100 Greatest British Sportspeople This Century
I've previously made lists of The Greatest British Sportspeople of All Time and the Best Sportspeople in the World Right Now. Now, bringing the two together, it's time to consider the Greatest British Sportspeople this Century.
This is more of a labour of love than anything else. The 80s, and particularly the 90s, as I was growing up, were pretty thin for British sporting heroes, not just in terms of the number of world beaters, but also whether they were the kind of people you could really warm to.
This has changed on all fronts. There are so many world class sportspeople to choose from these days, and so many of these are genuinely endearing, or interesting. Though most of those I'm going to write about are younger than me, they're, conversely, more heroic, and more people that I look up to than the supposed icons of my youth.
So I shall intersperse the list, which will, of course, be a touch arbitrary, with the occasional paean of praise.
With little doubt, this has been the best era to be a British sports fan. Only in men's football have the usual disappointments persisted (or indeed have we seen a decline), and even then, let's not forget, we're talking about an English national team consistently in the world's top 15, Wales and Northern Ireland teams that have surpassed all expectations, three Champions League triumphs as well as several other losing finalist spots, not to mention several memorable Premier Leagues. No absence of glory.
In putting together this list, there were a few particular matters to consider.
1. What does "this century" mean? I was quite generous with this - I allowed for anyone whose career has been substantially this century, either in terms of the period of time, or whether they're greatest achievements were this century, and then considered their whole career. So eg no Redgrave or, say, (though I don't think he'd have made a Top 100) Tim Henman, but, yes to Martin Johnson (just ...). And, once someone was in, rather than just considering their performance this century, I considered their whole career.
2. How to fit in team sports, particularly football. You could say there is very little greatness attached to British football this century, especially in the light of all these Olympic heroes, but the fact is I firmly think our finest young male sportspeople gravitate to football, I firmly believe to be a world-class footballer is the hardest journey in all sport, and that needs to be taken into account. Also, it can be very hard to measure relative contributions in certain sports. His team mates say Richard Hill was the key to England's 2003 Rugby World Cup triumph - that kind of thing is not always obvious to an onlooker.
3. Will the person I named, 3 years ago, as the Greatest Ever British Sportsperson be Number 1? Surely it would be weird if not ... well, maybe, we'll see. A lot's happened since then.
4. What am I generally looking for? Winners, pioneers, people who are generally world class, who the rest of the world recognises as such, people whose achievements mean more than a brief moment of limelight in the Olympics, it's about more than one Olympic gold medal in a minor sport. Game changers is an annoying word, but some of these people are game changers.
5. Everything is at face value, meaning, since none of these people have failed a doping test, no suspicion, for the purposes of the list, falls upon any of them. Also, relative "Britishness" plays no part in the ranking. They all represent Great Britain, England, Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland, so nothing like that is taken into consideration.
The extent to which I feel the precise numbering matters when I make a list depends on how bullish (or bullshittish) I am at that particular point. Here, not very. You can pretty much disregard it - suffice to say I think the greater ones are nearer the top, and after that I'm really just saying "look at all these people who are very good at sport" ... here we go.
This is more of a labour of love than anything else. The 80s, and particularly the 90s, as I was growing up, were pretty thin for British sporting heroes, not just in terms of the number of world beaters, but also whether they were the kind of people you could really warm to.
This has changed on all fronts. There are so many world class sportspeople to choose from these days, and so many of these are genuinely endearing, or interesting. Though most of those I'm going to write about are younger than me, they're, conversely, more heroic, and more people that I look up to than the supposed icons of my youth.
So I shall intersperse the list, which will, of course, be a touch arbitrary, with the occasional paean of praise.
With little doubt, this has been the best era to be a British sports fan. Only in men's football have the usual disappointments persisted (or indeed have we seen a decline), and even then, let's not forget, we're talking about an English national team consistently in the world's top 15, Wales and Northern Ireland teams that have surpassed all expectations, three Champions League triumphs as well as several other losing finalist spots, not to mention several memorable Premier Leagues. No absence of glory.
In putting together this list, there were a few particular matters to consider.
1. What does "this century" mean? I was quite generous with this - I allowed for anyone whose career has been substantially this century, either in terms of the period of time, or whether they're greatest achievements were this century, and then considered their whole career. So eg no Redgrave or, say, (though I don't think he'd have made a Top 100) Tim Henman, but, yes to Martin Johnson (just ...). And, once someone was in, rather than just considering their performance this century, I considered their whole career.
2. How to fit in team sports, particularly football. You could say there is very little greatness attached to British football this century, especially in the light of all these Olympic heroes, but the fact is I firmly think our finest young male sportspeople gravitate to football, I firmly believe to be a world-class footballer is the hardest journey in all sport, and that needs to be taken into account. Also, it can be very hard to measure relative contributions in certain sports. His team mates say Richard Hill was the key to England's 2003 Rugby World Cup triumph - that kind of thing is not always obvious to an onlooker.
