Who is the greatest athlete ever from your country?

[HaulParris]

He’s in my avatar.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

LMAO !!!

When I read the book It Not About the Bike one summer during high school I thought Lance was a bad ass. Then come to find out he’s a giant piece of shit.

 

[amok attitude]

For France, i would go with Zidane and Platini (soccer). I put Riner too (judo) and Loeb (WRC). Eventually i add Andre the giant.

 

[therealdope]

For France, i would go with Zidane and Platini (soccer). I put Riner too (judo) and Loeb (WRC).

What?

 

[TeTe]

Bo Jackson

 

[amok attitude]

What?

I actually thought about him also but cycling...

 

[Breakitdown]

 

[Simple Southerner]

Yoel romero

 

[PRIDEWASBETTER]

Max Woosnam.

There's a clear argument that he was the greatest sportsman ever to walk the face of the earth:

- At schoolboy levels, he played for a Public Schools XI and made 144 playing against the MCC at Lords.

- Represented Cambridge at 5 different sports - football, cricket, tennis & real tennis, and golf (was a scratch player).

- Won the doubles at Wimbledon, and was a singles quarter finalist, as well as winning the Gold in the doubles at the Antwerp Olympics. He captained the British Davis Cup team, too.

- He played for Chelsea, captained Manchester City FC and the England Football team.

- He also made a 147 break at snooker, and beat Charlie Chaplin at table tennis, playing with a butter knife (Chaplin hated him after that humiliation).

He did it all as an amateur, believing professional sports to be "vulgar".

That, ladies and gentleman, is what I call a sportsman.

That's pretty cool. How would you compare him to Jim Thorpe?

 

[ModernMatt]

It actually is taught in schools in Canada, where there is a Terry Fox day. Most schools organize a Terry Fox run in mid-September and there is a sunday charity race/run all over Canada.

Steve Nash's 30 for 30 film Into the Wind was excellent BTW.

beat me to it. It really is something special

 

[ThaiSexPills]

Mario Lemieux

 

[bad seed]

just with his mere presence on the field would render alpha males into scared betas.

 

[loyalyolayal]

 

[Gus Fring]

 

[bosox32]

 

[GSP_37]

Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson, or Deion Sanders.

 

[Nameless Ghoul]

Jim Thorpe

or

Jesse Owens

 

[Prefect]

What?

Lemond in my opinion was slightly above him prior to being shot at least at stage racing. Lemond still won two tours after being shot. I suppose it can be said too that Hinault never quite peaked like he did before injurying his knees. Fignon toyed with Hinault during his brief run. Kind of nuts all three of those guys were at one point on the same team.

The cyclist that really impresses me in current cycling is Sagan. Peter Sagan is a once in a lifetime talent. He is talented at everything but stage racing and time trialing. He is clever and has a good nose at reading a race. Often he is strong enough to go in the correct breakaway and has enough of a sprint to easily beat any companions. There has not been any like him since maybe Sean Kelly.

 

[therealdope]

Lemond in my opinion was slightly above him prior to being shot at least at stage racing.

Where to begin? Let's start with the fact that Lemond isn't French -- re-read the thread title. Never mind that in no way were Lemond's career achievements on the level of Hinault's.

 

[Prefect]

What?

Where to begin? Let's start with the fact that Lemond isn't French -- re-read the thread title. Never mind that in no way were Lemond's career achievements on the level of Hinault's.

Jeannie Longo has superior achiviements to Hinault's if you are going to pick out the country's best athlete. Longo has accolades that are rival or are better than Merckx's.