Who is your favourite athlete right now?

Pisco Sour

Excluding Irish athletes (as a lot of us would have a natural bias towards them) who is your favourite athlete/ athletes currently competing on the circuit?

I'll start the ball rolling. I have two:

Blanca Vlasic - Watching her perform the High Jump is like poetry in motion. She makes jumping over 2 metres look so incredibly simple. And she has got an incredible competition personality (overshadowed by Bolt's). She always entertains the crowd with her bizzare dancing and reactions to when she clears heights. It's something that the crowd very much enjoys and is something which is good for the sport.

Allyson Felix - She is fantastic. It is great to see a sprinter who is so small, skinny, slight, with no visible muscles whatsoever. She just looks so natural. Too many sprinters are so big and bulky and powerful. Allyson is just so graceful, and it is a refreshing change from the usual Big women you see in sprint events. And she is pleasing on the eye also

too much trifle

Mo Farah,
outside the africans he is a ray of hope,
and a great ambassaor,
but being from london i may be showing my bias?

woodchopper

Craig 'buster' Mottram although Chris Solinsky is taking my fancy.

Pherekydes

too much trifle wrote: »

Mo Farah,
outside the africans he is a ray of hope,
and a great ambassaor,
but being from london i may be showing my bias?

He is an African.

Tyson Gay and Jeremy Wariner for me. On the distaff side, Darya Klishina (ahem ).

Brianderunner

My favourite athlete has been Allyson Felix for the last 5 years just due to her natural movement and ability. Still only 24, lots more to come. Olympic 200m gold is long overdue.

Others;

Usain Bolt; Best sportsman on the planet, how can you compare him to anyone else in any other sport? Tiger woods would want to win all 4 majors every year to compare. Bolts 9.58 is for me the best sporting performance in history.

Kenenisa Bekele; First saw him in Leopardstown racecourse winning the world xc by a street. Best distance runner in history and his world records will be hard to beat.

ecoli

Chris Solinsky for sure. Has been consistently challenging in DL and his super 10k in Stanford closing a 10k in 1.56 so has the legs to compete with the africans in the final burner.

frankeee

ecoli wrote: »

Chris Solinsky for sure. Has been consistently challenging in DL and his super 10k in Stanford closing a 10k in 1.56 so has the legs to compete with the africans in the final burner.

Have to agree 100%. Was screaming at the telly last night as he battled down the home straight!

Either him or Alistair Cragg:-)

shotgunmcos

04072511 wrote: »

Excluding Irish athletes (as a lot of us would have a natural bias towards them) who is your favourite athlete/ athletes currently competing on the circuit?

I'll start the ball rolling. I have two:

Blanca Vlasic - Watching her perform the High Jump is like poetry in motion. She makes jumping over 2 metres look so incredibly simple. And she has got an incredible competition personality (overshadowed by Bolt's). She always entertains the crowd with her bizzare dancing and reactions to when she clears heights. It's something that the crowd very much enjoys and is something which is good for the sport.

Allyson Felix - She is fantastic. It is great to see a sprinter who is so small, skinny, slight, with no visible muscles whatsoever. She just looks so natural. Too many sprinters are so big and bulky and powerful. Allyson is just so graceful, and it is a refreshing change from the usual Big women you see in sprint events. And she is pleasing on the eye also

+1 on both of those, similar taste eh With Vlasic its cool to watch the sheer focus before her jump and the unburdened joy. Felix is just a breath of fresh air amongst female sprinters. Sitting down watching the diamond league with my OH and as they scan over the sprinters in their block, I hear "man, man, man, thats a man, man, who's she?!..."

Another excuse to post this pic

athlete123

Jessica Ennis. She is just fantastic. I think what I love about her is her modesty, it stands out amoungst a very confident sometimes cocky british team and the funny thing is she is the one on the team who has the most right to be cocky! The fact that she is also a babe probably had some influence on my decision!!;)

Foxx92

Jess Ennis +1

Has everything really! :pac:

RoyMcC

Jenny Meadows and Andy Turner - pushing themselves from national to international class through sheer bloodymindedness.

And on a parochial note, Jersey's two young athletes competing in the Commonwealth Games in October, Zane Duquemin and Kathryn Rothwell.

Pisco Sour

Honourable mention to Lisa Dobrisky, She must be the most positive person on earth. Always smiling regardless of how the race goes. She comes across as literally the nicest human on earth when she talks.

Was gutted for her that she was pushed out of the medals by that french drug cheat who was just back from a 2 year suspension in time to compete in the European Championships. The oul phrase "Life's not fair" rears its ugly head again!

Sklarker

Yohan Blake - Sub 9.9/19.8 for 100/200 aged 20!

RealistSpy

Jess Ennis
Tyson Gay
Steven Colvert

JosDel

Haile Gebrselassie....Still love watching this man, he is a god...

myflipflops

Martin Lel - When fit and uninjured, he was/is unbeatable at the marathon. He could run quick times, win with a kick, basically whatever way it was needed. No time trials for him, competitive marathons all the way. Also was a money printing machine backing him in major marathons for a couple of years.

Mo Farah (vote for him for SPOTY!) is up there too along with Solinsky and Jessica Ennis

Also, after reading the below interview, i'm a David Oliver fan. No bullsh*t, he calls it as he sees it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/aug/15/david-oliver-athletics-british-hurdlers


Least favorite at the moment: Mark Lewis-Francis.

