Is Roger Federer the greatest Sportsman of all time?

[Deleted member 756486]

That’s great and all but he’s not an athlete.

Definition of athlete taken from Oxford dictionary:
A person who is proficient in sports and other forms of physical exercise.


And just to be clear, here’s the definition of sport:

an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.

Darts is NOT a sport and Phil Taylor is NOT an athlete.

 

[TMF]

A good comparison for Phil Taylor is Ronnie O'Sullivan. Both are great at their game but Ronnie impresses me more.

 

[buscemi]

Jack Nicklaus. Won a record 18 Major championships, had at least a top 10 finish at a Major from 1960-1983, won his last Major at 46. Does a lot of charity work. Was given a Congressional Gold Medal "in recognition of his service to the nation in promoting excellence and good sportsmanship."

 

[Zetty]

 

[Hardcourter]

Wayne Gretzky could be a popular candidate too. The guy owns over 60 NHL records and tbh no one in the history comes close to how much this man dominated the league. Yeah the quality of hockey wasn't as high then as it is now but regardless, Wayne was lapping pretty much everyone in both stats and accolades.

Aaagh, you must be canadien, right? Only canadiens can be fooled with "minor" sport like hockey where we have like 6 countries In world who play the game seriously enough to have great players. But yea the Great One #99 is and Will be for ever GOAT In hockey..

Ps. I know what Im taking bout cause Im a finn

 

[Phoenix1983]

Wrong. And I've called you out on this nonsense multiple times previously.

Eric Murray and Hamish Bond have a 100% win rate in every event they ever entered across multiple Olympic cycles. No-one has even beaten to the finish line in a heat where multiple boats qualify for the finals and coming first isn't required. They're that dominant.

And there are other examples of more dominant sportspeople/teams than Taylor.

Also, darts is a game, not a sport.

 

[clout]

Aaagh, you must be canadien, right? Only canadiens can be fooled with "minor" sport like hockey where we have like 6 countries In world who play the game seriously enough to have great players. But yea the Great One #99 is and Will be for ever GOAT In hockey..

Ps. I know what Im taking bout cause Im a finn

Lol yes I am but to be fair, what other athlete has dominated their sport as much as the great one has. I'm not saying he is the GOAT of GOATs but he's got to be a candidate given his achievements, no?

If worldwide popularity was the end all be all for this debate then that'd automatically make the futbol GOAT the GOAT athlete due to its popularity? Like maybe a Messi, Ronaldo or Pele, etc.

 

[Red Rick]

I very strongly dislike the term 'greatest sportsman of all time' in the first place.

 

[Bobby Jr]

Phil Taylor's competition was constant, and professional, over decades. Responding to adversity is also a huge positive for Taylor, too. There were loads of occasions where he just blitzed other players, but also occasions when he had to dig deep on a bad day by his standards and won...

You came out, like you usually do, with:

"The sportsperson with the greatest dominance and best winning mentality is the darts player Phil Taylor." - no mention of the time factor and empirically wrong on almost any level.

"Taylor's dominance dwarfs Federer's." - but not Hamish Bond and Eric Murray's. Not even close.

"Taylor does not have a losing head-to-head against any player he has met at least twice" - Bond/Murray go one better. They don't have a losing record against any team at any point regardless of how many times they've faced off. They haven't even lost a heat.

"...in a career of 30 years." - ok.. now you introduce this clever detail which disqualifies competitors in effectively every single sport because there are so few, if any, where a 30 year career is remotely possible. And the activities in which it is possible are mostly not sports by most people's view.

 

[Doctor/Lawyer Red Devil]

I want Messi and Ronaldo bandwagons here since this thread isn't ending well anyway.

 

[Deleted member 756486]

I want Messi and Ronaldo bandwagons here since this thread isn't ending well anyway.

Messi is epic.

Ronaldo is stunning.

 

[Poisoned Slice]

 

[Deleted member 756486]

 

[Poisoned Slice]

He is the one.

