Cathy Freeman is an Australian track and field athlete. She was the first Aborigine ever to compete in the Olympics. When Cathy won the 400-meter world championship in 1997, she ran a victory lap carrying two flags: one of her country, Australia, the other of her people, the Aboriginals. It showed her strong sense of national and ethnic pride.
Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman was born on February 16, 1973 in Mackay, Queensland, Australia.
Freeman had a difficult childhood. Both her younger sister and her father died. Her mother encouraged her to pursue her interest in athletics.
At the age of 15, she competed at the National School Championships.
By the time Freeman was 17 years old, she had won a gold medal at the 1990 Commonwealth Games and been named Young Australian of the Year.
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Hank Aaron is an American baseball player. He was sometimes called Hammerin’ Hank because he hit so well.
Henry Louis Aaron was born on February 5, 1934, in Mobile, Alabama. He was the third of eight children. Since his childhood he wanted to play professional baseball. As a teenager, Aaron passed much of his time playing baseball. His boyhood idol was Jackie Robinson.
At age 16 he began playing with the semiprofessional Mobile Black Bears baseball team.
On November 20, 1951, 18-year-old Aaron was signed to play shortstop for the Negro League team the Indianapolis Clowns.
In 1952 Aaron began his professional career. He played as a shortstop with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League. In the same year he was named Northern League Rookie of the Year.
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Terry Fox was a Canadian activist who supported people diagnosed with cancer.
Terrance Stanley «Terry» Fox was born on July 28, 1958 in Winnipeg, Canada. He always loved sports and in high school he played soccer and basketball. Later, he was on the basketball team at Simon Fraser University. He was going to become a teacher of physical culture.
At the age of 18 Terry began to feel pain in his right knee. He was diagnosed with bone cancer and needed to have an operation. Most of his right leg had to be cut off. Before the operation, his basketball coach showed him a story in a newspaper about a man with one leg who ran in the New York City Marathon.
Then, Terry decided to run across Canada to collect money to fight cancer.
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Roberto Clemente was a Puerto Rican professional baseball player, Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder. In 1973 he was posthumously included into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, becoming the first Latin American to be awarded this honor. He participated in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game 12 times, became the most valuable player in the NL and won twelve Golden Gloves in eighteen seasons.
Roberto Clemente Walker was born on August 18, 1934 in Carolina, Puerto Rico. He was the youngest of seven children, six of whom were boys. Clemente’s parents instilled in him the values of hard work, respect, dignity, and generosity.
As a child, Roberto loved baseball. He listened to baseball games on the radio. He played baseball with his friends. He also played in high school on a city team.
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Sonja Henie was a Norwegian figure skater, one of the greatest athletes. She was the first skater to perform spins and jumps. She was the first superstar among figure skaters, and the first—and still only—woman to win three Olympic gold medals in figure skating (1928, 1932, 1936).
Sonja was born on April 8, 1912, in Oslo, Norway. Her father was a wealthy salesman and a former amateur cycling champion, and her mother had a fortune of her own.
She started to ice skate when she was five years old. At age nine, Sonja won her first skating competition. Her family decided that Sonja should start to train seriously. Her father helped her, and she won her first national championship. Sonja was only 11 years old when she represented Norway in the Olympics in 1924. She finished in last place, but she got a lot of attention because she was so young. In 1927, at the tender age of 14, she won the first of ten consecutive world championships.
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Edmund Hillary was one of the greatest explorers and mountaineers of the 20th century. He was the first man to climb Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth. He made three visits to the Himalayas before trying to climb the world’s highest mountain. On 29th May, 1953 (the same day as Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation), Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, one of the Sherpas (local people who carry equipment on Himalayan expeditions), reached the top of Everest.
Edmund Percival Hillary was born on July 20, 1919 in Auckland, New Zealand. He discovered his joy in the mountains on a school trip to Mount Ruapehu, and it never left him.
During the 1940s he made many climbs in New Zealand, particularly in the Southern Alps.
In 1953 he got the invitation to join Sir John Hunt’s expedition to Everest. The group left Kathmandu, Nepal, on March 10, 1953. On May 29, Hillary and Tenzing reached the peak.
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Jim Thorpe was an American track star and professional football and baseball player. He was also an Olympic gold medal winner and a national hero. He excelled not only at football, baseball, but also at basketball, boxing, lacrosse, swimming, and hockey.
James Francis Thorpe was born on May 28, 1888 in an Indian Territory that is now Oklahoma. He was a Native American. His Native American name was Wa-tho-huck meaning Bright Path.
In his childhood he liked to fish, hunt, swim, and play games outdoors. He was strong and healthy child. Jim had a twin brother who died of pneumonia when he was nine years old. The death of his twin left Thorpe with a deep emotional wound.
Jim went to a special school in Pennsylvania for Native American children. It was famous for its football team.
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