Message Board

Members' Opinion Polls

Message board > Members' Opinion Polls > Members' poll: What's the most beautiful piece of sport you've ever seen (live)?

What's the most beautiful piece of sport you've ever seen (live)?

*Liu Xiang broke Colin Jackson's 13-year-old 110m hurdles world record this week. That World Championship-winning run of 12.91 from CJ was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in sport. What's your favourite - not the most important or dramatic, but simply the most beautiful? (Ideally you should have watched it live for it to count.)

* denotes a link to a video clip.

*Football: Diego Maradona's second goal, Argentina vs England, World Cup QF, 1986		0%

*Football: Marco van Basten's winner, Holland vs USSR, European Championship Final, 1988		0%

*Football: Roberto Carlos's goal, Brazil vs France, Le Tournoi, 1997		5%

*Football: Michael Owen's goal, England vs Argentina, World Cup Round 2, 1998		0%

*Football: Dennis Bergkamp's last-minute winner, Holland vs Argentina, World Cup QF, 1998		0%

*Football: Ryan Giggs's extra-time winner, Man United vs Arsenal, FA Cup SF, 1999		0%

*Football: Thierry Henry's winner, Arsenal vs Man United, Premiership, 2000		0%

*Football: Zinedine Zidane's winner, Real Madrid vs Bayer Leverkusen, Champions' League Final, 2002		5%

*Football: Steven Gerrard's last-minute equaliser, Liverpool vs West Ham, FA Cup Final, 2006		10%

*Football: Esteban Cambiasso's goal, Argentina vs Serbia, World Cup Group C, 2006		5%

Cricket: Lance Klusener's 31* off 16 balls, South Africa vs Australia, World Cup SF, 1999		0%

Cricket: Kevin Pietersen's 91* off 65 balls, England vs Australia, ODI, 1999		0%

Cricket: Matthew Hoggard's series-winning 7-61, England vs South Africa, 2005		0%

Cricket: England (477) reducing Australia to 99/5, 4th Ashes Test, 2005		0%

Rugby: Rob Andrew's last-minute match-winning drop goal, England vs Australia, World Cup QF, 1995		0%

Rugby: Jonny Wilkinson's tackle on Matt Giteau, England vs Australia, World Cup Final, 2003		0%

*Rugby: Jonny Wilkinson's last-minute match-winning drop goal, England vs Australia, World Cup Final, 2003		15%

Rowing: Searle brothers winning Gold in the coxed pair with Gary Herbert, Barcelona, 1992		0%

Rowing: Redgrave and Pinsent winning Gold in Barcelona, 1992		0%

Rowing: Redgrave and Pinsent winning Gold in Atlanta, 1996		0%

Rowing: Cambridge breaking the course record (16.19) in winning the Boat Race, 1998		0%

Rowing: British coxless four winning Gold in Sydney, 2000		0%

Rowing: British eight winning Gold in Sydney, 2000		5%

*Rowing: Oxford winning from behind at Barnes Bridge, Boat Race, 2002 (see next option for video)		5%

*Rowing: Oxford winning by one foot, Boat Race, 2003 (video)		0%

Rowing: British coxless four winning Gold in Athens, 2004		5%

Athletics: Daley Thompson's decathlon Olympic Gold, Los Angeles, 1984		0%

Athletics: Colin Jackson's 110m hurdles world record (12.91), World Championships, Stuttgart, 1993		5%

*Athletics: Jonathan Edwards's triple jump world record (18.29m), World Championships, Gothenburg, 1995		0%

Athletics: Haile Gebrselassie breaking the 5000m world record by 11 seconds, Zurich, 1995		0%

*Athletics: Michael Johnson's 200m world record (19.32), Olympic Final, Atlanta, 1996		5%

Athletics: Haile Gebrselassie winning Olympic 10000m Gold, Sydney, 2000		0%

Swimming: Australia beating the USA to win Gold in the 4x100m relay, Sydney, 2000		0%

Hockey: Great Britain going 2-0 up on Germany, Olympic Final, Seoul, 1988		0%

Tennis: Goran Ivanisevic beating Pat Rafter in 5 sets, Wimbledon Final, 2001		0%

Tennis: Roger Federer beating Andy Roddick, Wimbledon Final, 2005		0%

Golf: Constantino Rocca's 60-foot putt on the 18th hole to force a play-off, British Open, 1995		0%