 

[Uncle Ebeneezer]

Serena Williams: Tends to make up excuses as to why she loses, and threatened to KILL A LINESWOMAN. Oh sorry, only said “I’m going to shove a ball down your throat.” But yea, it’s not like a ball larger than your windpipe is going to kill someone if you lodge it there, right?

Focussing on this single event (because, of course), framing in the way you have and then typing it in ALL CAPS doesn't make you look racist at all !! Go read up on Misogynoir and stop being so obvious

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Let's see if he ends up statistically as the greatest in his own sport first.

 

[Gary Duane]

People talk a lot about the Greatest Athletes of all time in every sport, and there always seems to be a select few in every sport that people talk about the most. In our sport of tennis, people talk about Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Sampras, and a few others here and there. But out of these 4, Federer is the GOAT, the slam count proves it.

And other sports have the same thing. In soccer (football), they have Pele/Maradona (too close to call), golf has Tiger Woods, Basketball: Jordan, Swimming: Phelps, you get it.

But out of the numerous greatest athletes of each individual sport, we cannot (for obvious reasons) reach a consensus to who was greater. Was Federer greater than Jordan? Was Woods greater than Babe Ruth for example? We cannot come to any of these conclusions, because they all play different sports and have made different legacies for themselves. They all changed their own sport.

What does a Sportsman mean though? The definition is hazy but in a nutshell, it is a person who can take a loss and congratulate his opponent who was victorious with praise and take his loss with good humor and admit his defeat. A sportsman is also somebody who doesn’t divulge into troublesome activities, such as drugs, or arrests.

And that definition has led me to believe that Roger Federer is the Greatest Sportsman of all time.

Let’s see how other contenders fair, shall we?

Maradona: Caught with cocaine in his system during a World Cup match, drug addict.

Tiger Woods: Dishonest during his marriage (cheated on his wife), arrested for having drugs in his system during driving.

Michael Phelps: Arrested twice during illustrious swimming career, stripped of sponsorships after caught smoking illegal substance.

Pele: Falsely claimed HIMSELF to have scored of 1000 OFFICIAL GOALS, was proven to be lying, scored 700, which was below a few select footballers. Sued Samsung and lost as his lawsuit was seen as ridiculous.

Michael Jordan: Legitimately a contender, but had a big fight with Reggie Miller and was accused of numerous intimidation tactics during his playing days.

Serena Williams: Tends to make up excuses as to why she loses, and threatened to KILL A LINESWOMAN. Oh sorry, only said “I’m going to shove a ball down your throat.” But yea, it’s not like a ball larger than your windpipe is going to kill someone if you lodge it there, right?

Roger Federer:.............. nothing. He’s never cheated on Mirka, he’s never done drugs that enhanced his game, he’s never been a sore loser, no arrests, no off court issues, great model for young kids, sponsors foundations to help children all around the world, there is really nothing.

Roger Federer is The Greatest Sportsman of All Time.

NO! A THOUSAND TIMES NO!!!!!!!!!!!

This asinine necessity to elevate just one person above all others is pathetic.

Although I would probably not put anyone else above him.

It's like the GOAT thing. Just a million kinds of stupid.

 

[merwy]

I love Fed but that’s a straight up lie. Watch this:

“He hits a lucky shot”

Funnily enough, Djokovic won a similar point to that today..

Low point in his career

 

[ForumMember]

Surely a person with losing record against both of his mail rivals is Greatest ever.

 

[Azure]

Nope. He is not that much better than the others. He is a very great player and an outstanding sportsman.

 

[zep]

Low point in his career

I actually find that milder than what he said after losing to Nadal at the French Open final that year. Djokovic was indeed a little bit lucky at US Open 2011, of course he had the skills to pull it off but on another day it could have easily sailed long or wide. Even for Djokovic the chances of pulling off a return like that were probably not higher than 50%. So technically Federer wasn't completely wrong there, although you're not supposed to say that after losing a match. But this is what Federer said after the French Open final in 2011. If this was said by Djokovic or Nadal after losing to Federer in a slam final, media would have instantly branded them as sore losers and created a huge sh1tstorm, but Federer friendly media largely ignored it.

