40 Fun Facts About Famous Athletes

Which heavyweight champion was stripped of his title in 1967 for refusing the US military draft?

Muhammad Ali did not fight for nearly four years at his athletic peak, and in 1971 the Supreme Court overturned his draft-evasion conviction 8–0.

Which guard left the Chicago Bulls in 1993 to play minor-league baseball for the Birmingham Barons?

Michael Jordan batted .202 with three home runs for the Barons in 1994, then returned to win three more NBA titles with the Bulls.

Which quarterback, picked 199th overall in the 2000 NFL Draft, went on to win seven Super Bowls?

Tom Brady won six titles with the New England Patriots and a seventh with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, more Super Bowls than any single NFL franchise has won.

Which sprinter set the 100 m world record of 9.58 seconds at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin?

Usain Bolt's 9.58 was the biggest improvement on the record since electronic timing began, and days later he ran 19.19 for the 200 m.

Which gymnast left the Tokyo 2020 team final with 'the twisties', then won three Paris 2024 golds?

Simone Biles has five skills named after her in the Code of Points, and her 11 Olympic and 30 world medals make her the most decorated gymnast in history.

Which tennis player won her 23rd major singles title in Melbourne in January 2017 while pregnant?

Serena Williams' 23 majors are the most of the Open Era and one short of Margaret Court's all-time record of 24.

Which boxer was disqualified in 1997 for biting Evander Holyfield on both ears during their rematch?

Mike Tyson was fined $3 million and lost his licence, and a piece of Holyfield's right ear was found on the ring floor after the fight.

Which cyclist lost all seven of his Tour de France titles in 2012 and was banned for life?

Lance Armstrong had won every Tour from 1999 to 2005 after surviving testicular cancer that spread to his brain, and he finally confessed to Oprah Winfrey in 2013.

Which American won four golds at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, in the sprints, relay and long jump?

Jesse Owens was never invited to the White House by Franklin D. Roosevelt after Berlin, and said 'it was our president who snubbed me'.

Which French midfielder was sent off for headbutting Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final?

Zinedine Zidane had already scored a Panenka penalty off the crossbar in that final, and was still named the tournament's best player the next day.

Which Yankees slugger began his career as a star left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox?

Babe Ruth's sale to the Yankees after the 1919 season began an 86-year Boston title drought that fans dubbed the 'Curse of the Bambino'.

Which number, worn by Jackie Robinson, was retired by every Major League Baseball team in 1997?

42 was the first number retired across an entire league in any sport, and since 2009 every player wears it on April 15, Jackie Robinson Day.

Which swimmer won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the most ever at a single Games?

Michael Phelps retired with 28 Olympic medals and 23 golds, both records, after beating Mark Spitz's 1972 mark of seven wins at one Games.

Which NHL centre has more career assists than any other player has total points, and wore number 99?

Wayne Gretzky's number was retired across the whole NHL in 2000, and his 1988 trade from Edmonton to Los Angeles brought the Oilers $15 million in cash.

Which golfer won the 1997 Masters by a record 12 strokes, becoming its youngest ever champion at 21?

Tiger Woods went on to hold all four major titles at once in 2001, a feat dubbed the 'Tiger Slam', and his 82 PGA Tour wins tie Sam Snead's record.

Which Brazilian forward is the only player to have won three FIFA World Cups, the first at age 17?

Pelé was nicknamed 'O Rei' (the King) after the 1958 tournament, and in 1961 Brazil's government declared him an official national treasure.

Which Argentine captain scored the 'Hand of God' goal against England at the 1986 World Cup?

Diego Maradona scored again four minutes later with a run later voted the greatest World Cup goal ever, and lifted the trophy as captain that year.

Which forward has won a record eight Ballons d'Or and captained Argentina to the 2022 World Cup?

Lionel Messi was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency as a boy, and his club Newell's Old Boys agreed to contribute to treatment but reneged.

Which forward passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in February 2023 as the NBA's all-time leading scorer?

LeBron James is the only player to win NBA Finals MVP with three different teams: Miami, Cleveland and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Which NBA guard scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors in January 2006, the second-most ever?

Kobe Bryant was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets in 1996 and traded straight to the Lakers, who later retired both his numbers, 8 and 24.

Which center scored 100 points in a single NBA game in 1962, on a neutral court in Hershey?

