Greatest Sporting Event in the World?

[Pangur Bán]

Both the Olympic Games, and the Fifa World Cup claim to be the biggest sporting tournements in the world. I don't really know how they back this up, but anyway....which of the two is the greater sporting occassion? Or, rather, what is the greatest sporting event in the world?

 

[Tsargrad]

I am quite partial to the Rugby Union world cup and Cricket world cup's myself as they are the sports I prefer, over Soccer and the Olympics as a whole...

 

[Constantine]

In my opinion the mens hockey final at the winter olympics.

 

[Archer 007]

Olympics, no contest.

Even though I have a love of footie.

 

[Hitro]

The World Cup, naturally.

 

[Drewcifer]

Originally posted by Constantine
In my opinion the mens hockey final at the winter olympics.

 

[Mega Tsunami]

Trying to be objective, it is difficult to argue against the Olympics – the number and variety of sports outweighs the others.

But… (and IMHO)

The biggest single sporting event – The World Cup
The biggest single sporting victory – The World Cup
No matter how many medals your country wins in the Olympics it doesn’t scratch the surface of winning the WC.
If they were to cancel either one of them, I would notice the absence of the WC far more than the Olympics.
The WC is much more ‘the peoples’ (of the world) sporting event.
On balance I went for the WC

 

[Brewster]

My vote goes to the NHL playoffs. Tfhe road to the Stanley Cup is one of the most gruelling tests in professional sports.

Mens Olympic hockey is great but once every four years is too infrequent to vault it into the number one position.

 

[Darkness]

Football is so the World Cup it is...

 

[WickedSmurf]

Sure the World Cup is the biggest tournament, but I think that the European Championship is tougher to qualify to and to win. But in terms of greatness, Football World Cup.

 

[Enemy Ace]

NFL, SUPERBOWL!

 

[Suppersalmon]

Fifa World Cup

 

[Dell19]

The Rugby world cup

 

[Ossric]

Fifa World Cup is the only event that can really shut nations down. It's like MTsunami said, the Olympics is more about individual athletes. People get more exited routing for a team that represents the nation. But like i said, no event can clear the straits & shut down economic life like the Fifa World Cup.

 

[jack merchant]

The World Cup, of course. People might cheer if someone from their country wins a medal at the Olympics, but unlike the World Cup, it won't be remembered 50 years later unless the performance is truly exceptional (Jesse Owens, Fanny Blankers-Koen, Mark Spitz, Carl 'doping' Lewis......)

 

[Inter4]

FIFA World Cup. No doubt about it.

 

[Ossric]

Originally posted by jack merchant
(Jesse Owens, Fanny Blankers-Koen, Mark Spitz, Carl 'doping' Lewis......)

Who's Fanny Blankers-Koen?

 

[MCdread]

Originally posted by Ossric


Who's Fanny Blankers-Koen?

A dutch woman that won 4 gold medals in London'48.

Though I like the Olympics a lot and though it is definitely the most universal of all events, I agree with the arguments about the World Cup. This just turns dozens and dozens of countries completely mad for a month, even if their team isn't there. Nothing compares to it.

 

[Tsargrad]

In Australia you only have to make the soccer world cup and you'd be remembered forever...

 

[Brewster]

If the FIFA World Cup shuts down many of the participating countries, you should see what the Olympic mens hockey finals did to Canada. As I was driving to a friends house to watch the game when Canada scored the tying goal. Every car must have had their radios tuned into the game because the entire intersection started honking their horns and celebrating at the same time. After the game was over and we were awarded the gold, the streets of Victoria filled with people and traffic ground to a halt. It was beautiful.