T&FN Favourite Athletes THE RESULTS No1 Haile Gebrselassie

[mump boy]

Well, I am shocked

Maybe mump didn't get your ballot?

Me ? count something wrong ?? You're crazy

Sorry Dienes got caught up in some people leaving ballot when i'd already counted, after deductions 26 was the only vote at 2 points

1 vote 2 points

Bob Deines

(he's been added to list on front page)

[mump boy]

Mike Powell has just left, i didn't vote for him but he's an amazing athlete and a really cool guy

We were in Melbourne for the Commonwealth games in 06 and having had a shandy or 2 we were walking past the VIP section that had a big glass front. Mike was sitting in there talking to someone and as we walked past we saw them pointing at us (probably saying there are those 2 drunk, strangely dressed twins) anyways we waved at them and said can we come in. He came and got us in and ended up taking us to the 'Last Lap' night club where we were in the VVVVIP section with Cathy Freeman there were loads of actual VIP's who couldn't get in

We aslo met Jane Flemming who called us at 6 in the morning and said there was a car waiting outside our hotel to take us to be in her morning tv programme, where the host chatted to us about going the CWG, while we were still drunk (not our finest moment )

[Flumpy]

She became my hero and role model. I could idenify with her in many ways. The plain girl who worked hard and made it etc.

But you're not plain???

[Flumpy]

We aslo met Jane Flemming who called us at 6 in the morning and said there was a car waiting outside our hotel to take us to be in her morning tv programme, where the host chatted to us about going the CWG, while we were still drunk (not our finest moment )

2 hours sleep, hideous hangovers and live Breakfast TV are not a good mix

If I remember correctly 30 secs before we were on air you were round the back throwing up

[mump boy]

Mojo is GORGEOUS

[mump boy]

We aslo met Jane Flemming who called us at 6 in the morning and said there was a car waiting outside our hotel to take us to be in her morning tv programme, where the host chatted to us about going the CWG, while we were still drunk (not our finest moment )

2 hours sleep, hideous hangovers and live Breakfast TV are not a good mix

If I remember correctly 30 secs before we were on air you were round the back throwing up

they tried to put us on with a mime artist

[mojo]

Mojo is GORGEOUS

C The cheque is in the mail. I think that I share your mother's name may have some influence there.

Anyway right chuffed that Mary has yet to make an appearance on the list.

Heptathlete Daisy? What is a heptathlete?


Oh the greatest female athlete of all time I believe you meant to say?

[Daisy]

Oh the greatest female athlete of all time I believe you meant to say?

So you are thinking of a heptathlete?

[mojo]

Oh the greatest female athlete of all time I believe you meant to say?

So you are thinking of a heptathlete?

Yep.

[Rog]

I've met Mary Peters a few times, she was a friend of my mother's. She's a big deal here in Northern Ireland, and still involved in sport.

I can assure you that if you met her you would like her, she's a very warm, genuine, caring person who has that knack some people have of just being liked by everybody. Charismatic too. I wouldn't describe her as plain either, her smile is one of those that really lights up her surroundings.

I have a horrible suspicion I forgot to put her in my list - she should be in there and high up!

[mump boy]

86th (3 votes 35 points)

Jeremy Wariner 35

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Wariner

84th (3 votes 36 points)

Paul Tergat 36

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... W8Q#t=101s

Stefan Holm 36

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Holm

82nd (3 points 37 points)

Fiona May 37

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiona_May

Tatyana Lebedeva 37

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatyana_Lebedeva


81st (3 votes 38 points)

Denise Lewis 38

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_Lewis

[mump boy]

i lost 3 in that round

i'll tell you about them later

[nevetsllim]

I think I voted for Lebedeva. She was a magnificent competitor and the competition which really stands out is the 2006 European Champs final when she beat Devetzi with her last jump. Loved her funky accent and crazy hairstyles too. Not sure if she's planning on returning but I really hope she gives 2012 a go.

[DecFan]

I had Tergat quite high. The yet-to-be-listed Geb is also on my list. The Atlanta 10k (seen in person) and the Sydney 10k (over video) with those two favorites going head to head were real high points for me as a fan. Having lived for a number of years in Kenya, I was rooting for Tergat over Geb, but thoroughly enjoyed the race.

Tergat had a long and varied career, achieving excellence in cross country, on the track, and in the marathon. Somewhat in Geb's shadow in the last two, no one could beat him in cross country - at a time when virtually all the world's top distance runners competed in one race at the world cross country championships.

He and Geb also were friends who highly respected each other. And he's done a lot of good in Kenya in the last few years.

A great athlete, an intense competitor, a diligent worker, and a fine man.

[mump boy]

We lost 4 athletes that i love in the last round and 1 that i can't stand

Fiona May is the one that got away :-( when she qualified for the 88 Olympics flump and i sent her a letter asking for a signed photograph. I'm pretty sure we were the only people to ever write to her as we got back what looked like a school photo, i've still got it someonewhere.

