Jefferson Pérez

Jefferson Pérez is a retired Ecuadorian race walker, born on 1 July 1974 in Cuenca, who specialised in the 20 km event. He won the first two medals his country ever achieved at the Olympic Games: gold at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he became the youngest Olympic race walk champion, and silver at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. He also finished fourth in the 20 km walk at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. At the World Championships he won three consecutive gold medals from 2003 to 2007, the only person to do so, and his winning time of 1:17:21 in 2003 became the first official world record for the 20 km walk once road event standards were recognised. He entered race walking almost by accident while preparing for a school physical education exam.