UKC

You can choose any discipline or year, so who's up for best athlete?

In reply to The Lemming: Sir Steve Redgrave

In reply to The Lemming:
Donald Dinnie

In reply to The Lemming:

Got to be Daley Thompson. Competing in the decathlon which is tough, technical and exhausting (I've done a couple - many years ago - and I'm still recovering!)

4 world records
2 Olympic golds
3 Commonweath golds
World gold
European gold

In reply to The Lemming:

Not sure she's 'the greatest' yet, but Chrissie Wellington is pretty amazing.

In reply to The Lemming:
Athlete or 'sports person'?
If the latter, C.B.Fry would prolly be a contender: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._B._Fry

In reply to Pekkie: +1.

Plus he has personality - "the only way Jurgen is taking home a gold is if I lend him mine" had me in stitches at the time and still makes me smile now!

In reply to The Lemming:

Kelly Holmes must be a contender

In reply to Trangia:

Seriously?!

In reply to 999thAndy:

Remember the T-shirt he had with "is the world's second best athlete gay?" on it? He and Jurgen Hingsen were great mates as well as rivals.

In reply to Fraser:

That's the problem with this thread. Any nomination is bound to be subjective and/or parisan. KH is a local girl.

In reply to The Lemming:

Apparently Daly T and Sir Steve have fallen out over some disparaging remarks made first by Sir Steve and then by Daly in return...

It's a tough one this best ever athlete/sports person. Much as I loved watching Daly at the time, I'm not sure that the decathalon is the hardest event really even if it a great all round test.

My heart says Redgrave but in a team event such as his, there is possibly an element of being carried to a small extent which made possible his last win.

David Wilkie gets overlooked a lot nowadays - possibly because he never looked like he was taking it very seriously. But if you check out his medal haul over a good number of years it was very impressive. Hugely talented, could have done better. So falls short on that ground alone maybe.

If Brad wins gold again next week, he's got to be a contender.

In reply to The Lemming: Do any of you guys know who Joey Dunlop was? If not you should check him out....riding a bike at the IOM TT takes huge courage and dedication and is actually very physically demanding too. Joey still has the record for the most wins at the TT because he rode everything in every class. He lived for the sport and died for the sport. A true sportsman with a fantastic record who is often overlooked because of the often frowned upon nature of the sport!

In reply to Fraser:

Kelly Holmes, seriously. To do the 800/1500 double at the modern Olympics, with all the heats and semis each one of which can be filled with determined, talented athletes, is a fantastic achievement. Something Coe, Ovett and Cram never managed. though you could make an argument for each of those athletes.

Still go with Daley Thompson, though, for the sheer number of golds & world records in a fiercely contested event - or rather ten events, requiring guts and an incredible variety of technical skills.

In reply to The Lemming:

No climbers or mountaineers in the running then?

In reply to deepsoup:
I think it was Fry who when said he was thinking of going into horse racing a friend asked "as the trainer, jockey, or horse?"
He's got to be a contender.
Of the climbers, well it has to be Kirkus.

In reply to Trangia: Being local doesn't change how good they are or was.

She had an outstanding performance in 1 Olympics but Redgrave was outstanding in 5!

In reply to The Lemming:

My vote would go to Beryl Burton -- multiple world champion on road and track in a career spanning 30 years, plus she had the unique distinction of beating all the best male time triallists of her day in a 12 hour event and setting a 'competition' record in the process.

Beryl Burton, MBE OBE (12 May 1937 – 8 May 1996) was an English racing cyclist and one of Britain's greatest ever athletes.
She dominated women’s cycle racing in the UK, winning more than 90 domestic championships and seven world titles, and setting numerous national records. She set a women's record for the 12-hour time-trial which exceeded the men's record for two years. (from wikipedia)

In reply to The Lemming: Eric Bristow.

In reply to Tall Clare:

- Good call. She is something else.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrissie_Wellington

In reply to The Lemming: She is not quite Sir Steve but she has wracked up an impressive list
http://victoriapendleton.co.uk/achievements

plus I wouldnt say know if she asked nicely..
http://victoriapendleton.co.uk/gallery

In reply to mux: Looking at that gallery she is certainly one of the 'fittest' Plus some brave pictures there for a serious athlete.

In reply to The Lemming:

Kenny Stuart?

In reply to mux:

"Know" would be a pretty weird response to just about any question she could ask.

In reply to The Lemming:

On the subject of Beryl Burton, during her peak competitive years (between 1959 and 1983) there were no women's Olympic cycling events, and her speciality the time trial was not introduced until 1992!

If there had been it's entirely feasible that she could have racked as many gold medals over more games than Sir Steve and Sir Chris combined!