RandyMann

1. Tunney
2. Allison Stokke (Pole Vault)
2. Blanka Vlasic (High Jump)
3. Amanda Beard (Swimming)
4. Maria Sharapova (Tennis)
5. Maria Kirilenko (Tennis)
6. Lokelani McMichael (Triathlete)
7. Amy Acuff (Track and Field)
8. Jessica Ennis (Heptathlete)
9. Heather Mitts (Soccer)
10. Anna Kournikova (Tennis)

There are a lot more but their athleticism could be debatable

Foxx92

RandyMann wrote: »

1. Tunney
2. Allison Stokke (Pole Vault)
2. Blanka Vlasic (High Jump)
3. Amanda Beard (Swimming)
4. Maria Sharapova (Tennis)
5. Maria Kirilenko (Tennis)
6. Lokelani McMichael (Triathlete)
7. Amy Acuff (Track and Field)
8. Jessica Ennis (Heptathlete)
9. Heather Mitts (Soccer)
10. Anna Kournikova (Tennis)

There are a lot more but their athleticism could be debatable

You forgot the Norweigan girl who ran in the 100m hurdles against Derval! MMMmmmm

Edit: Here she is

RandyMann

Foxx92 wrote: »

You forgot the Norweigan girl who ran in the 100m hurdles against Derval! MMMmmmm

Edit: Here she is

Yes, I can see where you are coming from there mate. I may put her in as no.4 on my list. She would have made No.3 but I can't help but notice the distance bewteen her elbow and shoulder could be half inch too short..

ecoli

RandyMann wrote: »

Yes, I can see where you are coming from there mate. I may put her in as no.4 on my list

Make sure to make these comments indoors or you will have her bf to deal with



http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/R_xDhX44CWq/IAAF+Diamond+League/GE4egOb8GMh/Andreas+Thorkildsen

G-Money

I'm a newbie to the whole A/R/T disciplines but I've been watching quite a bit of athletics recently. I watched the Diamond League last night from Zurich and yer man David Oliver came across as a sound guy, not all full of himself.

I agree that Lisa Dobriskey must be the most positive person I've ever seen, even last night when her shoe came off when coming onto the last bend.

Mo Farah has done well and set a British record last night by running under 13 minutes in the 5K. He seems sound enough and yer man Chris Thompson seems quite down to earth too. I was listening to an interview with him on a podcast called Marathon Talk and he came across very well.

Jessica Ennis seems really nice and is a very good athlete. She's also very easy on the eye

Like most people I think, Usain Bolt would be one of my favourites. He has a book coming out in about 2 weeks. I've no idea what it's like, I haven't seen any reviews or anything of it but most likely I'll buy it: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/000737139X/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1VMHRVRXWGDK4STXV4CZ&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128533&pf_rd_i=468294

I know he's retired now but I always liked Ian Thorpe. When I lived in Australia I went to the Australian Swimming championships where he set a new Commonwealth record in the 200 metre individual medley (thanks Wikipedia, I couldn't remember which swimming event it was) But I was always glad I went to see it.

ecoli

grandmaster wrote: »

Mo Farah has done well and set a British record last night by running under 13 minutes in the 5K. He seems sound enough and yer man Chris Thompson seems quite down to earth too. I was listening to an interview with him on a podcast called Marathon Talk and he came across very well.

Interesting thing about that race not having one European based athlete and only one actual European born. Have long distance runner been forced into exile from Europe to achieve glory?

Chris Thompson - UK - trains with the Oregon Track Club
Chris Solinksky - US - trains with the Oregon Track Club
Galen Rupp - US - trains with the Oregon Track Club
Mo Farah - UK (Somalian born) - trains in the Rift Valley

W.B. Yeats

In no particular order

Bolt: no superlatives can describe him
Kenenisa Bekele- just incredible
Vlasic: a great competitor, I was really disappointed for her in Beijing
Christoph LeMaitre- white men can run fast. If he can get his technique together he should be capable of knocking another tenth or two off

longjump67

Alison Felix class oozes out of every pour stylish perfection

sd2002

Tirunesh Dibaba: for her graceful running style and the smoothness with which she ups the pace near end of races.

Also, 2 WRs and a sackful of major medals ... and still only 24!

RayCun

W.B. Yeats wrote: »

Christoph LeMaitre- white men can run fast. If he can get his technique together he should be capable of knocking another tenth or two off

I don't watch a lot of athletics, but I saw one of the 200m heats (or semi-final?) from Barcelona last month, and his speed after the turn was just astonishing.

Raedwald

My two favs at the moment are;

Jess Ennis, She has taken heptathlon by storm over the last couple of years and goes out and gives it absolutely everything she has each and every time.

Blanka Vlasic, Stunning woman, here jumping is sensational and she always comes across as cool and down to earth who loves what does for a living.

morse3

Watched this girl Ciara from the North, best I seen since SOS.

http://www.niathletics.org/news/default.asp?ID=1926&itemId=219&topicId=&va=0

Brianderunner

RayCun wrote: »

I don't watch a lot of athletics, but I saw one of the 200m heats (or semi-final?) from Barcelona last month, and his speed after the turn was just astonishing.

Big fish in a small pond. He was well beaten by Bolt in Paris. His performances in Barca were stunning no doubt though.