Golf: Tiger Woods winning the US Masters by a record 12 shots, aged 21, 1997		0%

*Snooker: Ronnie O'Sullivan's world record fastest 147 in 5min 20sec, 1997		0%

Figure-skating: Torvill and Dean winning Gold with Bolero*, Winter Olympics, Sarajevo, 1984		5%

Other (please post below, with a link if possible.)		30%

Total: 20 members' votes

by Simon - Sun 16th Jul 2006, 7:02pm

Neil T said: What's your favourite - not the most important or dramatic, but simply the most beautiful? (Ideally you should have watched it live for it to count.)...
Other (please post below, with a link if possible.): 33%

Athletics: Kelly Holmes comes from behind to win the 800m Olympic gold medal. Everything you've heard about the crowd is true - about one person in six in the stadium that night was supporting GB, and everyone sat around us was. After 300m she's last, and in a Games marked by underperformance by British athletics, the crowd gives another collective sigh of disappointment that a British athlete is not delivering. As she went past the hammer cage for a second time, on the far right corner of the track from where we were sitting and with 300m to go, she visibly changed speed and from there on she was running a different race to the others. In the last 100m the crowd erupted and she pipped the blanket finish - we knew she had won before she did. Later on we would cheer Seb Coe when he got announced in the medal party (and he would be the only medal presenter we ever saw wave to a crowd). On reflection, the 2012 Olympic bid moved slightly closer to London that evening, but at the time all we could think about was the amazing race we'd just seen.

by dw229 - Sun 16th Jul 2006, 7:40pm

I wasn't there, but I saw it live on TV: Liverpool's Champions League victory in 2005 versus AC Milan.

Facing a massive defeat at the hands of a far superior Italian side at half time, some fans left the stadium; most people at the pub I was in downed a few drinks; but a vocal minority started up with a chorus of Liverpool's trademark song.

Steven Gerrard began the fightback with a header, followed by Smicer's shot and Xabi Alonso's follow-up to a missed penalty. Dudek then stunningly kept out a Shevchenko header, a shot from a yard, and then his penalty to give Liverpool the trophy.

At this year's World Cup, many of the AC Milan players were quoted as saying they wanted to win to erase the pain of 14 months earlier. Liverpool's victory has to be one of the most phenomenal comebacks of all time and just goes to show that those who try hardest and never say die will win.

by Mike - Mon 17th Jul 2006, 9:41am

A couple come to mind for me:

September 1st, 2001: Germany 1-5 England. Sven's honeymoon period. When we truly believed that great things were on their way. A Michael Owen hat-trick, a Steven Gerrard stunner, and even one for Emile Heskey. Perhaps that one result raised our expectations too high, but the rest of Sven's reign was a bit flat in comparison.

August 7th, 2005: England win the 'greatest ever' test, beating Australia by 2 runs at Edgbaston to level the Ashes at 1-1. Maybe the cricket itself wasn't actually beautiful, with Lee and Warne fighting to save/win the game against some hostile England bowling, but the nail-biting tension, the brilliant, understated commentary from Richie Benaud ("Jones! Bowden!") and the sportsmanship between the two teams after the finish (Flintoff consoling a distraught Lee before celebrating with his teammates) combined to make a beautiful occasion. Plus we went on to win the Ashes, which was nice.

by Tom C - Mon 17th Jul 2006, 9:58am

Best comeback: College pool league, div 2a. Catz 5 v Trinity 4. Trinity have 5 wins out of 5 so far, and having soundly beaten Girton's first team last week expect this to be easy. Then, through an incredibly bad run of the ball, our best players crumble, leaving us 4-0 down. The last 5 frames all go to the black, but somehow we win them, saving our 100% record from the deepest jaws of defeat.

by Mike - Mon 17th Jul 2006, 10:29am

Another one: England 4-1 Holland in the last group match of Euro 96. England, fired up by a rejuvenated Paul Gascoigne, go 4-0 up after an hour against one of the tournament favourites, with two goals each for Shearer and Sheringham (the third goal, Shearer's second, was a thing of beauty, and demonstrates the value of a player (i.e. Sheringham) who actually has a brain). We could even allow them a consolation goal to put Scotland out on goal difference. A great way to celebrate the last day of my A-levels. For a short time we truly believed that football was coming home, until we lost on penalties to Germany in the semi-finals. Pah.

by gf - Mon 17th Jul 2006, 11:45am

This poll appears to be unravelling somewhat - with some votes based on events seen live and other votes (plus comments) based on televised action. All very confusing...

by Neil T - Mon 17th Jul 2006, 12:43pm

gf said: This poll appears to be unravelling somewhat - with some votes based on events seen live and other votes (plus comments) based on televised action. All very confusing...

