Blue And Silver Wrapping Paper

The expression "the best of all time" is used in many areas, but generally for abuse:
- either because the activity is at most only a few decades
- either because the writer does uses only its own memories, his own experience, omitting the necessary work historical research.

sports and athletics in particular, are not immune to this feeling of superiority expressed by our contemporaries. Arrogance is well characterized among some sprinters, specialists in the 100 m.

They say the fastest ... very basically ignoring it is the 200m runners who are faster. Indeed, running the 100m in 9''74 (current world record) corresponds to a speed of 10.26 m / s 36.96 km / h. However, the 200m world record of being 19''32, it corresponds to a speed of 10.35 m / s 37.26 km / h.

Greeks Antiquity could tell, them, since the main event was well run the "stadion" (six hundred feet long, from 192m to 178m at Delphi and Olympia). Moreover, the short sprint, equivalent to 100m, no. The second event to have been recorded in the Olympic program was the long sprint, 400m kind of modern: the "diaulos (long two" stages ").
It should be noted that only one of our contemporaries has successfully established itself at the same Olympics, in these two events (200m and 400m): Michael Johnson in 1996 in Atlanta.

Michael Johnson

If victory in the 100m is not enough to be the best among the best, one might say that those who manage to win several events at the Games are the same exceptional people. Indeed, since the modern Olympic Games were restored by Baron Pierre de Coubertin (1896), only two sprinters have managed the feat of winning four events (three individual and team) at the same Games:

- Jesse Owens in 1936 in Berlin 100m, 200m and long jump in individual and 4x100m relay with the U.S.

Jesse Owens

- and Carl Lewis in 1984 in Los Angeles: 100m, 200m and long jump and 4x100m relay with individual the United States.

Carl Lewis

In comparison, no less than seven Greek athletes have also won three individual events at the same Olympic Games of antiquity, and as such have been given the name "triaste"
- Phan Pellen, in 512 off. JC: "stadium" (env. 200m), "diaulos (env. 400m) a" hoplitodrome (env. 400m avec Casque a bouclier)
- Astylos the Crotone puis de Syracuse, a 480 off. JC: "stadium", "diaulos" a "hoplitodrome"
- Leonidas de Rhodes, a 164, 160, 152 of a 156. JC: "stadium", "diaulos" a "hoplitodrome"
- Nikokles d'Akrion, a 100 off. JC: "stadium", "diaulos" a "hoplitodrome"
- Hekatomnos the Miletus of a 72. JC: "stadium", "diaulos" a "hoplitodrome"
- Polites they Keramos, a 69 après JC: "stadium", "diaulos "And" Dolichos (long distance race of twenty-four stages, or just over 4600m)
- Hermogenes of Xanthus, in 81 and 89 AD. JC: "stadion", "diaulos" and "hoplitodrome. Among these seven

"triastes, it should be noted three unusual characters.

* Polites of Keramos managed to win not only in two sprint events but also in that of endurance which corresponds today to Olympic titles in 200m, 400m and 5000m!

* Hermogenes of Xanthus accumulated eight individual victories (three in 81 AD, two in 85 and still three in 89), a performance superior to that achieved by Paavo Nurmi and Carl Lewis totalisèrent each with nine Olympic titles but "only" six (for Paavo Nurmi) and seven (for Carl Lewis) individually.
Nurmi :
- 10000m, Cross Country (Solo), cross country with Finland in 1920
- 1500m, 5000m, cross country (individual), cross country with Finland and with 3km Team Finland
1924 - 10000m in 1928

Paavo Nurmi

Carl Lewis :
- 100m, 200m, high jump, length, 4x 100m with the U.S. in 1984

- 100m, long jump in 1988
- long jump, 4x 100 with the U.S. in 1992
- long jump in 1996

Contemporaries (sports of the twentieth century), only the most successful Olympic athletics champions managed to equal the number of eight individual victories. While it is widely known that less Paavo Nurmi and Carl Lewis in particular is that the events in which he emerged (jumps without momentum, as the ancient Greeks) are no longer on the Olympic program since 1912.

Raymond "Ray" Ewry :
- height without momentum, long jump and triple jump in 1900
- height without momentum, long jump and triple jump in 1904
- height without momentum and long jump in 1908

Ray Ewry

* Leonidas of Rhodes realized performance not only winning three events on the same day but in addition to repeat the feat in four Olympic Games Antiques.
By comparison, among our modern athletes, only Alfred "Al" Oerter (in the discus throw competition: in 1956, 1960, 1964 and 1968) and Carl Lewis (in the long jump competition: in 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996) were able to win the same individual event at four successive Olympic Games.

With a total of twelve individual Olympic titles, so it's finally Leonidas of Rhodes, a Greek of the second century before Christ, that should return the title of "greatest athlete of all time."

This conclusion may well arouse suspicion when we hear the nicknames s'affublent some champions of combat sports. The example that immediately comes to mind is Cassius Clay, aka Muhammad Ali , voted "Athlete of the twentieth century" by a panel of sports journalists. This boxer was called "The Greatest" is to say, the biggest, the best boxer of all time.

Mohamed / Muhammad Ali

It was probably the most talented boxer of his generation, a "golden generation" after the specialists, but was it really the best fighter of all time? World champion boxing can even claim to be the best fighter of the moment? Is there no other combat sports or martial arts could also be of great champions? Mohamed Ali was he would do the best boxer of all time?

These are all questions which this book attempts to answer.

Who were the greatest champions of combat sports and martial arts in history and in conclusion: among them, who was "the best of all time?