World Jnr champion and 6th at the OG as an 18 year old she always had the potential to be a world beater but she stagnated in the UK and i was very happy to see her move to Italy eespecially when she immediately medalled at the Europeans in 94. Winning in 95 put her exactly where she should have been :-)

Losing to drug cheat Chiomi Ujunwa in 96 was heartbreaking especially when she broke down in tears in the tv afterwards. She then medalled in every champs untill 01 when she won WC for a 2nd time :-D. Even she couldn't be sad at getting silver in 2000 she even said that she was happy to lose the her hero Heike

Fiona is on this list for all her achievements but above all of that she is the most beautiful woman to ever set foot on a track. Elegant, sophisticated and intelligent, articulate etc etc etc her media career in Italy since her retirement is testimant to what an amazing she is off the track as well.

Stefan Holm basically because he's really cute

Paul Tergat because he looks like a statue and is a perfect gentleman. If only he'd had a quicker change of pace or started his kick 10m earlier in Sydney.

I didn't vote for Denise but obvs love her and once again totally gorgeous.

In fact all my choices that have just left are dreamy to look at (does this make me shallow)

I can't stand Jeremy Wariner

[donley2]

86th (3 votes 35 points)

Jeremy Wariner 35

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Wariner

One of those votes was mine. The 400 is definitely one of my favorite events and the local connection, attending both high school and college in close proximity to where I live, make it an easy person to have as a favorite. I do have one odd sort of fantasy track thing that also makes him stand out. I was in a fantasy league for several years that scored based on both USA champs and NCAA results. Lots of the other people would draft high schoolers to try and get them locked up forever. I basically never did that. I remember however seeing some quote by Clyde Hart about how good Wariner was as a high schooler and I finally made an exception and put him on my team. That obviously worked out OK.

[Flumpy]

Fiona May 37

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiona_May

The One That Got Away

La Pantera Negra

The only athlete I've ever sent a fan letter to*

Despite the fact she decided to compete for Italy she's one of my all time favourite athletes (#5 I think) and quite frankly may not have had half the success she did if she's stayed in the UK.

Such a shame she had her Olympic Gold stolen by a drug cheat (Can't really be too upset her 2nd silver) and the Mdrid WC was well dodge as well but she was the most consistent LJ of the 90's.

Olympic Games
Silver 1996 Atlanta
Silver 2000 Sydney

World Championships

Gold 1995 Gothenburg
Gold 2001 Edmonton
Silver 1999 Seville
Bronze 1997 Athens

World Indoor Championships

Gold 1997 Paris Long jump

European Championships

Silver 1998 Budapest Long jump
Bronze 1994 Helsinki Long jump


All that and then she went and won the Italian version of Dancing With the Stars. What a woman.

*I was 14. She sent back a signed school picture.

[Atanvarno]

A great athlete, an intense competitor, a diligent worker, and a fine man.

I just checked my list and I really forgot him. Shame on me. A true Gentleman of the track.

[vencio2]

what's wrong with jeremy wariner, mump boy??

[Daisy]

A great athlete, an intense competitor, a diligent worker, and a fine man.

I just checked my list and I really forgot him. Shame on me. A true Gentleman of the track.

I didn't forget him but I gave the nod to Geb. He was very close to my top twenty though.

I too had the pleasure of watching the 10K in Atlanta live. That made a big impression. Two impressions, actually, I couldn't believe how fast the stadium emptied after the start of the race. Their loss.

[liuxuan]

fiona may was such a DIVA!!! i loved her physqieu, her elegance, her FIERCENESS, and also her consistency! she was a total championship performer who could always produce her best or close to her best when it mattered.

i remember her interview with chris boxer when she won in edmonton, and chris was asking if she would consider coming back and representing britain and she laughed and was so nice about it but said wel, my husbands italian and i live there now so i cant!

if niurka montalvo hadnt beenm spanish do we think her seville jump would have been fouled?????

ps: fiona's pb should have been longer than 7.11 - she was capable of 7.20 at least with a little more speed

[Gabriella]

she was the most consistent LJ of the 90's.

Olympic Games
Silver 1996 Atlanta
Silver 2000 Sydney

World Championships

Gold 1995 Gothenburg
Gold 2001 Edmonton
Silver 1999 Seville
Bronze 1997 Athens

World Indoor Championships

Gold 1997 Paris Long jump

European Championships

Silver 1998 Budapest Long jump
Bronze 1994 Helsinki Long jump

Since when was 2001 in the 90's? :)
She was definitely amazingly consistent in the 1990's, though I would argue HD was better in that period (ranked above May in 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95 and 98). I too was very upset when Fiona just lost out in Atlanta, and to a lesser degree in Seville.

