Athletes

Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 - October 24, 1972), nicknamed Jackie Robinson Robinson), the first African diaspora player in the modern history of Major League Baseball. Robinson was born into a sharecropper family. He participated in baseball, basketball, American football and track and field competitions in his early years. He was also drafted into the army during the Pacific War. On April 15, 1947, Robinson wore jersey No. 42 and represented the Brooklyn Dodgers as the starting first baseman. The game was his first game in the major leagues; in the early days, African diasporas were only allowed to play in the Negro Leagues, so Jackie Robinson's entry into the major leagues broke the racial segregation of American baseball for nearly 60 years; the No. 42 jersey number he wore was retired by Major League Baseball in 1997. It was the first case of jersey number retirement that applied to the entire league among the four major professional sports in North America.

Jessie Alexandra Fleming (English: Jessie Alexandra Fleming; March 11, 1998 -) is a Canadian women's soccer player who plays as a midfielder. She currently plays for the Portland Thorns of the National Women's Soccer League and the Canadian Women's National Soccer Team. In 2024, Fleming moved to the Portland Thorns for 250,000 euros, becoming the most expensive player in the history of the National Women's Soccer League.

James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens, African-American track and field athlete and civil rights leader. One of the greatest athletes in modern Olympic history. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Nazi Germany and won an impressive 4 Olympic gold medals, namely the men's 100 meters, 200 meters, long jump and 4×100 meter relay.

Lin Dan (October 14, 1983 -), a former male badminton player of the People's Republic of China, is a native of Shanghang, Fujian Province and a Hakka. The highest ranking is No. 1 in the world. Because of his fierce playing style and distinctive personality, after defeating Danish player Peter Gade to win the 2004 All England Championship, he was called "Super Dan" by the opponent. Since then, "Super Dan" has spread among the fans. Lin Dan is recognized as the strongest badminton player of his generation and the greatest player in badminton history. Lin Dan is also one of the four kings in the badminton world. His many duels with Malaysian Chinese player Lee Chong Wei are also known as the highest-level duels in the history of men's singles, and are called the "Lin-Li Battle" by fans. Lin Dan is the first player to win consecutive Olympic badminton men's singles championships (2008 and 2012). He is also the only player in badminton history to win the men's singles championships of the World Badminton Championships five times (2006, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013). He also won the All England Open Badminton Championships six times (2004, 2006, 2020). 2007, 2009, 2012 and 2016), helping the Chinese national badminton team win the Thomas Cup six times (2004, 2006, 2008, 2010 Five consecutive years in 2012 and 2018), and won the Sudirman Cup five times (2005, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2015). On July 4, 2020, taking health factors into consideration, Lin Dan announced his retirement and officially hung up the racket, ending his 20-year career as a national team player.

Jeremy Shu-How Lin (English: Jeremy Shu-How Lin, August 23, 1988 -) is an American former basketball player who played as a point guard on the court. Jeremy Lin grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and was the Northern California Player of the Year in high school. He chose to attend Harvard University without any sports scholarship provided by any university, and was selected to the Ivy League's annual team three times during his four years in college. Jeremy Lin's entry into the National Basketball Association (NBA) was not smooth at first. He was undrafted in the NBA draft. He signed with his hometown team the Golden State Warriors in 2010. However, he only had sporadic playing opportunities in his rookie year and was sent to the Development League three times. Before the start of the 2011-12 season, he was released by the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets, and then joined the New York Knicks. In his early days with the New York Knicks, he stayed in the G-League. It was not until February 2012 that Jeremy Lin unexpectedly led the New York Knicks to a seven-game winning streak and became the team's starting lineup. His performance during this period not only helped the New York Knicks enter the playoffs, but also made Jeremy Lin famous overnight. Jeremy Lin went on to play for the Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, Charlotte Hornets, Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks. In 2019, he won the NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors, and then left the NBA stage to play for the Chinese Men's Basketball Professional League (CBA) Beijing Shougang, NBA G League Santa Cruz Warriors, CBA Guangzhou Dragon Lions and P. LEAGUE+ (PLG) Kaohsiung 17 Live Iron Man, joined PLG New Taipei Kings in 2023 and became teammates with his younger brother Lin Shuwei. In 2024, Jeremy Lin won the PLG championship. In 2025, he won the Taiwan Professional Basketball League (TPBL) championship and championship game MVP. At the same time, he won the MVP of the year, the first team of the year and the first defensive team of the year in the regular season. He announced his retirement at the end of August of the same year.

