Sports heroes who changed the world

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Sports heroes who changed the world

Inca, I'm not surprised you'd never heard of D'Oliveira or Anderson, but Seve? Come off it, he was the world's number one or number two golfer for pretty much the whole of the 1980s, and he even won 'your' US Masters twice. That's like saying you've never heard of Ivan Lendl.

E10 has, in his disdain, actually nailed Beckham. Beckham has transcended just being a sports figure, and his main contribution probably has been being the poster boy for the 2000s decade of male "metrosexuals". It's cool to use skincare products and worry about hairstyles, boys, David does!

[ad hoc]

Sports heroes who changed the world

Nadia Comaneci

[Incandenza]

Sports heroes who changed the world

Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote:

Inca, I'm not surprised you'd never heard of D'Oliveira or Anderson, but Seve? Come off it, he was the world's number one or number two golfer for pretty much the whole of the 1980s, and he even won 'your' US Masters twice. That's like saying you've never heard of Ivan Lendl.

1) I'm sorry I don't know the name of a golfer that was winning while I was in elementary school. I can assure you that I wouldn't be able to name any Americans that won the Masters in the 1980s. Jack Nicklaus?

2) I care about tennis, so I know who Ivan Lendl is, but only because I read back into the history a bit when I became interested in tennis. I'm not interested in golf, so I really don't care who was good in the 1980s. Any knowledge I possess of today's golfers is mostly inadvertent--something I saw on ESPN because I was too lazy to change the channel, or if someone I'm with is watching it.

[NHH]

Sports heroes who changed the world

I'm sure UA is right about Owens' negligable impact on the US and would put Jackie Robinson and Ali as streets ahead (the former was Viv Anderson on steroids, culturally speaking for doing what he did in a place he wasn't supposed to be doing it) and the latter for using sport outside the confines in which people (the Brundages of this world, or their Bill Daly modern-day incarnations).

I think Owens' impact is in retrospect; the entire idea of racial superiority is dismissed by reference to his name, and the power of sport to prick the delusions of those who have wished to sue sport to demonstrate them is now commonly understood.

The real fact it seems to me is that sports figures can't and don't change the world much, (not least because they don't aspire to) any more than George Clooney or Madonna can. Culutrual policts are interesting, and can be part of a wider change, but enarly all the time, it's real politicians, real economic powers, real bureaucrats who change the world. Everytime someone -usually some breathless dickhead at the Observer - does a 'most influential people in the UK now' they usually include someone like Beckham which is just fucking cretinous to the point of wanting to bang your head against a wall until you turn into a neaderthal.

A sportsman or woman can be a symbol and in so doing reinforce a social trend or change; their bravery can give courage to others but unless there are others out there needing a lead, it's rarely of any use.

[E10 Rifle]

Sports heroes who changed the world

Yeah it's the same with the argument about the alleged 'power' of music. Sport, like music, reflects the world; it hardly ever changes it.

[Wyatt Earp]

Sports heroes who changed the world

NHH wrote:

... to bang your head against a wall until you turn into a neaderthal.

I hope you realise the iron self-control with which I'm (almost) curbing my evo-pedantry at the moment.

[Wyatt Earp]

Sports heroes who changed the world

ursus arctos wrote:

D'Oliveira was a cricketer.

Inca: Basil D'Oliveira is a "coloured" (that is, mixed-race) South African, in his day a batsman of great talent, who, having hit the Apartheid glass ceiling at home, was assisted by sympathetic parties to come to England, where he played county cricket and (later, once he'd fulfilled the residence requirements) international cricket for England.

During the 68-69 Southern Hemisphere season, England were due to tour South Africa, and the in-form D'Oliveira would ordinarily have been an obvious choice. But it was of course known that the SA National Party government, led by John Vorster, would have big problems with that, so the selectors (some of whom had strong right-wing leanings) leant over backwards to to leave him out.

Eventually, injuries to other players and a public focus on the story conspired to make this impossible, and he was picked for the tour. (It later transpired that he'd been offered fifty grand by the SA govt to make himself unavailable, and had turned it down.)

