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Subjects | Fact sheet | Samples
Sport and leisure interests: Sample biographies
Armstrong, Lance (1971– )
US cyclist who, just eighteen months after returning to competition following a life-threatening battle against cancer, won the 1999 Tour de France. In 2002 he won his fourth consecutive Tour.
Career highlights
Tour de France: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002
World Road Race Championship: 1993
Olympic Games: bronze 2000
Tour DuPont: 1995, 1996
Born in Plano, Texas, he showed early promise as a swimmer and triathlete, although when he left high school he was already a member of the US national cycling squad. He turned professional shortly after competing for the USA in the 1992 Olympic Games. In 1993, his first full season on the professional circuit, he gained his first stage victory in the Tour de France, and became only the second US cyclist after Greg LeMond to win the World Road Race title.
Diagnosed as suffering from testicular cancer in October 1996, and given only a 50% chance of survival, he underwent chemotherapy and several operations before returning to racing early in 1998. In his 1998 comeback season he proved that he was still able to compete at the highest level, winning four races and achieving a top five finish in the Tour of Spain. His autobiography, It's Not About the Bike (2000), detailed his illness and subsequent recovery.
DiMaggio, Joe (Joseph Paul) (1914–1999)
US baseball player with the New York Yankees 1936–51, with whom he won the World Series ten times between 1936 and 1951. In 1941 he set a record – yet to be surpassed – by getting hits in 56 consecutive games. He was an outstanding fielder, played centre field, hit 361 home runs, and had a career average of .325. DiMaggio was married to the actor Marilyn Monroe between January and October 1954. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955.
Career highlights
World Series: 1936–39, 1941,1943, 1947, 1949–51
Batting average: .325 (2,214 hits)
Home runs: 361
American League Most Valuable Player: 1939, 1941, 1947
His brothers Vince and Dom also played professional baseball.
Ecclestone, Bernie (1930– )
English motor sport entrepreneur, who turned Formula 1 (F1) racing into a multi-million pound business. As president of the Formula 1 Constructor's Association (FOCA), Ecclestone effectively took over the management of the F1 industry. He created a structure marketing the exclusive rights for the advertising, hospitality, and, in particular, lucrative television coverage of F1 racing. He ranked sixth in The Sunday Times Rich List in 2000, with estimated wealth of £2 billion.
Ecclestone became a member of FOCA after acquiring the Jack Brabham Formula 1 team in 1971. Appointed president of FOCA in the mid-1970s, he set about restructuring the F1 industry. In 1987 he was appointed vice-president of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the sport's governing body, selling the Brabham team shortly afterwards. He nominally relinquished this role for one in promotional affairs in January 2001, following a European Commission investigation into motor racing. In 2000 Eccelstone sold a 50% stake, valued at £625 million, in Slec, his Formula 1 holding company (owned by German media company, EM TV, it was put up for sale in February 2001).
Ecclestone was born in Suffolk, the son of a trawler skipper, and graduated from Woolwich Polytechnic in London with a degree in chemical engineering. Having raced motorbikes as a teenager, he focused first on the second-hand motorbike and car trade (eventually selling his business to British Car Auctions) and then moved into racing driver management and team ownership. Ecclestone also tried racing himself, but gave up after a bad crash at Brands Hatch.
Ecclestone is a UK Labour Party supporter. He was relatively unknown outside the racing circuit until he made a controversial £1 million donation to party funds before the 1997 general election.
Eriksson, Sven-Goran (1948– )
Swedish football manager. Known for his calm and intelligent football mind, he has won a total of 16 trophies in his 24-year career. He managed Gothenburg 1979–82, winning the Swedish championship once, before moving to Portugal to manage Benfica 1982–84, and later 1989–92. He has also managed the Italian clubs Roma, Fiorentina, Sampdoria, and Lazio. In October 2000, he was appointed as the first-ever foreign manager of the national team in England and within a year had ensured their qualification to the 2002 World Cup.
After an undistinguished playing career as a semi-professional, he took charge of the Swedish Third Division club Deghefors in 1976, guiding them into the top division with consecutive promotions. After winning two Portuguese championships with Benfica, in 1984 he became manager of Roma in Italy, taking the team to second place in 1986. Sacked the following year, he moved to Fiorentina, before returning to Portugal in 1989. After three more successful years with Benfica, who never finished lower than second, he returned to Italy to manage Sampdoria for five seasons. In 1997, he switched to Lazio, who finished second in 1999, and won, for the first time in 27 years, in 2000.
