A thread about sporting legends

haha! Name droppers! Is there anything worse than a name dropper.

Alex Zinardi, for getting sliced in half & still racing competitively.

Cor. Check out that backsplash 🙂

Proper chaps

Might not be a sportist but a sporting fellow never the less.
[list]

Two for the price of one.

“Ladies and gentlemen, here is the result of event 9, the one mile: 1st, No. 41, R.G. Bannister, Amateur Athletic Association and formerly of Exeter and Merton Colleges, Oxford, with a time which is a new meeting and track record, and which – subject to ratification – will be a new English Native, British National, All-Comers, European, British Empire and World Record. The time was 3 min 59.4 sec”

One film I’ll definitely be seeing next year.

Tom Curren. Slater has won more but Curren’s style is still where it’s at.

@Mr Sparkle

Possibly the greatest fell runner of all time?

Stuartie Cs climber borrowed a shirt from me in 1984, wonder if he’ll ever give it back, the little monkey…

Both

I disagree that to be a sporting legend you must extend beyond the fandom of your own sport. Many will do so at the whim of the press, and it rules out minority sports.

Sugar Ray

and Sugar Ray

far far too many dicks on the dancefloor

now we’re talking 🙂

Freddy Maertens; twice world champion, 13 stage wins in 1977 Vuelta a España, 8 stage wins in 1976 Tour de France.
His book Fall from Grace is worth a read.

Surfer – nice guy is Holmsey but shurley Billy Bland would rate no.1? Plenty of time for young Mr Jebb though…

[/img]

I give you the one and only …

… and not forgetting his trusty sidekick Peter …

Travis Pastrana – on so many levels is he a legend…

A most splended tash!

a better ‘tache

First solo round the world – only a boat full of fags & booze for company

Egg chasing:

Apart from the countless world titles and nine dart finishes, Theres this throw.

Climbing – but were they heroes or fools? They are certainly very famous.

(It’s Irving and Mallory btw, not that I’d have recognised them from this pic)

I like Bannister but always thought breaking the 4 minute mile was an overrated achievement. Who remembers the first person to run under 10secs for the 100m or 20secs for the 200m, or 13 minutes for the 5k etc etc. These types of records are no more important than any world record.

Pembo – it was a big deal because although 4 mins is indeed arbitrary, it was widely claimed to be impossible. So it captured the public imagination when it was done.

I think they are significant. Maybe they shouldnt be but they are symbolic.

I posted a picture of the first man inside 13 mins for 5k on page 1. Said Aouita.

Only ‘impossible’ because of the mental weakness that made people believe it couldn’t be done. Plus there was a major setback to athletics caused by WW2 so the record had been around for a while. Still a good achievement but IMHO not deserving of legend status.

If a non-Brit had broken that record how many people on here would know who they were?

One you have probably never heard of, but possibly our greatest ever runner
Unknown Hero[/url]

not deserving of legend status

Depends what the definition of ‘legend’ is doesn’t it? You could argue that it just refers to someone very famous, which Bannister is. Or you could argue that legendary status would be conferred by some kind of heroic or unique achievement, in which case many people would qualify despite most people never having heard of them.

Has anybody mentioned Lance yet? Love him or loath him, he’s a legend

As is Carl Fogarty….

For me though
JMC
Mike Hailwood
Joey Dunlop
Dave Jeffries
And of course the G.O.A.T. Valentino Rossi

AC.

Junior Downhill World Champion: 1993, 1994, 1995
Downhill World Champion: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005
Dual World Champion: 2000, 2001
4X World Champion: 2002, 2003
Olympic Champion: 2008

Good luck finding better stats.

Back to Surfers post of this morning I do not recall being answered they are:

Dave Bedford (once ‘beat’ him in a fun run when he was almost 40 – I was wrecked)
Brendan Foster
Steve Jones – once saw him at a running show exhibition thing – still national record holder. Is it Nick Rose behind, don’t think it is Hugh Jones).

I would add Kenny Stuart or Helen Diamantides or perhaps Yvette Hague as legends in minor sports, I have been in the same race as them but I would not say I raced them.

Tommy Smith (C) and John Carlos (R) Pictured at the 1968 Olympics transcending sport and jeopardising their careers for a belief.

For Pembo It was also another arbitrary record. The first time 20 seconds was broken for 200 metres.

I read a few weeks ago that Tommy Smith’s gold medal was for sale – hope he got a lot for it.