So hopefully we'll have a nice discussion here about what that thread title means.

Is it the biggest number of achievements? (medals, championships)

Is it behaviour too? (sportsmanship on and off the court)

Is it a personal story, a personal triumph?

Should it be a combination of all?


Personally it's hard for me to name just one, but let me list a few that come to mind:


Michael Phelps: still young, still has plenty to do. Yet, many people consider him already to be the greatest athlete in history, because he's got the best results in the pool, won 8 gold medals in the last olympics (a new record) AND many people relate to his personal story, the fact he didnt find himself till swimming came along. Seeing him hug his mom after each victory adds a lot to his credit.

Lance Armstrong: the cyclist who made a name for himself not only by winning the Tour de France no less than 7 times, but also for showing Mr.Cancer that he chose the wrong person to mess around with! what can you say about a man who survived that horrible cancer and came back to race and win? now that's one helluva story about human spirit and tenacity. Will Power at its best.

Roger Federer: the most celebrated athlete and tennis player in history, no less than 15 grand slams titles. But here's a fine example that numbers are not everything: perhaps the most gracious athlete of our generation, a guy who is always full of respect for his rivals, fans, media, you name it. A true champion on and off court. His tennis is something unique, a classy style of tennis no other player can imitate. A man who was born to play tennis. Nowadays, tennis becomes more and more physical...Federer is still there to remind us it's a Gentleman's sport.

Tiger Woods: what Federer is to Tennis, Tiger is for Golf. Not without reason these 2 are good friends, and even compete each other despite playing different sports. What I mean by that is that they have their own private "Grand Slam race", with Federer leading just by one, at the moment of writing these lines. I know that people often say that "Golf isnt sport!" but the truth is, it is. And it's not at all easy to do what this guy is doing. And having fat golf players is no reason to say it isnt sport either. Sport is one big word that contains car racing as well, horse racing, and plenty other fields, many of which you've never even heard of.

Muhammad Ali: I was talking earlier about showing respect for your rivals, and well here comes Ali, and calls his rivals all kind of names, 'ugly' being his favorite I think, be it Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier etc. And I still put him on the list. Because he's the greatest entertainer in my list. He's not my favorite boxer (Dempsey is), but his ability to connect to the audience and turn his ego into something desirable is something very few can achieve. Not to take anything from his great boxing career, but I wouldnt list him here only for that.

Allright, I have to take a break now, and I still got a couple of names I wanted to mention, so I'll let you guys say a few words about them, I'm sure most of you have plenty to say:


Michael Jordan

Babe Ruth


(and he's last for a reason...one of my next threads will be about classic baseball cards, and boy is Babe gonna star there