Charles Hamelin (French: Charles Hamelin, French pronunciation: [ʃaʁl am.lɛ], April 14, 1984 -), also translated by Chinese media as Charles Hamelin, is a Canadian men's short track speed skater. He was the double champion in the 500m and 5000m relay at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. His younger brother Francois is also a short track speed skater.

Ke Jie (August 2, 1997 -), native of Lishui City, Zhejiang Province, is a professional nine-dan Go player of the China Chess Academy. He has a combative playing style and is good at seeking changes. He has won eight world championships and was the ring terminator in the Nongshim Cup Three Kingdoms Go Tournament twice. In 2017, he won the China Top Ten Lawrence Champion Award for Best Non-Olympic Athlete. In 2019, Ke Jie was recommended to enter Tsinghua University. As of January 23, 2025, Ke Jie ranked third with 3686 points on the unofficial world ranking website GoRatings.org, second only to Korean chess player Shin Jin-soo and Chinese chess player Wang Xinghao. He was nicknamed "Agent" because his Yehu Go ID is "Latent". On January 14, 2015, Ke Jie, who was under 18 years old at the time, defeated Qiu Jun in the fifth game of the second Bailing Cup World Go Open final and won the ninth-dan championship. This was the first time Ke Jie won the world championship trophy and was promoted to ninth-dan according to the promotion rules of the Chinese Chess Academy. Entering its heyday after 2015, he won four Samsung Cups from 2015 to 2020, becoming the second Chinese chess player to achieve eight crowns after Gu Li's 9th Dan. According to the unofficial world ranking website Go Ratings, from August 2014 to November 2017, Ke Jie has maintained the world's number one, and was later surpassed by South Korean chess player and former world number one Park Ting-hwan 9th Dan. In 2019, Ke Jie surpassed Park Ting-hwan and Shin Jin-seok in the Go ratings ranking and returned to the first place. As of the end of 2019, Ke Jie has played white in 378 games and won 278, so he is known as "White Undefeated". His Fanqi winning rate is extremely high, also known as "Fanqi Undefeated" (8 wins in 10 times).

Liu Haiguang (July 11, 1963 -) was born in Shanghai. He is a retired Chinese football player and a famous high center forward of the Chinese national team. In the late 1980s, he and Jia Xiuquan played for Partizan Belgrade in Yugoslavia at the same time. He was the first Chinese player to enter Europe and the first Chinese player to score a goal in the UEFA Cup.

Grant George Hackett (English: Grant George Hackett, May 9, 1980 -), born in Southport, Queensland, is an Australian swimmer. Grant won the gold medal in the men's 1,500-meter freestyle at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the silver medal in the 1,500-meter freestyle at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Gregor Schlierenzauer (German: Gregor Schlierenzauer, born January 7, 1990) is an Austrian male ski jumping athlete. He represented Austria in the ski jumping competition at the 2010, 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics, winning one gold medal, one silver medal and two bronze medals.

Gregory Efthimios Louganis (English: Gregory Efthimios Louganis, January 29, 1960 -), an American diver, is of mixed Samoan/Swedish descent and was adopted by Greek adoptive parents. He has won the 3-meter springboard and 10-meter platform championships in two consecutive Olympic Games, and won 5 gold medals in three World Championships.

Summer McIntosh (English: Summer McIntosh, August 18, 2006 -) is a Canadian female swimmer who specializes in medley, freestyle and butterfly.

