Items22The creator’s order
  1. 1Fausto CoppiFausto CoppiBorn 15 Sept 1919Road cycling, Italy. Coppi's rivalry with the older Gino Bartali split Italian cycling fans in the late 1940s and 1950s. Bartali won the Tour de France in 1938 and 1948, Coppi in 1949 and 1952, and in 1949 Coppi became the first rider to win the Giro and the Tour in the same year. The famous 1952…0i
  2. 2Wilt ChamberlainWilt ChamberlainBorn 21 Aug 1936Basketball, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Chamberlain set records that still stand, including 100 points in a game and 50.4 points a game over the 1961–62 season, yet his teams lost to Bill Russell's Boston Celtics in seven of their eight playoff series. The contrast between…0i
  3. 3Raymond PoulidorRaymond PoulidorBorn 15 Apr 1936Road cycling, France. Poulidor finished on the Tour de France podium eight times without ever wearing the yellow jersey, often behind Jacques Anquetil. Their shoulder-to-shoulder climb of the Puy de Dôme in 1964, which left Anquetil leading the Tour by just 14 seconds and winning it by 55, is one…0i
  4. 4Muhammad AliMuhammad AliBorn 17 Jan 1942Boxing, United States. Ali and Joe Frazier fought three times. Frazier won the first, the "Fight of the Century" in 1971, handing Ali his first professional defeat; Ali won the rematch in 1974 and the "Thrilla in Manila" in 1975, which ended when Frazier's corner stopped the fight before the 15th…0i
  5. 5Chris EvertChris EvertTennis, United States. Evert and Martina Navratilova met 80 times between 1973 and 1988, including 60 finals, with Navratilova leading 43-37. Evert's baseline consistency against Navratilova's serve and volley made every match a contest of styles, and when Navratilova pulled ahead in the early…0i
  6. 6Björn BorgBjörn BorgBorn 6 Jun 1956Tennis, Sweden. Borg and John McEnroe played 14 times, finishing level at 7-7. Their 1980 Wimbledon final, which Borg won for his fifth straight title after losing a fourth-set tie-break 18-16, is regarded as one of the greatest matches ever played; McEnroe beat him in the Wimbledon and US Open…0i
  7. 7James HuntJames HuntBorn 29 Aug 1947Formula One, Britain. Hunt won the 1976 world title by a single point from Niki Lauda, in a season interrupted by Lauda's near-fatal crash at the Nürburgring and settled in heavy rain at the Japanese Grand Prix, where Lauda withdrew on safety grounds and Hunt finished third. The two had shared a…0i
  8. 8Tom Watson (golfer)Tom Watson (golfer)Born 4 Sept 1949Golf, United States. Watson beat Jack Nicklaus head to head in several of the biggest moments of the late 1970s and early 1980s: the 1977 Masters, the 1977 Open at Turnberry, where they played the last two rounds together and Watson won by one shot in the "Duel in the Sun", and the 1982 US Open at…0i
  9. 9Sebastian CoeSebastian CoeBorn 29 Sept 1956Athletics, Britain. Coe and Steve Ovett rarely raced each other outside championships, which made their meetings events. At the 1980 Moscow Olympics Ovett won the 800 metres, Coe's stronger event, and Coe won the 1,500 metres, where Ovett was favourite. In August 1981 the mile world record changed…0i
  10. 10Alain ProstAlain ProstBorn 24 Feb 1955Formula One, France. Prost and Ayrton Senna were team-mates at McLaren in 1988 and 1989 and won 15 of the 16 races in 1988 between them. The world title was decided by collisions at Suzuka in both 1989, in Prost's favour, and 1990, when Prost had moved to Ferrari and Senna drove into him at the…0i