Musing on this after the terrible news about Seve Ballesteros' illness, I think he's in this category. He didn't just change golf for ever, although he did - his victories inspired European players to become the best in the world, and his charisma and flamboyance brought interest and sponsorship into the game over here that changed it from a minor pursuit of the middle classes carried out in Edwardian institutions to the multi-billion pound leisure industry it has become. I think he also helped to change the way Britain viewed the world, in particular our attitudes to Europe. He was the first European sportsman we really took to as one of our own (Boris Becker was possibly the second), and as such helped to redefine the average Brits' view of the Spanish as not just being a race of hapless waiters.
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Sports heroes who changed the world
The reverse-Rafa, if you like. -
Sports heroes who changed the world
Three US examples come immediately to mind:
1) Jackie Robinson (who is to my mind the most historically significant US sports figure by some distance);
2) Arnold Palmer (whose role in the popularization of golf in the US was much like Seve's in the UK);
3) Michael Jordan (whose role in the internationalisation of basketball cannot be underestimated).Comment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
Shurely "overestimated"? WD.Comment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
Viv Anderson.Comment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
Yeah, it's a fair cop.
Viv Anderson
Really? I never thought of him as having a major impact on race relations in the UK. I'm obviously not as well placed as you are to judge, but I would have rated Viv Richards higher in that particular respect.Comment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
Being picked for England was a very significant thing, I think.Comment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
Tiger Woods has made quite an impact on the world too.
And Ayrton Senna. His death changed F1 completely and made the sport consider their drivers as more than just expendable throttle-men.Comment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
Thinking about it, the prime example from UK sports, where an impact on racism is concerned, has surely to be Basil D'Oliveira. As reluctant a hero as he was.Comment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
Nah, I don't think so. Richards - however much he remains the coolest sports star who ever lived - was still hampered in that regard by the fact that he played for the opposition. Sure, he was admired and liked by yer discerning English cricket fans, but he was still 'other'. Having 'others' on "our" side made more of a difference.I'm obviously not as well placed as you are to judge, but I would have rated Viv Richards higher in that particular respectComment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
E10 Rifle wrote:
Not when he was playing against Australia.Nah, I don't think so. Richards - however much he remains the coolest sports star who ever lived - was still hampered in that regard by the fact that he played for the opposition.I'm obviously not as well placed as you are to judge, but I would have rated Viv Richards higher in that particular respectComment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
No-one has mentioned Muhammad Ali yet. This surprises me. Did he punch someone's dog or something?Comment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
I was gonna, then I thought I might be overstressing the race angle. But yeah.
Smith and Carlos, anyone?Comment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
I don't know. From what I've been able to see, Smith and Carlos had a much greater impact on members of this board than they did on US track and field (or on broader US public opinion).
Ali has to be part of the discussion, but I'm not sure he really fits the Seve model. Ali made boxing cool, but the blaze of attention and popularity that he brought to the sport didn't really survive his retirement (and suffered severely during his suspension). In many ways, his intrinsic greatness just made everyone who came after him look small.Comment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
I think Ali, more than the rest, changed the world outside his own sport. As Rogin says, Seve probably changed British attitudes to Spain and Spaniards in general as well as changing his sport.
I'm not sure Tiger, yet, has changed anything outside his sport, and I'd say the same about Senna.
Viv Anderson is a much better example, oddly, because the influence of his selection was felt way outside the realms of just football.Comment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
Who, if there is one figure, is credited with turning women's sport from an amusing sideshow into something respected in its own right, as an athletic endeavour? I'm thinking for example of tennis, where at some point between Margaret Court and Steffi Graf, the women's game began to be watched by men to actually enjoy the tennis, not just to see Chris Evert in a short skirt. Billie Jean King, I think, is largely credited as being behind the equal treatment push in women's tennis; is there a particular female athlete who symbolises the shift from "hey,look the girls are joining in" to "hey, these girls are actually bloody good at what they do"?
The Williams sisters, in tennis, have to get a mention somewhere, but I think perhaps they've not been so much about breaking down the gender equality barriers in their sport (although Venus has spoken out on several occasions about prize money), nor even the race barriers (although they have been by far the most successful black tennis players ever), as the social barriers - to me at least they probably most represent the "working class kids made good in an unlikely field" story, what with them apparently growing up dodging bullets in Compton and all that.Comment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
From a US perspective, I'm not sure that the "actually bloody good" idea has really taken permanent hold, but Billie Jean King is definitely the key figure in the discussion, not only for what she did as a player, but perhaps even more importantly as an advocate and fundraiser for women's sports.
I strongly agree with Laterne that Ali's influence outside his sport was greater than that within it, and also agree with him about Tiger. I think Senna's position is a bit more complicated, though one can argue that the real turning point when it came to F1 safety was Ronnie Peterson's death and (especially) the drivers' reaction thereto.Comment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
I can't help think that people are thinking of a very localised version of world here. Jackie Robinson is known to all in America but I doubt he is anywhere near as well known in Europe.
Jesse Owens, Muhammed Ali and David Beckham have changed the global world.Comment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
Hmmmm.
That's why I said "US examples".
Again, I would argue that Jesse Owens' impact was very limited. He left a country in which a majority of the black population lived under Jim Crow laws and came back to one that would be unchanged in that respect for another several decades. He also ran on a US track team that is widely thought to have been subject to anti-Semitic pressure from the despicable Avery Brundage (and in fact was one of the athletes chosen to replace one of the two Jewish members of the team at the last second).
The Beckham nomination is amusing, however.Comment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
Seve Ballesteros
Viv Anderson
Basil D'Oliveira
A bit embarrassed, but I have no idea who any of these people are.Comment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
Someone who admittedly is a bit of a twat makes the case for someone forever venerated in parts of east London and the West Midlands.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/14/blackhistorymonth-equalityComment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
Not a big golf fan, eh, Inca?
And Viv Anderson played for Man Utd (a bit).
D'Oliveira was a cricketer.Comment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
Fritz Walter, maybe? Miracle of Bern and all that. Perhaps overstated somewhat, though.
Talking of which, I'm surprised no-one's mentioned Klinsmann and TEH NEW GERMANY yet.Comment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
Oh, and of course there's the fact that before Paul Gascoigne no British man EVER had ever cried in public at all before. Ever.
And before David Beckham no British man had ever been interested in clothes or vaguely but unthreateningly flirted with being a bit effeminate for a brief period before.
These men changed us As A Nation.Comment
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Sports heroes who changed the world
I realised you gave US examples. Perhaps I was taking the "changing the world" bit too seriously but my point is that there shouldn't need to be a geographical qualification to claims of changing the world.
David Beckham being treating like a rock star whether he is in Jakarta, Seoul or Los Angeles is a pretty big change in the world in my eyes. Albeit not a positive one.
Jesse Owens (and Muhammed Ali) remained mistreated by American authorities but the symbolic signifigance of his achievements were huge. It might not have achieved real change but it remains an iconic well known image of sport and wider history 72 years later.Comment
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