Amy Van Dyken, 43

Swimmer Amy Van Dyken is one of few Olympic champions to have an unbroken gold-medal winning streak. She took home four golds in Atlanta in 1996 and another two in Sydney in 2000. Four years into her retirement, when she was working as a national sports radio talk show co-host, Van Dyken severed her spinal cord in an ATV accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down. While undergoing rehabilitation she set up the Amy Van Dyken Foundation, or "Amy's Army," to help others with spinal injuries fund the estimated $1 million in medical expenses. In addition to keeping up her own physical therapy and running Amy's Army, she crisscrosses the country giving motivational speeches.