Redgrave, the colossus of rowing, remains the ultimate champion
Five golds at five Games in an era before the GB winning machine raise the awesome oarsman above his peers
able to enter both the coxed and coxless pairs at Seoul 1988, had no more than one chance each time.
Let us address, too, the suggestions that Redgrave’s supremacy in this country’s Olympic aristocracy is tempered by the collective aspect of his triumphs. Where Farah’s is a purely individual enterprise, Redgrave’s is one where the burden of work can be shared.
It would be ludicrous, though, to 1 Sir Steve Redgrave 2 Sir Ben Ainslie 3 Mo Farah 4 Sir Bradley Wiggins 5 Sir Matthew Pinsent 6 Sir Chris Hoy 7 Jason Kenny 8 Daley Thompson 9 Lord Sebastian Coe 10 Paulo Radmilovic 11 Jack Beresford 12 Laura Trott 13 Henry Taylor 14 Andy Murray 15 Dame Kelly Holmes 16 Max Whitlock 17 Charlotte Dujardin 18 Rebecca Adlington 19 Albert Hill 20 Richard Meade understanding that allowed them both to become Olympic icons.
But perhaps the most compelling case in Redgrave’s favour is that he
N predates the phenomenon of the UK as a medal-winning machine. At Los Angeles in 1984, where he won his first ot everyone has gold in the coxed four, there was no sculled a rowing boat forensic nutrition regime, no battalion or run a marathon. of support staff with laptops to analyse But there is barely a his stroke pattern. There was just his man, woman or child prodigious aerobic capacity and a in Britain who has competitive resolve so ferocious that not thrown a dart at some point. most of his rivals felt intimidated even And Phil Taylor did not just before they reached the start line. throw a dart better than anyone Those high-water marks of 29 golds in else. He did it unimaginably better, London, then 27 in Rio, were unheard earth-shatteringly better. of at his pomp. Out at the front, he and There will be those who sneer at Pinsent were all on their own, their the idea of a fat bloke from Stoke gold in Atlanta representing Britain’s representing the pinnacle of this solitary victory all Games. country’s athletic achievement.
Sir Ben Ainslie is one of a But to grant Taylor his place in vanishingly small number who could the pantheon is not merely a nod to comprehend what they went through. the millions transfixed by his feats. This self-effacing character, the most It is to recognise the immense decorated Olympic sailor of all, also accomplishment of dominating not shouldered the weight of public just one sport, but two: the game of expectation with poise and grace. His darts as he discovered it in the early body of work also has that rare virtue 1990s, and darts as he remade it in of straddling five different Games: his own ruthless image. fresh from a silver in Atlanta in the Darts was certainly popular before Laser class, he upgraded to gold in Taylor, as Jocky Wilson and Leighton Sydney, and then put on 20lbs and Rees could attest. Eric Bristow and collected three more in the Finn. All John Lowe, the two outstanding this came in spite of the caprice and players of the 1980s, were pioneers of vagaries of the seas and despite a sort, the sport’s first genuine trailing at the London regatta until the household names. But Taylor did not seventh race, where, characteristically, just change darts. He torched it, laid he came good at the critical juncture. it to waste and built it anew: bigger
Another man who can claim to be a and better, unrecognisable from the master of timing his run is Farah, who smoky pubs and working men’s clubs with one mighty surge has cemented of its origins. his place in the top three of the UK’s How? Simply by being greatest Olympians. In Rio, he became unfathomably, spellbindingly good. just the second man ever, after Lasse It was his relentless, thrilling Viren, to win the ‘double-double’ of accuracy that won him 16 world titles titles over 5,000 and 10,000 metres. in 23 years, a reign almost without Astonishingly, he remains unbeaten at parallel in the history of sport. An major championships since the worlds entire generation of very fine players in Daegu in 2011 and fully merits his – Dennis Priestley, Rod Harrington, anointment as the finest track and field Peter Manley – foundered against his athlete this nation has produced. genius, broke against his iron nerve.
The one factor complicating his Along the way, Taylor recalibrated elevation above Redgrave and the maths of the sport. Averages at Ainslie is longevity. His greatness the elite end, 80 or 90 when Taylor has been confirmed over two began, are now well north of 100, Olympics, rather than five, and there even 110. And in a sport where talent is an argument that his era of distance can disappear with alarming haste – running is not a vintage one. His Bristow won his last world title in personal best over 5,000m is 16 1986 and was basically a spent force a seconds adrift of the world record. few years later – Taylor kept going.
It is crucial, in any examination of Even at the age of 56 and with failing the sweep of Olympic heritage, that eyesight, you can never quite rule the stars of old are considered just as out that 17th closely as the raft of modern world title. champions. Where figures such as Taylor’s MY TOP 10 Beresford or Paulo Radmilovic were singular dominance never formally ennobled, their explains 1 Phil Taylor contributions endure. For example, why only three 2 Stephen there is no telling what Radmilovic, dartists make it Hendry who won four golds across both into the top 10, 3 Ronnie swimming and water polo from 1908 against seven O’Sullivan and 1928, could ultimately have done snooker players. without the intervention of the First Snooker is 4 Joe Davis World War. further along its 5 Steve Davis
For sheer remorselessness, evolutionary 6 Eric Bristow though, and for establishing his curve, having 7 Ray Reardon legend before Britain’s begun to
8 Allison Fisher extraordinary plunder of precious supplant billiards metal, Redgrave continues to in the 1920s and 9 Alex Higgins bestride the pack. 1930s. And no 10 John Lowe one did more to cement its popularity than Joe Davis. Davis defined the game, inventing shots that modern players take for granted. He compiled the sport’s first century break, its first 147, its first televised century. He organised the first world championship in 1927 and held it for two decades.
Still, it took colour television and a couple of great champions to drag the game into the modern era. Ray Reardon and Steve Davis both won six world titles, but Davis did so in arguably the most competitive era in the sport’s history. For sheer entertainment value, Alex Higgins was without peer, and no discussion of cue demons is complete without Allison Fisher, who reinvented women’s snooker, decamped to the US in the 1990s and became one of its greatest pool players.
By the 1990s, a new star emerged. When Stephen Hendry was on song, he was not just unbeatable, but untouchable. If Davis was an accumulator, Hendry was a destroyer. Ronnie O’Sullivan may eventually surpass Hendry’s seven world titles but as a competitor Hendry just about shades him.
He was a killer, and that was what made him the greatest. Greater than Taylor? No. But then, who is?