From the Archives: Olympians in Vogue

To honor the coming Paris Olympics, this year’s opening ceremony (which will take place right on the Seine), and our just-launched August digital cover, starring sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson, we’ve taken a turn through our archives to marvel at the many stellar Olympians who have featured in Vogue. From swimmers like Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin to tennis players like Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic to gymnasts like Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee, some of modern history’s most celebrated athletes have taken time out of their very busy training schedules to pose for our pages.

As of August 2023, Richardson claims the title of fastest woman in the world. “Most people only think of track every four years,” she told Maya Singer. “The Olympics, that’s all there is—those few seconds on TV. But for me, track is my life on a day-to-day basis. Everything I do—what I eat, what I drink, if I stay up too late—it’s all reflected on the track. Every choice. That’s what the world doesn’t see.”

Richardson is in good company here. When we shot Allyson Felix, then 22, before the Beijing Olympics in 2008, she described to Robert Sullivan the physical toll of running at record-breaking speeds. “You always feel a little beat up,” she admitted. “It’s an achy feeling. You’re always sore. The next workout is never far away, so you’re always thinking, How am I going to do this?” The now retired athlete competed in the 2021 Tokyo Games, earning two medals. With 11 medals in total, including seven golds, Felix goes down as the most decorated track-and-field athlete in history.

Simone Biles—who covered our August issue in 2021 and is currently making the rounds on TikTok for her showstopping floor routine on day one of the 2024 Olympic Trials in Minneapolis—is also breaking records. The first woman to complete a Yurchenko double pike on vault—and a gymnast who can claim that five moves (and counting) are named after her—Biles explained to Vogue that she grew up with her eye on the podium. As a young girl, “I didn’t see very many Black gymnasts,” she told Abby Aguirre. “So whenever I did, I felt really inspired to go out there and want to be as good as them. I remember watching Gabby Douglas win the 2012 Olympics, and I was like, If she can do it, I can do it.” In 2016, Biles set an American record for the most gold medals won by a woman gymnast at a single Olympic Games, and she has won 30 world medals in total, 23 of which are gold.

Other familiar faces from Olympics past include Ronda Rousey, Apolo Ohno, and Nastia Liukin; scroll through our gallery for those and many more.