what do you consider the great sports records?

[QCassidy352]

I would have to say Edwin Moses. From August 1977 to May 1987 he rang up 122 straight victories in the 400 meter hurdles.

Yep, this one gets my vote. Of course, being that it's a track record, most people don't know or care about it but 122 straight victories is simply mindblowing.

 

[Jaffa Cake]

Undoubtledly the greatest single achievement in sport is Steven Redgrave's 4 succesive Olympic gold medals at 4 consecutive games in rowing, to be the best in the world for 2 decades in a sport that requires such extremes of physical strength and endurance is awesome, we will never see the likes of him again.

He was going to be my pick, too. A very, very impressive achievement, even more so when you consider the fact that he was diagnosed with Diabetes in the latter part of his career. Mind, you mention his four successive Golds – his tally is actually six medals at five consecutive Olympics (Gold in 1984, Gold and Bronze in 1988, and Gold in 1992,1996 and 2000), as well as numerous other world titles and championships.

 

[sambo.]

my two cents

Cricket - Don Bradman's test average of 99.94. Next highest is around 60.

i hope there is another Bradman, but I ain't holding my breath.
Gretzky: THE Greatest Ever Hockey Player
Armstrong: he has nothing to prove to anyone
Mick Doohan: if he hasn't been overtaken by Il Dottore yet.
theres also legend (i'v heard) of some Japanese Kendo master who was undefeated for, like, 50 years or something incredible like that, but i can't find a reference.

 

[Counterfit]

Oh dear God, what have I done?

 

[Elrond39]

Patrick Roy, the "winningest" goaltender in hockey-history.

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

I think that the idea that Gretzky could have never scored a goal in his career and still be the all-time points leader in the NHL is unfathomable. Fact is, he scored more goals than any other player ever. That boggles my mind.

 

[iDM]

With all the doped up baseball players i now care even less for pro-baseball, and all the "new records" give me a break these guys are not true athletes, put them back in the old days where there wasn't steroids and the fields were longer and larger and lets see if they still crank out 73 homeruns in a season...........in case it was in question, no way not a chance in hell bonds hits the same amount, how can anyone care about these players, or find their records to be so great, lets pump up mantle, dimaggio, ruth, aaron, williams, musial anyone back then and lets see how they perform, give them faster bat swing speeds, faster running, and more power, come on now, case closed

 

[Sun Baked]

With all the doped up baseball players i now care even less for pro-baseball, and all the "new records" give me a break these guys are not true athletes, put them back in the old days where there wasn't steroids and the fields were longer and larger and lets see if they still crank out 73 homeruns in a season...........in case it was in question, no way not a chance in hell bonds hits the same amount, how can anyone care about these players, or find their records to be so great, lets pump up mantle, dimaggio, ruth, aaron, williams, musial anyone back then and lets see how they perform, give them faster bat swing speeds, faster running, and more power, come on now, case closed

Some of the older endurance records are going to be hard to beat, especially streaks like Cal Ripken's streak of consecutive games.

Heck some of the records built up by people at a single team are going to be a bit tough in the future, especially if MLB is able to break into the international market and expand.

 

[iDM]

Some of the older endurance records are going to be hard to beat, especially streaks like Cal Ripken's streak of consecutive games.

Heck some of the records built up by people at a single team are going to be a bit tough in the future, especially if MLB is able to break into the international market and expand.

Well i think this can be attributed also by the fact players these days in sports like baseball can be traded from one team and playing for another within a matter of days! How is that for team loyalty!!! Players like Farve, Ripken, Gretzky have stuck with teams and stayed loyal therefore their records may never be broken.

 

[Chundles]

Bradman was the man, his career figures are incredible, a batting average more than 50% higher than the top echelon of past and current batsmen and the ability to post huge scores consistently and all over the world.

I know this is rough but say you take baseball's top batters, they have a career average of, for a bunch of very good, highly respected batters, an average of around .340 wouldn't be too optimistic (please correct me if you think I'm wrong, I'm an aussie...) having a Bradmanesque player come into the MLB would be like a player retiring with an average of 0.510 ie. just insane....

 

[miloblithe]

Interesting that everyone here is concentrating on individual records, even in team sports. What about the Celtics 11 championships in 13 years (rather than seeing it, however justifiably, as Chamberlain's record)? Or UCLA's run in the 1960s. Or the Red Sox run of futility until last year?

