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Re: Greatest Ever Sportsman?

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2018 3:25 pm
by Marc Meakin
There are almost as many cases of brain damage caused by heading a football, back in the day when they were leather

Re: Greatest Ever Sportsman?

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2018 3:33 pm
by JimBentley
Marc Meakin wrote: Fri Nov 09, 2018 3:03 am I've seen many a stoppage caused by a good body shot
But that's a stoppage, not a knockout, they're completely different things! I'm not making any kind of value judgement on boxing here, I quite enjoy watching it, but let's not pretend it doesn't engender risks for the participants, most often manifested as loss of cognitive function.
Marc Meakin wrote: Fri Nov 09, 2018 3:25 pm There are almost as many cases of brain damage caused by heading a football, back in the day when they were leather
Yes, possibly (although I would argue with "almost as many", I don't think the numbers are remotely comparable), but it wasn't recognised until long after the leather balls were phased out, so I'm not sure what could have been done about it. Boxing on the other hand has always been recognised as being potentially harmful to the fighters, right back to the bare-knuckle days.

Re: Greatest Ever Sportsman?

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2018 5:49 pm
by Marc Meakin
I think boxers know the risks before taking up the sport as do Motor sport drivers/riders.
By all means do anything necessary to make its as safe as possible but banning the sport will drive it underground

Re: Greatest Ever Sportsman?

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2018 10:55 pm
by Gavin Chipper
Marc Meakin wrote: Sat Nov 10, 2018 5:49 pm I think boxers know the risks before taking up the sport as do Motor sport drivers/riders.
By all means do anything necessary to make its as safe as possible but banning the sport will drive it underground
I think there's a difference between a sport where there is a risk of injury and a sport where the actual aim is to injure your opponent.

Re: Greatest Ever Sportsman?

Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2018 5:25 am
by Marc Meakin
That includes all combat sport then .

Re: Greatest Ever Sportsman?

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2018 1:24 pm
by Paul Worsley
JimBentley wrote: Wed Nov 07, 2018 5:39 pm
Ian Volante wrote: Sat Oct 20, 2018 11:39 pm I concur again with Bradman.
I find this weird. I don't think I could say who the greatest ever sportsman would be, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't choose a cricketer. Cricket doesn't test athletic abilities in any meaningful way and one person's influence over the team performance is only ever going to be limited at best. So I can't understand why anybody would choose a cricketer as "greatest ever sportsman". I mean, it's barely even a sport. Mike Gatting used to play it when he was basically just a barrel of lard and didn't do too badly, that's got to say something.
One way to quantify how great someone was is to look at how much better they were than the guy who is considered to be the second best. When you do this you see that Bradman was extraordinary. Several cricketers achieved batting averages ranging from 59-61, but Bradman stands out alone at 99.9. I'm not a cricket fan, but I don't know of anyone who has dominated his/her sport as much as Don Bradman, and he is certainly a contender for Greatest Ever Sportsman.

Re: Greatest Ever Sportsman?

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2018 2:29 pm
by Marc Meakin
Jahangir Khan and Joe Davis spring to mind