At this point, Vorster stepped in and unilaterally cancelled the tour, making a speech in Parliament calling the England team "the team of the Anti-Apartheid Movement and not the MCC" (or some such).

The cricket authorities in England were thus forced, seemingly with extreme reluctance, to make a stand on the principle that foreign governments couldn't be allowed to pick the England team (although this was precisely what they'd been allowing to happen on the quiet).

It was out of these events that the whole idea of a sports boycott of South Africa grew. It had probably been a twinkle in the eye of the Left for a while, but Vorster's high-handedness, combined with the popularity of the modest, likeable D'Oliveira, made it an issue for ordinary people for the first time: you didn't have to be a politicised anti-racist, you just had to think SA should play whoever the hell we sent to play them.

Without the D'Oliveira Affair, things might have come to a head in another way, but D'Oliveira was, as things worked out, the ideal guy, combining as he did a quiet and modest demeanour with a steely inner strength and an utter refusal to be bought off. (Very good batsman, as well.)

Without the sports boycott, who knows how things would have gone in SA? Opinions vary. But there's a case to be made that D'Oliveira actually contributed materially to the dismantling of a racist regime, and there are few sporting figures you can say that of.

[E10 Rifle]

Sports heroes who changed the world

I think you've practically won the thread with that post, Wyatt.

[Incandenza]

Sports heroes who changed the world

Yes, thanks for that. Miles better than what's on Wikipedia.

[Andy C]

Sports heroes who changed the world

Arthur Ashe actively and significantly contributed to a radical change of public attitude towards AIDS and sufferers of the disease.

[Incandenza]

Sports heroes who changed the world

Perhaps worldwide, though in the US, Ashe's announcement that he had AIDS wasn't as significant as Magic Johnson's announcement that he had HIV and retirement the year before. Still, Ashe is a hero, and here at UCLA is held as one of our most honorable alumni.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Sports heroes who changed the world

Inca wrote:

I care about tennis, so I know who Ivan Lendl is, but only because I read back into the history a bit when I became interested in tennis. I'm not interested in golf, so I really don't care who was good in the 1980s.

Fair enough, I'm sorry if you thought I was disparaging you in any way, it's just Seve was definitely my childhood hero and it makes me feel sad (and old) that anyone logging on to a board called "sport" would never have heard of him.

My fascination with the sports I love is reading into the back histories of them - I probably know more about golf and football in the 1980s than I do about today's - and I'm often amazed that other people aren't as interested in sports history as I am.

Still, on better news, everyone, Seve's apparently conscious and joking after his brain operation.

[Wyatt Earp]

Sports heroes who changed the world

Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote:

Fair enough, I'm sorry if you thought I was disparaging you in any way, it's just Seve was definitely my childhood hero and it makes me feel sad (and old) that anyone logging on to a board called "sport" would never have heard of him.

A lot of people have no interest in golf, Rogin. We may be wrong, but we are many. You must surely have developed ways of coping with that fact. Much as it may vex you, it can surely no longer surprise you.

I've heard of Seve, mind, partly because being alive and in Europe at the time you kind of just did, and partly because I'm a big Hispanophile, and was interested in the story of the local lad sneaking rounds on the tourist courses (have I got that right?). But I don't know anything about what tournaments he won or anything.

[meregreen]

Sports heroes who changed the world

E10 Rifle wrote:

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.

I think you underestimate the impact of Gascoigne. Aside from his tears, he was the most visible and talented figure in a team that managed to change perceptions of football within England at a time when the sport appeared to be self-destructing.

The significance of the 1990 World Cup in terms of football mutating from a sport followed by a loyal but gradually diminishing band of devotees into the hideous bloated wankfest that dominates the sporting and often the cultural landscape, should not be overlooked.

Perhaps worldwide, though in the US, Ashe's announcement that he had AIDS wasn't as significant as Magic Johnson's announcement that he had HIV and retirement the year before.

Wasn't the difference between Arthur Ashe and Magic Johnson, that one had 'good AIDS' and the other 'bad AIDS' (copyright: Chris Morris) and therefore Ashe elicited the more sympathy which translated into greater acceptance of the disease?

