Gino Bartali

Often athletes are seen as role models and heroes. Kids plaster the walls with posters of their favorite soccer star, race car driver or cyclist. They dream to score that goal that earns your team the championship like Andrés Iniesta. They dream to earn the most pole positions in Formla 1 like Michael Schumacher or to dominate the Tour de France time trials like Miguel Indurain. But these sports stars are merely entertainers. I agree, they do things us mortals cannot achieve, but they largely owe it to talent and training - nothing so heroic in that, I assume.
So here's to a sportsman that proved to be a hero and a role model when it counted: Gino Bartali. Bartali won the Tour de France twice and the Giro d' Italia three times. But those are not his biggest accomplishment. During World War II he supported the Italian Resistance and helped saving the lives of 800 jews. Bartali himself wasn't too keen on talking about his actions. He prefered deeds over words and so most of his achievement were only noted after his death. According to the UCI, Bartali is to be honoured as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.