olympic 100m champion Gail Devers, Inger Miller and Gwen Torrence who won the 200m gold and a bronze in the 100m. She returned to Sydney for the 2000 Summer Olympics as the sole survivor of the 4 x 100 metre, …
- Al Oerter
Alfred Adolf "Al" Oerter, Jr. (born September 19, 1936) is a former American athlete, four times Olympic Champion in the discus throw. In 2005, he was inducted into the Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame. Born in Astoria, New York, Al Oerter grew up in New Hyde Park and attended Sewanhaka High School. He began his career at the age of 15 when a discus landed at his feet and he threw it back past the crowd of throwers.
- Edwin Moses
Edwin Corley Moses (born in Dayton, Ohio August 31, 1955) is an American track and field athlete who won gold medals in the 400-meter hurdles at the 1976 and 1984 Olympics. Between 1977 and 1987, Moses won 107 consecutive finals (122 consecutive races). He set the world record in his event four times. In addition to his running, Moses was also an innovative reformer in the areas of Olympic eligibility and drug testing.
- Shawn Crawford
Shawn Crawford (born January 14, 1978) is a sprint athlete from the United States.
- Stacy Dragila
Stacy Dragila (born Stacy Mikaelson on March 25, 1971) is an American pole vaulter. Dragila was born in Auburn, California. She was a standout pole vaulter for the Idaho State University women's track and field team in the mid-1990s. She won the first gold medal in women's pole vaulting at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Her accomplishments also include being a two-time world champion (1999, 2001), a 1997 world indoor champion, …
- Bruce Jenner
William Bruce Jenner (born October 28, 1949 in Mount Kisco, New York) is a U.S. track athlete. An excellent high school athlete, Bruce Jenner attended Newtown High School in Newtown, Connecticut, transferring from Sleepy Hollow High School in Tarrytown, New York. (Years later, the stadium there was to be named after him, …
- Joan Benoit
Joan Benoit Samuelson (born May 16, 1957) is an American former marathon runner who won gold at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the year that the women's marathon was introduced. As a result she was the first ever women's Olympic marathon champion.
- Bob Beamon
Robert ("Bob") Beamon (born August 29, 1946) is a former American track and field athlete, best known for his long-standing world record in the long jump. Beamon, from Jamaica, New York, set a world record for the long jump at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City with a jump of 8.90 m (29 ft. 2-1/2 in.). His world record stood for 23 years, and was named by Sports Illustrated magazine as one of the five greatest sports moments of the 20th century.
- Mike Powell
Michael ("Mike") Anthony Powell is an American Track and Field athlete, and the holder of the long jump world record. Mike Powell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the 1991 World Championships in Athletics (Tokyo), he broke Bob Beamon's 23-year-old long jump world record by 5 cm (2 inches), leaping 8.95 m (29 ft 4½ in). The world record still stands.
- Rafer Johnson
Rafer Lewis Johnson (born August 18, 1935) is a former American decathlete. Johnson was born in Hillsboro, Texas, but moved to Kingsburg, California at age 9. In high school, he played on the school's football, baseball and basketball teams. As a versatile athlete, he was attracted to the decathlon after seeing double Olympic Champion Bob Mathias compete and told his coach "I could have beaten most of those guys in that meet". He competed in his first meet in 1954, …
- Latasha Colander
LaTasha Colander is a track and field sprint athlete, competing internationally for United States. She is a 2004 Olympic Trials 100 m Champion; 2000 Olympic 4x400 m gold medalist; Two-time U.S. 400 m champion (’00, ’01); World Record Holder, 4x200 m relay; 1994 USA Juniors champion (100H); 2nd, 1994 World Junior Champs (100H). She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She missed the 2001 World Championships due to a quadriceps injury.
- Donovan Bailey
Donovan Bailey (born December 16, 1967) is a Canadian former athlete. Born in Manchester, Jamaica, Bailey emigrated from Jamaica to Canada at age 13, and played basketball before his graduation at Queen Elizabeth Park High School in Oakville, Ontario. He began competing as a 100 m sprinter part-time in 1991, but he did not take up the sport seriously until 1994. At that time, he was also a successful stockbroker. The following year saw his international breakthrough.
- C. J. Hunter
Cottrell J. Hunter, III (born December 14, 1968, in Washington, D.C.) is a former American shot putter and coach. He was the 1999 World Champion, but is perhaps best known for his involvement in the BALCO scandal and as the onetime spouse of superstar sprinter Marion Jones. His personal best was 71' 9", thrown during a 2nd place finish in the 2000 U.S. Olympic trials. The 6'1", 330 lb Hunter was a three-time All-American at Penn State University, …
- Jearl Miles-Clark
Jearl Miles-Clark (born September 4 1966) is a former American athlete who competed mainly in the 400 meters. She competed for the United States in the 1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona, Spain in the 4 x 400 meters where she won the Silver medal with her team mates Natasha Kaiser, Gwen Torrence and Rochelle Stevens. She returned to the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, …
- Dan O'Brien
Daniel ("Dan") Dion O'Brien (born July 18, 1966 in Portland, Oregon) is a former American decathlete. He was deemed one of the best decathlon athletes of the 1990s. In 1992 he set a world record of 8,891 points, but failed to qualify for that year's Olympics when he failed to clear a height in the pole vault during the decathlon in the U.S. Olympic Trials. Dan O'Brien grew up as an adopted child in an Irish-American family in Klamath Falls, Oregon.
