pplater
5425
You did say "favourite athletes"...
Sep 05, 2013,23:18 PM
It is such a wide and varied world, Art, that hopefully you will not mind a personal ‘Top Ten’:
Cassius Clay.
So well regarded inside his sport and out that there is no need to defend the selection. A man who had the courage of his convictions and all the confidence in the world to back them up.
Zola Budd.
What spirit!
Jesse Owens.
Four world records in the span of forty-five minutes, all whilst overcoming much greater hurdles than he ever faced on the track. A beacon.
Walter Lindrum.
One of Australia’s favourite sons, and one could just as easily have nominated Fred or Horace Lindrum. This one’s for Art and Damjan!
Michael Edwards.
Not all of the great examples of true competitive spirit are necessarily success stories. You can’t help but admire “Eddie”…
Georgie Best.
A natural talent and such a larrikin that he could have been Australian. Taken far too early: liver failure, of course. If you haven't heard of the man then you may know one of his wittier observations: "I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered."
Olga Korbut.
OK, Nadia Comaneci may have been the one to go down in history, but this plucky little girl is the one who paved the way. In her own words: “Not to brag, but in 1972, in Munich my bar routine wasn’t judged properly and the 16,000 fans knew it was the first “unofficial perfect 10” The Olympics stopped for 20 minutes because the crowd was angry. It was so loud, nobody could compete. There was nothing wrong with my routine. It should have been the first perfect 10.”
Juan Fangio.
Gotta have a driver in the list: Sir Stirling Moss might have been the patriotic choice but this one was the driver’s driver. (Can you pick the watch in the video???)
Barry John.
When rugby was still an amateur sport and Wales was on top of the world, this was the man who put them there and kept them there for so long. Other than your humble correspondent (
) he was arguably the finest player to wear the number 10 jersey. Barry deserves a soundtrack as well: there is no sound like the terraces in full voice at Cardiff Arms Park during an international in the sixties and seventies.
Jonah Lomu.
It really hurts to nominate someone from ‘the old enemy’, but credit must be given where credit is due, and Lomu was probably the most exciting winger in world rugby, ever, period. Perfected the ‘Maori sidestep’. If only we could have had a few more years out of him in his prime. Watch them all: it’s worth it.
Oh, and this is Wrist Scan Friday, isn’t it? You’ll be needing a photo of a watch then:
Nothing particularly scientific about the choice this week…
Cheers,
pplater.