The 12 Athletes Who Changed Their Sport the Most
Not the best players, but the ones who left their sport being played differently than they found it.
1Stephen CurryMade the three-pointer the centre of basketball and every level of the game followed.
2Dick FosburyWon 1968 Olympic gold jumping backwards and nobody has high-jumped any other way since.
3Ronda RouseyThe UFC had no women's division until her; four years later it had four of them.
4Babe RuthTurned baseball from a game of bunts and stolen bases into a game about home runs.
5Royce GracieWon the first UFC tournaments and forced every fighter on earth to learn grappling.
6Bill RussellMade defence and the blocked shot a strategy rather than an accident.
7Serena WilliamsBrought a power baseline game to women's tennis that the whole tour now plays.
8Johan CruyffPlayer and then coach behind total football, which is still the template at Barcelona.
9Jackie RobinsonBroke baseball's colour line in 1947 and changed who American sport was for.
10Muhammad AliInvented the modern athlete as a public voice, and the pre-fight sell along with it.
11Simone BilesHas four skills named after her, and the code of points had to be rewritten around her.
12Usain BoltRan 9.58 and moved the ceiling of the 100m so far that nobody has approached it since.
#Sports648#Athletes42#Legends375
Comments
Bunts and stolen bases went in, and waiting for a home run came out, which is how Dick Fosbury and Royce Gracie qualify too: https://youpick.best/articles/babe-ruth-ranked-many-ways https://youpick.best/articles/ronda-rousey-ranked-many-ways