[evilC]

Sports heroes who changed the world

Okay, he may not be a sportsman in the strictest sense of the word and he may not have changed THE world, but he has changed the personal worlds of alot of people and that makes him, for me, as close to a sporting 'hero' as I am ever likely to get. This is also probably the only thread in which I might get to mention him, so...:

Valentin Dikul.

Another article.

(Some of you may have seen the documentary about him and his clinics, some years back on Channel 4.)

He's helped hundreds - if not thousands - of people around the world walk again or regain mobility after becoming paralysed in some way. He refused to 'sell out' by doing TV stuff, instead just carrying on his circus routines and setting a few weightlifting records at the same time. He relies on donations to keep his clinics going, I believe

Now for the 'freaky stuff' - some videos:

A 450kg squat whilst not exactly being young. He looks like Robert Wyatt's superhero alter-ego, in fact!

catching huge metal balls on the back of his neck, amongst other neat juggling tricks. (I think those balls are about 10 stone, but I can't listen to the sound at work.)

Flipping 180lb kettlebells around with one hand.

Also, one of his old party tricks was to bend coins (such as the old 50p) in half between his forefinger and thumb!

Not bad for a bloke who broke his back and was paralysed from the waist down for several years!

[The Purple Cow]

Sports heroes who changed the world

You could make an argument for saying that if any one man brought down apartheid, it was Basil D'Oliveira.

[Etienne]

Sports heroes who changed the world

On the day that he broke Brian Lara's run-scoring record, possible nomination for Sachin Tendulkar?

Admittedly his impact outside India is neglible, but hey, there are over 1 billion people in India.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Sports heroes who changed the world

Even though no-one could claim Tendulkar's achievement is worthy of mention much outside of the world of cricket, the fact that he is now a world record holder in a sport that is worshipped in places like England and Australia is significant. As you say, India now has a geniune world all-time number one in sports that other countries care about, and that must be something for a country that makes up 1/6th of the world's population which hardly ever wins Olympic medals.

[Etienne]

Sports heroes who changed the world

Yeah, if I was going to do a pop-sociological analysis just to annoy E10, I'd suggest that Tendulkar's achievements, and superstar status has been a major part in leading to the self-confidence of not just the Indian cricket administrators in their annexation of power from Lords, but also the booming sectors of the Bangalore and Mumbai economies.

[NHH]

Sports heroes who changed the world

This is a sad story of someone who took a stand.

[Wyatt Earp]

Sports heroes who changed the world

I was very struck by his absence from the memorial statue sculpture thing, when this story was on TV. Seemed really unfair.

[ursus arctos]

Sports heroes who changed the world

It is quite bizarre.

I've never seen the statue before (it's been more than 20 years since I was last on the SJSU campus), but one thing that struck me immediately is that the "empty space" is in the wrong position. Smith and Carlos were next to each other on the podium.

[Incandenza]

Sports heroes who changed the world

From Dave Zirin's column on Norman's passing:

Norman never strayed from a life of humility. When a sculpture was unveiled of Smith and Carlos last year in California, Norman was left off, the silver medal platform purposely vacant so others could stand in his place. Smith and Carlos protested it, feeling it fed the false idea of Norman as political bystander. But Norman himself who travelled from Australia to California for the unveiling said, “I love that idea. Anybody can get up there and stand up for something they believe in. I guess that just about says it all.”

Norman didn’t define himself by self-promotion, book deals, or the lecture circuit — only by the quiet pride that he was a part of a movement much bigger than himself. By happily surrendering his personal glory to the greater good, Norman earned the love and respect of his peers.

As Carlos said about the sudden passing of the man his children called Uncle Pete, “Peter was a piece of my life. When I got the call, it knocked the wind out of me. I was his brother. He was my brother. That’s all you have to know.”

[Mr Beast]

Sports heroes who changed the world

Nice comment from someone on the BBC blog who doesn't even have the guts to say "I'm a racist"

The Australian government gave Norman the world platform for athletic performance, not political statements. The black power salute is a socialist symbol. The two largest socialist countries in the world (China & Russia) have a terrible record of treating minorities. All three of those athletes in the photo should be ashamed of themselves.
Ryan Nichols, Fairfax, Virginia, United States