That Africans today dominate distance running is testament to the career of Kipchoge "Kip" Keino. Keino announced Africa''s distance running awakening with victory in the 1500m in Mexico City in 1968. He won the 3 000m steeplechase in Munich four years later in only his fifth competitive race in this event. He also won silver in the 5 000m in 1968 and silver in the 1 500m in 1972. Kenenisa Bekele is already an Olympic legend. The Ethiopian intends to defend his 5 000m and 10 000m Olympic titles in London in 2012. He is gunning for an unprecedented third successive title in the 10 000m and if he qualifies, he will double up in the 5 000m. He has a silver medal in the 5 000m from the 2004 Athens Olympics Haile Gebrselassie is regarded as one of the greatest distance runners of all times. Gebrselassie won the 10 000m at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and repeated the feat at the Sydney Games in 2000. Gebrselassie, a multiple world record holder, failed to qualify for the London Olympics. Deratu Tulu rose to fame when she won the women's 10 000m at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. Tulu then invited South Africa's silver medalist Elana Meyer to share her victory lap in a poignant moment of post-apartheid harmony. Ethiopia's most decorated female Olympian has won two gold medals in the 10 000m (in 1992 and 2000). She also won a bronze medal in the same event in 2004. Frank Fredericks is a Namibian icon, Chairman of the IOC's Athlete's Commission and a four time Olympic silver medalist. Africa's greatest sprinter ever, won silver medals in die 100m and 200m at the Barcelona Olympics for the newly independent Namibia. He finished second in both sprints at the Atlanta games in 1996. After failing to win Olympic gold in an event he dominated for a decade, Hicham El Gerrouj finally got the monkey off his back when he won the 1 500m final at the Athens Olympics in 2004. Five days later the Moroccan achieved a double that no man has pulled off since the great Paavo Nurmy in 1924, when he surprised Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele in the 5 000m to win his second gold of the Games. Mozambique's golden girl maria Mutola ended her career with a combined total of 10 world titles and her country's first ever Olympic medal when she claimed victory in the 800m at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Mutola, a veteran of six Olympics, also won a bronze medal in the 800m at the Atlanta Games in 1996. Penny Heyns is one of the best female swimmers in Olympic history. Heyns made her Olympic debut at the 1992 Barcelona Games. Four years later in Atlanta she became the first women to complete an Olympic double of winning both the 100m and 200m breaststroke. She broke the world record on her way to gold in the 100m breaststroke and claim the Olympic record in the 200m breaststroke. In 1999, Heyns broke 11 breaststroke world records in three golden months. She closed her remarkable career career out with a bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke at the Sydney Olympics. Kirsty Coventry ended Zimbabwe's 24-year Olympic medal drought in 2004 at the Athens Olympics when she collected a gold in the 200m backstroke, silver in the 100m backstroke and a bronze medal in the 200m individual medley.She added another gold in the 200 backstroke at the Beijing Olympics as well as three more Olympic silver medals. By winning the 400m hurdles at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Nawal El Moutawakal became the first Moroccan, African and Muslim woman to win an Olympic gold medal. She regards the new opportunities her Olympic victory gave girls in Morocco as her most telling achievement in athletics. She is a member of the IOC Women and Sport Commission and is currently Vice-Chair of the Laureus World Sports Academy. Kenya has won the Olympic steeplechase gold medal in every games the country has competed in since 1968. Brimin Kipruto's victory in the 3 000m steeplechase at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 meant Kenya have won seven consecutive steeplechase titles since the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Roland Schoeman became South Africa's most decorated athlete at a single Olympics when he won a bronze medal in the men's 50m freestyle at the Athens Olympics, his third of the Games. Schoeman won a gold medal as a member of the men's 4x100 freestyle relay team that also broke the world record. He also won silver in the showcase 100m freestyle event.