PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: sports and recreation
American boxer
Muhammad Ali American professional boxer and social activist. Ali was the first fighter to win the world heavyweight championship on three separate occasions; he successfully defended this title 19 times....
American baseball player
Babe Ruth American professional baseball player. Largely because of his home-run hitting between 1919 and 1935, Ruth became, and perhaps remains to this day, America’s most celebrated athlete. Part of...
American football player
Tom Brady American football quarterback who led his teams to a record seven Super Bowl victories (2002, 2004, 2005, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021) and was named the game’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) five...
American golfer
Tiger Woods is an American golfer who dominated professional golf in the late 1990s and early 2000s, becoming the first player to win the four major tournaments consecutively. In 1997, Woods, one of the...
American basketball player
LeBron James American professional basketball player who is widely considered one of the greatest all-around players of all time and who won National Basketball Association (NBA) championships with the...
Argentine-born football player
Lionel Messi Argentine-born football (soccer) player who received a record-setting eight Ballon d’Or awards as the world’s top male player (2009–12, 2015, 2019, 2021, and 2023). In 2022 he helped Argentina...
American football coach
Bill Belichick is widely regarded as the greatest professional gridiron football coach in history. During 24 seasons with the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL), he led the team...
American basketball player
Bill Russell American basketball player who was the first outstanding defensive centre in the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and one of the sport’s greatest icons. He won 11 NBA titles...
Italian automobile manufacturer
Enzo Ferrari was an Italian automobile manufacturer, designer, and racing-car driver whose Ferrari cars often dominated world racing competition in the second half of the 20th century. Enzo Ferrari was...
Spanish tennis player
Rafael Nadal Spanish tennis player who emerged in the early 21st century as one of the game’s leading competitors, especially noted for his performance on clay. He won a record 14 career French Open championships...
Portuguese football player
Cristiano Ronaldo Portuguese football (soccer) forward who was one of the greatest players of his generation. Ronaldo’s father, José Dinis Aveiro, was the equipment manager for the local club Andorinha....
president of Chile
Sebastián Piñera Chilean businessman and politician who served as president of Chile (2010–14) and was elected to a second term in December 2017. When Piñera was a baby, his family moved to the United...
Serbian tennis player
Novak Djokovic is a Serbian tennis player who is one of the greatest men’s players in the history of the game. His 24 Grand Slam singles titles—which includes an unprecedented 10 Australian Open championships—is...
American cyclist
Lance Armstrong American cyclist, who was the only rider to win seven Tour de France titles (1999–2005) but who was later stripped of all his titles after an investigation revealed that he was the key...
American baseball player
Shoeless Joe Jackson American professional baseball player, by many accounts one of the greatest, who was ultimately banned from the game because of his involvement in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. Born...
Swiss tennis player
Roger Federer Swiss tennis player who dominated the sport in the early 21st century with his exceptional all-around game. He won a record eight Wimbledon titles, and in 2018 he became the first player...
Filipino boxer and politician
Manny Pacquiao professional boxer, media celebrity, and politician who became world-famous for winning boxing titles in more weight classes than any other boxer in history. His rise from abject poverty...
American football player
Peyton Manning American collegiate and professional gridiron football quarterback who is considered one of the greatest players at his position in National Football League (NFL) history. He won Super Bowls...
American football player
Drew Brees American gridiron football quarterback who was one of the most prolific passers in National Football League (NFL) history and set numerous single-season and career passing records, including...
American boxer
Mike Tyson American boxer who, at age 20, became the youngest heavyweight champion in history. (Read Gene Tunney’s 1929 Britannica essay on boxing.) A member of various street gangs at an early age, Tyson...
American football player
Aaron Rodgers American professional football quarterback who is considered one of the greatest to ever play the position. He led the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL) to a Super Bowl...
Canadian ice hockey player
Sidney Crosby Canadian ice hockey player who in 2007 became the youngest captain of a National Hockey League (NHL) team and who led the Pittsburgh Penguins to three Stanley Cup championships (2009, 2016,...
president of Liberia
George Weah Liberian football (soccer) player and politician. He was named African, European, and World Player of the Year in 1995—an unprecedented achievement. His talents on the field were equaled by...
American baseball player
Dave Winfield is the only person to have been drafted by teams in Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the American Basketball Association (ABA), and the National Football...
American tennis player
Serena Williams American tennis player who revolutionized women’s tennis with her powerful style of play and who won more Grand Slam singles titles (23) than any other woman or man during the open era....
Indian chess player
Viswanathan Anand Indian chess master who won the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE; international chess federation) world championship in 2000, 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2012. (Read Garry Kasparov’s...