3. Will the person I named, 3 years ago, as the Greatest Ever British Sportsperson be Number 1? Surely it would be weird if not ... well, maybe, we'll see. A lot's happened since then.
4. What am I generally looking for? Winners, pioneers, people who are generally world class, who the rest of the world recognises as such, people whose achievements mean more than a brief moment of limelight in the Olympics, it's about more than one Olympic gold medal in a minor sport. Game changers is an annoying word, but some of these people are game changers.
5. Everything is at face value, meaning, since none of these people have failed a doping test, no suspicion, for the purposes of the list, falls upon any of them. Also, relative "Britishness" plays no part in the ranking. They all represent Great Britain, England, Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland, so nothing like that is taken into consideration.
The extent to which I feel the precise numbering matters when I make a list depends on how bullish (or bullshittish) I am at that particular point. Here, not very. You can pretty much disregard it - suffice to say I think the greater ones are nearer the top, and after that I'm really just saying "look at all these people who are very good at sport" ... here we go.
- Jonny Wilkinson. I've gone for the same Number 1 as I had a few years ago, despite strong challenges from various quarters, because I still think being the rugby player that Wilkinson was is the hardest, most impressive thing in all sport - as brave as Cavendish, as versatile as Ennis-Hill, as precise as Jimmy Anderson, as imaginative as Murray, as pioneering as Wiggins, as glorious as Mo Farah.I imagine that if there was some massive Kryton Factor/Superstars style contest of all the great British sportspeople at their peak, Jonny Wilkinson would win by a mile.
- Mo Farah
- Jessica Ennis-Hill. If Ennis-Hill had won her second Olympic title in 2016, I think she'd have been the main contender to be Number 1. To be the greatest all-round female athlete in the year over a period of 7 years, while having a baby in the middle of that, is pretty much unprecedented.Considering she clearly won the 2011 World Championships (the winner, Chernova, is a confirmed drug cheat), Ennis-Hill has won every major championship heptathlon she's taken part in since 2009 - apart from this year. Though she hardly put a foot wrong in 2016, and Thiam's superb performance was completely out of the blue.
- Bradley Wiggins. Choosing between all Britain's great cyclists of recent times, nearly all of whom do slightly different things on a bike, is a slightly hapless enterprise. Kenny and Trott are the best track cyclists in the world, Cavendish the greatest ever road sprinter, Froome the great road cyclist of his generation.But, for the range of his Palmares, it's Wiggins I just about put on top. 8 Olympic medals over 16 years across different events, smashing the one hour record, world time trial champion, 3rd in the Vuelta, 3rd in the 2009 Tour de France and of course, being the first track cyclist to win the Tour de France.
However hardened road fans might belittle that victory, it is precisely because it was so out of his natural element that the achievement is so noteworthy. And don't forget that 3rd/4th place while riding for Garmin in 2009 - to my mind, the greatest proof that he really was a great road cyclist - almost certainly the first clean rider that year on a properly tough mountainous year, without the help of Team Sky. - Andy Murray. I love Andy Murray so much I often can't bear to watch him. Who doesn't love Andy Murray? Some people. Some wrong people.A brilliant thing he said recently is that he doesn't necessarily mind losing those long rallies early in a match, because he knows that every one of those rallies sucks way more out of his opponent than him. What a fantastic, positive way to look at what would seem spirit-crushing to others.
This skinny teenager who got cramp is now all but unbeatable over 5 sets. He knows, against everyone but Djokovic, if it goes to five sets, it's his. What fear and urgency that must put into opponents. They're done for if they don't beat him in 4.
Now we at last know what it would take for Britain to produce a real tennis superstar. A mother who's a top-class coach, a talented older brother, a fierce competitive edge, the resilience to overcome unspeakable childhood horror, the will to move to Spain as a teenager, the will to rethink entirely his training, to give up Christmas to get in the best of shape, the hard-nosed sense to regularly change coach, a refusal to play to the crowd or temper his rage, the patience to wait it out against arguably the three greatest players of all time. That's all it took. And now, at least for a short while, Andy Murray's the best player in the world in the best era of any sport there's ever been. - Mark Cavendish. Cavendish is an old-fashioned daredevil - what he does for a living is so insanely brave and skilled. The disregard he shows for his own wellbeing sometimes seems to tip over into a carelessness with the wellbeing of others, but that's sprint cycling.Cav is so extraordinary because he's just a little guy who never showed up as spectacular in testing - he has an innate gift for racing, he's the greatest racer of all time, revered in road cycling way beyond Wiggins, maybe even Froome.
