Birgit Fischer
Birgit Fischer can be considered the Olympics’ Brett Favre. The German kayaker first appeared at the Olympics in 1980, winning a gold medal while representing East Germany. She won two more golds for East Germany in 1988 before announcing her retirement. However, Fischer returned to the Games in 1992 and claimed a fourth gold medal for a unified Germany. In 1996, she captured a fifth gold and in 2000, added two more before the kayaker announced she was retiring again, which didn’t last – again. In 2004, after claiming her eighth gold, she finally called it quits and is now working as a photographer, whose work is with the Art of the Olympians.
Birgit Fischer
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Arguably, Joyner-Kersee is the greatest female athlete in history. She overcame severe asthma and exceled in track and field, winning back-to-back gold in the heptathlon (1988, 1992) and captured the long jump gold medal in 1988. While she was training for the 1984 Olympics, the talented athlete was also playing basketball at UCLA. Joyner-Kersee still holds the world record for heptathlon. Aside from being on the USA Track & Field Board of Directors, she actively promotes children’s education, racial equality and women’s rights, and her foundation, the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation, is focused on helping kids in East St. Louis with athletics and schooling.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