In reply to mux:

I'll see your Vicky and raise you a Beryl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryl_Burton

though I have to admit that Vicky wins in the glamour stakes!

In reply to Lord of Starkness: Not sure how I can check as it is many moons ago but a spritely woman called Beryl pushed me up a Majorcan mountain when I blew up once (wrong saddle height would you believe) during a winter cycling training week.

She was a beast and kept pace with the fastest of the group with no problems whilst I had the ignomy of relying on an old woman to push me up a climb.

In reply to grumpybearpantsclimbinggoat: Sir Roger banister?

In reply to The Lemming:

Colin Jackson should be on the shortlist.

In reply to The Lemming: Charlton Chestwig?

In reply to crustypunkuk:

Saw a statuette of Donald in the National Portrait Gallery today. Quite a guy!

In reply to The Lemming:

In terms of dominating their sport, it's difficult to argue against Ben Ainslie

In reply to Cobbler:
Agreed. Maybe even the first superstar sportsman?

In reply to leeoftroy:

my father in law raced him at cadwell park in the 70's and beat him in both races,he's not that good haha

In reply to The Lemming:

Eddie the Eagle.

In reply to The Lemming: Paul Gascoigne/Pele.

In reply to Lady Jane Grey: Pele isn't really from the UK though

In reply to The Lemming: Tommy Goodwin probably the world's greatest sports person you've never heard of. See here:
http://steviehaston.blogspot.ie/2012/01/tommy-godwin-cycling-super-man-by.h...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Godwin_(cyclist_born_1912)

In reply to The Lemming: Easy, Joe Calzaghe.

In reply to The Lemming: CB Fry

In reply to The Lemming:

Phil 'The Power' Taylor

In reply to The Lemming:
I struggle to see how anyone can not name Steve Redgrave. He is the only person ever in the world (let's get this, the world, NOT just the UK) to win five consecutive olympic gold medals in an endurance sport. For three of them there was only one other person in the boat, if Steve wasn't pulling they would have gone in circles. The rudders on those boats don't do a lot! And you can be damn sure Pinsent was pulling.
He is the greatest athlete ever in the world. He may not be all that likeable, but that does not change the accomplishment.

In reply to smallclimber: I remember when Steve carried the flag at the Olympics, all the other flag carriers were holding the flag in two hands or with a brace. Redgrave just held it out in front of him straight as a die with one hand the whole way around.

A couple above have mentioned C B Fry. It's a fair assumption that the majority propounding modern single-discipline athletes don't know who Fry is. From his Wiki entry:


Fry's achievements on the sporting field included representing England at both cricket and football, an FA Cup Final appearance for Southampton F.C. and equalling the then world record for long jump. He also reputedly turned down the throne of Albania. ... in his 70s was still able to perform his party piece: jumping backwards onto a mantel from a standing position.

Case closed.

In reply to Al Evans:

I remember that, he was waving it like a toy flag. Now that's strength and boasting about it to all the other athletes on the field.

This can never be agreed upon!

That Donald Dinnie looks a fair contender.

However, I'd be looking for something more in the 'greatest' and as such most of these people competing in 'normal sports' would be excluded. I reckon you wouldn't have to look far beyond the realms of climbing, fell running (long distance multiple marathon runners) or solo sailing to find the greatest. Sports where you are competing against yourself and the environment, where your sporting activity takes place in extremes of environemnt, in great personal danger and require you to stay awake for, in some cases, days on end, making critical decisions & undertaking hard physical & complex activity whilst exhausted &, in the case of mountaineering, in low oxygen / high altitude. In the case of sailors, on turbulent storm tossed seas. These athletes face things most others will never.

In reply to Flinticus:


That settles it - must be a boulderer

In reply to The Lemming: No-one's argued the case for Joss Naylor yet? What he did aged 70 was far beyond what most of us were capable of in our prime years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joss_Naylor

T.

In reply to Flatus Vetus:

Indeed.
Can anyone beat his record of 15 world titles in any other field?

Now the question is....is darts a sport?

In reply to Frank4short: Just to reference my previous post in regard to some of the stuff others have said.

Tommy Goodwin still to this day (73 years later) holds the world record for the most mileage cycled in a year, 75,065 miles (120,805 km), and the quickest ever to cycle 100,000 miles in 500 days. That's an average of over 200 miles a day, every day, over a year and a half, SOLO. In a time before carbon bikes, fancy drive-trains, basically any of the advantages of the modern bicycle, or modern training regimes or nutritional information. These are both records which are unlikely to be ever repeated again let alone beaten by any significant margin.

