Great female Olympians who are in Clara Hughes's league:
Christa Luding
The only woman to match Hughes's Olympic feat of capturing medals at both Summer and Winter Games, she won gold medals in speed skating at Sarajevo (500 metres, 1984) and Calgary (1,000 metres, 1988) and silver at Calgary (500 metres, 1988) while representing East Germany. She took bronze at Albertville (500 metres, 1992) for a unified Germany. Her Summer medal, a silver, came in sprint cycling at the Seoul velodrome in 1988.
Bonnie Blair
The feisty U.S. four-time Olympian – 1984 through 1994 – took five golds and one bronze in speed skating. The technically sound Blair is also is 11-time winner of the World Cup points standing. In 1994, when Blair won 500-metre and 1,000-metre Olympic golds, she shared Sports Illustrated's sportsman of the year honours with Norwegian icon Johann Olav Koss. She retired in 1995 as the most decorated U.S. female Olympian.
Birgit Fischer
The East Germany-born kayaker won eight gold medals – five after Germany's reunification – and 12 Olympic medals over six Games. The resilient Fischer came out of retirement twice. She has been the youngest Olympic canoe champ at 18 and the oldest at 42 and won 28 world championship golds from 1978 through 2005.
Lyubov Yegorova
The Russian has a mighty record among cross-country skiers – nine Winter medals, ranging from five-kilometre to 15-kilometre solo treks to relay races. Three golds came at Albertville in 1992, with another three in the biting cold of Lillehammer in 1994. But her achievements were blighted by a steroid disqualification at the 1997 world championship in Trondheim, Norway.
Fanny Blankers-Koen
The Netherlands track legend made an Olympic debut in 1936 but endured an 11-year layoff because of the Second Word War. She dominated long jump, high jump, sprint and hurdling events and won four gold medals at the 1948 London Games in nine Olympic races, competing in 11 heats and finals in eight days.
Dara Torres
The U.S. freestyle sprint swimmer was a 12-time Olympic medal winner (four gold, four silver, four bronze) during a career in which she competed in five Olympics (1984, 1988, 1992, 2000 and 2008). At 41, during the 2008 Beijing Games, she earned silvers in the 50-metre freestyle, 4x100-metre medley relay, and 4x100-metre freestyle relay.
Nadia Comaneci
The Romanian scored seven perfect 10s in Montreal in 1976 on her way to three Olympic golds – all-round, beam and uneven bars. Between Montreal and Moscow in 1980, she won six golds, three silvers and one bronze. She tops Soviet Union gymnast Larisa Latynina's haul of 18 Olympic medals (nine gold) because Comaneci changed the sport – and scoreboard equipment – with her perfect marks.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
The American rose from poverty-stricken East St. Louis, Ill., to become a U.S. multisport star with three Olympic gold medals in four Games. She won the seven-event heptathlon and individual long jump in 1988 and the heptathlon again in 1992. She also took silver in the inaugural heptathlon in 1984, bronze in the long jump in 1992 and 1996, won four world championships and set most of the top scores in heptathlon history.
Krisztina Egerszegi
The three-time Hungarian Olympic swim star (1988-96) won five golds, a silver and a bronze and was a force in backstroke and individual medley. She gets the nod over East German Kristin Otto, whose unprecedented six golds at Seoul in 1988 were clouded by subsequent revelations of systemic doping in the former Eastern Bloc power.
Who do you think is the greatest female Olympian of all time? Share your nomination at tgam.ca/female-olympians