Greatest Athlete of the 21st century?

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Greatest athlete of the 21st Century

Tiger Woods
3
8%
Roger Federer
5
13%
Cristiano Ronaldo
3
8%
Michael Phelps
3
8%
LeBron James
2
5%
Usain Bolt
12
31%
Kobe Bryant
0
No votes
Tom Brady
2
5%
Rafael Nadal
1
3%
Lionel Messi
4
10%
Floyd Mayweather Jr.
1
3%
Michael Schumacher
1
3%
Serena Williams
1
3%
Manny Pacquiao
0
No votes
Other (please specify)
1
3%
 
Total votes : 39

Re: Greatest Athlete of the 21st century?

Postby Zedie » Tue May 01, 2018 12:35 am

Bolt - it's what everyone truly waits for in the Olympics. The whole world goes silent before the gun goes and then that's it. Watching the quick starters and then bolt straightening up after 25/30 to then blaze through like it's nothing will always be electrifying. That first Olympic gold will stay with me forever.

Woods - produced the money shot of the ages with that put for nike. Still get goose pimples when I watch it. Mesut mentioned above, but he didn't really revive golf as much as opened it up to normal non winged up people including me in a round about way tbf.

Other: ronaldinho - ok his peak didn't last as long, but there were a few seasons where he was simply on another plain to anyone else I've ever properly followed in football. Some of the stuff he did on the pitch at the highest levels were just simply impossible. I remember there was one season where every week, he was ending careers for Barca. His technique and ball control, the skills, his fks sombreros were perfectly executed but also advanced play.

Man had every kid my age learning how to do the flip flap across every school ground in the world.

He actually has a decent singing voice to cap it off.

Honourable mentions:

Ronnie O'Sullivan - king of kings. So talented he made everyone else look like complete plebs. The way he switched cue hand so that you couldn't tell if he was a leftie or rightie.

Loved watching him play and I wasn't even really into snooker.

Emmit Smith - I was really into American football at one stage and Smith was at the top of his game during that period. Man made many a surgeon rich with the amount of ankles he broke. Swear to god there were times you thought he must he dead after a whole defensive line pounced, only for him to barrell roll out in to open field from nowhere.

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Re: Greatest Athlete of the 21st century?

Postby Va-Va-Voom » Tue May 01, 2018 2:04 am

Zedie wrote:Emmit Smith - I was really into American football at one stage and Smith was at the top of his game during that period. Man made many a surgeon rich with the amount of ankles he broke. Swear to god there were times you thought he must he dead after a whole defensive line pounced, only for him to barrell roll out in to open field from nowhere.

Certified shape shifter.


You have confused Smith with Barry Sanders.

Irrefutable GOAT.

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Re: Greatest Athlete of the 21st century?

Postby LMAO » Tue May 01, 2018 5:01 am

Shame the Lions were doodoo, causing Barry to retire prematurely.

And the Cowboys' O-line made Emmitt Smith tbh
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Re: Greatest Athlete of the 21st century?

Postby Va-Va-Voom » Tue May 01, 2018 6:33 pm

Genuinely think Sanders retired because he didn't want to break Walter Payton's record.

His dad loved both Payton and Jim Brown (his dad even introduced Sanders as the 3rd best RB ever behind those two. The disrespect).
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Re: Greatest Athlete of the 21st century?

Postby Losmeister » Wed May 02, 2018 11:36 am

Va-Va-Voom wrote:Genuinely think Sanders retired because he didn't want to break Walter Payton's record.

His dad loved both Payton and Jim Brown (his dad even introduced Sanders as the 3rd best RB ever behind those two. The disrespect).


thats an interesting factoid... never knew that.

Sanders was so nuts... smh... what a talent. :hail: :hail: :hail:
Kai Havertz nutmegged ur GK
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Re: Greatest Athlete of the 21st century?

Postby Nuggets » Wed May 02, 2018 3:04 pm

Eddie the Eagle
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Re: Greatest Athlete of the 21st century?

Postby Zenith » Wed May 02, 2018 4:01 pm

Nuggets wrote:Eddie the Eagle

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Re: Greatest Athlete of the 21st century?

Postby Nuggets » Wed May 02, 2018 4:08 pm

Zenith wrote:
Nuggets wrote:Eddie the Eagle



:clap: :clap: :lol:
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Re: Greatest Athlete of the 21st century?

Postby Zedie » Thu May 03, 2018 5:45 pm

Va-Va-Voom wrote:Genuinely think Sanders retired because he didn't want to break Walter Payton's record.

His dad loved both Payton and Jim Brown (his dad even introduced Sanders as the 3rd best RB ever behind those two. The disrespect).


My heart, that's even wounded me in 2018
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Re: Greatest Athlete of the 21st century?

Postby UFGN » Thu May 03, 2018 5:51 pm

Zenith wrote:
Nuggets wrote:Eddie the Eagle



Gotta love Eddie

If you EVER needed Britain's achievements in the last three Olympics put into context, learn about Eddie and our medal hauls from that era.
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Re: Greatest Athlete of the 21st century?

Postby Ach » Mon Sep 09, 2019 10:57 am

Nadal
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Re: Greatest Athlete of the 21st century?

Postby Va-Va-Voom » Mon Sep 09, 2019 12:42 pm

Ach wrote:Nadal


Wouldn't disagree, he has a very strong case.

Nadal on clay might be the greatest athlete ever.
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Re: Greatest Athlete of the 21st century?

Postby UFGN » Mon Sep 09, 2019 2:05 pm

Va-Va-Voom wrote:
Ach wrote:Nadal


Wouldn't disagree, he has a very strong case.

Nadal on clay might be the greatest athlete ever.


Hyperbole much?

So al long as its one sport and on one particular surface hes a stong contender to be the "greatest athlete ever" even though hes not even the greatest tennis player ever, or even the greatest currently playing.

Ok lol
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Re: Greatest Athlete of the 21st century?

Postby Va-Va-Voom » Mon Sep 09, 2019 2:14 pm

UFGN wrote:
Va-Va-Voom wrote:
Ach wrote:Nadal


Wouldn't disagree, he has a very strong case.

Nadal on clay might be the greatest athlete ever.


Hyperbole much?

So al long as its one sport and on one particular surface hes a stong contender to be the "greatest athlete ever" even though hes not even the greatest tennis player ever, or even the greatest currently playing.

Ok lol


Nadal on clay is quite possibly the most dominant athlete ever.

It's not hyperbole at all to say Nadal on clay specifically might be the greatest athlete ever.

You're really splitting hairs by saying he's not the greatest player currently.

He's 1 Slam behind Federer and 5 years younger.

Unless Federer win the Australian you can pretty much guarantee Nadal will be tied with him next May when he wins the French Open for the 13th time.

Like I said Federer will finish 3rd all time behind Novak and Nadal.
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Re: Greatest Athlete of the 21st century?

Postby Zenith » Mon Sep 09, 2019 2:37 pm

Tennis is an expensive sport to practice; historically it's almost exclusively limited to children from an upper to upper middle class background.

More than 95% of the planet doesn't even have the financial means to even play competitive tennis, making the competitive pool much smaller than is the case with athletics, boxing, basketball, swimming, football, etc.

For this reason no tennis player should ever get even close to being considered the greatest athlete of all time.

Whilst tennis does require a wider skill set than your average sport, it's insulting to athletes who face, or have faced, 1000 times more competition than every tennis player throughout history ever has.
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