Greatest Sportspersons/athletes of All Time

[RossTaylorsBox]

Outside of basketball, I'd consider Jahangir Khan.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Teddy Riner might be a good shout.

 

[duffer]

Rafa would have been comfortably clear of both if his body had held up.

I am not a Djokovic fan but have to admit he is psychologically in a whole different realm to most sportsmen.

Rafa's done alright for someone who's battled a dicky knee for the best part of two decades tbf

Edit: dicky foot injury since 2005 I just read

 

[ataraxia]

Imran Khan also in with a shout.

 

[capt_Luffy]

Imran Khan also in with a shout.

I mean, ofcourse you would shout in Imran Khan.

 

[Skipper Pup]

That squash guy who won 500 matches in a row or something

Can't remember his name either but I do remember that he squashed all his opponents.

 

[capt_Luffy]

Can't remember his name either but I do remember that he squashed all his opponents.

Jahangir Khan. He won 555 consecutive matches...

 

[Molehill]

Jahangir Khan. He won 555 consecutive matches...

I saw a couple of those - my local Squash Club (my Dad was a member) used to host a half decent tournament in the 80's. They would play the semis and final at the theatre. Got to be said, Squash at the highest level can be a ****ing tedious watch at times.

My ankle issues can be traced back to playing Squash too.

 

[Ali TT]

Seriously, are darts and snookers sports like tennis or cricket or games like chess.... It's a genuine question, or else if games qualify then Kasparov definitely warrants a spot (yeah, over Fischer, Carlsen and Paul Murphy).

Yes they are sports by any reasonable "official" definition rather than "what guy on internet says". I think it becomes a bit greyer for chess, GO and then things like eSports.

Novak just has the better PEDs.

He hates getting jabbed though.

I saw a couple of those - my local Squash Club (my Dad was a member) used to host a half decent tournament in the 80's. They would play the semis and final at the theatre. Got to be said, Squash at the highest level can be a ****ing tedious watch at times.

My ankle issues can be traced back to playing Squash too.

I used to love playing it until COVID arrived and then never got back into it. During the pandemic, the thought of being in an enclosed box with another human being while doing physical activity (oo er missus etc) was pretty off-putting and now it's been too long. I did watch it a bit on TV and occasionally watch the top players at our club but mostly agree with you. There's an aesthetic appreciation of seeing shot after shot go tight down the line and seeing the slightly better players work over their opponent but there isn't much variation in play! One of the reasons I've gone off tennis is that it has become a similar game in the modern era with very long rallies and, to me, lost the variety in styles of earlier eras.

 

[sledger]

Tennis and squash are terrible spectator sports imo, and only fun to play if your opponent is pretty much of exactly the same level ability as you are.

 

[Ali TT]

Tennis and squash are terrible spectator sports imo, and only fun to play if your opponent is pretty much of exactly the same level ability as you are.

That goes with lots of 1v1 sports though.

 

[ashley bach]

It hurts to say it but the Joker now well past Fed. Doubt any of us will see his grand slam tally overtaken in our lifetime.
Damn it Roger why couldn't you take that match-point at Wimbledon in 2019

 

[sledger]

That goes with lots of 1v1 sports though.

Yeah true.

 

[Molehill]

That goes with lots of 1v1 sports though.

I think you could argue it's happened with team v team sports too. There is now so much analysis that teams/individuals play in such formulaic manners. This was seemingly highlighted by a patch of rugby doing the rounds on social media from the weekend with each team kicking it back to the other for about 2 mins, neither willing to hand over territorial advantage or risk running it from the back.....coz the percentages say you must play a certain way.

Tennis analysts will tell you which shot you should play from each corner of the court against certain players. Squash was probably about the first to this spot because of the nature of the game. I agree, you can marvel at the skill to keep on hitting it back down the walls, but it ain't a great watch.

 

[Molehill]

Tennis and squash are terrible spectator sports imo, and only fun to play if your opponent is pretty much of exactly the same level ability as you are.

