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The Most Famous

ATHLETES from Namibia

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This page contains a list of the greatest Namibian Athletes. The pantheon dataset contains 3,059 Athletes, 3 of which were born in Namibia. This makes Namibia the birth place of the 98th most number of Athletes behind Malaysia and Eritrea.

Top 3

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Namibian Athletes of all time. This list of famous Namibian Athletes is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

Photo of Frankie Fredericks

1. Frankie Fredericks (1967 - )

With an HPI of 45.58, Frankie Fredericks is the most famous Namibian Athlete.  His biography has been translated into 32 different languages on wikipedia.

Frank "Frankie" Fredericks (born 2 October 1967) is a former track and field athlete from Namibia. Running in the 100 metres and 200 metres, he won four silver medals at the Olympic Games (two in 1992 and two in 1996), making him Namibia's only able-bodied Olympic medalist until Christine Mboma's silver medal at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. He also won gold medals at the World Championships, World Indoor Championships, All-Africa Games and Commonwealth Games. He is the world indoor record-holder for 200 metres, with a time of 19.92 seconds set in 1996. Fredericks has broken 20 seconds for the 200 metres 24 times. He also holds the joint-third-fastest non-winning time for the 200 metres. In August 1996, Fredericks ran 19.68 seconds in the Olympic final in Atlanta, Georgia. He is also the oldest man to have broken 20 seconds for the 200 metres. On 12 July 2002 in Rome, Fredericks won the 200 metres in a time of 19.99 seconds at the age of 34 years 283 days. He is currently serving as a council member in the IAAF. On 3 March 2017, Fredericks was implicated in the IAAF corruption scandal, stemming from a large cash payment he received in 2009. The investigation is still to be concluded.

Photo of Helalia Johannes

2. Helalia Johannes (1980 - )

With an HPI of 20.35, Helalia Johannes is the 2nd most famous Namibian Athlete.  Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Helalia Lukeiko Johannes (born 13 August 1980), also known as Hilaria Johannes, is a Namibian long-distance runner who specializes in the marathon. She holds the Namibian records in the 10 km, 20 km, half marathon and marathon events. At 39 years of age, she became a World Championships bronze medallist in the marathon. She represented her country at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2012 London Olympics and 2018 Commonwealth Games and has won medals at the World Championships, Military World Games, the All-Africa Games and at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Photo of Christine Mboma

3. Christine Mboma (2003 - )

With an HPI of 18.36, Christine Mboma is the 3rd most famous Namibian Athlete.  Her biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Christine Mboma (born 22 May 2003) is a Namibian sprinter who competes in the 100 metres and 200 m. At the age of 18, she won a silver medal in the 200 metres at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first ever Namibian woman to win a women's Olympic medal and breaking the world under-20 and African senior record. Mboma also won the event at the 2021 World Under-20 Championships and Diamond League final, improving her record mark to 21.78 seconds. In 2021, the 18-year-old set an unratified world under-20 and African senior record of 48.54 s in the 400 metres, which made her the seventh-fastest woman of all time at the event. The mark was established in June, while Mboma had previously twice broken a world U20 record in April of that year.Prior to the Tokyo Games, World Athletics had announced that Mboma and fellow Namibian sprinter Beatrice Masilingi would not be allowed to compete under the female classification in events between 400 metres and one mile due to its regulations on testosterone levels for athletes with XY disorders of sex development.

Pantheon has 3 people classified as athletes born between 1967 and 2003. Of these 3, 3 (100.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living athletes include Frankie Fredericks, Helalia Johannes, and Christine Mboma. As of April 2022, 1 new athletes have been added to Pantheon including Christine Mboma.

Living Athletes

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Newly Added Athletes (2022)

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