The Greatest British Sportspeople 80-71

80. Rio Ferdinand (Football, 1990s-2010s)

 What? I can imagine some severe doubts about this high placing, and people thinking I'm overly enamoured of football, England, Man Utd, modern times etc. Not everyone has the highest opinion of Rio Ferdinand. But I think he's the best centre back I've ever seen, and that includes Baresi, Cannavaro, Blanc. So there.
He has obviously been very successful. There's that. Six Premier Leagues and one Champions League. And he played plenty of games for England, though not that many. Remarkably, he only played, for a variety of reasons, in two major championships, the 2002 and 2006 World Cups. Remember those ones? The ones where England were really good at defending (if not attacking).
Stats ... the stats show many remarkable things about Rio Ferdinand - they show how many fewer goals England and Man Utd have conceded when he's playing (a lot), they also show how remarkably few fouls he's conceded, way fewer than any other centre backs. That's how brilliant he is. People sometimes think John Terry's better because he throws himself round, makes last ditch tackles etc, whereas Rio is so much better precisely because he doesn't have to do all that.
To me, he's a massively underrated gem, one of only two genuine world class players England have had in the last decade.

79. Beryl Burton (Cycling, 1950s-1980s)

 Dominated British cycling for decades. There are many impressive facts, like winning 7 world titles but perhaps the most impressive is that her record for the 12 hour time trial was better than the men's. Her pre-eminence in British cycling lasted for 25 years.

78. Jason Robinson (Rugby League, Rugby Union, 1990s-2000s)

 For some unfathomable reason, I almost left Jason Robinson off this list. Then I saw a clip of him on a programme about the Lions and I remembered. Jason Robinson is one of those rare people I'd point towards if someone did not like sport but wanted to see what it was about in all its wonder. Look at this guy! Tell me that's not worth watching.
He is a World Cup winner, maybe if he'd not got injured, he'd have been a double World Cup winner, he's the only man to score a try for England in a World Cup final. Others may have scored a few more tries in both the sports he excelled in, but very few have ever run like that, left so many people clutching air.

77. Lester Piggott (Horse racing, 1950s-1990s)

 I've often found it hard to see the great sportsmanship in equestrian events, and to be honest, I still do. As you'll have seen, I like sport which is athletic, imaginative, explosive, lung-busting, dextrous. These men sit on horses while they do all the work ... obviously bollocks, I know, and I have at least learnt how utterly committed and brave top jockeys have to be, as well as possessing a certain unknowable gift which non-horse people just don't get. Lester Piggott won the Derby 9 times and was Champion jockey 11 times, and went on for a long, long time.

76. Stanley Matthews (Football, 1930s-1960s)

Probably the most famous British footballer of his era, the first European Footballer of the Year, it must be said that Stanley Matthews never won the top division of English football and only one FA Cup (albeit the most famous FA Cup of all), nor did he play for a globally successful England team, or have a particularly striking goal record. So he must have been really good to be quite as legendary as he is ...

75. David Beckham (Football, 1990s-2000s)

 Perhaps the most famous British footballer of his era, ... is it deliberate Beckham's one place above Matthews? Perhaps, on merit, he ought to be more. Do we realise how very good at football David Beckham was? That he won titles in four different countries, that his goal and assist ratio with Man Utd was extraordinary for a midfielder, that Man Utd didn't win the title for three years after he left (their longest barren spell), that he had one of the finest football brains we've seen. No, he wasn't just a celebrity footballer, nor was he only good at free kicks and corners, nor could he not beat players. Beckham was a great footballer. Everyone except jealous football journos who probably can't even remember him in his prime know that.

74. Richard Meade (Equestrianism, 1960s-1980s)

 The dandy on the right, of course. This task has enjoyably led me to look into a few lesser known names who were probably famous in their day.
Of the equestrian events, I've always enjoyed the range of three-day eventing, and this dude won three Olympic gold medals in it, including the individual gold in 1972.

73. WG Grace (Cricket, 1860s-1900s)

 This guy. A decent comparison with Stanley Matthews, in that he is legendary, he played forever, there's not much footage of him, and actually the statistics aren't all that amazing. But WG Grace, if you will, invented cricket. One simply can't know how good he was, the images that there are are pretty absurd, so greatness means something else in this case.

72. Harold Abrahams (Athletics, 1920s)

 Though he had a long and interesting life, Harold Abrahams really only has one major sporting achievement - he made himself into the fastest man in the world. You've seen the film. But suffice to say being the fastest man in the world is worth a lot in my book.

71. Albert Hill (Athletics, 1910s-1920s)

 A great middle distance runner of the 1920s, who had the same professional coach as Harold Abrahams, Albert Hill won the 800m and 1500m at the 1920 Olympics, an achievement not repeated by a British athlete for 84 years.