Europe’s final day fight back victory against the USA in
golf’s prestigious Ryder Cup has already got people calling it the greatest
sporting comeback ever. Going into the final day, USA were leading 10-6, and only
needed 4 ½ points of the 12 on offer for the final day, whereas Europe needed 8½.
Making it even harder for the Europeans was the vocal support from the American
Medinah crowd, chanting “U-S-A” for most of the tournament. Despite this, the
European team led by Spaniard Jose Maria Olazabal managed to overhaul the
American’s advantage to steal the necessary 8½ points to take the final scores
to 14½-13½. The minority European crowd helped spur them on to victory with
their alternate chant of “ole, ole ole ole” to further frustrate the Americans;
not only had they lost an almost certain victory, but they were out-supported
on their own turf.
Certainly, a truly memorable comeback not just for golf, but for
the whole of sport. But was it the best sporting comeback? I’ve come up with 5
more memorable sport comebacks that could also be seen as just as difficult and
amazing:
-1972 Olympic Basketball Final, USA v USSR
In 1972, the cold war meant relations between America and the
Soviet Union weren’t at their best, so when they met in the Olympic basketball
gold medal match (in Germany of all places), it was clear it would be a tense
game. It couldn’t have been better set. The USA had been favourites to win the
game as their team was undefeated in the tournament, and had won the previous
seven basketball gold medals. It was America’s sport and they seemed destined
to win and get a satisfying victory over their great rivals. All did not go to
plan, though. They were trailing the whole game, but with then with the game at
49-49 and with seconds to go, they scored one point to take the lead for the
first time in the match and make it 49-50 with only 3 seconds to go. The Russians
bring the ball back into play, and the horn blows; cue the celebrations from
the Americans, they have beaten the Russians in the finals seconds. But no,
officials have to come onto the court to tell the jubilant American team that
it wasn’t the end of the game, the horn was for a Russian time-out, and there
were still 3 seconds to play. The Russians had 3 seconds to get the ball down
the court and score a winner, and they were going to make it happen. Play
resumes, the ball is launched down the court to be caught and bundled though
the net within 3 seconds. The Soviet Union had done it, bringing an end to
America’s dominance at their own sport, in the middle of the cold war, and it
couldn’t have happened in more dramatic circumstances.
Dramatic final seconds coverage
-2011 Formula One Canadian Grand Prix
It turned out to be the longest Grand Prix ever at over 4 hours
long, due to the horrible rain on race day but the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix
also proved to be one of the best races ever and providing one of the greatest
comebacks ever. The race started under safety car due to the conditions, with Sebastian
Vettel on pole storming away with the lead. McLaren however were going to have
a terrible start to the race. Lewis Hamilton hit Mark Webber going into turn
one causing them both to lose places, and for Hamilton to end up behind his
team mate Jenson Button. At the end of lap 7, Hamilton tried overtaking Button
down the main straight, but due to the spray, neither driver could see each
other well, and it resulted with Hamilton colliding with Button and hitting the
pit wall. Hamilton was out, and Button pitted at the end of the lap for damage
checks. Luckily, Button had no damage, but it turns out he broke the speed
limit in the pit lane and was given a drive-through penalty, dropping him to 18th.
The red flag came out on lap 25 for heavy rain and there was a 2 hour wait
before the weather calmed. After the restart, Button made contact with Fernando
Alonso, putting Alonso out and giving Button a puncture. By this stage he was
21st and last, with 30 laps to go. But Button was now a man on a
mission. He is arguably the best driver in wet/drying conditions and in the
next 20 laps made his way up to 4th place. Vettel was still in the
lead, having been on his own for the whole race, but in the final 10 laps,
Button took Webber and Schumacher to take 2nd place and was hunting
down Vettel, cutting his lead lap after lap. Then on the final lap, Button was
right behind and pressurised Vettel into a mistake of running wide, allowing
him to take the lead and win the race, after being last just 30 laps previous.
Button described it as the best win of his career and the race has been
described as one of the best in Formula One history.