I loved the way Fiona would shout out when she landed a good jump. She was so bewildered in her 95 interview with the BBC, it so sweet and funny at the samed time. I remember HD commentating for German TV that summer at the Rome GP meet. HD had pulled out with a niggle and May won, and HD said something along the lines of May would go on to great things, she just needed more speed. Little did she know May would be winning in Gothenberg a month later!

Technically May become very, very good. What started off as a very stuttering approach and lop-side technique became fluent with huge strides and great extension. I agree she could have been a 7.2 jumper, she just needed the right conditions. And let's not forget her potential at the TJ. Maybe she should have focussed on that event a bit more.

[preston]

In 2007 I met Jeremy Wariner (we were in the same hotel in Osaka for a little while) and he seemed as humble as can be; quiet too. Didn't "seem" to be a huge egomaniac or anything; he didn't seem terribly personal but he didn't seem like he was somebody who went out of his way to be an a-hole. He just seemed like he was private (kind of reminded me of one of Olympic medallist and pro football player, Michael Bates...he was PRIVATE!). I thought he was cool, (but I also never intrude on athletes as if I'm the missing ingredient in their lives, either; I've never asked for an autograph or photograph in my life, nor would I) and I would consider the source for the people who don't like him.

[mump boy]

80th (3 votes 40 points)

Kathy Cook

I didn't vote for Kathy but i think she's so amazing i'm giving her a post all to herself. The undisputed UK Sprint Queen

Uk record holder for 100m, 200m and 400m at the same time for around 25 years and still the record holder in 200m and 400m after 30 years in times that would bot only be competitive but would have won in Deagu. All of this before her 26th birthday ! she retired when most sprinters are hitting their peak. Imagine what she might have done in Rome, Seoul her 400m potential was barely tapped she only ran it seriously for one season and came away with 49.43 and OG bronze medal

There is a lot spoken about the lack of success of UK female sprinters since Kathy but it would take someone pretty special to run her times.

We have some amazing young sprinters at the moment i really hope they can progress without any problems and i'm sure Kathy would be very happy for her records to fall soon

[Daisy]

80th (3 votes 40 points)

Kathy Cook

I didn't vote for Kathy but i think she's so amazing i'm giving her a post all to herself. The undisputed UK Sprint Queen

I voted for Kathy. I'm pretty sure she could have gone a lot faster. Her natural talent was incredible.

[John G]

80th (3 votes 40 points)

Kathy Cook

I didn't vote for Kathy but i think she's so amazing i'm giving her a post all to herself. The undisputed UK Sprint Queen

I voted for Kathy. I'm pretty sure she could have gone a lot faster. Her natural talent was incredible.

I had Kathy at #8. I could write about her medals (23 championship medals) or times (which ironically now seem much better than they did at the time) but as with most of our favourite athletes, that's not what made me like her so much. A few random thoughts:

She seemed so 'normal'. Normality to me was a provincial English town and Kathy looked, spoke and acted like the girls in my English provincial town: like an extra from 'Are You Being Served?'
Her manner before one of her rarely run 400s was exactly what you'd expect from a normal person: sick with nerves - not because she was scared of competition, but because she knew it was going to hurt like hell and she wasn't conditioned well enough to stop it hurting like hell. And then her reaction afterward as she lay on the track with limbs turning to jelly, desperately trying to such oxygen into her lungs: she was clearly thinking "I NEVER want to do that again".

There was always a sense that she was somehow there by accident. She wasn't supposed to be a sprinter: her local club didn't have a high jump coach, so she had to switch events. You got the sense that she 'accidentally' ran great 400 times which forced her against her will to compete over the distance in LA and Edinburgh.

There was also a sense that she was competing against the odds: partly factors outside her control (opponents benefitting from either state support and/or chemical enhancement), partly factors of her own doing (a less than optimal technique that fell apart when the lactic kicked in; a poor start that meant she was always chasing down the home straight in 200s; an unwillingness to actually train for her best event (400) and a heavy hairstyle that must have cost her a few 100ths).

OK, I know a few of you (assuming anyone has read to this point) are thinking:typical Brit thinks his athlete wasn't doing PEDs when everyone was at it. OK, maybe I'm naive but look at some photos and videos of Kathy. If she was on steroids she was taking the Woolworths own brand.

And lastly a word or two about medals and times. Her times seemed great at the time. however, we were assuming that the next 20 to 30 years would see continued improvements in women's sprint times. Maybe not the same rate of Improvement as the preceding 20 years, but who would have thought that the times Kathy ran would be the sort of times that would still be winning global medals in the 21st century. In other words, with the benefit of hindsight, she looks even better.

