Is Harry Vardon the most under appreciated athlete today?

Pretty sure this board doesn’t acknowledge athletes born before 1980, let alone 1880.

So nobody cares?
Bummer

Great for his era, no doubt.

But seriously, how much top level competition did the world of golf have way back then?

I found that interesting, thank you. But you’ll have a hard time here cause nothing happened in sports before around 1990 or so.

When those are the clothes you can wear for an activity, it doesn't qualify as a sport.

The most under-appreciated athlete of all time is Lance Armstrong.

The Tour de France is the hardest sporting event in the world. Armstrong won it seven years in a row, which was a level dominance that was never seen and likely never will be seen ever again.

Testimony and research have determined that Armstrong and his team doped less and had a less sophisticated protocol for doping than all of his rvials - though WADA tried to claim otherwise. Every one of Armstrong's rivals doped, and they doped more, and got caught while doping because they took a frick-ton more than Armstrong. And yet Armstrong beat all of them for seven straight years. Lastly you have to go down below 15th in the TDF to find someone that was not definitively shown to have doped.

The TDF covers about 2500 miles in 3 weeks where guys go 125 miles or so on flat days, pedal up mountains, and mix in some time trials. And they do it at about 200% the speed that a typical recreational cyclist can muster for half the distance, half the grade, on one day. The margin of error between winning and losing is measured in fractions of a percent. And yet Armstrong won that event seven years in a row.

The US Postal Service made millions when they sponsored Armstrong's team. They recently had to settle a baseless suit against Armstrong because they couldn't name one sponsor, or even one account that cancelled on them as a result of the Armstrong controversy. Yet the data is clear that because of Armstrong and that Postal team, the USPS made millions. Trek bicycles was essentially rescued by his success, because his team rode Trek. Bike shops across the nation made hundreds of millions from the inspiration he gave to people, prompting them to get into cycling, and his foundation raised hundreds of millions.

WADA claimed Armstrong doped more than anyone else - that was a lie; claimed he had a more sophisticated doping protocol than anyone else - that was a lie; and claimed he prompted young athletes around the nation / world to dope - another lie.

Greg Lemond had a perpetual meltdown about Armstrong for years. Greg was butthurt that his line of bikes was absorbed by Trek, taking his name out of the limelight even though it ended up making him money. He sued Trek, who promptly counter sued and told him to GTFO. Greg competed in an era when EPO emerged but there was no test for it, and competed in an era where transfusion doping was rampant. He also was seen at least once by a reporter coming in and having needles in his arse with "vitamins", or "iron", and magically coming into form right after, leading into the TDF and managing to beat a main rival that admitted to doping in that year's race. The timing of this matches perfectly with the onset and effectivenes of EPO. He also logged the fastest time trial in TDF history that lasted for about 20 years, even though equipment and aero practices continuously improved in that time. When asked about this, Greg has never produced a reasonable response. He's claimed anemia from lead toxicity, but treatment for that would not explain his sudden changes in performance. But sure, Greg wasn't doping. What seems most likely is that Greg's team (doctor or someone else) doped him without his knowledge. He became ashamed after he figured that out, but had told himself his performance was clean because he wasn't aware of the doping when it happened. Thus he's talked himself into some sort of crusade. But all he's done is make himself appear as a bitter old man. He should be the father of American cycling, but instead he's just a jealous old turd.

Lance Armstrong is the best of all time and the most under appreciated athlete in history. The only other argument for best cyclist of all time is Eddy Merckx.

Armstrong was a dumb arse for bowing down to the media and the tour. He wasn’t doing anything that the others were not. Cycling is quite possibly the dirtiest sport in history. They never really proved anything on him. The only reason he was targeted is because he was dominating and a American.

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Harry Vardon

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i can't appreciate a dude that lost to Shia LeBouef...