Not to take anything away from Michael Phelps as the greatest in his sport, but there was once another in another sport in the Olympics who was considered The Greatest.
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Anyone caring at all, should watch “Facing Ali”. It’s a real good movie even, if you don’t care about boxing, it’s about the human element in a brutal sport.
Whats the secret subject of this thread?
1. Yes, Ali was a great athlete and human being. Sad he got his brains scrambled in the ring trying to box past his prime. I still think Liston threw it.
2. I’ll still give it to Bruce Jenner, before he got married. To be “the Greatest” you got to have multiple skills like the pentathalon. Not one skill demonstrated 7 different ways like swimming.
3. Is table tennis really a sport?
4. An Olympic Sport?
Wathcing Olympics for the first time in many years–second tv, sound not on. All kinds of new sports not seen before. “Hand Ball” looks like fun for neighborhood kids. Looks made up though. Why make up more sports if pin pong is all ready on the list?
It is. Baseball isn’t.
I agree. More “individual effort” in ping pong than in baseball.
I would advocate getting back to more of the original olympic sports. Oh, what the heck? With 5000 hours of every event streamed on the internet…. and the ability to roll your own… let freedom win.
Back gammon anyone? XXXXX no, not backgamon, too intellectual.
JACKS!!!!!! Thats the ticket. air guitar?
Anyone have a link to the definition of the desired competition?
Is it for-sure that Ali’s boxing lead to he Parkison’s?
I know it’s generally accepted but I have not read anything authoritative on the subject.
I couldn’t find it again, but there is a video on YouTube of a reporter questioning a very young Mohd Ali about his shakes. Of course, he came back at the reporter will full bravado but you could see the shakes in the video.
Is it for-sure that Ali’s boxing lead to he Parkison’s?
Yeah. Its for sure…
Its Parkinson’s but its not quite the degenerative neurological disease that’s named after the good doctor.
Basically, its induced by repeated blows to the head, not a degenerating myelin matrix surrounding the neurons, but the effects are the same.
There are many roads leading to that address. Who cares how you got there (doctors, insurers and sports fans,) you’re still twitching and shaking and there’s not much that can be done (except for L-dopamine.)
Liston didn’t throw it; he was high on heroin. The Massachusetts medical examiner would not let the match go the next day in Boston Garden, so they moved it to a high school hockey rink in southern Maine.
Liston couldn’t perform. Clay was as shocked as everyone else…except the medical examiner.
>Wathcing Olympics for the first time in many years
yea, it’s been at least 4 years since I watched the Summer Olympics.
Isn’t this asshat dead yet. All he will known for in my book is being a draft dodging coward.
Dodging a war that should never have been fought.
… for exactly the right reasons===from his perspective.
I thought the same thing at the time. sucked to be in uniform though….. ha, ha.
He was sent to jail for the convictions of his conscience.
Romney went to France, even though he supported the war.
I’ll let you judge which person has more character.
He was indeed a great athlete. Before Parkinson’s ravaged his body and ability to speak, he was eloquent, articulate. He is now an American and world cultural icon.
Compare Ali’s contribution to say, a schmuck coward that goes on blogs with a lesbian name, like ‘Diesel’ and insults the Greatest
Meh, I’ve been called lots of things by lots of people but coward isn’t one of them. Handle has nothing to do with dykes but I see where your mid is this time Dallas.
Want to add someone better to the list try Ted Williams.
Ali was arguably the greatest _character_ in the history of sports.
But the most dominant? That is very debatable. Here are some of the top contenders:
Michael Phelps
Pele
Wilt Chamberlain
Joe Lewis
Babe Ruth
Tiger Woods
Michael Jordon
Wayne Gretzky
http://x.co/mcQX
I should point out that these are the ones I have heard of.
If you look at the link, there are a lot of lesser known athletes who totally dominated a sport most of us don’t follow.
Chamberlain was physically dominant, but couldn’t beat the much smaller Bill Russell.
Ali had the Greatest Mouth ever, but I think the Greatest Athlete should go to someone more deserving.
Even in the original Olympics there were athletes that totally dominated. One of the original Greek wrestlers was king of the hill for I think over 20 years at least in part because nobody sane wanted to take a match against him. He was so strong that he could grab you and then he started breaking the bones in your hands, etc. which was completely legal. People who didn’t want to become crippled beggars avoided going into the ring with him.
I think one of the greeks pointed out that too much athletics turned man into an animal. Something about reading and philosophy too.
Nothing changes.
What a great man!
He was the greatest.
_One_ of the greatest, for sure.
So how well did that whole “I am the greatest!” thing work out for Mr. Clay, anyway?
Evidently, pretty good! They are still talking about him.
Too bad Cassius has so much difficulty taking about himself, or anything, now. He used to be a non-stop self-promoter, and his own biggest fan. A real loud mouth.
Sure, “They” are still talking about him, in the most polite and politically correct way possible. His obituary was written years ago. When Clay finally does “shuffle off” this mortal coil, “they” will merely do a final edit for date of death. Nothing more will need to be added.
Ever notice how Olympic boxing has stopped being broadcasted by NBC? Must be because the 5’4″ Cuban boxers can’t KO their American counterparts fast enough.
Ali was a nasty person who was full of trash talking. Calling Joe Frazier a gorilla was reprehensible. Saying that blacks who marry whites should be killed was even worse.
Thriller in Manila, a British production, has revealed what too may in the American media wish to ignore to celebrate his anti-Vietnam stance. Perhaps the liberals in the media will portray Ali accurately if they are told Ali was a Republican who supported Reagan, Bush, and Orrin Hatch.
Everyone wants a boxer that trash talks and entertains.
Mohammed Ali was the “greatest”. As far I can ever know, my generation has some vague remembrance of Mike Tyson as someone who bit Holyfield’s ears and I couldn’t name a heavyweight champion in the last 10 years.
Boxing isn’t the showcase it once was.
Ali’s Gold Medal is at the bottom of the Ohio River where he threw it after being denied service at an all white restaurant. Years later he used racism to his advantage in turning Africans against Joe Frazier.
Ah yes, the modern gladiators and the mindless minions that take pleasure in the spectacle of a beating.
Bullfighting is more interesting. More blood and guts on the right day. Thrilling and chilling to see a matador with a horn up his anus and protruding from his abdomen.
I long for the days when lions would eat Christians and splay their intestines all over the coliseum.
But I reminisce of the good old days.
Now we have football at the coliseum. Boring.