What individuals do you believe completely dominated his/her sport or event for a period of time? Some of mine are:
RENALDO NEHEMIAH...110 M hurdles
JOE LOUIS...heavywt. boxing
CHRIS EVERT...women's tennis
EARL ANTHONY...mens' pro bowling(No, I haven't forgotten Don Carter or Dick Weber!)
VASILY ALEXEEV...weightlifting
ALBERTO TOMBA...alpine skiing
GREG LOUGANIS...diving
NANCY LOPEZ...womens' golf
I've left out some very obvious names to let someone else post.
Perhaps some members in the UK or Australia can help us out with some of the dominant cricket players.
Individual dominant athletes
Discussion in 'Sports Forum' started by robycop3, Jul 3, 2005.
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Michale Jordan- NBA (nodbody even comes close to Jordan now even the the leauge wants them too)
Pele and Maradona in soccer, arugably the best ever to play the game.
Wayne Gretzky in the NHL during his prime.
Women's golf- Anika Sorenstam, if she keeps on winning she will probably be crowned the best woman glofer ever.
PGA: Jack Nickalus- nobody has yet to match the Golden Bear, not even Tiger. -
Rod Laver - Men's Tennis
Richard Petty - Racing
Billie Jean King - Women's Tennis
Peggy Fleming - Figure Skating
Babe Ruth - Baseball -
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Wilt the Stilt Chamberlain
Carl Lewis, anyone?
Al Oerther (Sp)-discus -
I would add these:
Nascar: Dale Earnhardt
NHL: Mario Lemieux
MLB: Bob Gibson
NFL: Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas -
F1: Juan Fangio
Ayrton Senna
Michael Schumacher
Nascar: Darrell Waltrip
NHRA: John Force
World of Outlaws: Steve Kinser -
Ok! Hulk Hogan--WWF-well...it's an event.
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Among boxers, one was considered "dominant" if he held the title for several years. I think Louis was dominant for the longest, but there is also Fitzsimmons, Johnson, Dempsey, Tunney, Marciano, Ali, Holmes, and Tyson. But those are just the heavyweights; Chavez, Robinson, Duran,...
There is also a corollary of this topic as to athletes who were not the greatest at their game, at least were not dominant for long as participants, but who did dominate personality-wise, or in the public interest. This group would include Joe Namath, King Kelly, Jackie Robinson, Lee Trevino, Mark Spitz. -
Greg Lemond - cycling
Lance Armstrong - cycling
Eddie Merckx - cycling
Cassius Clay/Mohammad Ali - boxing
Jacques Anquetil - cycling
Mary Decker - track
Carl Lewis - track -
Pete Sampras - Tennis
Barry Bonds - Baseball
Special Note:
John Wooden - Coaching, college basketball -
These are just a few that stick out in my mind...
Baseball - Dale Murphy, Pete Rose
Hockey - Wayne Gretzky
Swimming - Johnny Weismuller (many gold medals and world records back in the 20s)
Nascar - Richard Petty
Football - Johnny Unitas
Tennis - Martina Navratilova (sp?)
Gymnastics - Mary Lou Retton, Olga Korbut, Nadia Comaneci
Cycling - Lance Armstrong -
MLB: Babe Ruth, pitching and hitting, Nolan Ryan
NFL: Lawrence Taylor, defense, Jerry Rice, offense
NBA: Some guy named Michael
NHL: Wayne Gretzky
Tennis: Venus and Serena Williams
Soccer: Pele