Top 10 Sports Rivalries

TCD619 · #1 02-24-2008, 12:27 PM

Dont agree w/it, but it was on Yahoo.com, and thought i'd share

#10 Greg LeMond vs. Bernard Hinault

In 1985, Bernard Hinault (right) was riding to his fifth victory in the Tour de France. He was aided by his 24-year-old teammate, Greg LeMond, who finished third behind Hinault the year before. Hinault built a formidable lead going into stage 14. Then he crashed. When the tour hit the Pyrenees, LeMond wanted to surge ahead. With two black eyes and a broken nose, the team leader was lagging, and the race was wide open. But LeMond's coaches held him back (he says they lied to him). Hinault won that year. LeMond won the next, and the grudge never died.

#9 Alydar vs. Affirmed

If it wasn't for Affirmed (right), Alydar would have won the Triple Crown in 1978. Instead, the thoroughbred finished a close second in all three races. In the Preakness he couldn't catch Affirmed and lost by a neck. In the Belmont, after the lead swung back and forth for a mile and a half, Alydar was nipped at the line by a nose. Altogether the two horses raced ten times. Affirmed won seven of them and raced into history, just ahead of his rival.

#8 Ayrton Senna vs. Alain Prost

Two of the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all time, Prost (right) and Senna won seven World Championships between them. Prost, a Frenchman, was known as "the Professor" for his detached and studied style while Senna, a Brazilian, drove wildly. They clashed on and off the track, even when they were teammates in the late 1980s. In one of their most famous confrontations, at the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix, Senna deliberately crashed into Prost's car to prevent his rival from getting points. Senna held on to the title
#7 Garry Kasparov vs. Anatoly Karpov

When a young Kasparov (left) first challenged Karpov for the World Chess Championship in 1984, he fell down quickly, 0-4. But he battled back with a series of draws and extended the match to a record 48 games. Officials finally halted the whole thing (Karpov was up, 5-3), fearing that the players had reached an unhealthy state of exhaustion. So began the long struggle between two great champions. Kasparov held the title after 1985, but after four more matches, he was only two games ahead, winning 21 games, losing 19, and drawing 104.

#6 Arnold Palmer vs. Jack Nicklaus

In 1962 Arnold Palmer (left) was a beloved champion sitting on top of the golf world. On the final day of the U.S. Open at Oakmont, near Arnie's hometown of Latrobe, PA, he held a three-shot lead and was about to win his sixth major championship when a 22-year-old upstart came charging. Jack Nicklaus tied the match, then beat Palmer in an 18-hole playoff, ushering in one of the greatest rivalries in sports: Jack, the young, steely clinician, against the affable old Arnie. Golf was reborn for a television audience.

#5 Martina Navratilova vs. Chris Evert

At the end of each season from 1975 to 1986, either the all-American girl-next-door or the powerful Eastern European was the top-ranked tennis player in the world. Through it all they remained close friends, so it was as much a sense of shared competition as a heated rivalry that made the 1985 French Open final, a see-sawing affair won by Evert (right), 6-3 6-7 7-5, one of the greatest matches in history. Altogether the Hall of Famers played each other 80 times, including 60 finals, with Navratilova holding a 43-37 advantage.

#4 Richard Petty v. David Pearson

Petty and Pearson are the two winningest drivers in NASCAR history. From 1963 to 1977, they finished 1-2 in 63 races (Pearson won 33, and Petty, 30). While "the King" Petty (left) won four more overall titles than "the Silver Fox," their rivalry ran deep. As Humpy Wheeler, president of Lowe's Motor Speedway, said, "if you dared to ask the crowd which driver was better, you had better have your shoulder pads on because someone was going to start fighting."

#3 Bill Russell vs. Wilt Chamberlain

Before Wilt Chamberlain (right) entered the NBA in 1959, it seemed that Bill Russell had no one to play against. The defensive-minded Russell dominated the paint, powering his Celtics to two championships in his first three seasons. Then came the NBA's first seven-footer to have power, grace, and magical offensive skills. When Chamberlain's Warriors first met the Celtics, the game was dubbed the "Big Collision." The brash young dynamo and the calm, cool defender turned the match into a one-on-one battle.

#2 Björn Borg vs. John McEnroe

Simply watching the fourth set tiebreak of the 1980 Wimbledon final was exhausting, and exhilarating. The fiery 21-year-old American saved five championship points (after saving two in the previous game) and survived, 18-16. But the cool Swede (left) held on 8-6 in the final set to take his fifth Wimbledon crown. The two longhaired, long-limbed champs with contrasting styles and temperaments met in three more classic major finals over the next two seasons
#1 Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier

They fought three times, and each fight seemed bigger than a boxing match, combining political and cultural differences (the flamboyant, anti-war Muslim against the conservative blue-collar Joe) with showmanship and old-fashioned venom. The fast-talking Ali called Frazier a "gorilla" and an "Uncle Tom." Frazier never forgave him and didn't understand, as author David Halberstam put it, "that the only way we know of Ali's greatness is because of Frazier's equivalent greatness, that in the end there was no real difference between the two of them as fighters."

Romanowski · #2 02-24-2008, 12:29 PM

obv these exclude team sports

TCD619 · #3 02-24-2008, 12:36 PM

Obv. its individuals.
would love to see a team list.

dhunter · #4 02-24-2008, 12:37 PM

tiger vs. phil

TCD619 · #5 02-24-2008, 12:38 PM

Bird vs Magic
Magic vs MJ

soon to be lebron vs carmello

ZoomVT · #6 02-24-2008, 02:05 PM

definitely senna should be up there... his rivalry with schumacher was good too.

sleepless · #7 02-25-2008, 06:58 AM

was this list done 10 yrs ago?

westcoastO · #8 02-25-2008, 07:11 AM

a chess rivalry was included on that list. what about jordan and isiah? that was a REAL rivalry, and the bad boys vs the bulls of the late 80s early 90s was great. jordan vs bird? jordan vs magic?

but a chess rivalry, 2 tennis rivalries, 2 racing rivalries make the list.

2 thumbs down, yahoo.