Dramatic Arrivals on World Sporting Stage

Many of sports all time greats built their reputations through consistency and longetivity - but every now and then
someone comes along and on a world stage suddenly becomes a household name - On occasions these may be players or competitors who have been flagged as emerging talents or future greats by followers of that particular sport but then in one moment or one competition they are propelled to being a global star in a a manner that makes us think that a new era beckons:

Clearly there are many more - before my time (foreman v Frazier being one that springs to mind)
but here are a few from the "colour TV" era

• Tiger Woods wins the 1997 US masters by 12 strokes with a record score at just 21 years of age
• Shane Warne’s ball of the century – 1993 Ashes Bowls Mike Gatting with his first ball in Ashes cricket
• Usain Bolt – Bejing Olympics 2008- smashing the 100m and 200m world records (and the 4x100)
• Seve Ballesteros wins the 1979 Open championship via a car park on the 16th
• Mike Tyson – June 1988 – Knocks out Michael Spinks in 90 seconds.
• Jonah Lomu – 1995 world Cup – Scores 4 tries versus England including running through Mike catt
• Michael Phelps (8 medals (incl 6 Gold) at the 2004 Athens Olympics
• Hicham El Guerrouj 1996 – Milan – Morecellis first defeat over 1500m El Guerroj goes on to win the next 4 WC plus 3 olympic golds.
• Kenessa Bakele – Paris 2003 – Takes over from Gebreselassie as long distance king.
• Diego Maradona – 1986 World Cup
• Michael Johnson – Double Gold Atlanta –(1996) and world record in 200m

OMAR wrote:
Many of sports all time greats built their reputations through consistency and longetivity - but every now and then
someone comes along and on a world stage suddenly becomes a household name - On occasions these may be players or competitors who have been flagged as emerging talents or future greats by followers of that particular sport but then in one moment or one competition they are propelled to being a global star in a a manner that makes us think that a new era beckons:

Clearly there are many more - before my time (foreman v Frazier being one that springs to mind)
but here are a few from the "colour TV" era

• Tiger Woods wins the 1997 US masters by 12 strokes with a record score at just 21 years of age
• Shane Warne’s ball of the century – 1993 Ashes Bowls Mike Gatting with his first ball in Ashes cricket
• Usain Bolt – Bejing Olympics 2008- smashing the 100m and 200m world records (and the 4x100)
• Seve Ballesteros wins the 1979 Open championship via a car park on the 16th
• Mike Tyson – June 1988 – Knocks out Michael Spinks in 90 seconds.
• Jonah Lomu – 1995 world Cup – Scores 4 tries versus England including running through Mike catt
• Michael Phelps (8 medals (incl 6 Gold) at the 2004 Athens Olympics
• Hicham El Guerrouj 1996 – Milan – Morecellis first defeat over 1500m El Guerroj goes on to win the next 4 WC plus 3 olympic golds.
• Kenessa Bakele – Paris 2003 – Takes over from Gebreselassie as long distance king.
• Diego Maradona – 1986 World Cup
• Michael Johnson – Double Gold Atlanta –(1996) and world record in 200m

Warne, Bolt, Tiger, Lomu, Seve all good shouts Omar, although Tyson, Phelps, Maradona and Johnson were all major cross-sport stars before those feats.

Hard to add much the first few, although I would suggest:

Boris Becker winning Wimbledon as an unseeded 17 year old.

Ian Thorpe demolishing the field at the 1998 swimming world championships as a 15 year old was probably more of an arrival than Phelps in Beijing, given that Phelps already had half a dozen gold medals by that stage.

Cassius Clay upsetting Sonny Liston to win the World Heavyweight title in 1964.

Jonathan Edwards twice obliteraing the triple jump WR in successive jumps in the World Championships in Gothenburg.

Florence-Griffith Joyner knocking 0.3 of a second off the women's 100m world record in the Seoul Olympics (admittedly this did not herald the period of dominance people expected).

True enough TC - I suppose where I was coming from was had the worlds perception of the person changed materialy even if they knew about him before hand.

Tyson - Yes he was pretty much world famous once he became heavyweight champion but the Spinks fight was the one with the real global hype and the anticpiation of the clash of slugger and boxer - Tysons absolute demolotion
of spinks meant that in that 90 seconds we moved from thinking that Tyson was a great of that Era to something we had never seen before. The sad fact that it was pretty much the pinacle of his career was something that we did not know at the time.

Johnson - Yes he was well established and certainly the top 400m runner in the world (and even of all time) at that stage of his career but in a sport that is not headline news in the USA - Sprint world records (100m anyway) have previously been broken at Grand prix circuit meetings that hardly even get a mention on teletext. I feel that the hype of Golden shoes and at homeground games and to obliterate a long standing world record by such a margin on his way to a double individual gold was the difference between being a great track and field star and a great global sportstar


Maradona - Again going into the tournament - amongst the top players in the world and arguably the best.
but in that period he went from being a Careca or a platini to in many peoples eyes the greatest of all time and certainly the most memorable singular contribution to any world cup.


Phelps - 2004 rathen than 2008 but your argument re Thorpe is valid in any case

Michelle Smyth ....