By 'live', I meant 'as it happened', including on TV, rather than actually 'at the event'. I just don't think you can truly appreciate how good something is if you know what you are about to see when you see it for the first time. (This also helped to narrow the field of contenders!)

I had actually considered all of the events mentioned so far (apart from Trinity's pool victory...) but decided that they didn't meet the purely aesthetic criteria - obviously this is a very subjective area. In fact I nearly didn't include Jonny Wilkinson's drop goal for the same reason - his tackle on Matt Giteau was actually the most jaw-dropping moment of the final for me. In hindsight I agree that Kelly Holmes's 800m Olympic victory should have been included.

The above notwithstanding, Dan's link to the footage of Liverpool's astonishing victory over AC Milan is well worth watching (with sound!). That AC Milan team (Dida, Cafu, Stam, Nesta, Maldini, Pirlo, Seedorf, Kaka, Gattuso, Crespo, Shevchenko) was incredibly strong, including 3 Brazilian and 3 (future) Italian World Cup Winners, while the other 5 had won 9 European Cups between them, making Liverpool's fightback even more remarkable.

by gf - Mon 17th Jul 2006, 2:08pm

Neil T said: [various things]

Fair enough - had (mis-)interpreted the "live" aspect as being a vehicle for people to show off which events they had attended... and hence also expected the '98 boat race to do very well (not that it got my vote).

by clearly a feminist at heart - Mon 17th Jul 2006, 3:02pm

With around forty different sporting events in your list, it's quite interesting to see that only one of them includes a sportswoman (Torvill and Dean) - the rest are all men!

by gf - Mon 17th Jul 2006, 3:49pm

clearly a feminist at heart said: With around forty different sporting events in your list, it's quite interesting to see that only one of them includes a sportswoman (Torvill and Dean) - the rest are all men!

What about Ellie Griggs? (2002)

by Mike - Mon 17th Jul 2006, 4:19pm

Just to avoid any accusations of English bias coming into my definition of beautiful: one of the most brilliant and brutal batting displays I've ever seen was by Ricky Ponting in the 2003 World Cup Final against India. He hit 140 off 121 balls, including 4 fours and a massive 8 sixes. Depositing a spinner over midwicket for six is one thing, but he did it to the seamers as well - what he did to the penultimate ball of the innings is something no bowler should ever have to face. With the advent of Twenty20 cricket, the sorts of shots he played are becoming more commonplace, but at the time they were absolutely out of this world. Australia scored 359-2 and India were never in it, losing by 125 runs.

by Neil T - Mon 17th Jul 2006, 4:47pm

feminist said: With around forty different sporting events in your list, it's quite interesting to see that only one of them includes a sportswoman

gf said: What about Ellie Griggs? (2002)

Graham, I love you.

I had noticed this - and as I said above, I should have included Kelly Holmes's 800m victory - but I guess it's just a natural consequence of the lower profile (and, standard, in absolute terms, for most sports) of women's sport. Which events involving women would you like me to have included? (For the record, I considered including Paula Radcliffe's marathon world record, Ellen MacArthur's round-the-world record, Sally Gunnell's 400m hurdles Olympic Gold and World Championships Gold & world record and Steffi Graf's three-set Wimbledon victories over Gabriella Sabatini (1991) and the lachrymal Jana Novotna (1993), amongst several others - but this poll is about sporting beauty, not achievement.)

In response to Mike, I was careful to avoid record-scoring cricket matches such as Australia vs South Africa this year or Glamorgan vs Surrey in 2002 because conditions (e.g. pitch quality and size) were so much in favour of the batting side, but I agree that Ponting's knock should have been in there.

by Simon - Mon 17th Jul 2006, 4:59pm

Mike said: August 7th, 2005: England win the 'greatest ever' test, beating Australia by 2 runs at Edgbaston to level the Ashes at 1-1. ... the brilliant, understated commentary from Richie Benaud ("Jones! Bowden!")

I recall watching this with you and we were getting so frustrated at it that we were hardly listening to the commentary!

Also recall watching that Euro 96 game against Holland which really seemed to come out of nowhere - a totally unexpected rout.

If we're showing off, can I mention my front row seats at Lord's for the Third and Final day of England v West Indies in 2000 - not meeting the "beautiful" criteria but an astonishing day of Test cricket which brough hope and misery in equal measures and ended with thousands of people on the edge of their seats for the final two hours.