Meagan Duhamel (English, French: Meagan Duhamel, born December 8, 1985 in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, is a Canadian female figure skater, specializing in pairs skating. DuAmell grew up in Walden. She started skating when she was three years old. At the age of 14, she moved to Bari to receive more professional training. Du Amel decided to become a vegetarian in December after seeing a book about vegetarianism at the airport one day in 2008. In July 2014, she became engaged to figure skating coach Bruno Marcotte, and the two were officially married in June 2015 in Bermuda.

Fan Zhendong (January 22, 1997 -), whose ancestral home is Qidong County, Hunan Province, was born in Guangzhou, Guangdong. He is a Chinese male table tennis player, member of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Youth Federation and deputy director of the sports sector. The 11th Grand Slam player in the history of world table tennis and the 10th Grand Slam player in the history of Chinese table tennis. Fan Zhendong and Ma Long are the only two "Super Grand Slam" players in the history of men's table tennis who have won the Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup, Asian Games, Asian Championships, Asian Cup, Tour Finals, China National Games and National Championships singles championships. According to news on July 1, 2026, Fan Zhendong officially joined the Bundesliga Dusseldorf Club.

Kumi Yokoyama (Japanese: Kumi Yokoyama / Yokoyama Kumi, Roma version: Yokoyama Kumi, August 13, 1993-), Japan Soccer Athletics member, member of the Japan National Women's Soccer Team.

Wu Dajing (July 24, 1994 -) is a native of Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province, and a former athlete of the Chinese men's short track speed skating team. The world record holder in the men's 500-meter short track speed skating and the Olympic record holder. Representative to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. He once served as a coach at the Ice Sports Management Center of Jilin Provincial Sports Bureau. Currently the head coach of the Chinese short track speed skating team.

Miho Takeda (September 13, 1976 -) is a Japanese female synchronized swimmer. She participated in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and won the double gold medal and team silver medal in women's synchronized swimming competition. At the 2004 Athens Olympics, she won the double gold medal and the team silver medal in the women's synchronized swimming competition.

Wu Lei (November 19, 1991 -) was born in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, and his ancestral home is Pingyin, Jinan, Shandong. He is a Chinese football player and a member of the Chinese national football team. He currently plays for the Chinese Super League club Shanghai Harbor as a forward. Wu Lei is the record holder for the youngest player to appear in the Chinese Professional Football League and the second youngest goalscorer in the Chinese Professional Football League. From the 2013 to 2017 season, Wu Lei was elected as the top scorer in the Chinese Super League for five consecutive years. In the 2018 season, he scored 27 goals in the league and broke the ten-year monopoly of foreign players and became the season's top scorer. In 2019, he joined the then La Liga club Espanyol and played for them for three years, scoring a total of 13 goals. In August 2022, Wu Lei returned to Shanghai Haigang and remained the team's main forward. Wu Lei was first selected for the Chinese national football team in 2010. As of August 2025, Wu Lei has played a total of 99 times for the national team and scored 36 goals for the Chinese team in his career. Wu Lei was also recognized as the nominal top scorer by the Chinese Football Association because of this achievement.

William Felton Russell (English: William Felton Russell, February 12, 1934 - July 31, 2022), commonly known as Bill Russell, was a former American NBA professional basketball player, whose main position was center. He played for the Boston Celtics for 13 seasons from 1956 to 1969, leading the Celtics to an unprecedented eight consecutive championships in NBA history (1959-1966) and a total of 11 championships. He was the main leader in creating the Boston Green Dynasty. Russell is widely considered by many commentators to be one of the greatest players in NBA history, with a career shooting percentage of over 40%. He is 6 feet 10 (2.08 meters) tall and has an arm length of 7 feet 4 (2.24 meters). Russell's blocking and defensive abilities are the main reason why the Celtics established a dynasty. In addition, he also inspired his teammates to improve their defensive abilities; his rebounding ability is also remarkable. He has won the NBA rebounding title four times, has more than 1,000 rebounds for more than ten consecutive seasons, and remains second in all-time total rebounds and average rebounds per game. He is also one of only two NBA players who can grab more than 50 rebounds in a game (the other is the famous opponent Wilt Chamberlain). Although he was never the focal point of the Celtics' offense, Russell still scored 14,522 points in his career and provided a lot of effective passing. As the No. 1 center in Celtics history, Russell was selected to the NBA 25th Anniversary Team in 1971 and the NBA 35th Anniversary Team in 1980. The No. 6 jersey was retired by the Celtics on March 12, 1972; Russell was selected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1974, and was selected into the NBA's 50 Greatest Stars in 1996. During the 2009 NBA All-Star Weekend, NBA Commissioner David Stern announced that the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award was officially renamed the "Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award" to commemorate Russell's 11th NBA championship. In 2011, Barack Obama awarded Russell the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his achievements in the courtroom and in the civil rights movement. On June 16, 2017, it was officially announced that Russell won the first NBA Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2021, he was selected as one of the 75 NBA stars.

