Sun Yang

Sport: Swimming

Sun Yang is rapidly becoming one of the most famous Chinese athletes in the world after his sensational victory during the London Olympic Games.

Born on December 1, 1991 in Hangzhou, Sun's father was a basketball player and his mother a volleyball player. In early 2011, he was sent to train with Olympic medalist Grant Hackett's mentor, Dennis Cotterell, in Australia for two months. Then, on July 31 of the same year, Sun broke the world record in the 1500m freestyle, which had actually been set by that same Grant Hackett ten years earlier.

On July 28 and August 4 of this year, he became the Olympic champion in the men's 400m and 1500m freestyle events, making him the first male swimmer to win an Olympic gold for China as well as one of two male swimmers to win two individual titles at one time-the other one being Michael Phelps.