Sir Steve Redgraves Top 5 Athletes

Splottboy

On Trans World Sport, Sir Steve says his top 5 Athletes are:
a. Ali, male boxer.
b. Armstrong, male cyclist.
c. Cook, female cyclist.
d. Zatopek, male runner.
e. Woods, male golfer.
( So, two cyclists, eh???)

Mine: Ali.
Armstrong.
Payton, Chicago Bears running back.
Dave Scott, Triathlete.
Hee Ill Cho, Tae Kwon Do Master.

What's Your Top 5?

welshkev

off the top of my head i'd have to say:

1. lance armstrong
2. Jonah Lomu
3. Schumacher - even though i don't like F1.
4. Tiger Woods
5. Usain Bolt

_Ferret_

First run...

1. Pele
2. Armstrong
3. Carl Lewis
4. Michael Jordan
5. and of course Steve Peat

Kanya

1. Gretzky - ice hockey
2. Ovechkin - ice hockey
3. Jordan - basketball
4. Schumacher - F1
5. Kournikova - crap at tennis but nice arse....

Splottboy

As I'm really old, decrepit and forget a lot, I forgot Sir Bobby Charlton as "Special Mention."

P-Jay

In no real order

Valentio Rossi
Lewis Hamilton
Thomas Vanderham
Tony Hawk
Travis Prastama

welshkev

P-Jay wrote:

In no real order

Valentio Rossi
Lewis Hamilton
Thomas Vanderham
Tony Hawk
Travis Prastama

good choice, i might have to bump out tiger woods now

bomberesque

welshkev wrote:

off the top of my head i'd have to say:

1. lance armstrong
2. Jonah Lomu
3. Schumacher - even though i don't like F1.
4. Tiger Woods
5. Usain Bolt

I saw him play 7s for NZ in Hong Kong back in 95 (I think, it was a blurry decade) Fekking awesome he was!

Moomin23

Wow, not one mention for Eddy Mercx on a Cycling website!

_Ferret_

who?

UncleMonty

Woods, Schumacher & Rossi are athletes ? Tiger Woods just walks doesn't he, and the other two sit.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they are not talented or at the top of their respective games but come on, athletes ?

P-Jay

UncleMonty wrote:

Woods, Schumacher & Rossi are athletes ? Tiger Woods just walks doesn't he, and the other two sit.

Yeah, super athletes - I;m not including Woods here, he looks fit, but it's not really a requirement of Golf.

Motor Sport is a very physical activity, OK the fittest guy doesn't always win the race, but it's a major factor.

I'm not super hot on my Moto GP info, but F1 drivers are some of the very fittest athletes in the world, even though they have a built in drinks dispener in their cars they lose 3-5Kgs of body weight in a1.5 to 2 hour race.

Not sure if it's your bag, but a Moto GP rider called Casey Stonner was in the title race this year, caught a mystery bug, doctors just couldn't work it out, but gave him Iron deficency, he had to pull out for 3 races (about 6 weeks) of total rest to get back ft enough to ride.

_Ferret_

Depends how you look at it and what you consider an athlete to be.

For me it's someone pushing the limits of what the human body can do. This would include F1 drivers and Golfers in my opinion - concentration, pose and accuracy are still things that need to be trained to be the best in your chosen sport...

.blitz

Indurain
Bannister
Palmer
Jordan
Best

simonaspinall

_Ferret_ wrote:

Depends how you look at it and what you consider an athlete to be.

For me it's someone pushing the limits of what the human body can do. This would include F1 drivers and Golfers in my opinion - concentration, pose and accuracy are still things that need to be trained to be the best in your chosen sport...

Got a lot of respect for the physical poise and elegance of a pro golf stroke...but athleticism? Surely any sport with a wooly pringle jumper as the course uniform and sensible slacks can't be considered athletic. Talented physical technique and atleticism must be two different things.

Next you'll be saying fielders on a cricket pitch will be up there! :shock:

Daz555

Ok if we forget definition of athlete, my top 5 sports people are:

1. Muhammad Ali

Then in no particular order:

Daley Thompson
Michael Jordan
Pele
Valentino Rossi

UncleMonty

_Ferret_ wrote:

Depends how you look at it and what you consider an athlete to be.
quote]

^ exactly

I'm a big F1 fan and I understand the demands made of their bodies, however, I just can't consider these to be in the same league as say Ali, Coe, Ovett or even Redgrave himself.

Im surprised no ones mentioned Eric Bristow & Steve Davis

_Ferret_

because Eric Bristow and Steve Davis are gods, not sports people!

P-Jay

I agree that the word Sportsman/women/person has been changed to Athlete recently.

If you talk to someone of my Mum or Nan's generation and say athlete they would only be thinking of Track & Field type events, it wouldn't include Cyclists, Boxers, and Footballers etc. Basically if it didn't happen in the main stadium at the Olympics (or finish there in the case of marathon runners) it's wasn't Athletics, and thus they weren’t Athletes. Even Gymnasts weren’t included.

