Alberto Juantorena
Alberto Juantorena (born 3 December 1950) is a Cuban former track athlete. At the 1976 Summer Olympics, he became the only athlete to win both the 400 and 800 m Olympic titles.
Juantorena was born in Santiago de Cuba. As a 188 cm (6 ft 2 in) 14-year-old, he was first considered a potential star at basketball and was sent to a state basketball school. A talented athlete at many sports, he had been a regional high-school champion at 800 and 1500 meters, but his true talent at athletics was discovered by a Polish track coach, Zygmunt Zabierzowski, who convinced him to start running seriously. Juantorena was ready for the change because as he states himself he was a 'bad' basketball player and his idol when young was an athlete, the Cuban sprinter Enrique Figuerola. Only a year later, Juantorena was eliminated in the semi-finals of the 400 m event at the Munich Olympics (1972).
In the next years Juantorena won a gold medal at the World University Games (1973) and a silver at the 1975 Pan American Games, both in the 400 meters. He was unbeaten in 1973 and 1974, but underwent two operations on his foot in 1975. He only seriously took up running the 800 meters in 1976, so few thought he was a candidate for the Olympic gold that year. His coach, Zabierzowski, had initially tricked him in to trying an 800 race by convincing him the other runners need a pacemaker. However, Juantorena made it to the Olympic final, and led the field for most of the race, eventually winning in a world record time of 1:43.50. He was the first non-English speaking athlete to win Olympic gold in this event. Three days later, he also won the 400 meter final, setting a low-altitude world record of 44.26. By winning the 400 meters, he became the first athlete since Paul Pilgrim at the 1906 Intercalated Games to do such a double at an Olympic sports event, and was the only man to do so at an officially recognized Olympics.
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