- Joe Calzaghe
- Charlotte Edwards
- Chris Froome
- Chris Hoy
- Laura Trott. Number of medals is one thing, but you can only win as many as are put in front of you. Laura Trott is the only one of these great cyclists with a 100% Olympic record, and I have not seen anyone else quite so dominant in track cycling.
- AP McCoy
- Chrissie Wellington
- Ben Ainslie
- Tanni Grey-Thompson
- Jason Kenny
- Christine Ohuruogu
- Martin Johnson
- Ronnie O'Sullivan
- Sarah Storey
- Rory McIlroy
- Lewis Hamilton
- Ryan Giggs. For a long time my favourite sportsperson, part of me still thinks Giggs merits a place, as the most successful club footballer of all time, as the tipping point and driving force for Manchester United's two decades of dominance, as the greatest player of the premier league era, right in the top 10 of this list. But I think seeing what Gareth Bale has achieved with Wales in such a short space of time has taken a little off the gloss off Giggs' legacy, even for his most ardent fan.
- Kelly Holmes
- Gareth Bale. May not have won a league title yet, but otherwise has achieved more already than all the English players of this century.I genuinely think he is currently the most dynamic footballer in the world bar none, and only injury and his self-absorbed club team-mate will prevent him from being the game's great star for years.
- Phil Taylor
- David Weir
- Alistair Brownlee
- Max Whitlock
- Ashley Cole. Being a great sportsperson is all about being the best at what you do in the world and performing your best over and over again on the biggest stage. Ashley Cole is the only English footballer of the last two decades who can truly say that. He was the best left-back in the world for several years and he played brilliantly in almost every Major Tournament. No one ever shut Ronaldo down so well. Cole could almost have won England the 2006 World Cup with his faultless defending.
- James Anderson
- Carl Froch
- Jason Robinson
- Wayne Rooney
- Jade Jones
- Stuart Broad. Perhaps the least iconic of the great English cricketers of the modern era, but arguably the most important. His batting has gone off the boil a little recently but this is someone with almost 3000 test runs, who switched the momentum of many many games with fast 50s and 60s.He has also won more games as a bowler, I think, than anyone else, even Anderson. His destructive spells always seem to come just when he's beginning to get some criticism. Four years younger than Anderson, so who knows how far he can go?
- Adam Peaty. Although he only won one gold and one silver, no other swimmer was quite so spectacular as Peaty at the 2016 Olympics. Because there is no 50m breaststroke in the Olympics, and because the other British medley relay swimmers aren't quite as good as him, he won exactly what he was able to, as stunningly as he possibly could, with enormous world records at every turn.
His swim in the 4x100m medley relay was one of the most ludicrous things I've ever seen. You can't just judge how good someone is by how many medals they win. - Alastair Cook
- Greg Rutherford
- Hannah Cockroft
- Nicola Adams
- David Beckham
- Rebecca Adlington
- Frank Lampard
- Charlotte Dujardin
- Ellie Simmonds
- Paul Scholes
- Paula Radcliffe
- Kelly Smith. Typical patronising male response perhaps, but Kelly Smith was the first woman's footballer I saw where you knew the potential of the game was limitless, that the talent could be equivalent, it would just be matter of time, effort and professionalism. Proper class footballer, left foot like Messi.
- Claire Taylor
- Shane Williams
- Helen Glover/Heather Stanning
- Victoria Pendleton
- Ricky Hatton
- Andrew Flintoff
- Katherine Grainge
- Sam Warburton
- Ellen Macarthur
- Lawrence Dallaglio
- Luol Deng
- Rio Ferdinand
- Katy McLean
- Jack Laugher
- Joe Root
- Shirley Robertson
- Gareth Thomas
- Kevin Sinfield
- Matt Dawson
- Rebecca Romero
- Kate Richardson-Walsh
- Justin Rose
- John Terry
- Kevin Pietersen
- Tom Daley
- Carl Frampton
- Leigh Halfpenny
- Peter Nicol
- Beth Tweddle
- Maggie Alphonsi
- Richard Whitehead
- Liam Heath
- Steven Gerrard
- Rachel Yankey
- Michael Vaughan
- Andrew Strauss
- Emily Scarratt
- Alex Danson
- Lee Pearson
- Tai Woffinden
- Andrew Triggs-Hodge
- Pete Reed
- Ricky Burns. Ricky Burns has totally over-achieved, that's what is so great about him. Could easily have been just a domestic level boxer, has lost some key fights, and yet he has managed to be a world champion across three weight classes. Now, that may say something about the worth of being a boxing "world champion" but it also speaks of his tenacity.Won some great fights, and actually his only clear loss was to Terence Crawford, now recognised as one of the very best fighters in the world, who has dealt with everyone else he fought a lot more easily.
- Fara Williams
- Louis Smith
- Leslie Law
- Nicole Cooke
- Anthony Crolla
- Ed Clancy
- Iain Percy
- Joanna Rowsell
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