It seems to me that most sporting events can seem hugely significant in the moment but quickly fade into the background noise over time. What sporting events from the past will the average educated layman still have some recognition even 300 years after they have happened?
My nominations are the 1st modern Olympics in 1896, Carl Lewis breaking the 10 second 100m barrier & Roger Bannister breaking the 4 minute mile.
I imagine all those you named will be on record in some file. But even now I couldn’t tell you it was Lewis who’d broken the ten second record and I’ll bet a lot of people didn’t know who Bannister was, or what he did.
If any of those three are still in the public consciousness I’d say that the Modern Olympics were a revival. And still, many couldn’t tell you the exact year.
Sorry to say, I doubt any sports events will be remembered by anyone unless they had to be looked up for some reason.
If that’s not what you were looking for I’m sorry.
Single game?
The Kirk Gibson homerun to win the world series.
The Michael Jordan “flu game.”
The Immaculate Reception.
Dave Tyree’s helmet catch.
Chris Moneymaker’s 2003 WSOP win, particularly the beat on Phil Ivey.
I am relatively well informed about lots of things, and I haven’t a clue what any of those are famous for. I knew Moneymaker won the WSOP, but don’t remember any of the details, and I seriously doubt people will be remembering it in 300 years time.
Thats the problem with these threads, people just throw out lists of random things without really considering if they answer the question asked. You really think in 300 years time historians will be teaching kids about some guy called Kirk Gibson? No chance.
If I had to pick an event that would be remembered, I would say perhaps the black pride salute at the hitler olympics perhaps. No sporting event will be remembered for itself, but if it had a wider cultural significance it just might.
That happened at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. There was no black pride salute at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
I’m sorry to disappoint all of you Americans, but if any individual event is remembered in 300 years, it will probably be a football game.
… No, not your football… What you call “Soccer.” 
A couple of good examples of memorable games would be Uruguay upsetting Brazil in the 1950 W.C. final game (in the Maracana!); or W. Germany upsetting mighty Hungary and Puskas 4 years later. Both of these happened before I was born and before wide-spread television coverage (I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the 1950 game, was it even filmed?) yet every football fan probably recognizes them.
Or, on a different note, something like the Heysel Stadium Disaster.
Carl Lewis isn’t really recognised as the first sub 10 second runner (regulatory niceties aside)
Superhal’s list is rather USA-centric and if we are thinking worldwide then they have to be written off straight away (as few outside the States even know about them now)
Roger Bannister has a better claim but perhaps in 300 years the concept of a “mile” will be somewhat clouded.
The “black pride” salute is a major incident and an important one, as was Jesse Owens in '36 but I’m with Baker. I suspect that most individual events will not be remembered but perhaps certain individuals with astonishing records in worldwide popular sports will remain legends, Bradman, Federer, Pele etc.
Sir Roger Bannister and the 4 minute mile is the only accomplishment that has a chance at being remembered, imho.
The 1972 Summer Olympics, due to the Munich Massacre.
OK, I found a (bad, but interesting) bit on YouTube – here it is
Not sure about the Munich Olympics – there’s a chance people will remember that (although some seem to be doing their damnest to forget, already!) but arguably that has nothing at all to do with sports (any more than 9/11 was a “business” or “Stock market” related event.)
I second this, with qualifications: I’m really in no position to judge the likelihood of a (world) football game from the present era still being known in 300 years, so I can’t exclude the possibility.
I fully agree that the likelihood of any individual sporting event that Americans are currently familiar with being widely remembered in 300 years is effectively nil.
Things change over time: I will probably live to see boxing largely remembered as a relic of our more barbaric past, which will greatly overshadow the memory of the Thrilla in Manila or any other individual bouts. My son will likely live to see American football at least as far down that road as boxing is today. The slow pace of baseball is likely to cause interest in it to dwindle over time. Fewer people will have any personal connection to hockey as the world warms up, and skatable ice is rarely found outside of rinks in America and southern Canada.
Of American major sports, basketball strikes me as the only one with decent long-term survival prospects - and I’m thinking just in terms of this century. Beyond that, who knows? Changes upon changes are ahead, and 300 years is the gap between Benjamin Franklin’s childhood and now.
the question was “What sporting events will still be remembered 300 years from now”, not “what athletic achievement”.
I don’t know that the Munich Olympics will be remembered, but I think that a sporting event known for a significant history changing political event is more likely to be remembered than any particular athletic achievement, and I don’t see how anyone can argue that the Olympics don’t have anything to do with sports.
I am not disputing that the Munich Olympics are an event that could well be remembered several centuries in the future (although I wouldn’t take it for granted.)
I think the question is – in 300 years, will the Munich Olympics be mentally filed by those who know of it under “Historical Events” or “Sports Events.”
I would lean towards thinking it would be the former.
It would be up to the OPer to arbitrate whether this qualifies by their criteria, I suppose.
The only sporting event I can imagine being remembered in 300 years would be the last. Hypothetically, if a boxer was killed in the ring or multiple fatalities on an auto or horse race track marked the end of one of those sports, then those particular events might be remembered. (Then again, I can’t name the last sanctioned gladiator fight or bearbaiting either.)
That college game where a guy runs the wrong way with the football. It will still be in sports blooper reels 300 years from now.
The number of 20th century sporting events remembered in three hundred years will exactly equal the number of 300-year-old sporting events we remember today.
I think its debatable if *sports * itself will be remembered in 300 years.
People have always played physical games, of course. But our contemporary way of playing these games where a few individuals perform for large crowds of spectators, and where their actions are widely reported … that isn’t a human universal. 300 years ago there weren’t any sports – not in the sense that we understand them now, at least. And 300 years from now people may have largely forgotten that back in the 21st Century a common form of entertainment was to watch strangers play physical games.
Oh, I don’t know. Two thousand years later, the existence of Roman gladiatorial games is still common knowledge, and historians still know the names of some of the fighters. Hell, most of America could name one of them, though that’s because he started a slave revolt, not because of his prowess in the arena. It’s not a universal, but it’s not unique to our time, either.
That said, I don’t think that any single sporting event from the 20th century will be remembered in 300 years. One player who might-- Jackie Robinson.
Which sport will be popular in 2313? Football might be just a fringe sport , with curling the worlds most popular sport. It could be that an event which is obscure today, but might become well known in the future. So for once, the America centric list is not off the mark, for all we know, girls rugby…er American football might be the worlds premier sport.
Forget about 300 years from now - let’s see what I know, right now:
I know about the Kirk Gibson homerun; I watched it live on television. Ditto the ‘Immaculate Reception.’
I know who Michael Jordan is, of course, but have no idea what the ‘flu game’ was.
Never heard of Dave Tyree or the helmet catch, but I gather that was NFL or NCAA football.
I couldn’t even tell you what sport the WSOP is, and the names Chris Moneymaker and Phil Ivey don’t ring the least bell with me.