There have been many, many famous
participants in the Olympics. There have also been many famous winners. I
have tried to find one from a couple of sports to show you a little more about
them.
One person from diving is Greg E. Louganis [loo-ga-nis]. He won the gold medal
in spring board diving and platform in diving in 1984. While he was competing
though, he struck his head on the diving board! Even though he can not compete
because of his injury, in his competing life, he won 4 gold medals in all.
He retired after his accident in 1988, and is now 41 and teaching classes
at Wolfpaw Dog Training in Somis, California. I hope that after that small
paragraph you learned a little more about Greg Louganis, and now I am going
to talk about Peggy Fleming.
Peggy began skating at the age of 9. In 1968, she became a pro skater. She won the U.S. ladies Champion in 1964 to 1969, she was an Olympic Champion in 1968, and World Champion in 1968, 1967, and 1968. As you can see, she was a very good skater, but she retired in 1968 after a very full career. Peggy now works as a skating commenter on television. Ok. Now you know more about Peggy Fleming, so we will talk about Nadia Comaneci.
Nadia Comaneci was a Roman gymnast in the Olympics. She was known for the boldness of her routines and incredible composure. She won six medals in the 1976 Olympics-3 gold,2 silver, and 1 bronze. She was the first ever to score a perfect 10 in 2 events! In 1980, she got 4 medals. 2 gold, and 2 silver. After that, she married Bart Connor. He was a 1984 gold medalist. She and Connor have become pioneers in pairs gymnastics. Ok. Now you know about Nafavorite gymnast, Carly Patterson. She began gymnastics in 1994. She has won the back-to-back American cup titles in 2003 and 2004, U.S. co-national champion in 2004, part of the 2003 World Champion team where she won a silver medal in the all-around. A jump on the beam was named Patterson after Carly! Carly came home from Athens with 3medalsdia Comeneci, so we will talk about someone might have heard of, or she could be your . The U.S. women won the silver in team competition, as well as second highest finish for the Americans in a fully attended Olympics. She got silver on beam, and the title of the 2004 Olympic all-around Champion. She was the first U.S.A. all-around champion in 20 years as well as the first women to win the all-around in a fully attended Olympic games. I hope you learned some more about some Olympic winners and participants.