Usain Bolt is a prime example of a person who started with little and ended up being quite successful. Bolt was born on August 21, 1986 in Trelawney, Jamaica to Jennifer and Wellesley Bolt who made ends meet by managing a grocery store where his brother, Sadeeki, sister, Shrine and Bolt helped at ("Usain Bolt Biography." JockBio). In his early life, he attended elementary school at Waldensia Primary. By his 12th birthday, Bolt had established himself as the fastest sprinter in the area, however, in the beginning of his high school career, running was not Bolt’s main focus ("Usain Bolt Biography." JockBio). While at William Knibb Memorial High School, a reputable school that had many athletes go on to the national level, Bolt started out …show more content…
When Bolt ran the 100-meters for the first time at the international level he won a gold medal with a time of 10.03. At Bolt’s first meet in 2008, he smashed his personal record in the 100-meters with a new time of 9.76 seconds ("Usain Bolt Biography." JockBio). His next big meet of that year was the Olympic Games in Beijing, China where he ran a 9.69 seconds in the 100-meters setting a new world record and winning a gold medal. Bolt then went on to win the 200-meters at the same Olympic Games with a world record breaking time of 19.30 seconds and winning yet another gold medal. He also set another record in the 4 by 100-meters relay to win another gold medal ("Usain Bolt Biography." JockBio). By the time the 2012 Olympics rolled around, people were already expecting Bolt to break more records, and he did not disappoint. Bolt smashed the Olympic record with a time of 9.63 in the 100-meters. He also finished with a 19.84 in the 200-meters. Although it was not a new record, Bolt still won a gold medal in the event along with a gold in the 4 by 100-meters relay ("Usain Bolt Biography." JockBio). At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Bolt once again won gold medals in both the 100-meters and the 200-meters. He also won gold in the 4 by 100-meters relay. After these games, Bolt has decided to be done with his sprinting career (“Usain Bolt Biography.” The Famous
From a young age, Sanders was around many different influences. Not all were positive. He grew up in Fort Meyers, Florida. His mother was suggested the name, Deion, by a cousin, but added the extra letters to give him some attention. Even from birth he's been in the spotlight. He got the name “Prime Time” at a young age and carried it all the way with him throughout his career. He grew up in the slums of Fort Meyers. He's never spoke much about his childhood, but what he has said has gave powerful insight to what it was like. He's quoted “It would have been easy for me to sell drugs, but I had practice. My friends who didn't have practice, they went straight to the streets and never left.” He's always said that athletics saved his life, without them, he would have been a...
James Cleveland Owens otherwise known as “Jesse” was an Olympic long jumper and sprinter whose speed and inspirational defiance of Hitler shocked the world. The 1936 Olympics were held in Berlin and Adolf Hitler of the Nazi party believed that these Olympic Games would showcase the great skill of the Aryan (Caucasian) race, and the last person he would expect to show him up would be an African-American man (Barnes 1). With sixty-six U.S. Olympic contestants competing in the Games, the American race was really put on the spot in front of Hitler, the most powerful man in the world (Smith 1). Jesse Owens was one of these men, and while being laughed at by Hitler during his one hundred meter sprint against six other Caucasian sprinters, he won by a landslide. With that victory and his other three Olympic gold medals the Owens name was able to be remembered and looked up to for eternity. Jessie Owens is such a great athlete and individual because he defied Adolf Hitler, achieved more than expected of himself, and broke records with ease.
Randall David Johnson was born on September 10, 1963. He was born in Walnut Creek, California. Randy watched the world closely and helped him develop an interest in photography. He was much taller then the kids his age. His height did not make him any less coordinated and he was a great athlete and dominated the game. Because of his height was naturally a good basketball player. He was not at good at baseball but he liked the sport better. He threw very hard but could not control the ball very well. His father was 6-6 and saw great potential in Randy as a pitcher and wanted to see him thrive. Randy practiced pitching by throwing tennis balls at a strike zone he taped to his garage door. When he was 8 years old he went to Little League tryouts
Robinson, Mark D. Ph. D. “Every Black Kid Should Strive to Be a Professional Athlete”.
