Is Lance the greatest American athlete of all time?

[Arnfinn Madsen]

To add to the cheering:

Poll in Norwegian newspaper (remember we are a winter sports nation):

Is Lance Armstrong the world's greatest athlete?
Yes: 79%
No: 21%

[ClaytonN]

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questions like this are pretty stupid and pointless.

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Well, the question was posed in an afternoon ESPN program and I thought it was intriguing.

Some people flat out say that Lance should be nowhere near the likes of Jordan, Thorpe, Tiger, etc. Meanwhile, others say he's possibly greater than all of them.

Personally, I think there should be some kind of echelon alloted for the people who truly dominated their sport, regardless of what it was. This would go down to crap like darts. I only say darts because there's a guy named Phil Taylor who's won something like 11 or 12 straight world championships. That is sickening.

Anyways, yeah. I think Lance should definitely be up there. He dominated a sport so thoroughly, and in this day and age that's hard to do.

[arod4276]

carl lewis

[razor]

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He's a hell of an athlete. It's just too bad he doesn't compete in any actual sports.

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what is a sport?

[pokerdirty]

no. He has got to be a great athlete to accomplish winning 7 Tour de France's, but by no means is he the greatest American athlete. He has the greatest comeback/survival story of an American athlete, but that's about it.

[jakethebake]

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He has the greatest comeback/survival story of an American athlete, but that's about it.

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familiar with rocky bleier? his was pretty good.

[ClaytonN]

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familiar with rocky bleier? his was pretty good.

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After wikipedia'ing Rocky Bleier, I can say that he doesn't have sh*t on Lance Armstrong. Getting shrapnel in your leg in 'Nam and showing up to camp 35 pounds underweight but eventually getting back onto the team has nothing on getting cancer spreading to your lungs and brain and being given a 40% chance to live and coming back to win 7 consecutive world championships in one of the most grueling events in the world.

I mean, they're close. But you gotta find a better candidate than Rocky.

[pokerdirty]

[ QUOTE ]
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He has the greatest comeback/survival story of an American athlete, but that's about it.

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familiar with rocky bleier? his was pretty good.

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Close, but not quite as touching

cancer survival > war injuries (at least in the early 21st century)

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
After wikipedia'ing Rocky Bleier, I can say that he doesn't have sh*t on Lance Armstrong. Getting shrapnel in your leg in 'Nam and showing up to camp 35 pounds underweight but eventually getting back onto the team has nothing on getting cancer spreading to your lungs and brain and being given a 40% chance to live and coming back to win 7 consecutive world championships in one of the most grueling events in the world.

I mean, they're close. But you gotta find a better candidate than Rocky.

[/ QUOTE ]

the guy almost died in combat. he survives and was expected never to walk again. he was undersized for an nfl running back to start with, but he manages to come back to play on four superbowl teams. come on. it's pretty damn inspirational. maybe it's not cancer, but don't demean him.

[pokerdirty]

again, almost never being able to walk again < being told you have 6 weeks to live

then coming back and winning Le Tour 7x in a row