In writing this article, I had to think long and hard about what inspirational actually means. To me, something is inspiring if it makes me want to go on and push myself as hard and as far as that person before me. We all find different things motivational, but for me, it’s difficult to look outside the world of sport. Here, then, are my seven most inspirational sporting moments of all time! (I’ve included a couple of classic sporting movies; if you’ve not seen these films, be mindful of some pretty major spoilers.)

7. Jesse Owens Wins Four Gold Medals At The Berlin Olympic Games (1936)

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"Hitler didn't snub me—it was FDR who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram."

As an African-American who grew up in total poverty in Ohio, Jesse Owens was the grandson of a slave and the son of a sharecropper. Overcoming racial discrimination (initially at home, just to secure a place on the U.S. Olympic team), Owens would go on to be the star of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, winning four gold medals.

More importantly, the Games were overseen by Adolf Hitler, who had boasted that his superior German athletes would dominate the event. The Aryan race, Hitler assumed, had no master.*

After being informed that it was his duty to greet every medalist or none at all, Hitler went with the latter option rather than shake hands with the victorious Owens, whose iconic, and very timely performance helped bolster the profile of African-Americans throughout the world.

* Germany would go on to dominate the 1936 Games, winning 33 medals to the USA’s 24, and 89 overall against the USA’s 56.

6. Goran Ivanisevic Wins Wimbledon (2001)

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"The trouble with me is that every match I play against five opponents: umpire, crowd, ball boys, court, and myself."

After three losses in Wimbledon finals (1992, 1994 and 1998), the last a heart-breaking five-set defeat to Pete Sampras, Goran Ivanisevic’s game had began to crumble. Now ranked a lowly 125 in the world, he required a wild card to enter the 2001 Wimbledon Championships, and nobody game him much of a chance. Yet, as the tournament progressed, and Goran kept on winning under a rallying cry, people began to believe. More importantly, Goran began to believe: “It is my destiny.”

After ousting home favorite Tim Henman in a rain-delayed semi-final, Ivanisevic would go on to beat Patrick Rafter (who then suffered his own second-consecutive finals defeat) in five sets.

5. Rocky (1976-2006)

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“You gotta be a moron... you gotta be a moron to wanna be a fighter.”

The Rocky series is an interesting phenomenon. Bookended by the only two films in the series that one could soberly argue are bonafide classics – the original film, and Rocky Balboa (and if you’re being really picky it’s only the first film) – if you’ve had a drink or three, the normal rules for evaluating the quality of a movie go right out the window. Heck, the drunker you are, the more you’re likely to hold up Rocky III (Mr T, Hulk Hogan) or Rocky IV (where Rocky single-handedly ends the cold war in real life) as the stalwarts of the franchise. Whichever film is your personal favorite, there’s one thing nobody can dispute – Rocky Balboa, the character, is a genuine American icon.

For the most inspirational clip, I’ve gone with the training montage from Rocky IV. If you’re a gym rat but having one of those off-days we all suffer where it’s cold outside and you just don’t want to go, put this on. You’ll be out the door before it’s over.

4. Michael Jordan Makes The Shot (1989)

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"Give the ball to Michael and everyone else get out of the way." - Doug Collins, Chicago Bulls head coach.

You’ve probably seen it a million times, but it’s always good. With 3.2 seconds on the clock, Michael Jordan fires a jumper over the desperate, outstretched arms of Craig Ehlo, who moments earlier had given Cleveland a 99-98 lead in the fifth and final game of their first round playoff series. Jordan, of course, makes it, and Chicago wins the series. But what makes this legendary is Ehlo – it’s the sheer terror on Ehlo’s face as, almost stumbling, he gets the very tips of his fingers on that ball, but it still doesn’t matter. And as Jordan leaps in celebration, Ehlo collapses to the floor. It’s epic, epic stuff.

3. Lance Armstrong Wins The Tour de France (1999-2005)

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“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.”

In 1996, Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer, which had already spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain. Choosing to undergo an alternative form of chemotherapy to avoid the lung toxicity associated with the standardized treatment (which would have effectively ended his career), Armstrong underwent surgery on his brain tumours, and had his diseased testicle removed.

Prior to his diagnosis, Armstrong had won only two stages in the Tour de France. In 1999, after winning four stages, he would go on to win the Tour by over seven minutes. He repeated his success the following year, beating the biggest names in the sport, and would go on to win the event on seven consecutive occasions. Overall, he would win twenty-two individual stages and eleven time trials.

2. Tin Cup (1996)

“You think a guy like me bothers to worry about the percentages?”

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Loosely-based on an actual real-life event (Gary McCord, who both appears in the movie as himself and trained Kevin Costner to become a competent golfer, had a similar experience in an event on the Champions Tour), Tin Cup culminates with Roy ‘Tin Cup’ McAvoy tied for the lead in the US Open. Needing a par to force a playoff, and a birdie to win, McAvoy finds himself 235-yards from the hole, playing his second shot on a par five.

It’s arguably the greatest finish in any sporting movie ever, simply because it’s so unexpected. Even when he loses, and loses royally, somehow McAvoy still manages to win.

1. Julie Moss Does The Crawl (1982)

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"It wasn't so much pain as a feeling like my legs were falling asleep. I kept trying to figure out how to get up. I kept thinking about how I could use my arms to help me, because they were stronger than my legs."

The Hawaii Ironman is one of the greatest endurance tests in all of sports. With a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile full marathon, it makes and breaks the hardiest of competitors.

In 1982, 23-year old college student Julie Moss was making her first attempt at the race. Amazingly, with two miles to the finish, she found herself leading the women’s race. Back in 1982, ultra-endurance athletes didn’t know all that much about nutrition and hydration – the race was sponsored by Bud Lite, after all – and Moss had been suffering for miles and was often forced to walk. Time and again she reached inside herself and found the spirit and the courage to run, but it wouldn’t last.

Yet, with only 100 yards to go, the finish line was in sight. "I had an image of myself running across the finish line," she says. "If I had walked those last 100 yards I probably would have been okay.”

So she tried to run. The video clip below is powerful stuff.

"It took all my focus just to keep my body working," she would later say. "The image was that I was pretty out of it, but it was taking all my focus just to keep going. I had to concentrate so much on how I placed my foot on the ground. If I was off by a bit, my leg would just buckle."

What is your most inspirational sporting moment?