Who are the greatest Olympic track and field athletes ever? That was the question posed by the Times of London on the eve of the Athens Games.
We all have our favourites. For me, five men – Paavo Nurmi, Jesse Owens, Emil Zatopek, Al Oerter and Carl Lewis – jostle for the top spot. Among the women, Babe Didrikson, Fanny Blankers-Koen and Jackie Joyner-Kersee head my list.
The Times removed subjectivity from the exercise and devised a simple points formula to compile its rankings. It awarded 12 points for a gold medal, nine for a silver, seven for a bronze and progressively fewer points down to one for an eighth placing. Points gained as part of a relay team were worth half.
The results were surprising, especially among the women.
MEN
1 Carl Lewis (US) 105
2 Paavo Nurmi (Fin) 75
3 Meyer Prinstein (US) 61
4 Emil Zatopek (Czech) 60
5 James Lightbody (US) 57
6 Lasse Viren (Fin) 56
7 Ville Ritola (Fin) 54
8= Eric Lemming (US) 53
8= Martin Sheridan (US) 53
10= Robert Garrett (US) 49
10= Ralph Rose (US) 49
WOMEN
1 Merlene Ottey (Jam/Slovenia) 70
2 Jackie Joyner-Kersee (US) 63
3 Shirley Strickland (Aust) 62.5
4 Irena Szewinska (Pol) 62
5 Renate Stecher (EG) 50.5
6 Gwen Torrence (US) 47.5
7= Fanny Blankers-Koen (Holl) 47
7= Heike Drechsler (EG/Germ) 47
9 Tamara Press (USSR) 45
10= Evelyn Ashford (US) 44
10= Raelene Boyle (Aust) 44
To deal with the men first, Lewis accrued his points by winning gold medals in the long jump (four), 100m (twice), 4 x 100m relay (twice) and 200m and a silver in the 200m. Having qualified for the US Olympic team in 1980, but been denied the chance of competing by the boycott of the Moscow Games, he then produced gold medal performances in four successive Olympics. Such a record entitles him to the No 1 ranking.
Running distance events through the 1920s, Nurmi, the Flying Finn, won four golds and three silvers to earn second place and Zatopek was equally outstanding as a distance runner in 1948 and ’52, as well as running the marathon in 1956.
Some pioneering male athletes figure prominently. Meyer Prinstein ruled the long jump and triple jump at the turn of the 20th century, and also had a fifth placing in the 400m in 1904. James Lightbody, his contemporary, won gold medals in the 800m, 1500m (twice), and 3000m steeple-chase and a silver in the 800m.
Martin Sheridan was a shot put and discus specialist in the first decade of the 20th century, as was Ralph Rose. Robert Garrett, who won the shot put-discus double at the first modern Olympics, in 1896, also won medals in the high jump and long jump.
Notable male athletes not in the top 10 are Michael Johnson and Al Oerter (12th equal), Kip Keino (14th), Viktor Sanayev (15th equal), Sebastian Coe (19th), Jesse Owens (21st), Peter Snell (41st equal), Linford Christie (46th equal), Edwin Moses (55th) and Daley Thompson (64th equal). Abebe Bikila, often cited as the greatest Olympic marathon runner, won gold medals in 1960 and ’64, but his 24 points did not place him among the top 70 men.
The women’s list proves that statistics aren’t everything. Ottey never won a gold medal, but 13 times from 1980-2000 finished between second and eighth in sprints and relays to earn most points among the women. (Amazingly, she is still running and, aged 44, intends competing for Slovenia at Athens.)
However, few, even in her native Jamaica, would claim Ottey’s Olympic record matches those of Joyner-Kersee, Blankers-Koen or even hurdler-sprinter Shirley Strickland and sprinter-long jumper Irena Szewinska.
Some famous women finished well down the list. Florence Griffith Joyner scored 43.5 points for 12th, Betty Cuthbert was 13th, Marion Jones lies 14th at present, Gail Devers is 17th, Wyomia Tyus 18th, Wilma Rudolph 24th equal and Babe Didrikson only 25th equal.
