Ganstaz003
Rookie
The most commonly held belief is that majority of the major sports, if not all of them are evolving and improving. But to me, it seems the opposite. Tennis alone is a good example of this. Whenever an all-time great reaches an old age, a young new future star with all-time great potential has ousted the older player. Case in point, a young Federer ousting Sampras and a young Sampras ousting the likes of Mcenroe. Yet, here we are, either Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic yet to be ousted by any of the younger generation of players who are yet to show any signs of all-time great potential.
In football, we've had Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo dominating the last decade. And when they were young stars, we could see they had comparable all-time great potential as the all-time greats that came before them, especially Messi in terms of technical ability who is at least comparable to the likes of Diego Maradona. They both managed to take the mantle from previous era's all-time greats like Zidane, Ronaldinho, Brazilian Ronaldo and etc. But now that Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are also old, which young players today can you say have shown signs of similar all-time great level potential as the likes of those Messi, Maradona and etc.? I can't see any player today with such a level of technical ability that is comparable. Even Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo dominated in a relatively weak era compared to the era that came before them. They were the only two stand-out players, compared to the rest. But in the era before them, there were multiple players who were on the level of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, and some even arguably better like as I mentioned already, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldinho, Brazilian Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Kaka, Diego Maradona, Roberto Baggio, Romario and etc. Football was arguably at its peak from 1986-2006 or during 1990-2006 period. After that, the quality of football started declining gradually, especially defensively. Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo may have stacked some of the greatest goal-scoring records in history, particularly at club level, we have to also take into consideration that they also played in one of the weakest defensive eras ever, statistically speaking and according to the eye-test. So if you consider context, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's goal-scoring records don't seem as impressive as they do without the context. At international level, the number of goals conceded per game in the 2000's and in the 90's were lower and even more so in the 80's Serie A (the best league ever at that time).
Also, if you look at the high-jump record, which is 2.45m, set in 1993 by Javier Sotomayor of Cuba. This record still stands till today and has stood the test of time since. So if athletes were improving as much as we're led to believe, this record would have been smashed already. So maybe athletes have started plateauing perhaps?
Alexander Karelin's record in wrestling is still the greatest in the history of Greco-Roman wrestling.
In snooker, Ronnie O'Sullivan at age 45 is still the best player ever and is still yet to be surpassed by any of the youngsters and Ronnie himself is no longer in his prime. He was in his prime over a decade ago but still managed to win the world championship at age 44 without even being in his prime.
Even Usain Bolt's 100m world-record may not stand if he competed in previous eras without modern day tracks and surfaces, which arguably made him faster than past sprinters who sprinted in more primitive surfaces and tracks. So if Bolt were to sprint in an even playing field, past sprinters may have equaled or even surpassed Bolt.
Boxing is another example, where the peak was in the Mayweather-Pacquiao era. Now we have a 40 year old Pacquiao still beating the top 3 boxers of his division, when historically, boxers have always either lost or have retired by that stage. And nobody since, have shown the talent and all-time great level skills as these two to take the mantle from them, except Vasyl Lomachenko who is the only one with the once in a generation level talent. If we look at the other divisions, like the heavyweight division, nobody has so far shown the potential to surpass Wladimir Klitschko's records. Only Usyk (like Lomachenko) and maybe Tyson Fury have shown once in a generation level talent and skills.
And the list goes on....
I could keep going, but hopefully the point has been driven home for everyone reading!
Despite what we're led to believe by so called experts and pundits, it appears upon thorough and deeper investigation, that the reverse is true, that instead of athletes and sports improving in quality each passing generation, they are remaining stale or even becoming worse.
If you have other examples that you want to share to add to what I've already provided, then feel free to do so.
In football, we've had Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo dominating the last decade. And when they were young stars, we could see they had comparable all-time great potential as the all-time greats that came before them, especially Messi in terms of technical ability who is at least comparable to the likes of Diego Maradona. They both managed to take the mantle from previous era's all-time greats like Zidane, Ronaldinho, Brazilian Ronaldo and etc. But now that Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are also old, which young players today can you say have shown signs of similar all-time great level potential as the likes of those Messi, Maradona and etc.? I can't see any player today with such a level of technical ability that is comparable. Even Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo dominated in a relatively weak era compared to the era that came before them. They were the only two stand-out players, compared to the rest. But in the era before them, there were multiple players who were on the level of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, and some even arguably better like as I mentioned already, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldinho, Brazilian Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Kaka, Diego Maradona, Roberto Baggio, Romario and etc. Football was arguably at its peak from 1986-2006 or during 1990-2006 period. After that, the quality of football started declining gradually, especially defensively. Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo may have stacked some of the greatest goal-scoring records in history, particularly at club level, we have to also take into consideration that they also played in one of the weakest defensive eras ever, statistically speaking and according to the eye-test. So if you consider context, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's goal-scoring records don't seem as impressive as they do without the context. At international level, the number of goals conceded per game in the 2000's and in the 90's were lower and even more so in the 80's Serie A (the best league ever at that time).
Also, if you look at the high-jump record, which is 2.45m, set in 1993 by Javier Sotomayor of Cuba. This record still stands till today and has stood the test of time since. So if athletes were improving as much as we're led to believe, this record would have been smashed already. So maybe athletes have started plateauing perhaps?
Alexander Karelin's record in wrestling is still the greatest in the history of Greco-Roman wrestling.
In snooker, Ronnie O'Sullivan at age 45 is still the best player ever and is still yet to be surpassed by any of the youngsters and Ronnie himself is no longer in his prime. He was in his prime over a decade ago but still managed to win the world championship at age 44 without even being in his prime.
Even Usain Bolt's 100m world-record may not stand if he competed in previous eras without modern day tracks and surfaces, which arguably made him faster than past sprinters who sprinted in more primitive surfaces and tracks. So if Bolt were to sprint in an even playing field, past sprinters may have equaled or even surpassed Bolt.
Boxing is another example, where the peak was in the Mayweather-Pacquiao era. Now we have a 40 year old Pacquiao still beating the top 3 boxers of his division, when historically, boxers have always either lost or have retired by that stage. And nobody since, have shown the talent and all-time great level skills as these two to take the mantle from them, except Vasyl Lomachenko who is the only one with the once in a generation level talent. If we look at the other divisions, like the heavyweight division, nobody has so far shown the potential to surpass Wladimir Klitschko's records. Only Usyk (like Lomachenko) and maybe Tyson Fury have shown once in a generation level talent and skills.
And the list goes on....
I could keep going, but hopefully the point has been driven home for everyone reading!
Despite what we're led to believe by so called experts and pundits, it appears upon thorough and deeper investigation, that the reverse is true, that instead of athletes and sports improving in quality each passing generation, they are remaining stale or even becoming worse.
If you have other examples that you want to share to add to what I've already provided, then feel free to do so.
