Olympic medalists are among the most exceptional human beings on the planet. Unsurprisingly, these outstanding individuals often continue to excel later in life… Check out some of the greatest Olympians and how they’re doing nowadays.
Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps smashed fellow American Mark Spitz’s records, winning an incredible 23 Olympic gold medals. This brings his total Olympic medals up to 28. After 2012, it was thought that he had retired, yet in 2016 he returned to the Olympic Games, this time in Rio, and dominated the competition. They were his fourth Games. Besides winning medals, he also started the Michael Phelps Foundation in 2008, which grows swimming as a sport to promote health ever since he committed a $1 million bonus from Speedo.
Nancy Kerrigan
Nancy Kerrigan may be best remembered when rival Tonya Harding’s husband ordered a hit to cripple her, after which she came back to win a silver medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics. If she hadn’t been attacked, there’s a chance she could have won the gold. Later, she continued skating in several different ice shows. Besides skating, her mother is blind, so she started a foundation to support and raise awareness for the vision-impaired. Kerrigan has appeared in movies and TV, both in guest appearances and as a reporter or host for various programs.
Nastia Liukin
Nastia Liukin is the daughter of two Russian gymnastic champions who had moved to the U.S., so she was fated to become a star gymnast from the start. Raised in America, she represented the U.S. in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, where she won five medals. Liukin didn’t make the team for the 2012 Olympics, though this didn’t stop her from branching out. She’s made many appearances at special events and on TV, including Dancing with the Stars and Ninja Warrior.
Dominique Moceanu
Dominique Moceanu became the youngest to compete for a medal in the Olympics when she arrived in Atlanta shortly after her 14th birthday, winning gold in the all-around competition. Unfortunately, injuries forced her to retire only four years later. Moceanu wrote a book about how training so hard from such a young age affected her.
Scott Moir
Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue have shared their lives’ accomplishments and disappointments since they were both very young. Moir was ten years old when he was paired with Virtue – more than 20 years later, and they considered by many to be the greatest ice dancers of all time. The pair has won three Olympic medals, and they came to the mutual understanding that they wanted to end their careers together. Moir and Virtue only recently stepped away from competing on ice, and their future remains a mystery to their many fans.
Evan Lysacek
Making an amazing impression when he stepped out onto the Olympic rink in 2010, Evan Lysacek was bound for glory. That same year, he took the men’s singles gold and was then named Sportsman of the year by the United States Olympics Committee. The 34-year-old was the last American male solo figure skater to win an Olympic medal and has not returned to the Winter Games since his big win in 2010. It was a big honor for Lysacek when he was inducted into the U.S Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2016.
Kristi Yamaguchi
There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Kristi Yamaguchi’s destiny was to skate. The skater spent most of her youth on ice, and her hard work paid off when in 1992, she was named the Olympic figure skating champion. Yamaguchi quickly turned into a cultural icon in the United States and used that fame to good use after announcing her retirement. In 2005 she was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, and in 2008, she became the sixth celebrity champion of Dancing with the Stars.
Edwin Moses
Edwin Moses knows no defeat – he took home two gold medals at two Olympic Games in both 1976 and 1984. The champion hurdler’s discipline was the 400m hurdles, and between 1977 and 1987, Moses won a total of 107 finals in a row! The hurdler has set four world records in his lifetime and retired from the racing track in the early 2000s. A true enjoyer of competition, Moses still enjoys racing – now he let’s gravity do the work seeing as he participates in bobsleigh events.
Usain Bolt
Usain Bolt became the fastest man in the world when he broke the world record on the way to his 100m victory. The former sprinter holds world records for 100m, 200m, and the 100m relay. He is considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time and won Jamaica a gold medal for every Olympic event he competed in, taking a total of eight golds from 2008 to 2016. When Bolt retired, he tried his best to make his way into another sport, even making his way onto a professional soccer team. It turns out, soccer wasn’t his forte, and he officially retired from sports in 2019.
Carl Lewis
Becoming an American hero after he won a total of four gold medals at the 1984 Olympic Games, Carl Lewis is a name that isn’t easily forgotten. The former athlete has nine Olympic gold medals and ten medals overall in his Olympics career. Lewis won the World Championship a total of ten times before deciding to retire. Hanging up his running shoes in 1997, after more than 20 years on the track. In 2011, Lewis attempted to run for the New Jersey Senate but was unable to due to residence ineligibility.
Allyson Felix
Sprinter Allyson Felix is unstoppable – literally. The Olympian has won six gold medals in her career so far, but she’s far from being done. In 2019, she won her 12th and13th World Championship and is planning on making the USA’s Olympic team for Tokyo in 2021. The athlete is determined to win and has not taken a break from the track since the beginning of her career. All bets are on Felix as she makes her way to the next Olympic Games.