It should be noted that early female stars such as Didrikson would doubtless have improved their ratings if more events had been open to women in their time.
Snell (36 points) is the only New Zealander listed. But using the Times scoring method, Murray Halberg scored 18 points, Norman Read 16, Yvette Williams 15, Jack Lovelock and Val Young 14, John Walker 13, Rod Dixon 12, Lorraine Moller 11 and Billy Savidan 10.
The Times also ranked countries. Not surprisingly, the United States was first. American athletes have scored 8111 points at the Olympics. After the US were the Soviet Union (2491), Britain (2351), Germany (1933), East Germany (1637), Finland (1319) and Sweden (1082). Australia is eighth with 892 and New Zealand 27th with 237. Countries below New Zealand include Spain, China, Argentina and Brazil.
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Talk about shoot the messenger. FINA, the world swimming body, is annoyed because Australian champion Ian Thorpe has suggested there could be swimmers who use banned drugs involved in the Athens Olympics.
Thorpe said that “it would be naive to think that everyone’s going to be clean at the Olympic Games … of course I’ve swum against doped athletes”. This was surely no more than stating the blindingly obvious, but 21-year-old Thorpe has been threatened with official sanctions. Fina said that it “regretted” Thorpe’s remarks.
“His attitude is unacceptable because he’s accusing all the swimmers picked for the Olympic Games of being doped without any proof,” a FINA statement added. Actually, Thorpe did not suggest all swimmers at Athens would be doped and he has received strong support in his stance from other leading swimmers around the world.
FINA “strongly condemned” Thorpe and accused him of bringing the sport into disrepute. FINA prefers “good news” stories.
Before this year’s Olympics, I spent hours watching the footage of previous Olympics, courtesy of Sky TV. It made for fantastic viewing. But one thing it reinforced was how dodgy was some of the drugs testing of the 1970s and 80s. East German swimmers like Kornelia Ender and Kristin Otto, although they produced marvellous times, had the sort of muscular, chiselled body shapes that male body-builders strive for.
Most swimming observers now accept that many of the champion swimmers of that era were boosted by banned drugs.
There have been enough drugs scandals in swimming over the past decade to suggest that the problem has not been eradicated.
So why blame Thorpe for pointing it out? FINA should be ashamed of itself. What a head-in-the-sand attitude.
SCORING FAST
Stephen Fleming's remarkable improvement as a one-day batsman has not received the recognition it deserves, even in New Zealand.
Just a couple of years ago, there were suggestions that Fleming might be dropped from the one-day team. The left-hander’s batting was thought to be too slow and not productive enough. He was eating up too many overs in the middle of the innings. Chris Cairns was mooted as a possible replacement captain.
No one’s making such suggestions now. In the latest world one-day rankings, Fleming is sixth, the only New Zealand batsman in the top 10.
As reader Michael Allen points out: “For about a month now Fleming has been the top run scorer in international one-day cricket for 2004. In 17 games he has scored 766 runs at an average of just over 51, with two centuries and three half-centuries. The next player on the list, Rahul Dravid, has played three more games than Fleming, but is still 49 runs behind. The eight players following these two aren’t exactly mugs with the bat either – Gilchrist, Ponting, Hayden, Tendulkar, Sarwan, Singh, Laxman and Gayle – all of whom have played either the same number of games as Fleming or more.” Allen says that Fleming’s batting helps to explain why New Zealand’s fortunes in one-day cricket have enjoyed such an upswing this year.
Not only is Fleming scoring plenty of runs, but also, having promoted himself to the opening position, he has changed the manner of his batting. He scores fast and can hit boundaries all around the paddock. Most countries like to have an opening batsman capable of tearing apart opposing attacks – Australia has Gilchrist and Hayden, India has Tendulkar and Sehwag, South Africa has Gibbs. Well, now New Zealand has Fleming.