Gower, David Ivon (1957– )
English cricketer. An elegant left-handed batsman who was England's record run scorer in Test cricket from 1992, when he surpassed Geoffrey Boycott's record, until 1993, when his total was overtaken by Graham Gooch. He played county cricket for Leicestershire 1975–89 and for Hampshire 1990–93. He retired in 1993.
Career highlights
Test cricket (1978–92): appearances: 117; runs: 8,231; average: 44.25; not out: 18; 100s: 18; best: 215 (v. Australia 1985); catches: 74
One-day internationals (1978–91): appearances: 114; runs: 3,170; average: 30.77; not out: 8; 100s: 7; best: 158 (v. New Zealand 1983); catches: 44
All first-class cricket (1975–93): appearances: 448; runs: 26,339; average: 40.08; not out: 70; 100s: 53; best: 228 (v. Glamorgan 1989); catches: 280
Awards
Wisden Cricketer of the Year: 1979
Turning to television, Gower appeared in several series of the BBC television sports programme They Think It's All Over, starring opposite Gary Lineker, and went on to work as a cricket commentator and analyst.
King, Billie Jean (1943– )
born Billie Jean Moffitt
US tennis player. She won a record 20 Wimbledon titles 1961–79 and 39 Grand Slam titles, and fought for equal treatment and equal pay for women tennis players. In 1973 she formed the Women's Tennis Association and the Players' Union. In 1974, with Olympic swimmer Donna de Varona and others, she created the Women's Sports Foundation to support and promote women in sport. That same year, in front of a worldwide audience, she beat Bobby Riggs, a self-confessed chauvinist and critic of women in sport. Career highlights
Wimbledon: singles: 1966–68, 1972–73, 1975; doubles: 1961–62, 1965, 1967–68, 1970–73, 1979; mixed: 1967, 1971, 1973–74
US Open: singles: 1967, 1971–72, 1974; doubles: 1964, 1967, 1974, 1978, 1980; mixed: 1967, 1971, 1973, 1976
French Open: singles: 1972; doubles: 1972; mixed: 1967, 1970
Australian Open: singles: 1968; mixed: 1968
King developed her tennis skills through the City Parks Programme. When she arrived on the professional circuit, she brought with her a desire to pursue equality for women players, a desire that would dominate her career. Her first Wimbledon title was the doubles with Karen Hantze in 1961, and her last, also doubles, with Martina Navratilova in 1979. She won the Wimbledon singles title 6 times, the US Open singles title 4 times, the French Open once, and the Australian Open once. Her 39 Grand Slam wins at singles and doubles are third only to Navratilova and Margaret Court. At the US Open in 1975 women tennis players received parity of pay with the men.
Owens, Jesse (1913–1980)
born James Cleveland Owens
US track and field athlete who excelled in sprints, hurdles, and the long jump. At the 1936 Berlin Olympics he won four gold medals.
Career highlights
Olympic Games: gold 100 metres, 200 metres, 4 × 100-metre relay, long jump (all in 1936)
World Records: 100 metres: 1936; 100 yards: 1935, 1936; 200 metres: 1935; 220 yards: 1935; 200-metre hurdles: 1935; 220-yard hurdles: 1935; 4 × 100-metre relay: 1936 (US National team); long jump: 1935
The Nazi leader Hitler is said to have stormed out of the stadium at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, in disgust at the black man's triumph. Owens held the world long-jump record for 25 years, 1935–60. At Ann Arbor, Michigan, on 25 May 1935, he broke six world records in less than an hour.
Weissmuller, Johnny (Peter John) (1904–1984)
US swimmer and film actor. He won three Olympic gold medals in 1924 and two more in 1928. He set freestyle world records at every distance between 100 yards and half a mile, many of them by remarkable margins. The first person to swim the 100 metres in under a minute and the 400 metres in less than five minutes, he transformed freestyle swimming in the 1920s with his revolutionary high crawl style.
As an actor he played Edgar Rice Burroughs's rainforest hero Tarzan in a long-running series of films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and RKO in the 1930s and 1940s. He later starred in the Jungle Jim series of B films.
Career highlights
Olympic Games: gold 100-metre freestyle 1924, 1928; gold 400-metre freestyle 1924; gold 200-metre freestyle relay 1924, 1928
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