James B. Connolly - the first Olympic gold medallist in 1,502 years

The first modern Olympics took place in Athens in 1896, 1,502 years after the final ancient Olympics took placed in 394 AD. The person to win the first event would therefore become the first Olympic champion in over a millennium and a half. And that honour went to US student James Brendan Connolly after he won the triple jump - but he didn't achieve the honour without a struggle. The son of poor Irish immigrants, Connolly had won a place at Harvard University - but the academic authorities there refused him permission to travel to the Olympics. He was forced to drop out of college, and unlike the rest of the US team he had to pay his own way to get to the games, spending the last of his savings and being treated like an outcast by his compatriots due to his social background.

In addition, a series of organisational blunders meant that the US team arrived without any time to train, and Connolly only discovered when he got there that the triple jump rules demanded a jumping method he had hardly ever used. But regardless, he was confident enough that he would win - to the point of throwing his cap down beyond the distances of his rivals to mark the point he'd jump to. In the end, he jumped beyond his cap, and became the first Olympic champion since the 4th century...