"It's always me who's going to dictate play and decide how the outcome is going to be," Federer said. "If I play well, I will most likely win; if I'm not playing so well, that's when he wins."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/t...ndestructible-nemesis-that-is-Rafa-Nadal.html

 

[ChrisRF]

I agree with most points of the opening post, but one shouldn’t be included in any way, namely the „cheating on wife“ thing. That is entirely private and doesn’t have anything to do with being a good or bad sportsman. I couldn’t care less if Federer or Djokovic “cheat” on their wives or if they have another girl every other weekend. In fact, we can never know it, because someone gets “caught” and another one not. But it’s irrelevant anyway, because it’s their game and their fairness (or not) on court which interest me, not totally legal off-court behaviour/lifestyle. (Of course it would be different if anyone would be a rapist or something.)

That said, I never even knew why I myself should “cheat” in such a way and had no such intentions. But on the other hand I also never understood why of all things having sex with another person even is THE big thing called “cheating”, but that is a totally different topic. I mean, if no feelings are involved and if sexual diseases are prevented, is it really the #1 offense? Talking about the partner and telling other persons very private things about him/her without permission would be much more “cheating” IMO.

But no, all the time almost everything in a relationship is about having sex. It seems to be THAT big that you even have it in one row with real crimes as a reason why a sportsperson shouldn’t have fans, and that says a lot.

By the way, many relationships between two prominent persons are a big joke anyway. Or is it really a relationship when either both are in different professions all around the world and see each other a few weeks a year? Or if someone has new relationships every two years, is it really “love” then every time? IMO it is a publicity stunt quite often, and both know from the beginning that they won’t get old together.

However there are exceptions, and Federer/Mirka surely is one of them. So those who say he is lucky with Mirka are right, but only because of his “image”. Of course out of the millions of women who admire him, he could always find many who are as supportive as Mirka. His luck was that his first girlfriend was like that and he didn’t have to change. That’s why he’s considered to be the perfect boyfriend/husband by those who care about such things.

 

[Deleted member 756486]

Low point in his career

Yeah not not great. Choked a two set lead to Tsonga at Wimbledon and then that..

 

[Red Rick]

NO! A THOUSAND TIMES NO!!!!!!!!!!!

This asinine necessity to elevate just one person above all others is pathetic.

Although I would probably not put anyone else above him.

It's like the GOAT thing. Just a million kinds of stupid.

Pure, unblemished arrogance, which in term comes from incredibly fragile ego's of fans who can't accept anything less than worshiping the ultimate athlete who has no vices and is the epitome of the concept of virtue himself.

 

[Terry Tibbs]

If by 2025 Nadal and/or Djokovic have surpassed his Grand Slam record, he will not be considered the best tennis player/sportsman of all time. So we have to wait until 2025 to know the answer to your question.

This is just like saying we need to wait another 200 yrs because by that point somebody may come along and win 30 slams!

 

[Mustard]

You came out, like you usually do, with:

"The sportsperson with the greatest dominance and best winning mentality is the darts player Phil Taylor." - no mention of the time factor and empirically wrong on almost any level.

"Taylor's dominance dwarfs Federer's." - but not Hamish Bond and Eric Murray's. Not even close.

Who are their rivals? How often did they compete, and for how long? Is their sport professional?

"...in a career of 30 years."

- ok.. now you introduce this clever detail which disqualifies competitors in effectively every single sport because there are so few, if any, where a 30 year career is remotely possible. And the activities in which it is possible are mostly not sports by most people's view.

Not at all, try 10 years even.

 

[MatsPhilander]

Wooooo!

 

[Red Rick]

That’s great and all but he’s not an athlete.

Definition of athlete taken from Oxford dictionary:
A person who is proficient in sports and other forms of physical exercise.


And just to be clear, here’s the definition of sport:

an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.

Darts is NOT a sport and Phil Taylor is NOT an athlete.

Ffs people who consider darts a sport and Phil Taylor an athlete need to be lined up and you know what

I'd rather suck Roger's Fedr than call the likes of Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen athletes

 

[Deleted member 743561]

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