- Few Olympic champions have overcome such a handicap as Karoly Takacs, right, who, using his right hand, won the European pistol-shooting title in 1938. Shortly afterwards, the Hungarian soldier had his right hand blown off in a hand grenade accident. Takacs then began shooting with his left hand and, in 1948, qualified in the rapid fire pistol event for the Games. He was asked by Carlos Enrique Diaz Saenz Valiente, the Argentinian world champion, why he was in London. The Hungarian replied: ‘I am here to learn.’

Valiente beat his own world record score with 571 points. But he only got the silver medal. On 580 points, taking the title, was Takacs. On the rostrum, Valiente remarked to the Hungarian: ‘I think you have learnt enough.’ However, he hadn't. Four years later Takacs retained his title, with Valiente in fourth place and the Hungarian was still able to place 8th at the 1956 Games.

- The 1936 Olympics in Berlin were meant to be a celebration of Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler's belief in Aryan superiority. The outstanding athlete of the Games, however, was black - Jesse Owens, winner of four gold medals. These included the long jump, where he was pitted against Luz Long, both pictured right, one of the German heroes. In qualifying, Owens fouled his first two attempts and for his crucial third jump, Long advised him to take off well behind the board to ensure he reached the final. This he did, although only by a quarter of an inch.

In the final, Owens began with an Olympic record of 25 feet 10 inches but Long, to the delight of the German crowd, equalled this in the fifth round, only for Owens to leap even farther with his fifth and sixth efforts and win the title. Watched by Hitler, Long congratulated the American and was photographed with him. Owens later recalled: ‘You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the 24-carat friendship I felt for Luz Long at that moment.’ Owens kept in touch with Long until the German was killed in the Second World War and then maintained a correspondence with Long's family.

- The story of Eric Liddell, right, who died in China in 1945 while working as a missionary, was recounted in the film Chariots of Fire, telling how Liddell refused to run in the 100m, won by another Briton, Harold Abrahams, at the 1924 Games because his religious beliefs prevented him from competing on the Sabbath. Instead, he trained for the 400m.

Although the film suggests that he only learnt as he was travelling to Paris that the 100m heats would be held on a Sunday, he actually knew at least six months previously.

Having finished third in the 200m in Paris, Liddell was given a piece of paper by an American coach as he prepared for the 400m final. On it were written the words from the Bible: ‘Those who honour me, I will honour.’ Liddell described his strategy, saying: ‘I run the first 200m as fast as I can and then with God's help, I run harder.’ With his distinctive style of flailing arms and head flung back, he won in a world record of 47.6 seconds.

He began working in China in 1925 and died from a brain tumour in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. A monument to his memory was erected in Weifang in 1991. On it are the words from the Book of Isaiah: ‘They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary.’