It wasn't a slur ether, Athletes did Athletics, Boxers boxed, cyclists cycled etc etc

But words and their meanings change constantly, we're not governed by the dictionary, it's governed by the use of the language. By modern standards they're all athletes in my book. I might draw the line at Darts and Snooker, but even they train constantly to improve, it's just not physical.

turpinr

ali
sugar ray robinson
usain bolt
kip keino
coe/ovett

paul.skibum

Of the names of people I can think of who were exceptional athletes in their fields

Armstrong
Shane McConkey
Herman Maier
Pele
Daley Thompson

I admire many more sports men including F1 and Moto GP for their abilities including Rossi, Schumacher (dont like him but appreciate his "gift"), Moss, Graham Hill (the last 2 for their courage to even race in the old F1 cars), Peaty, freeride skiers and bikers alike - eg Sarah Burke for spinning a 1260 off the big air kicker at Whistler a couple ofseasons ago and generally trying to go as big as the boys, triathletes and decathletes - multisport is such a challenge to be competitive in.

Daz555

P-Jay wrote:

I'm not super hot on my Moto GP info, but F1 drivers are some of the very fittest athletes in the world, even though they have a built in drinks dispenser in their cars they lose 3-5Kgs of body weight in a1.5 to 2 hour race.

They are fit compared to the man in the street, but not even remotely so in comparison to elite athletes.

Point of illustration is Buttons excellent time of 2hrs 7 mins for the London Triathlon (Olympic distance) in August. However, elite athletes are 20 minutes quicker.

turpinr

ali isn't/wasn't just a sportsman he's .......................ali
if you went on a boxing website they'd laugh at motor sports being classed as a sport,but everybody knows ali

P-Jay

Daz555 wrote:

P-Jay wrote:

I'm not super hot on my Moto GP info, but F1 drivers are some of the very fittest athletes in the world, even though they have a built in drinks dispenser in their cars they lose 3-5Kgs of body weight in a1.5 to 2 hour race.

They are fit compared to the man in the street, but not even remotely so in comparison to elite athletes.

Point of illustration is Buttons excellent time of 2hrs 7 mins for the London Triathlon (Olympic distance) in August. However, elite athletes are 20 minutes quicker.

Yeah, I get your meaing, but finishing a marathon within 85% of the highest in their field is a pretty awsome time, because you've got to bare in mind that no one of the elite runners could drive an F1 car in a race and I'm totally taking abilty out of the equation too.

The muscle mass that they need to simply survive in the thing as it pulls a massive 5G through the corners, thier heads would come clean off. Also F1 drivers, whilst they're ding all this, can't lose concentration once, not for a second, let be honest in the sort of times F1 teams talk in, they can't lose it for a hundreth of a second.

I sypathise with your point, but it's like saying that Usain Bolt isn't an athlete because he's not an elite swimmer (he might be, but I'm guessing not)

Check this link out, it give an idea of the level of fitness/training they have to do.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsp ... 980337.stm

10milesfromafan

I don't know if a driver constitutes being an athlete but earlier this year whilst watching F1 I was blown away by the fact that during this one particular race that Button was sat in the cockpit of the car which was over 50 degrees for the whole time and during the race his heart rate remained around 170 bpm. Add to that the skill and risk involved you must agree that it's something special.

Heres mine:
1. Ali
2. Wille John McBride
3. Roger Federer
4. Michael Jordan
5. Usain Bolt

No doubt in hours time I would list a different 2 - 5 !!!!!

The Spiderman

Usain Bolt
Jonah Lomu
Lewis Hamilton
Chris Hoy
Lance Armstrong

supersonic

John Daly
Jocky Wilson
Bill Werbeniuk
Cliff Lazerenko
Rob Warner

_Ferret_

I think even Rob Warner would argue that he isn't an Athlete.

Daz555

I think the key here is that it is not athletic ability that separates F1 drivers.

They all need a certain level of fitness to be an F1 driver, that is certain, but it is not their physical ability that defines them as F1 drivers or governs their success or failure.

Unless of course we regard the hand-brain-eye-foot coordination as an athletic ability, in which case it brings darts, archery and shooting into the athletic equation.

I'd say just leave it as 'sports people' but then we have the debate about what is a sport, and what is 'just' a game....... :?

rhyko7

number one without any shadow of doubt

Bruce Lee-he was so above everyone else contests would be a waste of his time-he revolutionised fighting, body building, training, nutrition exptance of easterners, martial arts movies.....
No2 Valentino Rossi - guy is just a legend, past his own best yet still the best
no 3 Artyn Senna shame he died early
no 4 cassius clay/muhammed ali cassius clay was the graetest ever fighter, ali was past is prime but had the skills and heart long after his speed had gone
no 5 hmmn not sure maybe matt hoffman or travis pastrana

this is turned into an interesting debate, people seem to be rating athletes for their fitness not their skills or talents, i can assure you that moto gp and F1 drivers are fit anyway, i would say moto gp riders are much fitter than F1 (F1 drivers have stong necks)-imagine doing a downhill course for 50 minutes flat our will give you an idea of how fit these guys are.
i think motor sport anf fighting have an aspect of instinct that most other sports dont
there was a famous quote from allan prost about senna went along the lines of "in that race i realised i could not have got the best of senna and had to break when i realised he was willing to die"

Splottboy

Unfortunately, Darts and Snooker are SPORT: If you define Sport as, Being competitive, has rules and has a winnner/loser outcome.
If none of the above, then it's a leisure activity. Recreation is just that; Time to re-create yourself, or enjoy an activity.

Leisure is a concept of time, ie, when you are not working.
( Look, don't blame me, blame Wyn Rogers, my lecturer at Newark Tech on the '81/'82 NEBSS Sports/Recreation/Leisure Supervisory Management course!!! )
Ok, there was a lot of alcohol beverage undertaken that year, so I could be mistaken...

Don't know where this leaves Fishing... Do the fish know the rules???
Who's the winner/loser likely to be???