Sports Who, in your opinion, is the greatest athlete of all time?

[HairyO]

False.

Catches win matches.

False. Dropped catches lose matches.

Colin Bland>Bradman

Victor Trumper > Colin Bland + Don Bradman

Wouldnt Jonty Rhodes be a better pick than Bland, given he is best known for his fielding?

Bradman never had to compete against the mighty NZ Black Caps either as they didn't start playing tests against Australia until the early 1970s.

Of his 52 tests, 37 of them were against England, 5 were against South Africa, 5 were against the West Indies and 5 were against India and those sides weren't as strong as they were in subsequent decades.

Bradman never had to face a West Indies bowling line up containing the likes of Roberts, Holding, Marshall, Garner, Ambrose and Walsh and he never had to face a Pakistan bowling line up of Wasim Akram, Wagar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar.

Bradman was really just a downhill skier who was fortunate to play in an era with very little strong opposition.

Bradman had to play on s**t pitches with crappy protective gear against bowlers who were quite happy to try and kill the batsmen. You make a better argument in any of your umpiring threads.

 

[El Dubya]

So was Muhammad Ali...

Different war, different issues, different levels of squibbery. But a squib nonetheless.

Keith Miller the greatest athlete of all time and the best bloke.

 

[moses]

 

[HairyO]

Different war, different issues, different levels of squibbery. But a squib nonetheless.

Keith Miller the greatest athlete of all time and the best bloke.

Doug Walters could drink and smoke him under the table, while still being just as good a cricketer.

An incredible athlete given his lopsided arms. And his choice of breakfast foods.

 

[Plugger35]

Unless you've fought in a war yourself it's a bit rich to accuse other people of being a war squib, I don't reckon many people here would be rushing to join up for another World War if it happened.

Bradman had to play on s**t pitches with crappy protective gear against bowlers who were quite happy to try and kill the batsmen. You make a better argument in any of your umpiring threads.

I would rather have played on s**t pitches with crappy protective gear than face the Windies bowling attacks from the late 70s through to the early 90s.

 

[HairyO]

Unless you've fought in a war yourself it's a bit rich to accuse other people of being a war squib, I don't reckon many people here would be rushing to join up for another World War if it happened.



I would rather have played on s**t pitches with crappy protective gear than face the Windies bowling attacks from the late 70s through to the early 90s.

Joel Garner came to my school once. Bowled tennis balls and still scared the s**t out of us kids.

I swear he was about 8 feet tall.

 

[El Dubya]

Joel Garner came to my school once. Bowled tennis balls and still scared the s**t out of us kids.

I swear he was about 8 feet tall.

This family friend who was a Miss Australia back in the day once told a story about how she became the Windies girlfriend during one of their mid 80s tours. Her son, my age, not a cricket fan was fairly nonplussed until we showed him footage of the Windies from back then. I don't think he'll ever look at her the same way again.

 

[M Malice]

I thought we were talking Homo Sapiens only.

I'll go the Shark.

 

[Back One Out]

Phelps didnt care how fast he was at Pan Pacs or World titles. His only interest was Olympic medals. So all of his training was designed to hit his peak right at that time.

Unlike Sergey Bubka who consistently broke his world record at World cup events where there was prize money but failed all but once at the Olympics where there was no prize money.

You missed my point. Phelps only ever won 1 Olympic gold medal for freestyle. He dominated the butterfly, medley and relay races. IMO, these are just ancillary events to bulk out the meet. It’s like winning gold for the 10km Walk in Track & Field. Who cares? The fastest swimmers swim freestyle. Phelps was not one of greatest freestylers like Thorpe, Hackett, Perkins, etc.

Phelps’s medal tally is inflated by all the relay races the Americans won and further inflated by winning at multiple distances in multiple events that nobody cares about.

Swimming is an elitist competitive sport anyway. Nobody except us Aussies really gives 2 shits about it. It’s for rich kids and/or pushy parents living vicariously through their children. Nobody in their right mind dedicates their entire youth to swimming hours of laps at the pool every day. Most swimmers hate what they do. It’s a chore for them. So we’re only talking about a really, really small slice of the population from exclusively wealthy nations

Swimming is a minor sport which gets overhyped every 4 years by Channel 7 looking to boost sagging ratings for the first week of their Olympic coverage.

Kelly Slater is a far greater athlete than Michael Phelps not only because he dominated his sport (and competitive surfing is a sport) but even without all the trophies, just on raw ability, pure skill and a level of genius, he is the greatest surfer who ever lived.

 

[El Dubya]

You missed my point. Phelps only ever won 1 Olympic gold medal for freestyle. He dominated the butterfly, medley and relay races. IMO, these are just ancillary events to bulk out the meet. It’s like winning gold for the 10km Walk on Track & Field. Who cares? The fastest swimmers swim freestyle. Phelps was not one of greatest freestylers like Thorpe, Hackett, Perkins, etc.

Swimming is an elitist competitive sport anyway. Nobody (except us Aussies) really gives 2 shits about it. It’s for rich kids and/or pushy parents living vicariously through their children. Nobody in their right mind dedicates their entire youth to swimming hours of laps at the pool every day.

Hey I resemble that last sentence!

Agreed that Phelps was nowhere near the best freestyler, that's quite clearly Thorpe. I'll back Katie Ledecky to be better than them both by the end of her career.

 

[Scotland]

As a sprinter I reckon Bolt could've competed in the 100, 200, 4 x 100, long jump, triple jump and 110m hurdles - but there's not a lot of crossover into those latter events. The 4 x 100 is the only team event he could've done. So in 3 games he could've won at most 18 medals. And that would've been the most obscene Olympic record ever.

Phelps won 8 gold at Beijing swimming 100m 3 times, 200m 4 times and 400m once. It's a phenomenal record, but not really comparable to athletics. There's no 4 x 200m relay, nor some kind of team medley consisting of 4 individual events. Winning the 3 in one go is rare let alone trying to do more events on top of that.

 

[perthblue]

Phar Lap

 

[perthblue]

I hope the term 'war squib' isn't being used seriously

 

[El Dubya]

I hope the term 'war squib' isn't being used seriously

Seriously for Bradman. Also for any AFL team who won premierships during the war years.

 

[Rotayjay]

He was a war squib though.

I would love to see the wartime non-squbness of Bigfooty members if Australia had a major war today

 

[Scotland]

Seriously for Bradman. Also for any AFL team who won premierships during the war years.

Bradman didn't play a test between 1938 and 1946.

 

[Gough]

Bradman's War by Malcolm Knox is a good account of the time.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

Dean Rioli

 

[Bomberboyokay]

CR7.

Would be great at any sport he tried.

People still call him that? Wasn't that stupid marketing campaign like 9 years ago?

 

[perthblue]

People still call him that? Wasn't that stupid marketing campaign like 9 years ago?

you are the first person I've seen have a problem with the nickname. I'm almost positive you've had similar grievances in the past.

 

[El Dubya]

Bradman's War by Malcolm Knox is a good account of the time.

Does it confirm his squibbing?

 

[Bomberboyokay]

you are the first person I've seen have a problem with the nickname. I'm almost positive you've had similar grievances in the past.

It's ******* stupid.

 

[Gough]

I'll leave you to read it.

 

[Plugger35]

Bradman didn't play a test between 1938 and 1946.

He couldn't play any tests because every other test cricketer was fighting in the war.

 

[perthblue]

It's ******* stupid.

thats right, it was you that found it cringeworthy that people called it the 'EPL'

you can think its stupid, but you have no grounds to call out people for using very common nicknames