British Greatest of All Time Sportsperson

[tintin40]

Jim Clark win then with three votes!

most certainly gets my vote and Richard Burns.

 

[ringo]

I note the Clark contingent has rolled onto five...!

 

[kaiser]

Pah! too many motorsports might as well have Jocky Wilson :twisted:

 

[azaro]

Would have gone for Carl Fogarty too, given his WSB dominance.

Until I read his (auto)biography! Arrogant beyond belief, and always someone else's fault when he didn't win.
Hero to zero in a few hundred pages!

So, Ryan Giggs for me!! Loyal to one club and 11 premiership titles!!

 

[konatime]

Thompson inspired a good few British athletes with his persona, they threw Yanks, Germans and Ruskies at him and he whistled. The inner technicalities of the ten events (basically humans are not on the earth long enough to perfect more than eight) summed into him breaking the world record 4 times..makes him for my money the (all time) daddy of track & field

 

[paininthe]

edited :- was actually agreeing with Kaiser - badly

 

[FairfaxPat]

You cannot include a bloke in a car or on a motorbike as a "sportsman" as nice as they might be. We will have the Crafty Cockney next!

Sure we can, that's why they call it Motorsports. Besides, as an American, the most famous British Sportsmen I have heard about for most of my life have been motorsport related.(Graham Hill, James Hunt, Nigel Mansell, and the great 8 time World Champion Phil Read also come to mind) I am slightly biased, as cars and bikes do dominate my life!

 

[Neil]

Thompson inspired a good few British athletes with his persona, they threw Yanks, Germans and Ruskies at him and he whistled. The inner technicalities of the ten events (basically humans are not on the earth long enough to perfect more than eight) summed into him breaking the world record 4 times..makes him for my money the (all time) daddy of track & field

I'm inclined to vote for Daley Thompson, too.

As for Fogarty - well like others have said, great record of achievement, but when you listen to him or read stuff he's written, he doesn't exactly endear you.

 

[ringo]

Yes, agreed on the Fogarty debate...

As for Daley Thompson, I always felt the decathlon was not being quite good enough at ten events... (place tin hat firmly on head!)

 

[ringo]

Another one for consideration -

I T Botham...