Biggest Individual Sports Achievements last 50 years?

[Nyghthawk]

Simone Biles. A combined total of 30 Olympic and World Championship medals. The GOAT.

[Dru Edwards]

Wayne Gretzky's record setting 51 game point streak, which started with game 1 of the 83-84 season. He averaged exactly 3 points per game in that stretch. After the streak was ended he took 6 games off to rest his shoulder.

[lfoo6952]

If talking about team sports, then the Miracle on Ice has to be high on the list.

For individual achievement, Mark Spitz, 1972 Olympic swimmer, won 7 gold medals and he broke the world record in all 7 events!

[buddyhu]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

Barry Bonds - I am not a fan but I find these stats from 2004 amazing: 232 walks including 120 intentional walks (IBB). On base percentage of .609. He also led the league with a .362 batting average.

I saw a lot of that season, because I was living in the Bay Area at that time. It was amazing.

Hard to mention his name in the context of many fine people and teams who achieved incredible feats in their sports. Not really a fan either after seeing the steroids stuff play out. But I will always remember what it was like to watch him come to the plate that year. And some others... too.

[RussL30]

Cal Ripken Jr.’s iron man streak. That will never be even be sniffed by anyone ever again.

[jpd]

Originally Posted by alnico5

This doesn't meet your 50 year criteria because it happened in 1952 but I am taking the liberty to mention it anyway. At the 1952 Olympics, Emil Zatopek, a Czech runner, decided to enter the marathon at the last moment. He had never run a marathon before. He won the gold medal. Days before, he also won the 5000 and 10,000 meter Olympic gold medals. He is probably the greatest runner of all time.

Without modern training and special supplements....his is without a doubt the greatest Olympic performance by a long distance runner!

My addition to this subject is the amazing pitcher, Nolan Ryan. Before hanging up his spikes at age 46, Ryan topped the 300-win mark and hurled a record seventh no-hitter as a member of the Texas Rangers.

[Borderdon]

Originally Posted by IndianaGeo

Alex Honnold. El Cap.

This, simply in a league of its own, IMHO

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by IndianaGeo

Alex Honnold. El Cap.

Nice one. Mind-bending achievement.

I have to put in a post for the career of Eddy Merckx, which I don't really see being rivaled by any other individual career in sport, ever.

I think one needs to understand a bit about cycling to comprehend his entire palmares (career achievements), but I'll try and summarize here.

Career wins: Merckx had a total of 525wins. I'll use Lance Armstrong by way of comparison, as most Americans can relate to his career a bit better. Armstrong won 122 races over his career, counting his voided wins for doping. Merckx's number is staggering by comparison, in a career that was 5 years shorter than that of Armstrong. No one in cycling have ever come anywhere close to the 525 wins of Merckx. I will confidently say this record will never be bested.

Grant Tour Wins: Merckx holds the record for Grand Tour wins at 11. Grand Tours are stage races of 3 weeks in duration, and include the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy), and the Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain). Merckx won 5 Tours, 5 Giros, and 1 Vuelta.

During his wins, he was totally dominant. In his first Tour for example, he won the yellow jersey (overall), points jersey (sprinting), mountains jersey (climbing), combativity jersey (given to the rider who animates the races the most), and of course the combination jersey (given to the rider who does the best in all the categories). No one has ever come close to repeating this. Climbing and sprinting are at the opposite ends of the talent spectrum in cycling, and winning both is almost unimaginable. The domination of this performance can't be overstated.

Merckx racked up the most days in the Yellow Jersey ever over his 5 Tours, with 111 days. Armstrong by comparison racked up 83 over the course of 7 wins and is the closest in second place.

He also holds the record for Tour de France stage wins at 34. The next closest rider is Mark Cavendish with 30. Cavendish is a sprinter, and won all his races on flat sprint stages. Merckx won sprints, climbs, intermediate stages and time trials. He was dominant over every kind of terrain.

