Jefferson Perez the race walker and Jefferson Perez the scholar. Jefferson became Ecuador’s first Olympic medalist when he won the gold medal in the 20-km speed walking competition during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Although his gold in Atlanta remains his only Olympic medal to date, Jefferson has bagged a total of three gold medals in the World Championships (2003 Paris, 2005 Helsinki, and 2007 Osaka). Jefferson used to hold the world record in race walking (1:17:21) but his record was broken last year by Russian Vladimir Kanaykin who set a record time of 1:17:16.

Jefferson is currently training in Cuenca, Ecuador and is aiming for another Olympic gold during the Beijing Games which, incidentally, could be his last Olympics.

Says, our champion race walker on retirement: “I will retire whenever I do not like getting up at 7:00 in the morning on weekends to climb at 4,000 meters above sea level, at zero degrees in adverse conditions.”

Aww, Jefferson, at 33 you sound like my old man. But since your pocket is already filled with four gold medals maybe its good too to share athletic glory to the young ‘uns.

PHOTO CREDITS: jeffersonperez.com