Alberto Juantorena

Alberto Juantorena is a Cuban former track athlete. At the 1976 Summer Olympics, he became the first and so far only athlete to win both the 400 and 800160m Olympic titles.

Juantorena was born in Santiago de Cuba. As a 188160cm 14yearold, 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 highschool 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 semifinals of the 400 m event at the Munich Olympics .

Source: Wikipedia