Wilt Chamberlain averaged 50.4 points per game across that whole season, and never fouled out of a game in his entire career.

Which tennis player held the men's world No. 1 ranking for a record 237 consecutive weeks?

Roger Federer's eight Wimbledon singles titles are a men's record, and he spent 310 weeks at No. 1 in all.

Which Spaniard, coached by uncle Toni to play left-handed, won the French Open a record 14 times?

Rafael Nadal lost only four matches at Roland Garros in his entire career, and won the title there in three different decades.

Which player beat Bobby Riggs in straight sets in the 1973 'Battle of the Sexes' in Houston?

Billie Jean King won 6–4, 6–3, 6–3 before 30,492 spectators and an estimated 90 million TV viewers, and New York's national tennis centre now bears her name.

Which player completed the only 'Golden Slam', winning all four majors and Olympic gold in 1988?

Steffi Graf spent a record 377 weeks ranked world No. 1 and won 22 major singles titles, the second-most of the Open Era.

Which Braves slugger hit his 715th home run in April 1974 after an offseason of death threats?

Hank Aaron finished with 755 home runs and still holds the career records for runs batted in, extra-base hits and total bases.

Which Yankee called himself 'the luckiest man on the face of the earth' in a 1939 farewell speech?

Lou Gehrig had just been diagnosed with ALS, the illness now often called by his name in the US, and died in 1941 just 17 days short of his 38th birthday.

Which Orioles shortstop broke a 56-year-old record by playing his 2,131st consecutive game in 1995?

Cal Ripken Jr. stretched the streak to 2,632 games before sitting out by choice in 1998, and played all 21 of his seasons in Baltimore.

Which player became the first with 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in one MLB season, in 2024?

Shohei Ohtani did it in the first year of a $700 million Dodgers contract, then the largest in professional sports history.

Which Mississippi Valley State product holds NFL career records for catches, yards and touchdowns?

Jerry Rice won three Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers and played 20 seasons, finishing with the Raiders and Seahawks.

Which British driver equalled Michael Schumacher's record of seven Formula One world titles in 2020?

Lewis Hamilton holds the records for most wins and pole positions, and remains the only Black driver ever to race in Formula One.

Which Brazilian's title duels with Alain Prost ended in collisions at Suzuka in 1989 and 1990?

Ayrton Senna won three world titles with McLaren and was killed leading the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, aged 34.

Which skater was clubbed on the leg in 1994 in an attack planned by a rival's ex-husband?

Nancy Kerrigan recovered to win Olympic silver at Lillehammer just seven weeks later, finishing behind Oksana Baiul.

Which Olympian lost his 1912 pentathlon and decathlon golds for playing semi-pro baseball?

Jim Thorpe, a citizen of the Sac and Fox Nation, was restored as sole champion of both events only in 2022, 69 years after his death.

Which gymnast's first perfect 10, at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, showed on the scoreboard as 1.00?

Nadia Comăneci was 14 and scored six more 10s in Montreal, and in 1989 she fled Romania on foot weeks before the revolution.

Which boxer, later famous for a grill, regained the heavyweight title in 1994 at age 45?

George Foreman knocked out 26-year-old Michael Moorer to take the title, and in 1999 Salton paid him $138 million for the rights to his name on the grill.

Which athlete won the Olympic long jump four Games in a row, from Los Angeles 1984 to Atlanta 1996?

Carl Lewis won 65 straight long jump competitions over ten years, and his nine Olympic golds match Mark Spitz's and Paavo Nurmi's.

Which sprinter's 1988 records of 10.49 seconds for 100 m and 21.34 for 200 m have never been beaten?

Florence Griffith Joyner ran at the 1988 Olympic trials with four-inch tiger-striped nails, and died in her sleep in 1998 aged 38.

Which Kenyan ran the first sub-two-hour marathon in Vienna in 2019, a time not ratified as a record?

Eliud Kipchoge ran 1:59:40 behind a pace car and rotating pacers; his ratified best, 2:01:09 in Berlin in 2022, was a world record at the time.

Which junior doctor ran the first sub-four-minute mile at Oxford's Iffley Road track in May 1954?

Roger Bannister's 3:59.4 lasted just 46 days as a record before John Landy beat it, and he then spent forty years as a neurologist.