[sumo] GOAT in sumo?

[Jeanne Hedge]

At 03:46 PM 8/17/08, Jim Bitgood wrote:
>Without looking at the whole list, I would guess that the 
>journalist(s) who made the list are under 40 years old, possibly 
>under 30 years old. They probably are not students of sports history 
>(or much other history either). And Taiho and Chiyonofuji are sumo 
>historical figures now. Even though Jesse Owens' successes are over 
>60 years ago, they are famous around the world because of historical 
>niche they occupy.

Anyone here watch the US TV coverage of the women's Olympic marathon 
race? (broadcast Saturday evening in the US)

The commentators were talking about one of the Americans in the race 
(don't recall what her name was - she was the one that finished 
highest of the Americans), and mentioned that she had the same coach 
as Joan Benoit Samuelsson had had.  Now, Joan Benoit is also an 
American, and won the first Olympic women's marathon at the 1984 LA Olympics.

The story, as mentioned on the air, was that the coach was so 
impressed with his current athlete that he kept saying how much she 
reminded him of Joan. IIRC, I think they even said he'd sometimes 
slip and call her "Joan".  So one day she gets in the car with her 
husband/boyfriend and mentions this and says something like "who's 
this Joan he talks about?"

You'd think an athlete would know famous, gold medalist athletes in 
their sport, especially the ones coached by *their* coach.  I know, 
I'm hoping for too much there.




jeanne

>At 18:57 8/16/2008, you wrote:
>>The other day, as Michael Phelps became the most olympic gold medal 
>>winner ever, Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter published their list 
>>of the greatest athletes of all time (hence the goat in the subject 
>>line). While such a list is near impossible, it is always fun and a 
>>good topic for discussion. The top of the list (1. Pelé, 2. Carl 
>>Lewis, 3. Michael Jordan, 4. Jesse Owens, 5. Nadia Comaneci. 
>>Phelps? #12) could be debated elsewhere, but what I thought was 
>>interesting was the only sumo rikishi on the list, #77, Takanohana. 
>>Good that they acknowledge sumo, but shouldn't it have been Taiho, 
>>Futabayama or Chiyonofuji? Or can anyone find a good argument why 
>>Takanohana should be regarded as the GOAT in sumo? If media 
>>interest is put into the mix, he might be, but I don't really see 
>>how that makes him a greater athlete. Sure, it could possibly be 
>>argued that he had a stronger rival in Akebono than either Taiho or 
>>Chiyo had, bu he is still 10 yusho behind Taiho and 9 behind Chiyo. 
>>Futabayama would likely have won over 30 had he competed in the 6 
>>basho-a-year-era. Of course, there's also Asashoryu... at least in a few years?
>>
>>So, are Dagens Nyheter just semi-ignorant of things sumoan or are 
>>there any objective arguments for placing Taka as the sole sumo on 
>>the list? What do you think?
>
>         Jim
>         "Chitose-Taikai"
>
>
>
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