One of the things I love about golf, you can have any calibre of player playing against each other and you can do it at the same venues that the pro's play on too.

 

[sledger]

One of the things I love about golf, you can have any calibre of player playing against each other and you can do it at the same venues that the pro's play on too.

Yes, I imagine if I liked golf or had the inclination to try it I would probably agree with you!

 

[peterhrt]

There are a few of these lists around. Bradman rarely makes the top ten. Interest in cricket is thinly spread around the world. Of nearly 200 officially recognised countries only 12 name cricket as their main sport, and they are nearly all in South Asia or the Caribbean. Most of the world's population have never heard of Bradman.

Sport with most worldwide participants is Volleyball. Table Tennis and Badminton are in the top five, along with Basketball and Football.

Some names from twenty sports not yet mentioned in the thread:

Athletics (longer distance): Gebrselassie
Badminton: Lin Dan
Canoeing: Fredriksson
Cycling: Merckx
Decathlon: Eaton
Gymnastics: Uchimura
Handball: Karabatic
Horse Racing: Pincay
MMA: Silva
Pole Vault: Bubka
Rowing: Redgrave
Skiing (Alpine): Stenmark
Skiing (Cross country): Daehlie
Ski Jumping: Nykanen
Speed Skating: Heiden
Surfing: Slater
Table Tennis: Ma Long
Volleyball: Kiraly
Water Polo: Gyarmati
Weightlifting: Suleymanoglu

 

[Jarquis]

Matt Fraser
Tia Clare-Toomey

 

[capt_Luffy]

There are a few of these lists around. Bradman rarely makes the top ten. Interest in cricket is thinly spread around the world. Of nearly 200 officially recognised countries only 12 name cricket as their main sport, and they are nearly all in South Asia or the Caribbean. Most of the world's population have never heard of Bradman.

Sport with most worldwide participants is Volleyball. Table Tennis and Badminton are in the top five, along with Basketball and Football.

I think you are underapreciating cricket's popularity a bit. According to most sources, in terms of 'fans' or spectators of different sports, cricket is at either the second or third spot (alternating with basketball) and is only clearly bested by football; I mean ofcourse. It's largely due to the huge population concentration that's in South Asia, and cricket's high popularity in countries there. I have myself seen a plenty few such lists and one of the main reasons Don isn't present in many of those is because they're made by Americans. Most lists made by Britishers atleast contains a mention of Bradman and I have read plenty of Aussie articles on why Bradman is the GOAT of all sports. It's more often than not sports popular in the writer's country gets mentions, even if the GOAT athlete in them was less dominant than Bradman and the sport is overall less popular. Personally, I really don't know who should be considered the "GOAT athlete", but I am pretty sure Bradman is an automatic choice in Top 10 due to his dominance factor and cricket's overall popularity.

 

[peterhrt]

I think you are underapreciating cricket's popularity a bit. According to most sources, in terms of 'fans' or spectators of different sports, cricket is at the second or third spot (alternating with basketball) and is only clearly bested by football, I mean ofcourse. It's largely due to the huge population concentration that's in South Asia, and cricket's high popularity in countries there. I have myself seen a plenty few such lists and one of the main reasons Don isn't present in one of those is because they're made by Americans. Most lists made by Britishers atleast contains a mention of Bradman and I have read plenty of Aussie articles on why Bradman is the GOAT of all sports. It's more often than not sports popular in the writer's country gets mentions, even if the GOAT athlete in them was less dominant than Bradman and the sport is overall less popular. Personally, I really don't know who should be considered the "GOAT athlete", but I am pretty sure Bradman is an automatic choice in Top 10 due to his dominance factor and cricket's overall popularity.

You are right about cricket's overall following - behind football and probably basketball and roughly level with hockey (including ice hockey) - and the concentration in South Asia.

Cricketers will feature in lists within the few countries where the game is played at international level. Global reach is limited. American lists, as you say, largely ignore cricketers, as do those compiled in mainland Europe.