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ESPN's Top 20 sports Stars from the last 20 years

scandanavian_haven

30 Aug 15 21:17

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Date Joined: 27 May 11

| Topic/replies: 17,249 | Blogger: scandanavian_haven's blog

Came across a "greatest 20 sportspeople/athletes from 1995-2015" poll recently conducted by EPSN, very insular, 16 American's, 1 Jamaican, 1 Swiss, 1 Canadian, 1 Argentinian. 7 of the top 20 I'd never heard of as I don't follow American sports like Baseball and NFL but Lance Armstrong is sitting pretty at number 13

and a female American 'soccer' player Mia Hamm is there instead of Ronaldinho, both Ronaldo's, Zidane, Nadal, Schumacher, Djokovic, Steffi Graf (who has won more slams than Serena who's 6th, but isn't on the list) and I doubt they've even heard of Brian Lara or Sachin Tendulkar.

I don't think sports where few countries participate at a very high level should be included, maybe that includes Cricket along with Baseball and American Football, surely if you're going to create a poll like this, only sportsmen/women should be included from truly global sports.

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Report brendanuk1 • August 30, 2015 9:20 PM BST

Lance armstrong sort of gives the game away

Report tobermory • August 30, 2015 10:02 PM BST

If it is a poll of Americans then what would you expect really

Report scandanavian_haven • August 30, 2015 10:11 PM BST

It's not a poll of American's, there are some non American in it.

So I would expect a top 20 sports stars poll of the last 20 years to contain the top 20 sports stars of the last 20 years, obviously the order will not be the same for everyone but the names most should agree with, most people around the world would never have the list, makes zero sense to have serena ahead of Steffi for example when Steffi has won more slams and in a more condensed period, not even on the list.

Report tobermory • August 30, 2015 10:17 PM BST

It's not a poll of American's, there are some non American in it.

Who is it a poll of then

Predominantly American sportswriters ?

Subscribers to ESPN.com ?

either way you will have an overwhelming bias to US Sports

Report scandanavian_haven • August 30, 2015 10:26 PM BST

I thought you meant it's a poll of American sports stars.

Either way that's the point I'm making, the biasm is ridiculous.

Report pantsonfire • August 30, 2015 10:38 PM BST

How many of Grafs slams were in the last 20 years? Hard to argue with the top 9 at least,all will go down as legends in their sports. It's a poll of Americans by Americans, I am sure if you did the same poll in the UK it would produce a lot of footballers and the rest of the world would be shaking their heads just as you are.

Report scandanavian_haven • August 30, 2015 11:11 PM BST

Most countries are footballing countries so I think most would recongnise them and rightly so given it's a global sport, American Football and Baseball are not really. I think the only sportspeople included should be those who participate in worldwide sports such as Football, Tennis, Athletics, Basketball, Golf....the likes of Cricket, Rugby, Gridiron and baseball have too few countries that take either play them or play them to a high standard.

Also, I would like to think if the UK did a poll, it would be more intelligent and less insular.

Report Darlo Bantam • August 31, 2015 12:08 AM BST

At least two drugs cheats on there too.

Report sixtwosix • August 31, 2015 9:19 PM BST

Also, I would like to think if the UK did a poll, it would be more intelligent and less insular.

You would like to think so , but just before the mens 200 metres final , 5% of the poll of viewers thought our bloke would beat Bolt & Gattlin to Gold .

Report Clerkmore • August 31, 2015 9:36 PM BST

"our bloke". That's a laugh!

Report rob_dylan • August 31, 2015 9:44 PM BST

Messi, Ronaldo, Jordan, Serena, Fed, Tiger, Phelps, Bolt, Michael Johnson, Schumacher
Think these ten are shoo ins. Not sure about Graf, she did the grand slam in 1988 iirc.

Perhaps 1 from each of these...gridiron, baseball, cricket(tendles or Lara), Rugby(Lomu?, Dan Carter?)

That leaves six. Ronaldo(Brazil?), Mayweather, Roy Jones Junior?, Lennox Lewis, Djoko, Nadal, Bekele, Gabreselaisse,

Tricky one,

Report jed.davison • August 31, 2015 10:01 PM BST

That list sucks. No Heurelho Gomes, so I'm out.

Report TexassportsagentBuzz • September 3, 2015 11:34 PM BST

Aug 30, 2015 -- 5:11PM, scandanavian_haven wrote:

Most countries are footballing countries so I think most would recongnise them and rightly so given it's a global sport, American Football and Baseball are not really. I think the only sportspeople included should be those who participate in worldwide sports such as Football, Tennis, Athletics, Basketball, Golf....the likes of Cricket, Rugby, Gridiron and baseball have too few countries that take either play them or play them to a high standard.Also, I would like to think if the UK did a poll, it would be more intelligent and less insular.

Baseball is played professionally in about twenty countries but just two in Europe, Italy and Nederlands.