6 Famous Athletes Who Never Gave Up

Sport is full of winners. But the best stories are about people who fell down and still got up. In this post you will meet 6 famous athletes who never gave up. Some were very ill as children. Some had terrible accidents. All of them kept going.

As you read, look out for the bold words: useful words for talking about hard times and success.

6 famous athletes who never gave up

1. Wilma Rudolph: from a leg brace to three gold medals

Wilma Rudolph was born in Tennessee, in the United States, in 1940. As a small child she got polio, a serious illness that can make the body weak. After that, her left leg was very weak and she had to wear a metal brace (a support that holds part of the body in place).

Her family helped her do exercises every day. By the age of twelve, she could walk without the brace. Then she started to run, and she was fast. At the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, Wilma won three gold medals. People called her the fastest woman in the world.

“She couldn’t walk well as a child, but she never stopped trying.”

You can watch her full story in our lesson Wilma Rudolph: From “Never Walk Again” to the Fastest Woman in the World.

2. Jesse Owens: a sick boy who became a star

Jesse Owens was born in Alabama in 1913. His family was poor, and he was often ill as a boy. But he loved to run.

In 1935, at a university competition in Michigan, he set or equalled four world records in about 45 minutes. A year later, at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, he won four gold medals.

3. Roger Bannister: he turned a disappointment into history

At the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, the British runner Roger Bannister finished fourth in the 1,500 metres. No medal. He was very disappointed (sad because something did not go as you hoped), and he thought about stopping.

Instead, he chose a new goal: to run a mile in less than four minutes. Many people said it was impossible. Roger was a busy medical student, so he often trained in his lunch break. On 6 May 1954, in Oxford, he ran a mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. He was the first person ever to do it. Later, he became a doctor.

4. Ben Hogan: back on the course after a crash

Ben Hogan was one of America’s best golfers. In February 1949, he and his wife were driving in Texas on a foggy morning when a bus crashed into their car. Just before the crash, Ben threw himself across his wife to protect her. That brave move probably saved his own life too.

He was badly hurt, with many broken bones, and some people thought he would never play golf again. But he worked hard to recover (to get well again). Only 16 months later, in June 1950, he won the US Open, one of the biggest golf competitions in the world.

“He was badly hurt, but he didn’t give up on his dream.”

5. Terry Fox: the Marathon of Hope

Terry Fox was a young Canadian who loved sport. When he was 18, he got cancer, and doctors had to remove his right leg above the knee. In hospital, he saw other people with cancer, many of them children, and he wanted to help.

So, in April 1980, with an artificial leg, he started to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. He called it the Marathon of Hope. He ran about a marathon (42 kilometres) every day. After 143 days and more than 5,000 kilometres, he had to stop because the cancer was back. Terry died in 1981, when he was just 22.

But his dream did not stop. Every year, people around the world join Terry Fox Runs, and they have raised hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer research. Watch Terry Fox: The Run That Never Ended to hear his story in clear English.

6. Bethany Hamilton: surfing with one arm

Bethany Hamilton grew up in Hawaii and started surfing when she was very young. In October 2003, when she was 13, a tiger shark attacked her while she was surfing. She lost her left arm.

Many people thought her surfing days were over. But only a few weeks later, she was back on her surfboard. She learned to surf in a new way, with one arm, and in 2005 she won a national surfing title. Her story became a film, Soul Surfer.

What these famous athletes teach us

These six people are very different, but their stories share a few simple ideas:

• Setbacks are not the end. A setback is a problem that stops your progress for a while. Every athlete here had one, and every one of them kept going.
• Small steps add up. Wilma did her exercises every day. Terry ran one day at a time.
• A clear goal helps. Roger Bannister had one: four minutes.

“I made a mistake today, but I’ll try again tomorrow.”

The same is true when you learn English. Some days you will forget words or feel shy when you speak. That’s normal! Like these famous athletes who never gave up, just take the next small step. Our post on how to stay motivated when learning English has more friendly tips.

Learn English with true stories

Did one of these stories make you smile? Hear more real, inspiring stories, told slowly and clearly for levels A1 to B2, in our free video lessons. Each lesson teaches you useful new words, with a short quiz at the end. Start watching Bright Lives English lessons today, and keep going, one step at a time!