OMAR wrote:
Many of sports all time greats built their reputations through consistency and longetivity - but every now and then
someone comes along and on a world stage suddenly becomes a household name - On occasions these may be players or competitors who have been flagged as emerging talents or future greats by followers of that particular sport but then in one moment or one competition they are propelled to being a global star in a a manner that makes us think that a new era beckons:

Clearly there are many more - before my time (foreman v Frazier being one that springs to mind)
but here are a few from the "colour TV" era

• Tiger Woods wins the 1997 US masters by 12 strokes with a record score at just 21 years of age
• Shane Warne’s ball of the century – 1993 Ashes Bowls Mike Gatting with his first ball in Ashes cricket
• Usain Bolt – Bejing Olympics 2008- smashing the 100m and 200m world records (and the 4x100)
• Seve Ballesteros wins the 1979 Open championship via a car park on the 16th
• Mike Tyson – June 1988 – Knocks out Michael Spinks in 90 seconds.
• Jonah Lomu – 1995 world Cup – Scores 4 tries versus England including running through Mike catt
• Michael Phelps (8 medals (incl 6 Gold) at the 2004 Athens Olympics
• Hicham El Guerrouj 1996 – Milan – Morecellis first defeat over 1500m El Guerroj goes on to win the next 4 WC plus 3 olympic golds.
• Kenessa Bakele – Paris 2003 – Takes over from Gebreselassie as long distance king.
• Diego Maradona – 1986 World Cup
• Michael Johnson – Double Gold Atlanta –(1996) and world record in 200m

Kieran Donaghy 2006
Maurice Fitzgerald 1998
Mick O'Connell 1958


All burst on to the world stage those years and left their eternal mark.

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Michelle Smyth ....

Indeed - ranks up there with those Three chinese lassies that lapped Sonia a few times in Stuttgart 1993.
Think it was nettle soup or something that gave them a spring in their step.

[quote="OMAR"]

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Michelle Smyth ....

Indeed - ranks up there with those Three chinese lassies that lapped Sonia a few times in Stuttgart 1993.
Think it was nettle soup or something that gave them a spring in their step.



Interesting.

The Chinese girls NEVER failed a drug test.

Flo Jo did, and Michelle....well, sort of.

But the Chinese girls appeared from nowhere and beat Sonia.

however the real girl to come from nowhere to the world stage was closer to home. Sonia used to lap her and then all in the space of a year this girl was destroying Sonia and everyone else.

she also had a habit of missing major games, or flopping in them, normal signs of getting the blood doping wrong.

But this girl was not Chinese so no doubt was ever cast on her.

Paula Radcliffe anyone?

patrique making his debut for the tyrone senior hurlers

[quote="patrique"]

OMAR wrote:

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Michelle Smyth ....

Indeed - ranks up there with those Three chinese lassies that lapped Sonia a few times in Stuttgart 1993.
Think it was nettle soup or something that gave them a spring in their step.



Interesting.

The Chinese girls NEVER failed a drug test.

Flo Jo did, and Michelle....well, sort of.


GB had a few late bloomers - ie track stars that matured with vinatge

Linford of course - but dame Kelly is another





But the Chinese girls appeared from nowhere and beat Sonia.

however the real girl to come from nowhere to the world stage was closer to home. Sonia used to lap her and then all in the space of a year this girl was destroying Sonia and everyone else.

she also had a habit of missing major games, or flopping in them, normal signs of getting the blood doping wrong.

But this girl was not Chinese so no doubt was ever cast on her.

Paula Radcliffe anyone?

Linford Christie failed a drug test in the Olympic final in 1988. So did the winner Ben Johnson.

Linford said it was Ginseng tea, Johnson was not that clever..........

Linford failed a second time years later.

Carl Lewis who won gold that day apparently failed a number of tests but the Septic Tanks did not reveal this because the cold war was still on at the time. Amazing but true.

And they call this sport?

It was turtle soup ......

Yeah Kelly Holmes is the all British pin-up girl alright - who was an also ran for years before she found her form. But no questions are asked of this Army girl by an adoring media ....

patrique wrote:Linford Christie failed a drug test in the Olympic final in 1988. So did the winner Ben Johnson.

Linford said it was Ginseng tea, Johnson was not that clever..........

Linford failed a second time years later.

Carl Lewis who won gold that day apparently failed a number of tests but the Septic Tanks did not reveal this because the cold war was still on at the time. Amazing but true.

And they call this sport?

Lewis was a graduate of the Santa Monica track club which was ironic because history now shows that they spent very little time on the track -
However a lot of people will have to admit that they fell for the media angle when it came to Lewis
His natural sleek style long strided style did to be fair seem "natural" as opposed to the exposive muscular power that Johnson had developed

I think we are witnessing a new addition to this list this evening.

Thomas Clarke wrote:I think we are witnessing a new addition to this list this evening.

Third pro-win - let's put in things in a bit of perspective here TC.

Totally in perspective Loyal. The thread is about people announcing themselves to the world at large in a way that transcends their sport. That is happening here.

Dismissing McIlroy as you have done for the last couple of years has been a misjudgement - to continue to do so in the light of the last 4 days comes across as ridiculous. When his fellow professionals are saying things like he is on another planet and that 'he has more talent in mis little pinky than i have in my whole body' (Snedeker), you might admit that he is at least a bit special. No-one has accomplished more at that age, apart from possibly Woods, and even that one can be argued.

Not worth fighting over..Another Irish man with a major should be good news for all

He'd need to grow another two legs before Loyal would give him any credit ....

Stephen Hendry