American baseball manager
Tommy Lasorda American professional baseball player (1954–56) and manager, notably with the Major League Baseball (MLB) team Los Angeles Dodgers from 1976 to 1996. He molded the Dodgers into one of the...
Canadian basketball player
Steve Nash, South African-born Canadian basketball player who is considered to be one of the greatest point guards in National Basketball Association (NBA) history. For three seasons (2004–05 to 2006–07),...
American swimmer
Michael Phelps American swimmer, who was the most-decorated athlete in Olympic history with 28 medals, which included a record 23 gold. At the 2008 Games in Beijing, he became the first athlete to win...
American basketball player and coach
Doc Rivers American professional basketball player and coach who, as head coach of the Boston Celtics, led the team to a National Basketball Association (NBA) championship in 2008. Rivers first emerged...
Norwegian chess player
Magnus Carlsen Norwegian chess player who in 2013 at age 22 became the second youngest world chess champion. (Read Garry Kasparov’s Britannica essay on chess & Deep Blue.) Carlsen’s father first taught...
American boxer
Floyd Mayweather, Jr. American boxer whose combination of speed, power, and technical prowess made him one of the best pound-for-pound fighters of all time. (Read Gene Tunney’s 1929 Britannica essay on...
American skier
Lindsey Vonn American Alpine skier who won four women’s World Cup overall championships (2008–10 and 2012) and was the first woman to win 82 World Cup races. She also claimed three Olympic Winter Games...
Japanese baseball player
Ichiro Suzuki Japanese baseball player who amassed the most total hits across all professional baseball leagues in the history of the sport. He was notably also the first non-pitcher to shift from Japanese...
Russian hockey player
Alex Ovechkin Russian ice hockey player who won the Hart Memorial Trophy three times (2008, 2009, and 2013) as the most valuable player in the National Hockey League (NHL). He led the Washington Capitals...
American athlete
Jackie Robinson the first Black baseball player to play in the American major leagues during the 20th century. On April 15, 1947, Robinson broke the decades-old “colour line” of Major League Baseball when...
American golfer
Phil Mickelson American professional golfer who became one of the most dominant players on the Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA) Tour in the 1990s and early 2000s. Mickelson took to golf...
American financier
J.P. Morgan, American financier and industrial organizer, one of the world’s foremost financial figures during the two pre-World War I decades. He reorganized several major railroads and financed industrial...
Brazilian football player
Neymar Brazilian football (soccer) player who is one of the most prolific scorers in his country’s storied football history. Neymar began playing football as a boy in São Vicente, under the guidance of...
Russian chess player
Vladimir Kramnik Russian international chess grandmaster who defeated his countryman Garry Kasparov to win the Professional Chess Association world championship. The match was held in London from October...
American chef
Paula Deen American chef who popularized the cuisine of the American South through restaurants, cookbooks, and television programs. Aside from her culinary creations, her appeal lay largely in her rags-to-riches...
American basketball player
Carmelo Anthony is a former professional basketball player who was one of the most prolific scorers in National Basketball Association (NBA) history. Anthony is also noted for winning a National Collegiate...
American basketball player
Kobe Bryant American professional basketball player, who helped lead the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) to five championships (2000–02 and 2009–10). Bryant’s father, Joe...
American basketball coach
Gregg Popovich American basketball coach who led the San Antonio Spurs to National Basketball Association (NBA) championships in 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2014. Popovich, who was of Serb and Croatian...
American football and baseball player
Deion Sanders American gridiron football player, baseball player, and football coach who is the only person to have played in both a Super Bowl and a World Series. Known for his flashy personality and...
American swimmer
Ryan Lochte American swimmer who was one of the sport’s most successful Olympians. His 12 medals, 6 of which were gold, made him the second most-decorated male swimmer in Olympic history, behind teammate...
American baseball player
Albert Pujols Dominican-born American professional baseball player who was one of the most prolific hitters of the early 21st century. Pujols was introduced to baseball early in life by his father, who...
Ivorian football player
Didier Drogba Ivorian professional football (soccer) player who was Côte d’Ivoire’s all-time leader in goals scored in international matches and was twice named the African Footballer of the Year (2006,...
American football coach and executive
Bill Parcells American professional gridiron football coach and executive who coached the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL) to Super Bowl victories in 1987 and 1991. Parcells spent...
American baseball player and broadcaster
Ralph Kiner was one of the most prolific home-run hitters in the major leagues during the 1940s and ’50s. At the time of his retirement from baseball in 1955, he ranked sixth in career home runs with 369,...
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