- Nanceen Perry
Nanceen Perry (born April 19, 1977) is a former sprinter from the United States who won an Olympic bronze medal in 4x100 meters relay in Sydney 2000.
- Adam Nelson
Adam Nelson (born July 7, 1975 in Atlanta, Georgia) is an elite American shotputter. A 1997 graduate of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, Nelson has competed in two Olympic Games. In 1996, Nelson worked at a concession stand during the 1996 Summer Olympics in his hometown of Atlanta.
- Perdita Felicien
Perdita Felicien (born August 29, 1980 in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada) was a world-class hurdler in track and field athletic competition, most famous for her disappointing failure to jump over a single hurdle in the 2004 Athens Olympic games. Felicien carries her mother's maiden name, whose origins are in the tiny Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia. Her mother named her "Perdita" after a contestant on the television game show, "The Price is Right".
- Regina Jacobs
Regina Jacobs (born August 28, 1963) is a former middle distance runner from the United States. After graduating from Stanford University she represented the USA in three consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1988 in Seoul, South Korea, before ending her career in disgrace after a positive drug test. Jacobs took second place in the 1500 m race at the 6th World Championships in Athletics in Athens (4:04.63) in 1997, …
- Jessica Zelinka
Jessica Zelinka (born 3 September 1981 in London, Ontario) is a Canadian heptathlete. She finished fifth at the 2000 World Junior Championships, eleventh at the 2005 World Championships and fourth at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Her personal best score is 6314 points, achieved in May 2006 in Götzis.
- Bob Hayes
Robert Lee ("Bullet Bob") Hayes (December 20, 1942 - September 18, 2002) was an American track and field athlete and American football player. He was a two-sport athlete in college where he excelled in both track and football at Florida A&M. In 1962, while still a student at Florida A&M, Hayes ran a new world record for the 100 yard dash with a time of 9.2 seconds.
- Evelyn Ashford
Evelyn Ashford (born April 15, 1957 in Shreveport, Louisiana) is an American athlete, the 1984 Olympic champion in the 100 m. Arguably the greatest female sprinter ever, with a career that spanned an unprecedented five Olympic Games. She has with automatic timing run under the 11 second barrier over 30 times and was the first to run under 11 seconds in an Olympic Games. As a 19-year-old, Ashford finished 5th in the 100 m event at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
- Bob Mathias
Robert Bruce Mathias (November 17 1930 - September 2 2006) was an American decathlete, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and United States Congressman.
- Dwight Phillips
Dwight Phillips (born: October 1, 1977 in Decatur, Georgia, USA) is an athlete who specializes in the long jump. Dwight was a promising sprinter in his early days but concentrated on the triple jump while at University of Kentucky before switching to the long jump after moving to Arizona State University in 2000. He hit the big time in 2003 when he won both the IAAF indoor and outdoor World Championships.
- Muna Lee
Muna Lee (born October 30, 1981) is an American sprinter. She competed in 200 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics, she made it to the final and tied for last. She won a gold medal in 4 x 100 metres relay at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics.
- Deena Kastor
Competing in her third Olympics in the marathon (Aug. 17), Deena is the top female distance runner in the United States. She took home the bronze medal in the women's marathon in Athens in 2004. The Agoura, CA, native now resides in Mammoth Lakes, CA. Deena Kastor was forced to withdraw during the women's marathon due to injury.
- Galen Rupp
Galen Rupp is an American cross-country and track and field athlete. He is one of the nation's top young distance runners, having set important junior national and American high school records while competing for Portland, Oregon's Central Catholic High School. In 2004 he broke Gerry Lindgren’s 40-year old U.S. junior record for 5,000 meters by almost seven seconds, running 13:37.91 for the distance. Rupp also holds the U.S. high school record for 3,000 meters at 7:49.16, …
- Ryan Hall
Ryan Hall (born October 14, 1982 in Big Bear Lake, California) is is an American track and cross-country athlete.
- Xavier Carter
Xavier "PeeWee" Carter (born 8 December, 1985 in Palm Bay, Florida) is a professional track & field athlete. He attends Louisiana State University and was a star on both the track & field team and the football team. Prior to LSU, Xavier Carter graduated from Palm Bay Senior High School in Melbourne, FL. During his time in high school, Carter became a star track athlete and football player. His high school track and field career included nine Florida state titles, …
- Amy Acuff
Amy Lyn Acuff is an athlete from the United States. An aggressive high jump competitor, Acuff competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics as a member of USA Track and Field and is a three-time Olympian. Her personal best is 2.01 m, which she achieved in Zürich on 2003-08-15. Acuff lives in Austin, Texas, and is an alumna of UCLA. Acuff is distantly related to country musician Roy Acuff (her grandfather’s second cousin).