Jackie-Joyner Kersee, 54

Jackie-Joyner Kersee's track and field career spanned four Olympic Games (1984 to 1996). She won six Olympic medals in the long jump and heptathlon, and in 2000 was named Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century by Sports Illustrated. In 1988 she set up the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation in her hometown of East St. Louis, Illinois, and 12 years later raised $12 million to build The Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center, a youth recreation and sports center with a 1,200-seat gymnasium. In 2007, Joyner-Kersee, along with a number of well known pro athletes, founded Athletes for Hope, a nonprofit that helps professional athletes get involved in charitable causes.