Portrait of Maria Mutola

Birthday profile

Maria Mutola

Maria Mutola, Mozambican runner and coach

Born
October 27, 1972
Age in 2026
54
Zodiac sign
Scorpio
Birth year
1972

About Maria Mutola

Maria de Lurdes Mutola ( mə-REE-ə moo-TOH-lə; born 27 October 1972) is a retired Mozambican female track and field athlete who specialised in the 800 metres running event. She is only the fourth female track and field athlete to compete at six Olympic Games. She is a three-time world champion in this event and a one-time Olympic champion. Although Mutola never broke the world record in her favourite event, she is regarded by many track insiders and fans as one of the greatest 800 metres female runners of all time. Due to her consistent performance in major championships and her exceptional longevity, she competed at the highest level for two decades before retiring from athletics in 2008 at the age of 35. She is also the only athlete ever to have won Olympic, World, World indoor, Commonwealth Games, Continental Games and Continental Championships titles in the same event. She is also the main coach and mentor of Caster Semenya. == Career == === Early years === Mutola was born in 1972 in the poor shanty town of Chamanculo on the outskirts of Maputo, then known as Lourenço Marques, the capital of Portuguese Mozambique. Her father was employed by the railways and her mother was a market vendor. As a young girl she excelled in football.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

Maria Mutola timeline

  1. His son Stelio, himself a former national long jump record holder who had competed in the 1980 Summer Olympics, was Mutola's first coach.
  2. Over the next few years Mutola failed to improve on her best time, but still won gold at the African Championships in Cairo in 1990.

The world when Maria Mutola was born

Maria Mutola was born in 1972. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1972

  • #1 song"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" – Roberta Flack
  • Top movieThe Godfather
  • Top TV showAll in the Family
  • Best-selling bookJonathan Livingston Seagull – Richard Bach

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentMark Spitz wins 7 gold medals at Munich Olympics
  • Top headlineWatergate break-in begins Nixon's downfall
  • Technology milestoneAtari founded
  • Defining fadPong (first mainstream video game)
  • Notable inventionPong video game
  • World population3.85 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderRichard Nixon
  • Sports championOakland Athletics (World Series)
  • Also wonLos Angeles Lakers (NBA)
  • U.S. population209.9M

1972 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Maria Mutola's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19722026
Gas$0.36$3.45/gal
Average home$19,800$435,000
Average income$12,600$67,500
Minimum wage$1.60$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$1.70$11.95
Postage stamp$0.08$0.73
Population209.9M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, International Olympic Committee, Olympedia. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.