Or my free ticket to the final day of England v Australia at Headingley - I remember hearing Jonathan Agnew on 5Live Breakfast saying "if England can get to lunch on 100 for 1 then it could be interesting". Lunch was taken at 118 for 2 and as victory became inevitable during the afternoon every run was cheered by the loudest cricket crowd I've ever heard in this country.

And this was good, though never beautiful, and having coins whizzing past your face thrown from the opposition fans is never fun!

by Amelia - Tue 18th Jul 2006, 11:04am

Neil T said: Which events involving women would you like me to have included?

I wasn't saying that there necessarily ought to have been any events on the list including women - I was just interested to see that only two did.

And in response to Graham, I did consider trying to work out whether any of the rowing ones had been coxed by women but decided that a) I couldn't be bothered as b) someone was bound to derive some pleasure from proving me wrong. :)

by Mike - Wed 19th Jul 2006, 4:10pm

Ooh - I've got another one: Tiger Woods chipping in at the 16th hole at the Masters in 2005. Starting from an evil lie, with the ball nestled against the rough, he had to aim 25 feet to the left of the pin to counteract the slope of one of Augusta's notorious greens. As the ball bites and starts rolling down towards the hole, it looks like it's going to be a good shot, then a great one, and finally a miraculous one, as the ball stops on the lip, and in a beautifully cinematic moment (kudos to the cameraman for the close-up) takes one more revolution and drops in.

by Simon - Wed 19th Jul 2006, 5:43pm

Did anyone else watch the 1996 Masters final round live (on tv)? Great stuff.

by Martin P - Thu 20th Jul 2006, 7:18am

Simon said: Did anyone else watch the 1996 Masters final round live (on tv)? Great stuff.

Yes... watched most of the tournament - as luck would have it. It was great, my first experience of watching golf, not a bad start!

by Martin P - Thu 20th Jul 2006, 7:18am

Simon said: Did anyone else watch the 1996 Masters final round live (on tv)? Great stuff.

Couldn't really be described as beautiful though, could it?

by RTT - Fri 21st Jul 2006, 10:29am

I'm not sure many of those rowing suggestions count as beautiful - any boat with Cracknell in it certainly isn't (I've seen better rowers in novice Fairbairns than the last 100m of the Athens final). The Sydney eight was pretty special (provided you stop watching before the interview with Kieran) and the Searle brothers could certainly row. I still think you'd be hard pushed to find any rowing more beautiful than Ginn and Tompkins though.

In cricket I often think the most beautiful moments are catches; seeing a fielder time a jump to perfection and reach a ball one handed at the apex is just incredible. Collingwood dismissing Hayden last summer was superb, as was Jonty Rhodes' two handed effort to catch Croft. I also saw a pretty amazing catch live which noone could believe at the time; Nathan Astle caught a huge Dwayne Smith pull at full stretch behind his head as it had clearly crossed the boundary - everyone assumed he had fallen over the line but somehow he'd managed to keep inside and was basically the only one cheering as he stood up (earlier he'd made 118 with the bat too).

by Mike - Fri 21st Jul 2006, 11:34am

RTT said: In cricket I often think the most beautiful moments are catches

Strauss catching Gilchrist in the fourth test last summer was pretty beautiful. From the same test, Gary Pratt's direct hit to run out Ricky Ponting was also beautiful, as was Ponting's reaction afterwards...

by showing my age... - Sun 23rd Jul 2006, 1:56am

How about Mansell's overtake of Piquet at Silverstone in 1987? He was 20s down with 20-odd laps left but set a series of lap records to bring the gap down. With 3 laps to go he tried a move at the end of Hangar Straight but Piquet closed the door. The next lap he looked set to do try same thing but it was a dummy, beautifully sold to Piquet. Mansell quickly nipped round the other side of him and onto the victory. You just don't see anything like that in F1 any more...

by and another one - Sun 23rd Jul 2006, 2:01am

Shane Warne's first ever ball in England was pretty beautiful too...

by Poll-writer - Sun 23rd Jul 2006, 4:51pm

Given the suggestions that have been made, it seems I was wrong to trim my original list, as they were almost all on it!! Anyway, with most votes cast, here are my top 5:

1) Colin Jackson, 110m hurdles world record, World Championships, Stuttgart, 1995
12.91 seconds of total sporting perfection. To try to put this into perspective, 12.91 is faster than I can run 110m on the flat. Jackson did it with ten 3.5ft hurdles in his path. Breathtaking.