Björn Borg (Swedish: Björn Borg, Swedish pronunciation: [ˈbjœːɳ ˈbɔrj], June 6, 1956 -) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He is ranked No. 1 in the world in singles, winner of 11 Grand Slams, and a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Current tennis player Leo Bori is his son. He won 66 ATP men's singles titles in just 8 years from 1974 to 1981. He announced his retirement in 1982 and became a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987. Bori won a total of 11 Grand Slams in his career, including six French Open men's singles championships (1974, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981) and five Wimbledon men's singles championships (1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980). He was the first tennis player to win ten or more Grand Slam men's singles championships since the Open era. He was the player with the highest winning rate in men's singles since the Open era (654 wins and 140 losses, winning rate 82.37%). He was also the year-end ATP singles world number one in 1979 and 1980, and won three consecutive ITF world championships from 1978 to 1980, as well as five consecutive ATP Player of the Year awards from 1976 to 1980. Bory and McEnroe are recognized as one of the greatest rivals in the history of men's tennis. Due to Bory's cold image and McEnroe's violent personality, they formed a strong contrast of "ice and fire". Especially the 1980 Wimbledon men's singles final is one of the supreme classics in the history of tennis. Due to the dramatic ups and downs of the schedule, it was made into a movie Borg vs McEnroe in 2017.

Mizuma Yuriko (Japanese: Mizama Yuriko/Mizuma Yuriko, Romanized: Mizuma Yuriko, July 22, 1970 -), a former Japanese football player and a member of the Japanese national women's football team. Born in Yamagata Prefecture.

Henry Louis Aaron (English: Henry Louis Aaron, February 5, 1934 - January 22, 2021), nicknamed Hank Aaron (English: Hank Aaron, formerly translated as Allen), is a former Major League Baseball player and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Allen joined the Milwaukee Braves from the Negro Leagues in 1951 and was promoted to the major leagues in 1954. In 1966, he moved south to Atlanta with the Braves. He returned to Milwaukee when he retired in 1975 and played for the newly established Brewers until his retirement at the end of the 1976 season. In 1974, Allen broke Babe Ruth's home run record of 714. When he retired in 1976, he held the record of 755 home runs until it was broken by Berry Bonds with 756 on August 7, 2007; Allen also He is also the holder of the most RBIs (2297) and home runs (6856) in his career. He also had a good fielding level. However, because his contemporaries Mays and Clement were better, Allen only won the Gold Glove Award three times. Allen won his only World Series championship ring with the Milwaukee Braves in 1957 and was selected as the National League Most Valuable Player that year. Since the major leagues held two All-Star Games every year for four years from 1959 to 1962, Allen was selected to 25 All-Star Games in his career, the first in history, and is considered a record that is extremely difficult to break.

Naohiro Ikeda (January 17, 1940 - January 3, 2021) was a Japanese former volleyball player. He participated in the men's volleyball competition at the 1964 Summer Olympics and won a bronze medal. He also participated in the 1966 Asian Games.

Thomas Edward Patrick Brady, Jr., commonly known as Tom Brady, is a retired American professional football quarterback who played for the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was dubbed both "Amazing Tom" and "The Pillar of the Team" at the same time.