Sporting comebacks

[Glass Half Empty]

So is Tiger winning at Augusta is the greatest sporting comeback ever? Anyone else in the frame?

[multipleman78]

Dennis Taylor was 8-0 down to Steve Davis in 1985 when he won the snooker World Championship. Considering how dominant Davis was in that era, giving him an 8 frame head start and still beating him was remarkable.

The 2004 Boston Red Sox coming from 3-0 to defeat the Yankees 4 games to 3, overcoming a long standing mental barrier in the most epic fashion.

I would also say Muhammad Ali. Although the Rumble in the Jungle is hyped up more than it deserves from a fight perspective, it is definitely a stunning ascension to the top from a man who was stripped of his title and best years 7 years previously.

I can think of many more but this post is already too long.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

It's not 100% that it's the greatest comeback in golf. Ben Hogan recovered from a near-fatal car wreck in 1949 that doctors said would leave him unable to walk, to dominate the game again in the early 1950s. His story captured the hearts of America so much they gave him a tickertape parade in New York in 1953.

[tee rex]

The Biggest Comeback Ever was only a week ago, as featured in the tennis thread:

https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/47871628

But of course that's within a match, and there are many other examples within a series. Within a career? Golf offers greater longevity, so hard to beat. Brian Close played cricket for England in 1949, and was recalled in 1976 (that's seven PMs been and gone) but he played other Tests between those years. And he wasn't that good.

[Ray de Galles]

Come on, it's Ali. No contest.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Lee Trevino's was another golfing comeback story - he was one of the world's leading players in the early 1970s, and for a couple of years the match of Nicklaus, whom he beat to win both the 1971 and 1972 Opens and the 74 PGA. In 1975 he and two other players were struck by lightning at a tournament in Chicago, and it looked like Trevino would never seriously challenge again. But by 1979 he was back to winning tournaments, he ran Tom Watson close at the 1980 Open and in 1984 he won his sixth career major, the PGA, ten years after winning his last one before the lightning strike. Trevino was a wise-cracking Mexican kid from Texas who learnt the game hustling bucks from country club members at the clubs where he was a caddy and later club pro before joining the tour, and he used to refuse to play Augusta because of their segregation rules (when he did play he changed in the car park with the caddies). He's probably one of the golfers who wouldn't have voted for Trump.

[Glass Half Empty]

Niki Lauda maybe? Raced 6 weeks after being given the last rites at Nurburgring and went on to win the F1 championship twice more.

[elguapo4]

Joe Thompson,Rochdale player twice coming back from cancer .

[diggedy derek]

Oh my god he's won the title back at.... er, 32! Ali is still the obvious vote, just because of how he was exiled to the wilderness in such heinous and historic circumstances, but his opponent in 1974, George Foreman, has got to be in with a shout also. He was out of the ring for a decade, and nearly another decade passed before he won a world heavyweight title in his mid forties. I can't think that would ever be repeated. He discovered religion and became an entirely new person after the defeat to Ali.

[ursus arctos]

Monica Seles winning the Australian Open 20 months after the knife attack in Hamburg.

Greg LeMond winning the first Tour he contested on the final day after a hunting accident that could easily have killed him (he lost two-thirds of the blood in his body). He won the World Championship Road Race later that year and successfully defended his stour title in 1990.

[seand]

Ferenc Puskas was pretty impressive too. After inspiring the great, ground-breaking Hungarian team of the 50s he was banned for 2 years after defecting during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. He was 31 when the ban was lifted, but went on to win 5 La Liga titles, 3 European Cups (with 2 EC final hat-tricks!), etc, etc

[seand]

There was that Lance Armstrong chap. He battled cancer, didn't he? Inspirational. Live Strong, everybody

[George]

A 55 year old Piggott riding Royal Academy to victory at the 1990 Breeder's Cup, after retiring five years earlier and spending 12 months in nick.

[Third rate Leszno]

Alex Zanardi? Lost both legs and 3/4 of his blood in his Indycar crash, came back to race cars competitively and won 3 Paralympic cycling gold medals.

[Janik]

The Biggest Comeback Ever was only a week ago, as featured in the tennis thread:

https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/47871628

That wasn't even the biggest comeback within a Tennis match. It's been done from 0-6 0-5 0-40 before. Oh, and Yaroslava Shvedova, she of the golden set against Sara Errani at Wimbledon in 2012 (full thing here, if you've got 15 minutes to spare), was close to that once before when she started with 23 straight points to lead Amy Frazier 5-0 40-0. But Shvedova double faulted and even dropped serve before closing the set out 6-1. Frazier promptly won sets two and three 6-0 6-0!

Football ones that I remember are a televised Port Vale-QPR game when Vale were 4-0 up at half-time, and still 4-1 ahead with 10 minutes to play only for the game to finish 4-4. Vale missed a penalty during the second half as well. However I'm certain I once watched a match from a youth World Cup on Eurosport where Cameroon were 5-0 down on Argentina with 20 minutes to play and recovered to draw 5-5.

Cricket has these, of course. Winning when following on. A few very famous examples. But topping Hants recovering from 15 all out inside 10 overs to beat Warks is going to take some topping.


Oh, and rather boringly Wikipedia has a page with a whole bunch of these listed:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comeback_(sports)

[Satchmo Distel]

Dennis Lillee - serious back injury, out for ages, comes back and becomes by far the best fast bowler of the 70s

Ronaldo in the 2002 World Cup, after his knee had looked finished.

[Hot Pepsi]

Bills v Oilers, 1993

[Janik]

We have had a remarkable comeback in Football very recently and very famously.
On the 23rd March 2015, Leicester City were bottom of the Premier League table, 7 points from safety with ~8 games to play. They did have a game in hand, but that was against soon-to-be champions Chelsea, and it would be lost. However it was the only defeat in the remaining fixtures, the eight weekend games returning 22 points (7 wins and a draw), which was enough for comfortable survival (secured with a game to spare) from a position that had looked unrecoverable. There are other Great Escapes of this ilk, though few quite as extreme as jumping from 4-7-18 to 7-1-1. But continuing moreorless the same form for the following 12 months as well (23-12-3, which I didn't even need to look up) does make it all the more remarkable...

[elguapo4]

SHAMROCK Rovers v Bohs February 2001 ( I don't know the date but some people have it tattooed) , Bohs 4.1 down at half time and Rovers hit the post to make it 5.2 ,four goals in just over 20 minutes changes the score to a 6.4 Bohs win

[nmrfox]

Charlton Athletic 5-1 down and with 10 men and 27 minutes left to play came back to beat Huddersfield 7-6.

[Jimski]

Thomas Muster coming back from his serious knee injury (caused by car backing into him iirc) to eventually (years later) become world number one always impressed me.