Olympic Athletics

sunama

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awaybreaktoday said:
bolt must now be the biggest known sports star in the world
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Certainly not.
In USA, track and field gets very little coverage.
And because USA has such a big audience, this is significant.
This is also the barrier that soccer has. The only soccer player to truly transcend this is D.Beckham.

Tiger Woods (yes, even after his extra marital affair) and Federer would probably be the big 2, at the moment. And probably D.Beckham.

The best way to measure someone's world wide sporting notoriety is the amount of money they earn in sponsorship (sponsors will pay the biggest money for people who reach the biggest audience). And Bolt is nowhere near the top. In 2 months time, most non-ahtletics fans won't remember Bolt's first name. In contrast, even my sister knows who Tiger Woods and D.Beckham are.

Perhaps someone can get a list of the highest paid sports people by sponsors? This would give us a measure of just how much sponsors are prepared to pay a sportsman.
 

Skeeter

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I disagree. I especially disagree about measuring it by money earned.

Being the best known sports star is simply that, being the best known. I guarantee that more 'normal people' know who Usain Bolt is over Roger Federer.
 

sunama

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FrankJH said:
Federer is known outside tennis and outsde sports (like Tiger Woods)
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Yep.
The key to having notoriety is for non sports fans to know who a person is.
As an example: I don't follow golf, but even I know who Tiger Woods is.

Someone who doesnt follow football would have no idea who Iniesta or even Messi are. D.Beckham (and perhaps Ronaldo) are the only soccer players who transcend their sport (in terms of notoriety).

For example, 6 months ago I saw D.Beckham on the Ellen Degeneres talk show (popular talk show in USA). No other soccer player can boast this sort of notoriety.
 

sunama

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Skeeter said:
Being the best known sports star is simply that, being the best known. I guarantee that more 'normal people' know who Usain Bolt is over Roger Federer.
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This is because you are based in London and we have just had the Olympics. Think of people who live in Inida, say. They hardly follow the Olypmics and while they will have heard of Federer, they still probably haven't heard of Bolt.

Skeeter, I don't think you realise just how big Tennis is around the World. And how small Athletics is, in comparison.
 

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Its nothing to do with the size of the sport either. We are talking about people who have gone beyond their sport.

Beckham is known globally because he is a celebrity married to a Spice girl. How many people who know who Beckham is can name the club he plays for, for example. While I expect a lot more people know his wifes name.

Bolt is reaching that level. He is becoming a celebrity. Many people wont know what events he does or what times he did, but many many more will at least know who he is.
 

NuclearWinter

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sunama said:
Skeeter, I don't think you realise just how big Tennis is around the World. And how small Athletics is, in comparison.
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The 100m final at the World Athletic Championships in 2009 had more TV viewers worldwide than the final of Wimbledon that year with a total audience of 95 million (30% higher than 2007). That's largely down to people wanting to see Bolt.

Edit: I have no idea who the most known athlete is, just thought I'd point out that athletics is perhaps not as small as some would think.
 
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Vonhelmet

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Well known or not, he's now locked into the history books. To defend the 100m, 200m and 4x100m Olympic titles, and to hold the world records in all 3 is amazing. We may never see that done again.
 

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iamtheoneneo said:
Sorry who? Was that a joke?
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No, not a joke at all. Millions of people around the world tune in to watch the massive boxing matches even if they don't follow the sport. Many of my friends will go out on a night a big boxing match is on just to watch it in a pub instead of paying for it on PPV. Floyd "Money" Mayweather is massive, especially in the US. Plus the fighting sports seem to be very popular with the females as well, they seem to get a kick out of watching ripped sweaty men kicking 7 shades of **** out of one another.

There's also the likes of Lebron James and Kobe Bryant as basketball is huge over there. I've never watched a basketball game in my life yet I've heard of these two.
 
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FrankJH

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Spenty said:
No, not a joke at all. Millions of people around the world tune in to watch the massive boxing matches even if they don't follow the sport. Many of my friends will go out on a night a big boxing match is on just to watch it in a pub instead of paying for it on PPV. Floyd "Money" Mayweather is massive, especially in the US. Plus the fighting sports seem to be very popular with the females as well, they seem to get a kick out of watching ripped sweaty men kicking 7 shades of **** out of one another.

There's also the likes of Lebron James and Kobe Bryant as basketball is huge over there. I've never watched a basketball game in my life yet I've heard of these two.
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Believe it or not Boxing doesnt even come close, coverage wise.

It may appear as though its hugely popular (and I know they stage a lot in the US especially the "glamour" fights) but I can gaurentee a lot of people on the street around the world wouldnt know a boxer 's name from Adam Sandler lol (obviously a picture may give the game away, but a name is as good a test as any).

Bolt isnt getting anywhere close either - yes he is an amazing sprinter, who has just done the double double (defending 100m & 200m Olympic titles) but I still reckon he isnt known as much as Federer or Woods (or Beckham) on a global scale

Vonhelmet said:
Well known or not, he's now locked into the history books. To defend the 100m, 200m and 4x100m Olympic titles, and to hold the world records in all 3 is amazing. We may never see that done again.
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Not wishing to discredit bolt at all, as he did amazingly well - but I would be astounded if it wasnt done again in my lifetime (if I life to 70 which isnt unreasonable, that would be 30 years)

Bolt is unlikely to be in Rio , and the amount of runners Jamaica and USA pump out, I would even be surprsed if its not done within 3 further Olympic cycles (considering the amount of runners who do 100m and 200m and therefore the relays too - I think its most of them)

It does of course depend on the traxk / conditions which cant be predicted (ie London was designed to be a "speed" track, whichdidnt help the distance runners)
 
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Muban

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awaybreaktoday said:
Ah we are all wrong, the biggest sports star around the world is the greatest of them all.

ALI - Everybody on the planet knows who he is.
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Indeed it's just as likely to be someone like this, even my granny (who has zero interest in sports) has heard of Ali.
mithrandir said:
Recent highest paid list
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Interesting, of the top 20 in that list I have heard of 7. A few of them there probably aren't really known by people who don't follow their sport and a few are probably huge in the USA but not really heard of anywhere else.
 
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