And as for records, if Clemens can keep up (or down) his league-leading 1.45 ERA this year at age 43, I think that belongs on a list of amazing accomplishments.

 

[nw43]

Undoubtledly the greatest single achievement in sport is Steven Redgrave's 4 succesive Olympic gold medals at 4 consecutive games in rowing, to be the best in the world for 2 decades in a sport that requires such extremes of physical strength and endurance is awesome, we will never see the likes of him again.

I was going to say this as well, if no-one else had. It was actually 5 consecutive gold medals though which makes it even more impressive.

 

[gwuMACaddict]

lance armstrong.

beating cancer, winning 7 consecutive tour de france's in convinving fashion, retiring at the top of his game

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

Well i think this can be attributed also by the fact players these days in sports like baseball can be traded from one team and playing for another within a matter of days! How is that for team loyalty!!! Players like Farve, Ripken, Gretzky have stuck with teams and stayed loyal therefore their records may never be broken.

Speaking of team loyalty, it was great when The Great One came to St. Louis and said something to the effect of, "I'm going to spend the rest of my career here. I love St. Louis." ...Then he left 2 months later for New York. What was that about loyalty again?

And on another note, I agree with miloblithe, the season Clemens is having is phenomenal. I swear the guy could get 400 wins if he really wanted to. (Maybe I'm exaggerating, but seriously, he's that good...if he were only on a better team...)

 

[Moxiemike]

For everyone who poo-poos hockey, I have one story to recount, one lots of us have heard, but I think it's one of the most amazing and incredible stories in sports. It'll end up a modern day fable, much like The Babe's called shot.

I'm of course talking about Mario Lemieux coming back from Hodgkin's and not only playing again that season, but LEADING THE LEAGUE IN SCORING. How about that? i think he was 22 points behind Pat LaFontaine, missed 20 games, and ended up with 160 points in 60 games.

From ESPN:

Can you name another athlete who has come back from both and performed better than anyone else in his or her sport?

"Notwithstanding Gretzky's abiding majesty, posterity will never forget that no athlete - not even the sainted Lou Gehrig - has ever before Lemieux been struck down by a deadly disease at the very moment when he was the best of his sport at the best he ever would be," wrote Frank Deford in Newsweek. "And since: Lemieux has achieved miraculously in remission, struggling, on the side, with a back injury so grievous that it has benched him after he merely laced up a skate. That is the stuff that answers people these days when they wonder where all our sports heroes have gone."

Story

I remember his first game back, you could see where his hair had fallen out from the chemo beneath his helmet. He took a flight to Philly, I believe, after a chemo treatment, and just went out and got 2 points and a 3rd star in the game.

All of Major League Baseball in it's steroid laden glory these days becomes MINOR in its achievements when compared against lemieux beating cancer.

 

[Counterfit]

Well i think this can be attributed also by the fact players these days in sports like baseball can be traded from one team and playing for another within a matter of days! How is that for team loyalty!!! Players like Farve, Ripken, Gretzky have stuck with teams and stayed loyal therefore their records may never be broken.

Players rarely have a say in whether they get traded or not. Like Nomah. Everyone thought he was going to be in Boston forever, and lead them to 13 World Series championships. Instead, he gets traded mid-season, after being injured for a while, and the Sox win it without him. In the same trade, which happened while the Sox were on a road trip and in Milwaukee, Doug Mientkiewicz (that's mint-kay-vich) went from the Twins' clubhouse for one game, to the visitor's clubhouse for the next. He had no say in it either. That's baseball/basketball/insert sport here.

 

[jefhatfield]

i thought ichiro was great in august 2002

...and headed towards baseball greatness

...and i mentioned that in a thread back then after just 1 1/2 years of him playing in the majors and hitting a .300+ average and over 200 hits in a season

now that the 2005 season is over, ichiro has hit over 200 hits and batted better than .300 in each of his first five seasons (a first), as well as holding the record for hits in a season last year

if he somehow goes ten years with over 200 hits, that will be the baseball sports record "of all time", imho (of course, after barry bonds and his 73 home runs in a season which many say is the sports record of sports records)

 

[devman]

I guess it's not a record (or not anymore) but Kieren Perkins gold medal swim in the 1500m at the Atlanta Olympics is one of the most inspirational sporting events I've ever seen.

Everyone said his previous domination of the 1500m event was over during the run up to the Atlanta Olympics. He barely made the Olympic team and then qualified for the final with the slowest time. He won the final absolutely blitzing the field.