Finally rightly or wrongly, there is a sense of hard luck or even injustice surrounding her. This is a woman who ran 22.10 in a final and found it wasn't good enough for a medal. When Kathy ran 49.4 to win an Olympic medal we felt she'd been 'lucky' because the 2 East Germans, 2 Czechs and 1 USSR athlete to run faster than her that year didn't compete. Now with the benefit again of hindsight, with more evidence of PED use in the 1980s, I'm left feeling that she was probably the best quarter miler of her generation.

[Daisy]

What he said.

Except I had her as my number four. So someone else had her at #11.

[72]

great post John G.

I believe that certain countries were so busy fighting the Cold War pre-1990 that the rather unpleasant nationalism evident at all times when the OG comes round, manifested itself prolifically in the shape of PEDs, in both the USA and the East European countries.

Nowt to do with naivety, and just a nonsense to consider Cook, the beanpole, as a cheat.

[mump boy]

i know i'll sound incredibly naive saying this but i genuinely believe that there is a sense of fair play in the UK that you don't get in other countries. It goes along with the idea of "it's not the winning but the taking part' etc that may not be so prevalent now but definitely was up to the mid 80's.

There are very few UK athletes who's had that killer instinct and it is only very recently that it has been taught and maybe admired in UK sport. It has always been rather looked down on to want something too much or try/train too hard. UK sport (actually uk attitude in general) has often had a rather amateur ethos that still resonated today.

Now that doesn't mean that there have never been drug cheats, there quite obviously have and more than ever got caught but there has never been that win at all cost attitude (for good and bad) that permeates the ultra competitive US system or that of the eastern block. There has to be a rather large conspiracy around an athlete to enable them to take drugs consistently and i feel that it would be tougher to to in Uk than in many other countries

As i said i know this is hopelessly naive so i don't need a diatribe from people in response but the point i'm trying to make is that the idea that a nice English girl like Kathy Cook was a rancid drug cheat is completely ludicrous

[spvxv0]

80th (3 votes 40 points)

Kathy Cook

Finally rightly or wrongly, there is a sense of hard luck or even injustice surrounding her. This is a woman who ran 22.10 in a final and found it wasn't good enough for a medal. When Kathy ran 49.4 to win an Olympic medal we felt she'd been 'lucky' because the 2 East Germans, 2 Czechs and 1 USSR athlete to run faster than her that year didn't compete. Now with the benefit again of hindsight, with more evidence of PED use in the 1980s, I'm left feeling that she was probably the best quarter miler of her generation.

It will be interesting to see how high one of the East Germans mentioned above ranks in this poll. She was #1 on my list.

[gh]

3 posts removed here; keep tossing doping accusations around and I'll simply lock this thread for good.

[John G]

Dear fellow posters,

Just in case anyone else makes the same mistakes as me - in my pulled post I wrote that I had always harboured suspicions about a sprinter who subsequently came 2nd in Miss Universe.

I assume that gh didn't object to me also including the name of a convicted steroid trafficker who admitted to his PED use in the 70s but maybe I should have included links to verifying stories.

[72]

On the contrary, Mump, you are not being naive at all concerning the culture of fair play and the ancient British love for the amateur and never mind if you are not winning.
Having taken a vast interest in all sports( I dont mean national entertainments like Soccer etc) for 60 years, I have also been driven barmy in earlier years by the attitude of many UK people and particularly the media about being a "good sport".
Most Brits do not subscribe to the view that winning is the only thing and thats why we were shit at international sport for so long.
This is not to state that some Brits have not cheated in the past and still do, like the foolish Bernice Wilson, but the sports bodies here take a sometimes brutal view and pretty damned speedy resolution of drug findings.None of the the " lets keep quiet for a long as possible about the PED findings" and the amazingly drawn litigious nonsense preferred elsewhere.

The idea that we could have had some of the shenanigans alleged in the USA through USOC in the past, the accusations by certain well placed top Americans officials of large scale cheating cheating ( conveniently shoved under the carpet, whenever necessary), the wholesale barefaced State dishonesty in East Europe for decades, bears no comparison with the British culture of fair play. But on this Message Board there will be little understanding of what I have said; we are a different type of society and culture.

BTW, thrilled to note that a well known cyclist has no federal case to answer about any cheating whatsoever and the lawyers are contented with their loot!!!

[Athleticsimaging]

I think it is time for gh to get serious about drug controversies and ban statements of non-drug usage on an equal basis with accusations of drug usage. My non-scientific analysis of these things indicates that 2/3 of drug use accusations arise in response to ridiculous statements of non-usage such as the above.

For those Brits above, anyone in the know could tell you that at least 3 of your "non-using" heroes (mentioned at various times on this board) were definite users in their careers. This absolutely fucking retarded argument that they didn't care about being good, therefore wouldn't have used is the most astoundingly childish thing I've read on this board - and I've read a lot of Jam fanboi posts......

[Pego]

I am so tired of watching every debate of relative quality of athletes from different eras quickly deteriorate into a back-and-forth accusations of cheating of whatever sort.