2) Dennis Bergkamp's last-minute winner, Holland vs Argentina, World Cup QF, 1998
The previous August I had been privileged to be in the stands for Leicester's astonishing 3-3 draw with Arsenal in which Bergkamp scored this magnificent hat-trick, considered by many to be one of the best, if not the best ever. Bergkamp himself rates his third goal that day as the best of his career. His goal against Argentina was almost a (mirrored) carbon-copy: as soon as Frank de Boer hit the pass, I knew exactly what Bergkamp was about to do. Shame the Argies' defence didn't; they should have spent more time down at Filbert Street.

3) Jonathan Edwards's triple jump world record, World Championships, Gothenburg, 1995
This monster leap of 18.29m is easily the longest legal jump ever. The previous holder of the world record, Willie Banks, jumped 17.97m and only one other man, Kenny Harrison, has ever cleared 18m legally. Edwards seemed to be in the air forever, a paragon of poise, elegance and spring. His wind-assisted 18.43m at the European Cup the previous June was also phenomenal, but to produce in the World Championship Final was something else.

4) Jonny Wilkinson's tackle on Matt Giteau, Rugby World Cup Final, 2003
The best tackle I have ever seen. Giteau, head down and going like a train, was stopped dead, lifted high off the floor and thrown backwards with a mixture of shock, disbelief and fear on his face. My jaw, with apologies to David Coleman, quite literally hit the floor; Giteau would have stood more chance against a brick wall. The defining moment of the final, and the point at which the catalyst for all sporting success, self-belief, swung tangibly in England's favour.

5) Lance Klusener's 31* off 16 balls, SA vs Aus, World Cup SF, 1999
A breathtaking display against a world class bowling attack to take South Africa from the brink of defeat to the edge of victory. Klusener was defeated only by mathematics. The first four deliveries of Glenn McGrath's penultimate over, none faced by Klusener, yielded two runs and two lost wickets. Now on strike, Klusener scored a six, a single to keep the strike, and then hit two of the most astonishing fours I have ever seen off Damien Fleming. This left South Africa needing just one run to win off four balls; Klusener tried to run out Allan Donald off the first of those four balls and succeeded off the next, ending the match. If South Africa had been left needing four to win instead of one, I am convinced that Klusener would have hit the necessary boundary.

I don't remember seeing the goals by Maradona or Van Basten live, otherwise they might have been included. Other near misses were Gerrard's equaliser and Michael Johnson's 200m world record.

by RTT - Wed 9th Aug 2006, 10:03am

Have found a video of the Astle catch I was mentioning earlier...

by Col de Peyresourde - Mon 14th Aug 2006, 11:14am

Personally, I'd go for one of the Tour-winning great escapes of the Tour de France in recent years. Embroiled in controversy as it is, we may not see the like of Floyd Landis's escape on the col de Saisies to Morzine (day 17, 2006 TdF) again for many years. 130km of solo breakaway, 3 huge climbs and a 7-minute margin to set up a win of the Tour. This after a spectacular collapse the day before. As a demsonstration of reversing a crisis and taking control of a lost cause, it was awesome. It all depends on just how you view Landis and his current drug 'scandal'.

If you don't like that, Armstrong's escape at Luz-Ardiden in 2003 should do you nicely.

by Neil T - Mon 25th Sep 2006, 4:55pm

A new contender: Xabi Alonso's 65-yard goal against Newcastle in the Premiership on Wednesday.

by Neil T - Tue 13th Mar 2007, 9:19pm

Athletics: Colin Jackson's 110m hurdles world record (12.91), World Championships, Stuttgart, 1993: 5%

Someone has finally put this on YouTube - click here. Slightly grainy footage but still wonderful to watch.

by loyal kiwi - Tue 13th Mar 2007, 10:29pm

Maybe not beautiful, but I remember very well watching this in the middle of the night (very exciting concept at that age) and being totally in awe of Lomu's strength and determination.

by Saints for automatic promotion...oh ok then the playoffs will do - Wed 14th Mar 2007, 2:36pm

Whoever wrote this poll has made the major error of omitting one of the greatest sportsmen to (occasionally) play for England, Mr Matthew Le Tissier. I realise I didn't technically see these live, but as Saints don't play much beautiful football I've seen them enough times on MOTD montages to pretend that I have. And I can't work out how to do the proper link things, so will just post up the you-tube links so people playing on Saturday can hopefully get some inspiration!

Saints vs Newcastle Oct 1993:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4vD0tSArZA

Saints vs Blackburn Dec 1994:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE32cseuTyk

by King of Spain - Wed 14th Mar 2007, 6:02pm

I had the pleasure to see this live.