Tiger Woods -- "The most famous athlete on the planet?"

Unavailable for comment.

 

Only one mention of R-Fed, the Tiger of men's tennis. And men's tennis is not dead, as Andre Agassi proved in his farewell.

 

She's not currently active, but Anna Kournikova is very recognizable worldwide. For her tennis game, of course. :

 

I'm not kidding about this: If you put Federer in a lineup with Michael Chang, Jim Courier and Agassi...I MIGHT be able to pick Federer out.

 

Sad to say, I was channel surfing and noticed Oprah talking to Jordan and Sir Charles. According to Charles, when he's out, nobody gets the following the Jordan does. Barkley said "even when I'm out with Tiger," it's not like when he's out with Jordan.
And that was all the Oprah I need for the year.

 

Jordan and Ali might be the two most famous FORMER athletes, but since Tiger is still playing, he would be an athlete.
Semantics? Maybe, but still true.

 

I would ... but only through the process of elimination. I would recognize the other three.

The Agassi moment -- AND the Agassi/Blake moment -- were not an indication that tennis is back. They transcended the game.

 

Sirs, Madames,

Pele was the world's most famous into the 70s and 80s just because of soccer's global reach. Ali close to him.

Jordan probably passing Pele and Ali as their public ages and dies.

Yao for sure in the mix. Maradona would be in there, though.

YHS, etc

 

I just wonder how Tiger plays in South America and Central/Northern Africa, soccer crazy expanses with little use for golf.

 

If we're talking active athletes, (in no specific order) it's Beckham, Woods and Schumacher...

It's certainly not an absurd statement...

 

The Google breakdown ten minutes ago, using whole names. Completely unscientific.

Maradona: 1.28 million hits

Yao Ming: 1.68 million hits

Federer: 3.95 million hits

Kournikova: 4.7 million hits

Schumacher: 5.9 million hits

Muhammad Ali: 6.28M

Z. Zidane: 6.89M

Beckham: 7.61M

Jordan: 8.5M

Pele: 15.2M

Tiger: 15.9M

Ronaldinho: 16.8M

Google 'Ali' alone? 186,000,000 hits

Again, for conversational purposes only.

Updated.

Sadly, there's almost no way to Google 'Ronaldo' without getting a lot of errant hits; as is the case with 'Ali'. Even sadder, perhaps, this: Oprah?

64,000,000 hits.