- second in 45-49 age group in national championship 100 km in 8:51 in New York City in 1993, and
Jesse Owens, also known as “The Buckeye Bullet,” was known for being one of the greatest track and field, African American runners in the 20th century. Jesse was sick a lot when he was a child, but he still had to work to help his family. When Jesse was 9 years old, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio and found out there was a difference between how he was being treated in Ohio and how he was treated where he lived down south. Jesse attended the Ohio State University and went on to break many
In the 1988 Summer Olympics, an unbelievable feat occurred. The feat happened during one of the premiere events, the 100 meter dash. The event was set up to be a great race between Carl Lewis of the United States and Ben Johnson of Canada. This did not happen. Ben Johnson blew away the field running a 9.79, a world record. Carl Lewis finished a distant second with a 9.88 ("Ben Johnson").
As a young male, Owens worked in groceries, loaded freight cars, and even worked in a shoe repair shop. (www.anb.org). During this time period, Jesse Owens realized he had a passion for running. He was encouraged mainly by his Junior High Track coach, Charles Riley. Riley started a rigorous training program for Owens in morning sessions before school because Owens worked. Within a year, Owens was running the 100-yard dash in eleven seconds and in 1928 he set two world records for his age group in the high jump, at six feet, and the long jump, at twenty-two feet, eleven and three-quarters inches (jesse-owens.org). However Owens did not come to full attention until High...
Bobby Mcleod was an Aboriginal activist, singer, songwriter, poet, healer and Yuin Elder. He overcame challenges for Aboriginals at the time and fought for their rights, singing to convey his thoughts for many people and publishing a few books of his poetry. Bobby Mcleod inspired hundreds of people from all over the world to strive for greatness and think about the importance of culture, through his books, music and actions.
Barry Sanders was born July 16th, 1968 in Wichita, Kansas. He grew up in a family being one of eleven other children. When Barry was a kid he was considered to be too short to play football well at the college level. In fact, his 1,417 yards rushing in his senior year of high school wasn't enough to impress college recruiters. One recruiter told Barry's coach, "We don't need another midget." Only two colleges offered Barry a football scholarship. Barry accepted a scholarship from Oklahoma State University and the rest is now history.
Jackie Robinson grew up in a big family. His mother was a single parent so basically him and his brothers were the men of the house and had to take care of their mother. Jackie Robinson was the youngest of five children and was happily raised by his mother (“Robinson, Jackie Biography, Robinson, Jackie - Black History”). Jackie Robinson was 5’11 and weighed 204 lb. Jackie Robinson attended John Muir High School as a teenager then graduated and attended Pasadena Junior College (“Robinson, Jackie - Black History”). Jackie Robinson was an outstanding athlete in high school and chose to attend a Junior College before going to a big Division 1 school. When he got to Pasadena Junior College, his athletic success started to skyrocket.
First, Jerry Rice faced hard times in his younger years. He was born on October 13, 1962, in Starkville, Mississippi (Jerry Rice Bio). Jerry Rice was one of the eight children born to Joe Nathan Rice and Eddie Rice (Encyclopedia.com). At an early age he worked with his father and made bricks. Working every day with bricks and running across yards with bricks, he developed strong hands and quick feet (Encyclopedia.com). At high school, he was caught skipping class by the vice principal and was punished by being
During his freshman and sophomore years, he attended Central High School, a segregated high school in Mobile where he stood out at both football and baseball. Fearin...
Michael Jeffery Jordan was born in Brooklyn, New York on February 17, 1963. Michael’s parents James and Delores Jordan didn’t want to raise their kids in Brooklyn, so they decided to move to North Carolina. They ended up living in a town called Wilmington, where Michael’s mother worked at a bank and his father served as a supervisor at General Electrician. When Michael’s parents worked his 3 older siblings would watch him and his younger sister. (CNN Library 1) As a young boy, Michael loved sports and he played as many as he could like soccer, football, golf, and baseball. But, even from a young age, Michael knew what his true favorite sport to play was basketball. (McCormick 2,3)
He then attended the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, which had offered him a full track scholarship. During his freshman year of college, Sparks was a part of the relay team that set a school record that still stands today but it did not end on a good note. Nicholas got an Achilles tendon injury that forced him to spend the summer not doing much of anything but recuperating.