Is Federer the greatest sports-person in the world?

[gundog]

Others worth consideration would include Jim Thorpe, Lou Gerhig, Carl Lewis.

I dont consider baseball players normally but the likes of Gerhig, Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays have some claim to apiece of the title The Babe only reached half his true potential Booze and Broads took a big toll on him.

2 great players on the green felt would have to be Walter Lindrum and Eddie Charlton whilst these 2 didn't require a physical effort they could dominate the felt.
the power tobe change the rules of billards to try and break the dominance of walter Lindrum.

[maccatak11]

Golf imho is a much more physically draining sport that requires far more brain power than that of a tennis player....

Im sorry Glyn but this soooo wrong.

There is absaloutely no way that golf is a physically more draining sport than top level tennis. The fact that players like Greg Norman and others are still competing well into their 50's proves this fact. Golf is a physically much easier sport. Sure you gotta be fit for golf, and fitter players generally do better (woods here is a prime example) but overall the standard of fitness for golfers is fairly low (cue pictures of john daly, ian woosnam, lee westwood and laura davies).

In comparison, when you see a player like Andy Roddick (an amazingly fit athlete) who was on his last legs after than marathon match, it just proves my point. Its simple physiology, but i would like to here your argument on why you think this.

The debate over whether golf or tennis is more mentally draining is a much closer race. You mention lots of different variables which are in effect for golf, all of which are true, but i think most can be discounted. The reason is that players and caddies are able to research courses, prevailing weather conditions etc before the event. Also, in golf, players get an extremely long time to make their decisions. What club, where to aim, spin/fade/hook etc can all be made over a course of minutes before each shot. All a golfer needs to worry about is the execution of each shot. Still a difficult task, but lets compare this to tennis.
Tennis players have to make similar decisions not only about the direction/depth/spin of a particular shot, but they also have to base these decisions on where their opponent is on the court, what his/her strengths and weaknesses are and where the next shot is likely to be played from. They have to make these decisions every second, and this is before we even think about the execution of each shot. And when each of these decisions needs to made in the context of your own tactics, and game plans in response to the opposition, then it is clear that tennis is also a much more mentally demanding sport also.
Now im not using this argument to justify that i think that federer is a better sportsman than woods, as it is really difficult to compare people from different sports. But you mentioned a long list of achievements by tiger, all of which could be matched by roger i believe. Hell woods hasn’t even won the most amount of majors in his sport, and has been a professional for two years longer than federer.
I love a good debate. What was this thread about again?

[Nathan Butler]

Ok, lets come up with a criteria that we think makes the best sports star. Here are a few of my categories..

1. Success with in their field (based obviously on their predecessor, current standings or standings held)
2. Impact on the sport: SOCIAL (How they were/are percieved by the media, fans and the image they present)
3. Impact on the sport: Athletic (How they changed, improved or evolved the game)
4. Personal life

These are the BIG 4 catagories IMO but we can get ass detailed as people want! SO pick your greatest sports star and respond with relevant info the the above criteria!

[gundog]

Easy 2 Australians are BITS (best in their sports) and champions

Cricket Don Bradman
1 regarded as the best ever
2 An utarnished image
3 leg side bowling rules
4 Beyond reproach

Billiards Walter Lindrum
1 none better
2 ditto as for Bradman
3 His record break of 4137 was made in a match he lost against Joe Davis at Thurston Hall on 19 January 1932. However, this precipitated a change in the rules of the game.
4 highly regarded


Both had a massive impact in their repective sports and invoked rule changes to curb their dominance.

[krunchie]

Cricket Don Bradman
1 regarded as the best ever
2 An utarnished image
3 leg side bowling rules
4 Beyond reproach

Get over yourself gundog.

I agree that the DON was the best ever but he had far from a untarnished image, infact it was very much the oposite.
He had nothing but problems with certain "prodistant" team mates throught his career. And then there was the association(his employer) he had with a certain stockbroker who was later sent to jail for dodgy deals, who gave his entire client list to the don. Now while both minor issues now these were big news back then. Anything the don did was forgiven because he was the don , and thats fine by me but he wasnt untarnished.

[maccatak11]

Are you forgetting that don also pretty much ran SACA into the ground whilst president, and started the sour relationship between the SACA and SANFL that caused the SANFL to build Football Park, but put SA sport back 20 years by doing so.

[BigPete33]

Pele is up there for sure!

Another football great was Eusebio - just never quite got the same recognition.

Alfredo di Stefano is another.

Maradona as well (dirty cheat though).

Johan Cruijff is another.

All absolute champions but not necessarily from the same era (of football) and impossible to compare them against each other, and that's within the same sport.


You can't compare Federer to anyone outside of tennis - that's just ridiculous.

You can't even compare different sports as a whole.

What you CAN do is compare one particular thing, such as a specific limb motion, that might occur in multiple sports and then say which sport has whatever characteristics relevant to that one thing.

Apples and oranges are both fruit, they both grow on trees, but they're used for many different things that aren't all the same.

[maccatak11]

We know and oranges aren't the same pete, but you can still argue about which one tastes better.

[Scotty]

We all know what Pete's like, Matt

[BigPete33]

Correct, I prefer apples, and when you talk rubbish I tell you.