The current global situation has been interesting for sports. Only a few months ago, sports seemed done for the year, but they rebounded due to great coordination and guidelines set by leagues, governments, and players. I wonder though, what is the greatest sports accomplishment by a single player of a sport ever? After thinking about it for a few days, I think I’ve got some guesses.
Hockey player Wayne Gretzky is known by far as the greatest hockey player that ever played the sport, but did you know that his career totals might be the most dominant career statistics that sports have ever seen? Gretzky recorded 2,857 points over his career. That’s over 900 points more than the next person on the list (Jaromir Jagr). Gretzky, known as a prolific goal scorer, has notched 894 goals, but that’s not the crazy part: if he had scored zero goals throughout his entire career, he would still be the points leader. That is a level of achievement so high that it’s not comparable to other athletes.
Tennis is a sport that’s been taking off globally over the past 20 years, due to the three greatest players of all time playing together for over a decade now: Swiss star Roger Federer, the greatest male player ever (if you’re talking about Grand Slam victories), and his two rivals, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. However, Spain’s Nadal might have the greatest stat of them all: Nadal has won a record 12 French Open titles, completely shattering the record of most Grand Slam wins on one surface for a single player. Dubbed the “King of Clay,” Nadal’s French Open resumé stacks up with any single set of performances for any sport.
These simply stand out among the greatest accomplishments of sports history, in my opinion. I know the LeBron James supporters will come for me, but I’ll admit, climbing back to beat Golden State in 2016 from being down 3-1 is pretty darn impressive.
