Francina Elsje "Fanny" Blankers-Koen was a Dutch track and field athlete, best known for winning four gold medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. She competed there as a 30-year-old mother of two, earning her the nickname "the Flying Housewife", and was the most successful athlete at the event.
Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee is a retired American track and field athlete who competed in both the heptathlon and long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals at four different Olympic Games. Joyner-Kersee was also a four-time gold medalist at the world championships. Since 1988, she has held the world record for heptathlon.
Anju Bobby George is a retired Indian athlete. Anju Bobby George made history when she won the bronze medal in long jump at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics in Paris. With this achievement, she became the first Indian athlete ever to win a medal in a World Championships in Athletics jumping 6.70 metres (22.0 ft). She went on to win the gold medal at the IAAF World Athletics Final in 2005, a performance she considers her best. Anju was upgraded to the gold status from silver in the 2005 World Athletics Final in Monte Carlo following the disqualification of Tatyana Kotova of Russia by the International Association of Athletics Federations, following the recent re-testing of the latter's sample collected at the 2005 World Championship in Helsinki. She was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2002, Khel Ratna in 2003 and Padma Shri in 2004. She had got 5th position with personal best of 6.83 metres (22.4 ft) at the 2004 Athens Olympics. In March 2021, Anju won the BBC lifetime achievement award for best athlete in India. She is also the current vice-president of the Athletics Federation of India.
Alfrederick Joyner is an American track and field coach and former athlete. He was born in East St. Louis, Illinois. He is the 1984 Olympic gold medalist in the triple jump. He was also the coach and husband of the late four-time Olympic medalist Florence Griffith Joyner and is the brother of six-time Olympic medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha is an Indian sports administrator and retired track and field athlete. Usha was born in Koothali near Perambra in Kozhikode district, Kerala. She grew up in Payyoli. Usha has been associated with Indian athletics since 1979. She has won 4 gold medals and 7 silver medals in the Asian Games. She is often associated as the "Queen of Indian track and field".
Kinue Hitomi was a Japanese track and field athlete. She was the world record holder in several events in the 1920s – 1930s and was the first Japanese woman to win an Olympic medal. She was also the first woman to represent Japan at the Olympics.
Manathoor Devasia Valsamma is a retired Indian athlete. She was the second Indian woman to win an individual gold medal at the Asian Games and the first to win it on Indian soil.
Reeth Abraham is an athlete from Bengaluru, India and former Asian medalist in long jump and 100 meters hurdles and the former national champion in heptathlon. She won the Arjuna Award in 1997 and the Rajyotsava Award in 1983. Reeth had a long athletic career spanning over 15 years (1976–1992). At the national level championships, she won 16 Gold and 11 Silver medals.
Cynithia "Janay" DeLoach is a United States track and field athlete who won the bronze medal in the women's long jump at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She was listed in The Coloradoan's #3 Top Sports Story of 2011 about her road to the 2012 Olympics. She is currently signed to Nike and trains in Colorado.
Joseph Abraham is an Indian track and field athlete from Kerala. He holds the current 400 metre hurdles State record of 49.51 seconds set during the 2007 World Championships in Athletics in Osaka on 26 August 2007. At Osaka, Abraham became the first Indian male athlete to clear the opening round of an event in the World Athletics Championships when he reached the 400m hurdles semifinals. He also won the 400m hurdles gold medal at 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.
Mayookha Johny is an Indian track and field athlete from Kerala who specialises in long jump and triple jump. She holds the current Indian National record for triple jump with a mark of 14.11 m. She is the first Indian woman to cross the fourteen-metre mark.
Leslie Maxie is a retired American track and field athlete and subsequently a television broadcast journalist.
Yvette Lewis is a German-born American track and field athlete who competes for Panama in the 100 meter hurdles and the triple jump. She represented the United States in international competition until October 2012 when switched to compete for Panama. Her best time in the hurdles is 12.76 seconds while her best triple jump is 13.84 meters. She won the gold medal in the hurdles at the 2011 Pan American Games
In India, the Athletics was introduced during the period of the British Raj. The sport is governed by the Athletics Federation of India, which was formed in 1946.
Kumaravel Premkumar is an Indian long jumper from Tamil Nadu. He is the national record-holder in both the indoor and outdoor long jump. He won a bronze medal at the 2012 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships and a silver at the 2013 Asian Athletics Championships.
Eetti (transl. Spear) is a 2015 Tamil-language sports action film written and directed by Ravi Arasu and produced by S. Michael Rayappan. The film stars Atharvaa and Sri Divya, while G. V. Prakash Kumar composed the film's music. The film was released on 11 December 2015.
Janieve Russell is a Jamaican track and field athlete who competes mainly in the 400 metres hurdles and the 400 metres sprint. She won an Olympic bronze medal in the 4 × 400 m relay in Tokyo 2021, where she also finished fourth in the 400m hurdles final in a personal best of 53.08 secs. She is a four-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, winning the 400m hurdles title in 2018 and 2022, and the 4 × 400 m relay in 2014 and 2018. She has also won two relay silvers at the World Championships and a relay gold at the World Indoor Championships.
Chadalavada Anandha Bhavani Devi, also known as C. A. Bhavani Devi, is an Indian sabre fencer. She became the first Indian fencer to qualify for Olympics at the 2020 Olympic Games. She is also a double gold medalist at the Commonwealth Championships. Devi became the first Indian fencer to win a medal at the Asian Championships by winning the bronze medal at the 2023 edition.
Hiriyur Manjunath Jyothi is an Indian sprinter and Commonwealth games medalist. She competes in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4×100 metres relay categories. She is a national champion or former national champion in each of the three events, with personal best timings of 11.3, 23.42, and 43.42 seconds in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4×100 metres relay, respectively. Her personal best times in all three events were after her withdrawal from professional competition for three years to become a mother. A Canara Bank employee, Jyothi is married to the former sprinter S. Srinivas, who is also her personal coach. Despite wanting to win a medal at Asian games, she couldn’t continue sprint due to persistent achilles injury. She ended up her career in 2017 with a gold at the open nationals, Chennai.
Annie Elizabeth Kunz is an American track and field athlete who specializes in heptathlon. She represented United States of America at the Tokyo Olympics, 2019 World Athletics Championships, 2019 Pan American Games and two Thorpe Cups competing in women's heptathlon. She also played soccer in college for Texas A&M.
