-
Athletes
Build your taste profile and get better suggestions. You've rated 0 of 63 topics. Want more suggestions? Launch Quick Rate- Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963) is a retired American professional basketball player and active businessman. His biography on the National Basketball Association (NBA) website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time." Jordan was one of...
- Michael Phelps
Michael Fred Phelps (Baltimore (Maryland), born June 30, 1985) is an American professional swimmer who is generally considered the greatest swimmer of all time as well as one of the greatest Olympians of all time. He has won 14 career Olympic gold medals, the most by any Olympian.
- Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong (born Lance Edward Gunderson on September 18, 1971) is an American professional road racing cyclist who rides for the Kazakhstan-based UCI ProTeam Astana. He won the Tour de France a record-breaking seven consecutive years, from 1999 to 2005.
- Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., January 17, 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.) is a retired American boxer and three-time World Heavyweight Champion, who is widely considered to be one of the best heavyweight boxing champions ever. As an amateur, he won a gold medal in the light...
- Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Douglas Gretzky, CC (born January 26, 1961) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey player. He is currently the part-owner, head of hockey operations, and head coach of the Phoenix Coyotes of the National Hockey League (NHL). Born and raised in Brantford, Ontario, Gretzky honed his...
- David Beckham
David Robert Joseph Beckham OBE (born 2 May 1975) is an English footballer who currently plays in midfield for American Major League Soccer club Los Angeles Galaxy and the England national team. Twice runner-up for FIFA World Player of the Year and in 2004 the world's highest-paid footballer...
- Andre Agassi
Andre Kirk Agassi (born April 29, 1970) is a former World No. 1 professional American tennis player who won eight Grand Slam singles tournaments and an Olympic gold medal in singles. He is, with Rod Laver, Don Budge, Fred Perry, Roy Emerson, and Roger Federer, one of only six men to have won each...
- Jackie Robinson
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was the first African-American Major League Baseball player of the modern era. While not the first African-American player in major league history, Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn...
- Pelé
Edison Arantes do Nascimento , KBE (born 23 October 1940), best known by his nickname Pelé (Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: [pɛˈlɛ], usual English pronunciation: /'pɛleɪ/) is a Brazilian football player. He was given the title of Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic...
- Michelle Kwan
Michelle Wingshan Kwan (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: Guān Yǐngshān; Cantonese IPA: Gwaan Wingsaan; born July 7, 1980) is an American figure skater. She has won nine U.S. championships, five World Championships, and two Olympic medals.
- Peyton Manning
Peyton Williams Manning (born March 24, 1976 in New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American football quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League. One of only two three-time NFL MVPs, he is statistically one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.
- Anna Kournikova
Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova (Russian: Анна Сергеевна Ку́рникова, Anna Sergeevna Kurnikova; born June 7, 1981) is a semi-retired Russian professional tennis player and model. Her celebrity status made her one of the best known tennis players worldwide.
- Lou Gehrig
Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig (June 19, 1903 – June 2, 1941), born Ludwig Heinrich Gehrig, was an American baseball player in the 1920s and 1930s, chiefly remembered for his prowess as a hitter and the longevity of his consecutive games played record, and the pathos of his tearful farewell from...
- Maria Sharapova
When Sharapova was six, she and her father moved from Russia to the United States, to enroll her in the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. After rising rapidly through the junior and professional ranks in the years that followed, Sharapova won her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2004 at the...
- Mickey Mantle
Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995) was an American baseball player who was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. He played his entire 18-year major-league professional career for the New York Yankees, winning 3 American League MVP titles and playing in...
- Joe Montana
Joseph Clifford Montana, Jr., (born June 11, 1956), nicknamed Joe Cool and Comeback Joe, is a retired American football player whose professional career in the National Football League (NFL) spanned the late 1970s through the mid-1990s. Montana started his NFL career in 1979 with the San Francisco...
- Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American professional tennis player. She has been ranked World No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association on four separate occasions; as of April 20, 2009, she was ranked World No. 2. She is the reigning US Open and Australian Open singles...
- Roger Federer
Roger Federer (born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss professional tennis player. As of 17 May 2010, he is ranked World No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), having previously held the number one position for a record 237 consecutive weeks. A number of sports analysts, tennis critics...
- Venus Williams
Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is a former World No. 1 American tennis player who, as of May 11, 2009, is ranked World No. 3. She has won the Wimbledon singles title the last two years and is the reigning Wimbledon and Australian Open doubles champion.
- Mia Hamm
Mia Hamm (born Mariel Margaret Hamm on March 17, 1972 in Selma, Alabama) is a retired American soccer player. During her 18-year career as a forward for the U.S. women's national team, she scored more international goals (158) than any other player, male or female, in the history of soccer.
- Danica Patrick
Danica Sue Patrick (born March 25, 1982 in Beloit, Wisconsin) is an American auto racing driver, currently competing in the IndyCar Series, model and advertising spokeswoman. She was raised in Roscoe, Illinois. Patrick was named the Rookie of the Year for both the 2005 Indianapolis 500 and the 2005...
- Shawn Johnson
Shawn Machel Johnson (born January 19, 1992) is an American artistic gymnast. She is the 2008 Olympic women's balance beam gold medalist, the individual all-around silver medalist, the 2007 all-around World Champion, and the 2007 and 2008 U.S. all-around champion.
- Jerry Rice
Jerry Lee Rice (born October 13, 1962) is an American former football player. He is widely regarded as the greatest wide receiver ever and one of the greatest players in National Football League (NFL) history. On November 4, 2010, Rice was chosen by NFL Network's NFL Films production The Top 100...
- Walter Payton
Walter Payton (July 25, 1954 – November 1, 1999) was an American football player who spent his entire professional career with the National Football League's Chicago Bears. Walter Payton was known around the NFL as "Sweetness". He is remembered as one of the most prolific running backs in the...
- Tiger Woods
Eldrick Tont Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Currently the World No. 1, he was the highest-paid professional athlete in 2008, having earned an estimated $110 million from winnings...
- Usain Bolt
Usain Bolt CD (born 21 August 1986) is a Jamaican sprinter. Bolt holds the Olympic and world records for the 100 metres at 9.69 seconds, the 200 metres at 19.30 seconds and, along with his teammates, the 4x100 metres relay at 37.10 seconds, all set at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
- Wilt Chamberlain
Wilton Norman "Wilt" Chamberlain (August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999), nicknamed Wilt the Stilt, The Big Dipper, and Chairman of the Boards, was an American professional NBA basketball player for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers; and also...
- Michael Johnson
Michael Duane Johnson (born September 13, 1967 in Dallas, Texas) is a retired United States sprinter. He won four Olympic gold medals and was crowned world champion eight times. Johnson currently holds the world record in the 400 m and 4 x 400 m relay and formerly held the world record in the 200 m...
- Yao Ming
Yao Ming (born September 12, 1980) is a professional basketball player who plays for the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is currently the tallest player in the NBA, at 2.29 m (7 ft 6 in). Yao, who was born in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, started playing for...
- Nadia Com?neci
Nadia Elena Comaneci is a Romanian gymnast, winner of three Olympic gold medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics, and the first gymnast ever to be awarded a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic gymnastic event. She is also the winner of two gold medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics. She is one of the...
- Brett Favre
Brett Lorenzo Favre (pronounced /ˈfɑrv/) (born October 10, 1969, in Gulfport, Mississippi) is a retired American football quarterback of the National Football League (NFL). He was the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers between 1992 and 2007 and the New York Jets in 2008.
- Pete Sampras
Petros "Pete" Sampras (born August 12, 1971, in Washington, D.C.) is a retired Greek American tennis player and former World No. 1. During his 15-year career, he won 14 Grand Slam men's singles titles, (a record he shares with Roger Federer from Switzerland) and had a 203–38 win-loss record over...
- Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bean Bryant (born August 23, 1978 (1978-08-23), frequently referred to simply as Kobe, is an American All-Star shooting guard who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Bryant enjoyed a successful high school basketball career and made instant headlines...
- Oscar De La Hoya
Oscar De La Hoya (born February 4, 1973)--nicknamed "The Golden Boy"--is a retired American boxer of Mexican descent. He won a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympic Games. De La Hoya comes from a boxing family. His grandfather Vicente, father Joel Sr., and brother Joel Jr. were all boxers. De La Hoya...
- Sasha Cohen
Alexandra Pauline "Sasha" Cohen (born October 26, 1984) is an American figure skater. She is the 2006 Olympic silver medalist, 2003 Grand Prix Final Champion, and 2006 U.S. National Champion. Cohen was born in Westwood, California, a neighborhood in Los Angeles.
- Arnold Palmer
Arnold Daniel Palmer (born September 10, 1929) is an American golfer who is generally regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of men's professional golf. He has won numerous events on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour, dating back to 1955.
- Bo Jackson
Vincent Edward "Bo" Jackson (born November 30, 1962 in Bessemer, Alabama) is a retired American athlete and a former multi-sport professional. Jackson played at the highest level of sports in the United States in both American football and baseball. In football, Jackson played running back for the...
- Steffi Graf
Stefanie Maria Graf (born June 14, 1969, in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany) is a former World No. 1 female tennis player from Germany. Graf won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, second among male and female players only to Margaret Court's 24. She is the only player to have won all four...
- Barry Sanders
Barry David Sanders (born July 16, 1968(1968-07-16)) is a former American football running back who spent all of his professional career with the Detroit Lions in the NFL. Sanders is best known for being one of the most prolific running backs in NFL history, and left the game just short of the...
- Dorothy Hamill
Dorothy Stuart Hamill (born July 26, 1956 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American figure skater. She is the 1976 Olympic champion. Hamill was born in Chicago, but her family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut shortly after where she spent the rest of her childhood.
- Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilová (born October 18, 1956, in Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a former World No. 1 women's tennis player. Billie Jean King said about Navratilová in 2006, "She's the greatest singles, doubles and mixed doubles player who's ever lived." Tennis writer Steve Flink, in his book The...
- Manny Pacquiao
Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao (born December 17, 1978), known as Manny "Pac-Man" Pacquiao is a Filipino professional boxer, part-time actor and recording artist. He is the former WBC Lightweight world champion, WBC Super Featherweight world champion, IBF Super Bantamweight world champion, and WBC...
- Jennie Finch
Jennie Lynn Finch (born September 3, 1980), or occasionally using her husband's surname, Daigle, is an American softball player who pitched for the USA softball team that won the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics, and she won a Silver medal for USA softball in the 2008 Summer Olympics.
- Joe Louis
Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981), better known as Joe Louis, was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949. Nicknamed the Brown Bomber, Louis helped elevate boxing out of a nadir in popularity in the post-Jack Dempsey era by establishing a reputation as an honest...
- Katarina Witt
Katarina Witt (born December 3, 1965) is a German figure skater. In Germany she was commonly affectionately called "Kati" in the past, but today her full name is used more often. She won two Olympic gold medals for East Germany, first in the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics and the second in 1988 at the...
- Deion Sanders
Deion Luwynn Sanders (born August 9, 1967 in Fort Myers, Florida) is a former National Football League cornerback, Major League Baseball outfielder, and is currently an NFL Network commentator. He was listed at a height of 6'1 and weighed 195 lbs. He carries the nicknames "Prime Time" and "Neon...
- LeBron James
LeBron Raymone James (born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he was a three-time "Mr. Basketball" of Ohio in high school, and was highly promoted in the national media as a future...
