![]() ![]() Greatness isn't always about wins and loses.Ī lot of people would argue that Conor McDavid is a better skilled hockey player than Wayne Gretzky was, but do we call him the GOAT because of his skill? Nope, Gretzky is still the greatest of all time in hockey because of what he did, during his time and the competition he competed against. So, you can have your race of men vs women and declare then man the best based off of perceived physical advantages, but there is a lot more to the discussion than that. And to top that off, she wins in multiple disciplines. Most of those guys raced after the sport was well established for men. ![]() If you want to go by contribution to the sport, I am willing to put a lot of money on the fact that she has exposed to the sport to more female riders than any of the male athletes on the list did for men's racing. So, if you want to by math, Anne is the GOAT (more races wins, more titles, more podiums). That has nothing to do with genders or physical ability, but what the athlete did with the sport while they were competing. In other words, who contributed most to the sport. The OP was about the greatest downhill racer of all time. To help provide context of how competitive the field was in any given year, I've included the differences represented as a percentage of the times for the elite world championship podium of that year, so you too can make wildly speculative assumptions about the depth of the field in regards to talent.įemale You're missing the point. Not to sway you one way or another, but as a tidbit, for 23 of those years Greg Minnaar has been competing at the pointy end. However, I think it's more of an apples-to-apples than something like football, where comparing Dixie Dean to a modern center forward is almost pointless, or similar comparisons with Juan Manuel Fangio in Formula One.īut World Cup downhill has been around for a mere 30 years and so comparisons are easier. Whether or not this is true is for another time. It's also a sport where there is a perception of a near-level playing field among the sports elite teams and riders. Mountain biking, compared to others, is a relatively young sport. However, what really frustrates me is somebody being referred to as a and not the GOAT. ![]()
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