I’ve decided against doing a Rio Gymnastics summary. Instead, I wanted to have a look at the stats of the sprinters who dipped below the 10 seconds barrier for the 100 meters dash and to see who did it the most times. Continue reading
The track & field rankings of Rio 2016 provided more of a challenge than the swimming ones. The number of medals is irrelevant, because how can you compare a sprinter who can win 3 medals to a pole vaulter who is restricted to winning a single medal? I decided to try and compare the relative greatness of the athletes’ performances. Yeah, I know, it’s ambiguous as fuck, but still – subjective rankings are fun to do. Much more than objective ones.
Well, after ranking the women’s WR’s it’s only logical we do the same for the men’s WR’s. The ranking is done the same way, from the record most susceptible to being broken to the most resilient record, the unlikeliest to be broken. Continue reading
Well, this is something that I first started thinking about yeeeeears ago. I reckon it all started back in Sydney 2000, when Maurice Greene and Marion Jones were kings of the sprint, and I thought to myself – “hey, they’re both American, handsome, competing in the same events (and owning them), and very similar in age (Greene was born in 74, Jones in 75) – why don’t they hook up and have awesome children with the perfect gene pool to become the next greatest sprinters?”. Well, the trouble was that Marion was already married back then, to shot putter C. J. Hunter. Later, in 2002, they divorced – and Marion married an actual sprinter – Tim Montgomery, but it wasn’t the same – I mean, isn’t it obvious that Maurice and Marion make a much better couple?! Jesus, they were meant to be together. Continue reading
As I was sitting and compiling these lists and summaries, I received another confirmation to what I was feeling during the Championship itself – that this is the best World Championship in terms of results of the last few. So many simply superb performances! AND a WR, something we didn’t get in Moscow, for example. I don’t want to state that it was the best Championship since 2009 or since 2005 or whatever because I need to refresh my memories from those Worlds and I don’t want to state things that I might regret later on, but yeah – this Championship was great. And so we begin the journey through the top 10 greatest male athletes of Beijing 2015. But first… Continue reading
The World Championships in Athletics are a huge celebration for track & field fans. I’ve been watching them regularly since Athens 1997, when my dad first encouraged me to join him. I was 10 years old, and for some reason, the athletes I remember best from that championship are Moses Kiptanui, Michael Johnson, Wilson Kipketer and Noureddine Morceli, despite the fact that Kiptanui didn’t win gold and Morceli didn’t win any medal at all. Well, mind, mysterious ways and all that, you know.
Anyway, since then I’ve committed myself to watching it every two years. And we’re very lucky that the championships are being held every two years, because the first three were held every 4 years – 1983, 1987, 1991. And why didn’t they think of starting this thing earlier?! Continue reading
Michael's Sports Statistics 