Athlete of the decade

Tiger Woods has been chosen by AP as the Athlete of the decade. The close nominees were Lance Armstrong, Michael Phelps, Roger Federer and Usain Bolt. Pretty impressive list and I am sure it would take a lot of analysis to figure who would be the athlete of the century. It is easy to compare these athletes as they are all part of individual sport and not team sport. They are alone while performing and the outcome of their matches pretty much depends on themselves unlike a team sport.

To begin with Tiger Woods transcended the sport of golf from being a Rich Old's man game to a world sport. He controlled the TV ratings and brought in millions into the sport. He holds 14 majors - 4 short of Jack Nicklaus's record as well as 64 titles. He was ranked for almost 90% of this decade. These are unbeatable numbers but is he really the ATHLETE of the century?

Does he possess all attributes of a world class athlete - speed, physical strength, endurance, skill, mental strength to oversome tough situations, consistency. We will never know if he has all of these as Golf doesnt require all of these but he definitely has 4 of these. Physical strength - one of the longest drivers in the game; Skill - best of the game; mental strength; consistency - kept winning for majority of the decade. Image is important as well in world sport to set an example for people to take up the sport. He has inspired millions to take up golf. It's just a sad part that infidelity had harmed his image at the very end of the decade.

More lack of involvement of the physicality (strength, speed, stamina) makes me reluctant to agree on Woods being the true athlete of the decade. It is noted that mental strength becomes all the more difficult when physical fatigue sets in.

Compared to Golf, Tennis is a much more demanding sport physicality wise. In addition almost all tennis tournaments employ the knock out system, which implies that if you wake on the wrong side of the bed one day, its very likely you are going out of the tournament. Unlike the other sports conditions vary a lot in tennis  with the four different surfaces -Hardcourt, Grass, Clay and rebound ace (Synthetic). Also the seasons are longer - from Jan to November with the tournaments in all corners of the world. All these make Roger Federer's - the current world number one's performance in the last decade very special. Federer is Tiger Wood's equivalent in tennis and is widely acclaimed by many to be the greatest player to play the game. He would have been all the more famous had he been American!!
Just have a look at Federer's records which he has set in this decade:-
15 Major Grandslam titles
237 consecutive weeks as world number one
21 major grandslam final appearences
22 consecutive Grandslam semifinal appearences
10 consecutive grandslam finals
65 consecutive victories on grass
56 consecutive victories on clay
24 consecutive tournament final victories
one of the only 6 men in history to win all four grandslams
only player to play all 4 grandslam finals in 3 seasons.

Some of these records may never be broken.

And unlike Woods he has a clean image, making him a great role model.

What Michael Phelps has done is unprecendented. Chosen World swimmer of the year for 6 years in this decade is incredible enough. His 6 gold medals in Atlanta were probably the best Olympian swimmer perfomance since Mark Spitz's 7 gold medal haul. Well, he accomplished the unimaginable -won 8 gold medals in the Beijing Olympics. Racing at almost one race every 15 minutes takes incredible physical and mental strength. He has till date broken 37 world records. These numbers are stupendous. Its just sad that his image was tainted with DUI charges and marijuana allegations. It can also be argued that the number of events Phelps had to take part in a regular non olympic / non world championship year were very few and far between.

At 6'5" Usain Bolt is the tallest man of the list. He is the first man since Carl Lewis to hold all three sprinting world titles and the first man to hold world and olympic records for the 100 and 200 m sprints as well as 100 m relay. But He came into limelight only at 2008 Olympics therefore compared to the other athletes he might not have a wide time span of performances over several years to show but in the short time he has been in the scene he has definitely transcended the sport rewriting the myth that man couldnt run any faster.

That leaves us with the Lance Armstrong. A man who won seven consecutive Tour de France races- six being in this decade. It is arguably the most physically demanding race across all sports spanning 3 weeks and 2200 miles. The effort is equivalent to running several marathons over 3 weeks and the cumulative climbs are equivalent to 3 x Mt Everest. Even more it takes great game strategy to complete the course on top.On top of that - we are talking about an athlete who survived testicular cancer, and brain & lung tumor just 3 years prior to his first Tour de France. The treatments involved extensive surgery and chemotherapy. For someone to come back and win the most physically gruelling event in the world for 7 years in a row - it takes incredible physical and mental strength along with consistency.He has got to be the athlete of the decade without a doubt.

There is it. My rankings for Athlete of the decade:-

1. Lance Armstrong
2. Roger Federer
3. Michael Phelps
4. Tiger Woods
5. Usain Bolt