Monuments and Classic Wins: The monuments are the 5 most prestigious one-day races on the calendar, a subset of hugely important races collectively called "The Classics". The classics are considered by many the most important races of the year, they hold a special place in the hearts of long-time cycling fans, where the more casual fan focuses mostly on the Grant Tours or the Tour de France. The Monuments are the oldest and longest of the classics, and include Milan San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, The Tour of Flanders, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and the Tour of Lombardy. Only 3 men have won all 5 Monuments. Merckx won them all twice or more with a total of 19 wins in monuments. The next closest rider won 11, and was a classics specialist, never competitive in the Grand Tours. Merckx won these races in the same years he won Grand Tours. It's hard to imagine a rider winning so much all year long, he was simply dominant in a way never seen before or since.

I really can't even begin to encapsulate his career here, there are too many wins, done with too much style and courage. One year in the Tour he had a 2 minute lead, which is not a ton, but not a situation where a leader generally attacks, especially a leader who dominates in time trials. Merckx was a different guy. He attacked with 140 km left to go in the stage, over two huge mountain passes. By the time he arrived at the finish, he had extended his lead over his rivals to 16 minutes. He continued to attack all the way into Paris, eventually extending his lead to 18 minutes. He was given the nickname, "The Cannibal" because of his insatiable desire to win at all times.

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by buddyhu

I saw a lot of that season, because I was living in the Bay Area at that time. It was amazing.

Hard to mention his name in the context of many fine people and teams who achieved incredible feats in their sports. Not really a fan either after seeing the steroids stuff play out. But I will always remember what it was like to watch him come to the plate that year. And some others... too.

I'm sure the stadium was electric when Bonds was at bat ... only to have him walk nearly 30% of his at bats.

Originally Posted by RussL30

Cal Ripken Jr.’s iron man streak. That will never be even be sniffed by anyone ever again.

Yea, Ripken's streak was amazing. How many players play a full 162 games now? I just checked it out ... last season there were only 5 players to play all 162 games; another 4 players played 161; another 3 players played 160.

[Frostie]

Originally Posted by Bill Sims

1973 Belmont Stakes ---- Secretariat

I get goose bumps every time I watch that video.

That season, he set track records in the three legs of the Triple Crown that still stand! Forty-seven years later!!

[Lkristians]

There were several mentions of the 1980 Miracle on Ice, and I just read this amazing article about Mark Pavelich, who was on that team. A confluence of tragic events and possible CTE (concussion related). I hope you find it interesting.

https://nypost.com/2020/04/30/mark-p...0-years-later/

[Bob Womack]

Okay, it is obscure.

I think it would be the last game of the 1971 Knoxville, TN, junior high football season when tiny Tyson Junior High with its thirteen-man squad tied the already-declared city champion, fifty-six member squad of Bearden Junior High. Our team had been whittled down to to thirteen by staph infections later traced to our practice field that was built on a city dump. The game ended six-t- six after we were cheated out of our two-point conversion by a bad call. I've got a four-star general who agrees with me on that: He had his nose in the chalk goal line and our ball carrier was ahead of him. We both played every play of the game except one each, when we were allowed to rest! I kept my letter. Quitters don't win. Or tie.



Bob

[Rodger]

For me, it would be LeBron James willing the Cleveland Cavaliers to the 2016 NBA Championship... the only championship that the city of Cleveland has had in over 50 years. And, coming from a 3 - 1 deficit. Never done before or since.

This includes the greatest athletic play in the history of athletics... his block of Andre Iguodala in the waning seconds of the game. I had mentally added the 2 points for the Warriors before I realized James had come out of nowhere to swat that one away. They show that play a lot on the local sports segments... I get goose bumps every time I see it.

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by Rodger

For me, it would be LeBron James willing the Cleveland Cavaliers to the 2016 NBA Championship... the only championship that the city of Cleveland has had in over 50 years. And, coming from a 3 - 1 deficit. Never done before or since.

This includes the greatest athletic play in the history of athletics... his block of Andre Iguodala in the waning seconds of the game. I had mentally added the 2 points for the Warriors before I realized James had come out of nowhere to swat that one away. They show that play a lot on the local sports segments... I get goose bumps every time I see it.

Yes, to my dismay lol. Golden State pulled out all the stops to get the record all time single season wins with 73, surpassing the Bulls' record of 72 wins. But the Bulls won the championship that season, Golden State didn't.

[6 Strings MI]

If we're counting motorsports...there is the Triple Crown of Motorsport. Graham Hill is the only driver to complete all three legs (of both possible definitions). He did so by winning the 1972 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.