Who is your countries most underrated/under-appreciated athlete?

[saskriders]

Who is the athlete from your country (or other countries if you want to choose some) that was the most under-appreciated (in their home country), due to playing a sport that is not popular in their country?


For Canada I would nominate squash player Johnathan Power. He won many of the biggest tournaments and was ranked number one multiple times. Also, a PSA run poll voted him at number five all time.

Click to read more...

 

[member 305909]

Jarkko Nieminen, Finnish tennis-player who was at his peak ranked 12 in the world in a sport which is very competitive but he didn't get anywhere near as much attentuion as ski-jumpers or javelin throwers where the competition is way much easier.

 

[Hadoop]

Who is the athlete from your country (or other countries if you want to choose some) that was the most under-appreciated (in their home country), due to playing a sport that is not popular in their country?


For Canada I would nominate squash player Johnathan Power. He won many of the biggest tournaments and was ranked number one multiple times. Also, a PSA run poll voted him at number five all time.

That is exactly the first name that came to my mind.

 

[Dr Pepper]

Daniel Nestor or Mike Weir, maybe, for Canada as well?

Clara Hughes for the women's side......not many athletes can claim they have an Olympic medal from both the Summer and Winter games. HM to Christine Sinclair.

 

[Maestro84]

Mike Weir comes to mind for Canada. He won the Masters and Tour Championship while spending over 100 weeks inside the top 10 all while playing in the midst of Tigers peak.

Milos Raonic is another option too. I'm not a fan of his style of play, but what he's been able to do in men's singles over the last decade now is unprecedented for Canadian tennis. He probably would've also won a major too had he not played in the same era as the big four/five. But yet Canadian tennis fans seem to bash on him quite a bit.