- Ichiro Suzuki
Ichiro Suzuki, often known simply as Ichiro, (born October 22, 1973, in Kasugai, Nishikasugai, Aichi Prefecture, Japan) is a Major League Baseball outfielder for the Seattle Mariners. Ichiro's rights were won by the Seattle Mariners from the Orix Blue Wave and he signed a contract with them.
- Michelle Wie
Michelle Sung Wie (born October 11, 1989) is an American professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour. In 2006, she was named in a Time magazine article: "one of 100 people who shape our world." Wie was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her parents are both natives of the Republic of Korea (South Korea)...
- Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Jackie Joyner-Kersee (born March 3, 1962 in East St. Louis, Illinois) is a retired American athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the women's heptathlon as well as in the women's long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals, in those two different...
- Jim Thorpe
Jacobus Franciscus "Jim" Thorpe (Sac and Fox (Sauk): Wa-Tho-Huk) (28 May, 1888 – 28 March, 1953) was an American athlete. Considered one of the most versatile athletes in modern sports, he won Olympic gold medals in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon, played American football at the collegiate and...
- Jeff Gordon
Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is a professional American race car driver. He was born in Vallejo, California, raised in Pittsboro, Indiana, and currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is a four-time NASCAR Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup) Series champion, three-time Daytona 500...
- Jim Brown
James Nathaniel "Jim" Brown (born February 17, 1936) is an American former professional football player who has also made his mark as an actor and social activist. He is best known for his exceptional and record-setting nine-year career as a running back for the NFL Cleveland Browns from 1957 to...
- LaDainian Tomlinson
LaDainian Tomlinson (born June 23, 1979) is an American football running back for the San Diego Chargers of the National Football League. Tomlinson was drafted in the first round (5th overall) of the 2001 NFL Draft in which he was part of an infamous trade which sent him to the Chargers and the 1st...
- Alex Rodriguez
Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez (born July 27, 1975) is a Dominican American professional baseball player. Nicknamed "A-Rod", he currently plays third base for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball. He previously played shortstop for the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers.
- Lisa Leslie
Lisa Deshaun Leslie (born July 7, 1972, in Gardena, California) is an American professional women's basketball player in the WNBA for the Los Angeles Sparks. She is a three-time WNBA MVP and a four-time Olympic gold medal winner. The number seven pick in the 1997 WNBA draft, she followed a superb...
- Annika Sörenstam
Annika Sörenstam (born 9 October 1970) is a Swedish professional golfer whose achievements rank her as one of the most successful golfers in history. Before "stepping away" from competitive golf at the end of the 2008 season, she won 90 international tournaments as a professional, making her the...
- Steve Yzerman
Stephen Gregory Yzerman born May 9, 1965, in Cranbrook, British Columbia) is a retired Canadian-American professional hockey player who played his entire National Hockey League (NHL) career with the Detroit Red Wings. Yzerman led the Wings to three Stanley Cup championships (1997, 1998 and 2002...
- Bonnie Blair
Bonnie Kathleen Blair (born March 18, 1964 in Cornwall, New York) is a retired American speedskater. One of the top female skaters of her time, and one of the most decorated female athletes in Olympic history, Blair competed for the United States in four Olympics, and in her Olympic career won five...
- Aleksandra Wozniak
Aleksandra Wozniak (born September 7, 1987, in Montreal, Canada) is a professional Canadian tennis player of Polish origin. Wozniak is Canada's highest-ranked women's singles player at # 21 in the world (June 22, 2009), and the 4th-highest ranked Canadian singles player of all time.
- Roger Bannister
Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister, CBE (born 23 March 1929) is an English former athlete best known as the first man in history to run the mile in less than 4 minutes. Bannister became a distinguished neurologist and Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, before retiring in 2001.
- Se Ri Pak
Pak Se Ri (born September 28, 1977 in Daejeon) is a South Korean professional golfer, playing on the LPGA Tour. She was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in November 2007. Pak turned professional in 1996, a year before she moved to the United States as a 20-year-old.
