Zenon Texeira

Gary Player

Tegla Loroupe

Cafu

Hugo Porta

Kip Keino

Gary Player

Tegla LoroupeSPORT: AthleticsBORN: May 9, 1973 ,KutomwonyRESIDENCE: Kenya Kenya’s Tegla Loroupe is a celebrated long distance athlete who is active in the field of peace and women’s rights.Kenya’s Tegla Loroupe is a celebrated long distance athlete who is active in the field of peace and women’s rights. She won the world championship for the half-marathon distance three times and was the first African woman to win the New York Marathon. She has also won marathons in many cities, including Berlin, Boston, London, Rome and Rotterdam.A member of the Pokot tribe, who live in northern Kenya, her father had four wives and she grew up with 24 brothers and sisters. She spent her childhood working in the fields, tending cattle and looking after younger brothers and sisters. At the age of six, she started school, having to run 10km to and from class and becoming aware of her potential as an athlete. Initially a barefoot runner, she was 16 before she received her first pair of running shoes.www.laureus.com/academy/members/tegla-loroupe

CafuSPORT: FootballBORN: June 7, 1970,RESIDENCE: Sao Paulo, Brazil Brazilian defender Marcos Evangelista de Morais, universally known as Cafu, has played more international matches for Brazil than any other player. Over a period of 16 years, he played a record 142 games. He is also the only player from any country to appear in three World Cup Finals – winning in 1994 and 2002 and losing in 1998.Raised in the Jardim Irene favela of São Paulo, at the age of seven he went to a local football academy. After being rejected by many clubs, in 1988 he was accepted by the youth squad of his hometown club Sao Paulo.Sao Paulo coach Tele Santana suggested he move from midfield to full-back, a position he was to make his own as the club won back-to-back Copa Libertadores in 1992 and 1993. In 1994 he was named South American Footballer of the Year.www.laureus.com/academy/members/cafu

Hugo Porta

Kip KeinoSPORT: AthleticsBORN: January 17, 1940,Kipsano, KenyaRESIDENCE: KenyaOne of Kenya’s greatest Olympic athletes, Kipchoge ‘Kip’ Keino is also one of the world’s most admired sporting heroes. His courage and determination in winning a gold and silver medal in the 1968 Olympics, despite suffering from a gallbladder infection, endeared him to sports lovers around the world. That drive and single-minded determination to succeed against the odds has today made him one of the great benefactors to underprivileged children in Kenya.Keino is best known for his training at 1,800 metres above sea level, which helped introduce high-altitude training as a technique to improve running time at any altitude. A member of the Nandi tribe, he was born in Kipsano, Kenya, and worked as a physical training instructor in the police force before becoming an athlete.www.laureus.com/academy/members/kip-keino