Top 30 Runners | Olympic Stories | Olympic Runners
These are the greatest Olympic runners of all time. In no particular order, here are 30 of the highest profile runners in the world. There are long distance runners, sprinters and medium distance runners as well as marathon runners.
1) Michael Johnson
Michael Duane Johnson is an American professional athlete, specialising in sprint running. He was born on 13th September 1967 in Dallas, United States. Johnson’s father was a truck driver and his mother was a teacher. Johnson released an autobiography called ‘Slaying The Dragon’ where he told of how his mother and father had brought Johnson and his siblings up. |
2) Catherine Ndereba Catherine Ndereba is a renowned professional female long distance runner who was born in Kenya on 31st July 1972. As a child, when she collected water for the family, she often returned with the water in double quick time compared with her brothers and sisters.
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3) Haile Gebrselassie Carl Lewis is one of the greatest athletes in the world. He is known for his world records in running as well as his records in the long jump. Carl Lewis was born in Birmingham though he was actually brought up in Willingboro, New Jersey. Carl Lewis started participating in long jump events when he was just 13 years old. Carl also started to perform in sprinting events at a young age as he had the capability of high sprinting speeds. |
4) Hicham El Guerrouj |
5) Duncan Kibet Duncan Kibet is a long distance runner born in Kenya on 25th April 1978. Kibet attended school in Kenya, however he was forced to leave school in 1997 due to financial issues. He was quite late to enter into his running career, and was spurred on by his older brother. Brother Luke Metto was a relatively successful runner himself around the millennium. |
6) Mizuki Noguchi Mizuki Noguchi is a world professional long distance (marathon) runner, and was born in Japan on 3rd July 1978. Mizuki was born in Kanagawa but grew up in Ise City in Mie. At middle school, she began running, competing against school friends on the track and the field.
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7) Roger Bannister Roger Bannister was formerly an English professional runner born in Harrow, England on 23rd March 1929. He started out in Vaughan Primary school in London, where talent for running began to emerge. He later went on to study medicine, and attended Exeter College and Oxford, and St Mary’s Hospital Medical School. |
8) Irina Mikitenko Irina Mikitenko is a German professional long distance runner and was born on August 23, 1972 in Bakanas, Kazakhstan. Her great grandparents had moved to Kazakhstan just before the first World War, so her parents still had their German passports. Mikitenko’s birthday is just before a major sporting event in Germany -just three days after she was born the Olympic Games of Munich began.
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9) James Kwambai |
10) Kenenisa Bekele |
11) Deena Kastor |
12) Patrick Makau |
13) Steve Prefontaine |
14) Paul Tergat |
15) Sun Yingjie |
16) Tirunesh Dibaba Tirunesh Dibaba was born in Chefa on 1st October 1985, Ethiopia. She is an Ethiopian champion in long distance athletic running. She is well known for her sprint finish at the end of her runs, when she commonly overtakes the leader.
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17) Geoffrey Mutai Geoffrey Mutai is a long distance runner, and was born in Kenya on 7th October 1981. He is an athlete runner whose specialist category is long distance road running (i.e. marathons). He has run in the Eindhoven Marathon twice and both times he has won the title.
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18) Yoko Shibui Yoko Shibui is a female professional long distance runner who was born in Tochigi Prefecture in Japan on 14th March 1979. She attended the Nasutakuyo High School in Japan. She is well known for running marathons, 5,000 and 10,000 metre races.
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19) Wang Junxia
Wang Junxia is a renowned female professional Chinese runner. He was born on 19th January 1973. Her home town was Jiaohe in Jilin City, China. Her preferred category was long distance running. Junxia had a relatively short career and retired in 1996 at the age of just 23. Junxia is married to Zhan Yu. |
20) Naoko Takahashi Naoko Takahashi is a Japanese marathon runner, born on 6th May 1972 in Gifu, Japan. She is most famous for her win at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney giving her a gold medal. Many of her fans have nicknames her ‘Q-Chan’ |
21) Sammy Korir Sammy Korir is a long distance runner from Kenya. He was born 12th December 1971. His most notable achievement was in 2008 when he became the first male runner to run ten marathons in under 2 hours and 9 minutes, when he completed the Dubai Marathon.
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22) Linford Christie Linford Christie, born on 2nd April 1960 was a professional British runner, and he remains the only British runner to have won gold medals at the four biggest running events in the world for his performance in the 100 metre races. |
23) Wilson Kipsang Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich is a Kenyan born athletic runner, whose specialist category is long distance running including marathons, but particularly 10 kilometre and half marathon races. He was born on 15th March 1982 in the Keiyo District of Kenya. |
24) Zhou Chunxiu Zhou Chunxiu was born on 15th November 1978 in Jiangsu, China. She is a Chinese long distance marathon runner. She is the daughter of Zhou Fuyuan and Jiang Yunying, who are peasant farmers from one of the poorest areas of their home country, China, called Henan, so their daughter’s success and talent is something that they are naturally extremely proud of. |
25) Usain Bolt Bolt has one of the most apt names in athletic running. He is a Jamaican born athletic sprinter, and was born on 21st August 1986 in Trelawny, Jamaica. He has won three gold medals in his time for his performances in the World Games and Olympic Games. |
26) Abel Kirui
Abel Kirui is a long distance runner from Kenya, and was born on 4th June 1982. Kirui should feel very good about his effort at the 2007 Berlin Marathon as he was up against Haile Gebrselassie, and he probably didn’t think he’d be able to keep up but he came very close. |
27) Liliya Shobukhova Liliya Bulatovna Shobukhova is a Russian long distance female runner who was born in Russia on 13th November 1977. Her specialities are marathon, 3,000 metre and 5,000 metre races |
28) Tyson Gay Tyson Gay born on 9th August 1982 is an American born sprint runner. He was born in Kentucky as an only child to his parents as a couple, Daisy Gay and Greg Mitchell although his mother had children from previous relationships.
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29) Paula Radcliffe Paula’s first successful race was in 1992, when she won the junior title in the World Cross Country Championships when she beat her competitors by quite a way. In the 1993 World Championships when she was just 19, Paula came in 7th place.
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30) Edwin Moses Edwin Moses is one of the most inspirational athletes of our time. He is an American track and field athlete, and was born on 31st August 1955 in Dayton, Ohio. He is well known for being an Olympic champion.
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