Steve Redgrave may be Britain's greatest ever Olympian but all of his medals were as a part of a team/pair so not done on his own. And it's unlikely with time his achievement won't be equalled or bettered.

In reply to Pursued by a bear:

I remember racing agaist (while not in the same class of course) Joss, he was a real gamesman as well as a great athlete, if the mist came down in a long race runners would follow Joss because he knew the fells so well. He would gently lead them all on into a totally unavigable position then just run off into the mist leaving them lost

In reply to The Lemming: You've obviously never heard of Max Woosnam.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Woosnam

In reply to The Lemming:

Brian Blessed traditionally gets a mention at about this sort of stage in the thread (regardless of subject, it seems)

In reply to The Lemming:

what about someone who has excelled in more than one sport, say Rebecca Romero - could Steve Redgrave have become a champion cyclist or Brad make the switch to rowing ?

In reply to Jim Hamilton: See my post 2 above yours

In reply to Tall Clare:

gotta agree.... and I'm a bloke!

In reply to The Lemming:

Something a bit alternative...Jamie Bestwick's been pretty dominant in BMX Vert for the last decade, 11 times X-games medallist (7 gold), 7 time Dew Tour champion. Anyone outside extreme sports fans ever heard of him?

In reply to The Lemming: Wilson of the Wizard

In reply to Steve Perry:

yes a good contender ! - even more impressive if he could have added some athletic/speed/endurance title to those ball games.

In reply to Jim Hamilton:

My vote would be for Alf Tupper

In reply to coinneach:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alf_tupper

The Tough Of The Track indeed....................

In reply to Jim Hamilton:
What about someone who has represented their country in 4/5 different sports?
I won't reveal yet. They are British tho. Get guessing....

In reply to mark s: In my opinion that is a very cool claim! Who was/is your father in law? Total respect to him - although I have to say that Joey never was a great track racer in the same way that John Mcguinness (current TT sensation) also isn't now. Horses for courses and with the TT it's large balls and race stamina that wins the day. Yes I am a TT fan

In reply to DNS:

Not really, I am familiar with C.B.Fry's exploits, but what you have to remember is that is is from a time when basically all sportsmen were shit.

In reply to leeoftroy:


Unlike David Jefferies. A sport requiring balls of steel but I'm sticking with my first post so far.

In reply to Tall Clare:

Agreed, I came across Chrissie Wellington in a random Internet surf a while back and "pretty amazing" is a fair comment.

In reply to The Lemming:

Joss Naylor would get my vote!

In reply to Pursued by a bear:
That's more like it!

Now someone with more knowledge (that'll be most of you) than me name a British climber who's excelled, say at big wall, Alpine, remote new routes, solo stuff, the whole gamut of the climbing experience.

In reply to Flinticus:

Funnily enough one of the leading contenders may have posted above...

In reply to JonC: Indeed. Mick Fowler is another.

T.

In reply to Flinticus:

Twid Turner?

In reply to The Lemming:

Paul Pritchard

Didn't know Kelly Holmes was from Paris.

In reply to Flinticus:

Kirkus managed all that. Plus he did it all in big boots and then cycled back to Liverpool from Wales when he'd finished.

In reply to JonC:
Who? I'm really curious!

Obviously I don't know but there's too many posters to check their profiles (if they even bothered to maintain a a profile, which I expect not) or google names (if the poster has used his real name).

In reply to Flinticus:

Who? I'm really curious!

Obviously I don't know but there's too many posters to check their profiles (if they even bothered to maintain a a profile, which I expect not) or google names (if the poster has used his real name).

If you're that curious, it won't take that much Googling. As a starter and to save you some time, it isn't Charlton Chestwig...

In reply to MJ:
No it didn't!

and, yes, that is the kind of sports person I mean, and I don't need to ask what has he done on grit...

In reply to MJ:

Tall Clare?

In reply to Kipper:

Tall Clare?

...or her alter ego: Melissa Merkin

In reply to The Lemming:

Dalglish

In reply to MJ:

Oi!

In reply to Trangia:

I've always thought Ellen MacArthur is pretty impressive, psychologically really tough as well as having loads of physical endurance. Difficult to measure I guess compared to races in athletics and in football etc, but she's possibly up there with the best in other sports I think.

Reading about how she battled lack of sleep while doing physically hard tasks involved in sailing and having to jumar up and down her mast to fix something, and put up with being thrown against the side of it on the way up and down boggled my mind somewhat.

It almost made a lot of other sports people seem soft.

Tim

In reply to leeoftroy:

II think it's a cool claim and i'm not much of a TT fan, think it's pretty good though. Steve Peat and the Athertons from MTBing are doing well at the moment afaik.