Hall of Fame 2016 Final

First topic message reminder :

After a long Christmas period, the 2016 Hall of Fame is ready and the combatants have been selected.

The poll will be open until Monday 11th when the winner will join Mohammed Ali in the v2 Hall of Fame.

This year, the final six contestants come from a wide range of sports including football, tennis, boxing, cricket, golf, athletics and surprisingly, Ice Hockey.

Make sure to vote for your favourite two and thank you all for partaking in this years vote.

The finalists are:

Sugar Ray Robinson
Jack Nicklaus
Wayne Gretzky
Pele
Roger Federer
Tiger Woods
Don Bradman
Usain Bolt

I'm sure that Gareth Barry / Phil Neville type footballers would have enjoyed greater success at other sports. These are great natural sportsmen who have played at the highest level of the game and achieved a lot, but are never mentioned in GOAT type conversations.

If Phil Neville had chosen cricket he might have been a mainstay opening the batting for England instead of a bit part player on the fringe of England football squads. And if he'd chosen an even smaller sport like table tennis, ice skating or ice hockey he could have been the greatest athlete in the sport's history.

I'm not getting your argument, ray?

I can see why some might discredit Redgrave for being a rower, as rowing isn't your average jo does, but Ice Hockey in Canada? Ice Hockey might not be big in England but it is in a few countries, and more importantly countries with large populations.

On a first quick reading I thought Ray's post was a call for Gareth Batty to be the GOAT. I'm sure that would have attracted a few votes from some of the Surrey mafia!

guildfordbat wrote:On a first quick reading I thought Ray's post was a call for Gareth Batty to be the GOAT. I'm sure that would have attracted a few votes from some of the Surrey mafia!

Must admit I was diverted by the thought of Phil Neville on ice showing his prowess as greatest athlete of all time.

I like how this was decided by how many posters v2 has on its tennis forums. It's how Judy Murray got so far in Strictly, all the Scots voting for her. I would have had Fed below all but one of that list.

legendkillarV2 wrote:

Right back at you. You know Judy Murray didn't deserve to get that far.

Azzy wrote:

legendkillarV2 wrote:

Right back at you. You know Judy Murray didn't deserve to get that far.

That makes the English right Handshufflers for keeping Widdicombe and Sargent in...

Old people did that. One downside to an aging population.

I've gone for Bolt
Sport in its purest form.
Fast

Well, Federer just added another slam to his collection. 6 months out with injury and knee surgery, first tournament back, beats four of the World's top ten including his nemesis Rafa to win the Australian Open.

I think his case just got a whole lot stronger.

Bolt isn't even the best ever athlete so shouldn't be on a Greatest ever sportspeople list.