Famous Athletes Study Guide: 79 Flashcards on Sports Legends, Records and Nicknames

Seventy-nine names, one line each: that is the Famous Athletes deck on Flip It (deck code WG5297). Every back packs a nationality, a sport, a headline number and a nickname, so the real challenge isn't recognising Michael Jordan. It's keeping 23 Grand Slams apart from 22, and 49-0 apart from 50-0.

Eight cards from the deck

Who's in the deck

Cards 1-17 are a mixed all-star opener. From card 18 onward the deck runs roughly sport by sport:

• Basketball: Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell (11 rings), Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, LeBron James
• Baseball: Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson (No. 42), Hank Aaron (755), Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio (56-game streak), Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax
• American football: Tom Brady (7 Super Bowls), Jerry Rice, Jim Brown, Walter Payton, Joe Montana, Peyton Manning, plus the two-sport cards Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders
• Boxing: Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Sugar Ray Robinson, Manny Pacquiao (8 divisions)
• Tennis: Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Serena Williams, Navratilova, Billie Jean King, Sampras, Agassi, Evert
• Golf, swimming, gymnastics, soccer, hockey, motorsport, cycling, cricket: Nicklaus (18 majors), Bobby Jones, Phelps, Spitz, Nadia Comăneci, Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, Senna, Schumacher, Hamilton, Richard Petty, Eddy Merckx, Tendulkar

Study tips specific to this deck

Drill the "only" cards as one group. Seven backs make an "only" claim: only three-time World Cup winner, only Golden Slam, only undefeated heavyweight, only eight-division champion, only MLB and NFL All-Star (Bo Jackson), only athlete to play in a Super Bowl and a World Series (Deion Sanders). Others claim a first, last or youngest, like Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams and Mike Tyson. Quiz questions love these superlatives, so tag them only and review them in their own session.

Watch out for numbers that have changed. Four backs are out of date. Fix them in the app:

• Simone Biles: the card says 37 Olympic and World medals. After Paris 2024 she has 41 (11 Olympic, 30 World).
• Katie Ledecky: the card says 10 Olympic medals, 7 gold. She now has 14, including 9 gold.
• Abby Wambach: her 184 goals are no longer the international record. Christine Sinclair passed her in 2020 and finished with 190.
• Valentino Rossi: he won 9 world titles across all classes, but only 7 in the premier 500cc/MotoGP class. The card calls them "9-time MotoGP".

Also expect paired cards to blur together, like Navratilova/Evert (18 Slams each) and Russell/Kareem (Celtics vs. Lakers). Study each pair back to back and say the one detail that tells them apart out loud.

Find the deck under code WG5297 in the Flip It library at flip-it.app. For the team-sport details behind these names, see the basketball rules and NBA history guide and the Olympic history deck.