Can’t go along with the Johnny Van der Meer vote without a little more detail. Not to belittle the accomplishment of throwing even one no-hitter, but a lot more is involved in doing so than just efforts of the pitcher. For instance, was his ass saved by great fielding a number of times? If he had given up just one hit in each of those games (still a remarkable performance for any pitcher and his team), I’m not so sure that they would be remembered with quite the same importance.
For what it’s worth, I’d have to go along with all the other Mark Spitz voters, seconding the opinion of the poster who pointed out the difficulty in performing so well in all the different styles of swimming. His performance was the first I though of.
Not really on the same level as the others in this thread, but…
Entering over 1500 freestyle skateboarding competitions between 1980 and 1991, Rodney Mullen came in first place in all but one, in which he placed second.
Gordie Howe playing in the NHL at 52 years old, and still managing to play 80 games, score 15 goals and notch 26 assists. Respectable stats for a player at any age.
That reminds me, I have to go get Rodney Mullen videos again.
If you’ve never heard of him, and I hadn’t until I stumbed across some of his videos, I recommend them. If you pay attention to what he’s doing, it’s just incredible.
For example: He’ll go from riding his skateboard normally to riding in a handstand, and then flip the board around fully as he drops down to to ride with his feet again. He’s moving the entire time.
That reminds me, I have to go get Rodney Mullen videos again.
If you’ve never heard of him, and I hadn’t until I stumbed across some of his videos, I recommend them. If you pay attention to what he’s doing, it’s just incredible.
For example: He’ll go from riding his skateboard normally to riding in a handstand, and then flip the board around fully as he drops down to to ride with his feet again. He’s moving the entire time.
If career records were admissible in this thread, I believe Sir Donald would be a very strong contender. The amount by which he exceeded others of his (or any) time easily rivals Gretzky, Jordan, Ruth, etc.
I recall that he died just a couple of years ago. R.I.P.
The man’s name was Phidipides (may not have the spelling right, but it’s pronounced “fi-DIH-pih-deez”)
The feats that come to mind most are:
Beamon’s jump
DiMaggio’s streak
Chamberlain’s 100-pt game
The Big O’s averaging a triple double for a season
The fella (initials are HH) who pitched 12 innings of a perfect game, but lost - 12 innings of a perfect game - think about it. Every time I think about this I am both amazed and crushed.
So many others have been mentioned that are great, but these are the ones that immediately came to mind.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Alexander Karelin. He wrestled for 12 years in internation competition before he lost his first match in the 2000 olympics.
McKay lost her (first?) competitive squash match in 1959. She lost another match in 1960.
She dropped a total of four games before her retirement in 1979, including two each in her two losses. She didn’t lose a game in 19 straight years of competition at the top level.
The only sportspeople who have come anywhere near as close to dominating their sports over their careers were Walter Lindrum, then (a long way back) Don Bradman.
Are you taking into consideration that Dempsey’s kicking foot was actually half a foot, and he had a special shoe made for his half-foot, with a very squarish front?
Dempsey seemed to have an advantage over other straight-ahead kickers because of his half-foot and special kicking shoe.
Second that. Said the King of Sweden, awarding Jim his medal: “You sir, are the greatest athlete in the world.”
Babe Ruth made sports people into celebrities, and Michael Jordan may be the most recognizable or household name, but in the purest sense of the word, the greatest “athlete” ever is Jim Thorpe. EVERY sport he ever took up, he was amazing at.
And this tidbit about Reinhold Messner, from the Ben Folds Five liner notes: “when we chose the title for this album, we were unaware…of a living, breathing, and famous Reinhold Messner. The name was part of a story from Darren’s school days when a friend suggested using “Reinhold Messner” on fake IDs…we’d love to tell you we’re just fucking cool and knew what we were doing, but alas, the credit goes to our cosmis collaborator on this album, coincidence.”
“Seemed to have” is pretty vague. Dempsey’s special shoe was approved by the league, and giving a special advantage to one kicker over all others would not be in the game’s best interests. Not only that, but by taking away the length of his foot, he was actually at a mechanical disadvantage in terms of power, since he couldn’t use his ankle as a lever.
If he was a soccer player, I’d say it would be easier to argue he had some kind of advantage kicking a round ball with that greater kicking area. But footballs are a funny shape, not very well suited for making accurate straight-ahead kicks to begin with. (One of the reasons soccer-style football kickers are so much more accurate is because they can actually use the aerodynamics of the ball to aim it. If you watch the ball in the air you can see how it curves right or left. This much control with a straight-on kick is simply impossible.) All straight kickers have to hit the ball at about the same spot in order to get it to go where they want. Dempsey’s large “foot surface” probably made precise kicking harder, not easier. Like trying to hit a finishing nail with a mallet.