#4 Merlene Ottey
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Jamaica-born Merlene Ottey is one athlete who has defied age all these years. Her longevity has her earned her the sobriquet ‘Queen of tracks’. Her seven Olympic appearances from 1980 to 2004 are the most by any Track and Field athlete. The woman who was elected “Athlete of the Year” 15 times in Jamaica, won 14 World Championship medals between 1983 to 1997 —more than any other athlete, male or female. But like Almsick, gold eluded her too int he Olympics.
Her seven attempts in the quadrennial event fetched her 9 medals out of which six were Bronze. In Atlanta in 1996, at the age of 36, she came her closest to win a Gold in the 100m when she finished at the same time as the USA’s Gail Devers, but she was behind Devers by five thousandths of a second and it was enough to shatter her gold dreams. After her final shot at it in Athens at the age of 44, she didn’t appear again in the Olympics.
