Sport's Greatest Jinxes

teabagyokel

#dejavu
Valued Member
When Roger Federer, possibly the greatest tennis player in history, turns up for the French Open final, he is starting to think he is bound to lose. The New Zealand Rugby Union Team tend to dominate the sport except when the World Cup kicks off. Asafa Powell can run 100m in 9.76 as long as its not at an Olympics or World Championships. The Dutch football team reached 2 consecutive World Cup finals playing great football in the 1970s, only to run into the inspired hosts. They have never won the tournament. Stirling Moss never won the World Championship when Phil Hill did!

These are just a few examples of sport's great jinxes, and a British F1 driver makes it on to the end of the list. Nigel Mansell avoided this list by a great season in 1992, and Lewis Hamilton is in danger of joining the list.

It is not, like Federer, because there is some Spaniard flexing his muscles (although this may be a danger soon). It is not, like the Dutch football team, because they ran into a great Bayern/Germany team! It is not, like Moss, because Fangio is in the next car.

It is because, like the All Blacks and Powell, he seems to me to be a choker. Last year he choked and he is in serious danger of doing the same here. The All Blacks threw away a 13-0 lead against hosts France in 2007 (in Cardiff - yes, I know!) and Lewis has done comparable at Shanghai & Interlagos last year.

Lewis, you don't want to join this list. Because like any team at the football World Cup, you should remember that Brazil & Italy have a habit of turning up at the right time!
 
LOL I'm sure he's well aware of the importance of not joining that illustrious list, yokel!

He's only young, I think he'll learn the hard way like they all do. Except that he has to do it in the full glare of publicity, of course.

At least this time his title rival doesn't look any calmer under pressure than he is himself...
 
A timely article from the Guardian on this very subject....

Drivers who cracked in the final straight

I hope he can win it this year for 3 reasons.

1. If he doesn't win it, he may suffer a severe knock in confidence which may affect the rest of his career (unlikely).
2. If Massa wins it by less than 7 points (and that's being conservative) then for me it will be a tainted win due to all the stewards' intervention.
3. It would be nice for McLaren to win something for a change...
 
That article is a bit harsh on Niki Lauda. There is no way I would describe what happened to him at the end of the 76 season as choking. By all rights he should have never even been in that car. The fact that he had to be almost dragged bleeding from the car at every race after his return from his crash at the Ring should say enough. By the time it got to a torential Mt Fuji for the final round of the season I think he just had enough. As he told Teddy Mayer at the time, his life was worth more than a world championship. I read somewhere that the team wanted to put out a statement to the effect that the car had mechanical trouble but Lauda insisted that the truth was told and he had retired becasue he didn't feel the race was safe. The fact that he came back the following year to take his second title shows just how much of a remarkable driver he was.

AS for Reuteman however, that is a true classic in the art of "the choke"
 
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