There are people on this list – not many, but some – who have won precious little in their careers but whose world-class talent demand that they be included. But where? How do you look on somebody whose star shone briefly in the decade but incredibly brightly? How do you rank somebody who excelled for years but in a sport where the competition wasn’t as hot as other sports? Weighting achievement across the sports is no easy business.
Is longevity a pre-requisite or should there be a place for one-off brilliance? Where do you place an athlete with world championship gold medals compared to one with Olympic silver? How many footballers deserve – truly deserve – to make it? What those those compete wonderfully but in sports with little following? How do we look on para-sportsmen and sportswomen and their place in the overall scheme?
There were any amount of real puzzlers. Numerous times there was gridlock when trying to separate two people from the same sport with similar achievements. In that case, advice from an expert from that sport was sought. Normally, it went something like this: “I’d pick X ahead of Y and here are the reasons, but don’t quote me!”
The final list, then. Fifty names from 25 different sports. You may disagree with much of it, but consensus on this kind of thing is always over-rated.
