Fans of individual players - but not the sport itself

[Cesar Rodriguez]

From time to time sports throw up star performers who transcend their discipline and who bring in a lot of casual fans. Sometimes those people remain fans of the sport, sometimes they drift away when that star player retires or declines. Are there any sports that you have watched almost exclusively because of a magical player rather than because you loved the sport per se?

For me its Jimmy White & snooker. In that late 80s, early 90s period when he got to quite a few World championship finals but could never win them I was a big fan of his. Never mustered much enthusiasm for the sport since his heyday but would classify myself as a pretty big White fan.

[Aitch]

Not me personally, but I think the following meet your definition


Mohammed Ali -- Boxing
David Beckham -- Football
Red Rum -- Horse racing
Here in Holland: Raymond Barneveld -- Darts

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I can't think of a sport I solely watch for a particular star, as I watch pretty much anything, but I do get that phenomenon. Usain Bolt in his heyday was all the USP needed to get millions of people who would never otherwise have bothered to tune in to watch track and field. I got tickets to take my family to see him win the 100m in London and 2012 and it's probably one of my top ten memories, just that it was Usain Bolt.

[Sits]

Olga Korbut
Alberto Tomba
Eddie Edwards
John Currie / Robin Cousins / Torvill &;Dean

[Sporting]

Olga Korbut

I raise you Nadia Comaneci. Well, not really, as I have not much clue about gymnastics. But who was better?

[Sits]

As I remember it Olga was the best ever, then Nadia came along a couple of years later and was the best ever.

I also knew nothing about the sport, but Nadia was my boyhood crush.

[Aitch]

Nigel Short got a lot of people into chess and, I thought, he was only ever third best in the world.

[nmrfox]

Alberto Tomba

I'd have gone for Franz Klammer myself

[ad hoc]

Mine was Ingemar Stenmark

[ad hoc]

When i first lived in the states, Michael Jordan was in his prime, and while I found the game of basketball tedious in the extreme, what I did like about it was the extraordinary skills of the players, and Jordan was even to me clearly the absolute master of it. So, I would happily watch a Bulls game just to watch him.

[delicatemoth]

Tiger Woods, though this had less to do with him specifically and more to do with his status as a black American who ruled possibly the whitest, most conservative mass participation sport of all.

I don't watch athletics, but I cheer every time Caster Semenya wins.

Alex Higgins also had the Jimmy White factor, perhaps even more so. My parents thought he was great, and otherwise had little interest in snooker.

[Aitch]

Harvey Smith the horse jumper packed them in as well.

And I once paid good money to see Ben Johnson even though I wouldn't even consider running for a bus myself.

[Patrick Thistle]

I'm not a fan of boxing but I really liked Nicola Adams after watching an interview with her at London 2012.

[Ray de Galles]

A lot of Federer fans fit in to this category.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I'm not a fan of boxing but I really liked Nicola Adams after watching an interview with her at London 2012.

My mother never liked boxing, but she did like Barry McGuigan and she would watch his bouts.

She didn't care much for football either, but she did love Kevin Keegan which meant that, quite implausibly in retrospect, we went to see him play for Southampton at Sunderland once. I can think of only two other occasions that she watched professional football, once being when I was mascot at Carlisle United (as in, the little person who runs out with the team, not the one in the fox suit), the other being when my son was (ditto).

[elguapo4]

My Stepdad's sister had no interest in sports, except for Muhammad Ali. I remember her having a life size cardboard cut out of The Greatest in her front room. I always wondered how she managed to get it in North county Cork in the early 70s.

[Satchmo Distel]

Mine was Ingemar Stenmark

Seconded.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Harvey Smith the horse jumper packed them in as well.

He was rubbish, though. I never saw him jump over a horse once. He just used to end up sitting on them.

[tee rex]

I suppose Tom Daley has/had a lot more fans than diving. Not sure if there are any diving fans, really (as opposed to participants, plenty of those especially if you expand it to all types). What do diving fans do? Argue about the rules on their message boards?

For myself, I don't know if I was a fan exactly, but Sergey Bubka was the reason to watch the pole vault, and I'd struggle to remember anything about it since.

[Sits]

Out of Klammer, Stenmark and Tomba, only “La Bomba” had a memorable nickname.

[fatbear]

A lot of Federer fans fit in to this category.

That includes my mum. Whilst on holiday in Prague, she even forced my Dad to go and get tickets to watch Fed play there in the Davis Cup against the Czechs.

[fatbear]

I'm not a great fan of Rugby League, but I used to enjoy watching Ellery Hanley play.

Every 4 years I take an interest in the Olympics events where we have medal prospects eg Swimming, Rowing, Cycle, Canoeing, Taekwando, Yachting, Gymanastics, Triathlon, Dressage, Hockey so people like Peaty, Redgrave/Pinsent/Grainger, Whitlock/Smith, Dujardin, Kenny/Trott/James/Cavendish, Ainslie/Dempsey/Clark/Mills, 2 x Brownlee, Liam Heath, Jade Jones, Daley/Goodfellow/Laugher, Hinch/Danson/Unsworth to name but a few !

[fatbear]

Nigel Short got a lot of people into chess and, I thought, he was only ever third best in the world.

I liked the quote from Kasparov when he was asked who he thought would win through Qualifying to play him and what their chances of beating him were. He said "It will be Short, and it will be short"

[Satchmo Distel]

I think Dennis Taylor had a few fans who just followed him specifically.

[Sits]

fatbear, from your list the one who jumped out the most is Steven Redgrave, in the context of this thread.