‘96 gymnastics was Keri Strug landing a vault on a broken ankle to clinch gold for the US in the women’s all around. It was the level of Iconic that got it on SNL
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Haha ok I know it. Not from watching it or following it, but from SNL lol.
A couple of stories from the motherland worth consideration:
Former Chelsea star Didier Drogba was pivotal in bringing peace in Ivory Coast. Immediately after helping Ivory Coast qualify for the World Cup for the first time in their history he gave a speech to the cameras pleading for the two sides to come to a truce…and they did. When people talk about football being “more than a game” and the “game of the people”, this is why. If you want to see the speech (it’s worth it, starts at 2:00) and know more:
South Africa winning the Rugby World Cup (in South Africa) in 1995. It was immediately after the end of apartheid and thus just a year into Nelson Mandela’s presidency, allowing him to present the trophy to the white captain Francois Pienaar creating this iconic moment:
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When I hear the question " what is the most captivating" I think that’s a different question than “greatest moment” or “most riveting.” To me its asking which storyline grabbed my attention, that I was obsessed with. A storyline with a lot of hype and a lot of pay off.
In the poll I picked the Red Sox winning the 2004 world series. Because the comeback storyline built up over several days as the Red Sox won 4 series in a row against the Yankees and then won the world series. Many of the other options in the poll are individual game developments that were exciting but not captivating.
But I think a storyline that most captivated me was LeBron’s “decision” in 2010. I’m a massive basketball fan and LeBron was the biggest star in its prime. There was talk for years what he would do when his contract was up. In the days leading up to the decision there were rumors and speculation everywhere. And then when he finally “turned heel” and went to Miami to form the NBA’s NWO with Wade and Bosh it was INSANE. You could not escape the hype.
And the storyline kept twisting and turning from there. From Miami’s weak start their first season, going to the finals, losing to my beloved Dallas Mavericks to LeBron finally winning a championship the next year. The whole time the NBA, LeBron and the Heat had my attention.
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That was a huge story! I loved LaBron before “The Decision”, I wanted nothing more then for him to win a championship in Cleveland.
When he took the easiest possible path to win a title ever (until Durand later), took my fav player with him (raps fan here) and made such a spectacle out of it, the heel turn was in full effect in my eyes.
I’m not american but man that was such an historic, beautiful competition. Like a movie. I loved it.
Yes that was epic but the whole competition (Moceanu on the floor and shannon miller on the beam) was incredible. Lilia Podkopayeva was perfection too.
Yes it was, but that moment is what makes it memorable to most people who don’t have a general understanding of gymnastics outside of watching it every 4 years. I.e. most of America.
I agree with you, it’s very iconic. I love women’s gymnastics almost as much as women’s wrestling so I’m speaking as a fan of the sport.
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I like watching it but don’t do it much between the Olympics. The scoring nature of the competition is a bit of a struggle for me.
That one was pretty crazy, but when it comes to iconic brawl, you can’t forget this one:
Perfect storyline, giant heel in Lemieux, and you had a slow build. Doesnt get much better then this!
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OH MY GOOOOOODNESS!
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Let me throw my hat in for Ali also.
Besides his backstory (olympic statement, etc.), the trio of Ali, Foreman, and Frazier owned the boxing world and even the sports world when they were going strong. Howard Cossell reporting on the era as it happened is also legendary.
I think Ali wasn’t brought up because the time period appears to be early 80’s to present date.
If you count the last 100 years, he probably ranks at the top of the list.
And if we’re really going to talk about captivation and history, we should not leave out the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Those games were really, really big news around the world.
Those were the Nazi Olympics. There were calls to boycott it but the news of the time (including the new York Times) was saying, this Hitler guy can’t be that bad…
But doesn’t captivating mean it was something good? Those Olympics were not that.
That was such a great end to the season even though I dont like Man City. It felt like just the other day.
With all of those millions invested in the club it was not really a surprise that City won that season. It was just that everything went wrong for United on that last day of the season.
I voted for Greece but I should have voted for Leicester. It is much more difficult to win a league title than it is to win a tounament.
You have to be consistently good all season to win the Premeir League.