Race Highlights
-2010 UK Snooker Championship Final, John Higgins v Mark Williams
The final of the snooker UK Championship proved to be a great
comeback story for two different reasons. John Higgins had just returned from a
6-month suspension due to a match fixing fiasco, and stormed into the final
despite the recent lack of tournament play and damaging headlines. Adding to
his troubles during his suspension, John’s father the great Alex ‘Hurricane’
Higgins died, making the whole time a much more difficult situation for him and
his family. It seemed a wonder that he was able to come back into a major tournament
and reach the final, which was an achievement in itself, but Higgins was
determined to go one step further and win the title. Unfortunately, the final didn’t
start well. His opponent Mark Williams was on form and built an advantage straight
away meaning he started the evening session leading 6-2. The match was best of
19 frames, so Williams only needed 4 more frames to win. The first frame of the
session Williams won taking it to 7-2, with it looking like he was going to
carry on in his top form and Higgins trailing. But Higgins began to fight back,
bringing it to 7-4, then 8-5. Williams got the score to 9-5, meaning he had
match frame; Higgins had to win the next 5 frames in a row. He won the next 2
frames to take it to 9-7, but in the next frame, Williams looked like he was
going to finally wrap it up. The score was 69-40 to Williams, he had a 29 point
advantage with only 27 points left on the table, and the title was in his
grasp. But still Higgins wouldn’t give in. After a battle of trying to snooker
each other, Higgins forced the mistake on Williams, potting the cue ball,
giving Higgins the extra four points he needed to then win the frame, which he
did to bring the score to 9-8. Higgins now had the momentum. He won the next
frame taking it to 9-9 and the deciding frame, where he pulled out a good
advantage over Williams. However it wasn’t over yet, as he wasn’t able to pot
the brown and another round of trying to snooker each other began, at which
point Higgins took a major risk: rather than go for the safety shot, he went
for a double across the entire length of the table, and amazingly pulled it off,
followed by a long pot on the blue to win the championship. Williams was shell-shocked
at the end, whilst Higgins celebrated and dedicated the win to his family, who
have been through so much recently. A remarkable sporting comeback, not just
for the match, but for the troubling issues that preceded it.
Final frames highlights
Final frames highlights
-2005 UEFA Champions League Final, Liverpool v AC Milan
AC Milan were clear favourites going into the game. They were the
Serie A champions, whereas Liverpool had finished 5th in the Premier
League, behind local rivals Everton in 4th place who took the final
Champions League spot. Liverpool weren’t going to be in the Champions League
next season unless they won the final, and qualified as cup holders. Almost all
the stats were against Liverpool. AC Milan had won the competition more times
than Liverpool (6 wins compared to Liverpool’s 4), they had won the completion more
recently (AC Milan won it 2 years previous, whereas Liverpool won it over 20
years previous), and Milan had competed in more finals (10 appearances to
Liverpool’s 6). The facts said Milan would easily beat Liverpool, and this
seemed the case in the first half of the match. Milan scored within the first
minute of the match to confirm why they were favourites. They scored two more
later in the half to make it 3-0 at half time. This was easy for Milan, they
were walking all over Liverpool; the question wasn’t who would win anymore, it
was how many would Milan score. Half time marked a turning point though,
Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez must have given the half time talk of
the century as Liverpool came out to the 2nd half fighting. Firstly,
captain Steven Gerrard pulled one back, two minutes later Vladimir Smicer
scored a 2nd, and then another 6 minutes later Liverpool were gifted
a penalty, where Xabi Alonso scored to
bring it back to 3-3. This was mad. Milan were arguably the best team in the
world and had steamrollered them so far, and yet Liverpool had fought back from
a 3 goal deficit to bring it level. Liverpool held on to the 3-3 draw, took the
game to penalties and pulled out an early advantage with the score at 2-0 to
Liverpool thanks to goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek’s ‘spaghetti legs’ distraction. Milan
pulled one back on the 3rd penalty, and both teams scored the 4th,
but now Milan had to score the 5th to stay in with a shout of
winning. Coveted talisman striker Shevchenko took it, but Dudek saved it.
Liverpool had won the Champions League despite being written off by many before
the game had even begun, and certainly beyond hope at half time. It was the
greatest final of the greatest club competition, and it had gained Liverpool a
2nd amazing comeback by being grated a place in next season’s competition
even though they finished 5th in the Premier League.
Match Highlights
-Alex Zanardi
Alex Zanardi achieved his own unique comeback, starting 11 years
ago and reaching its peak earlier this summer. What’s amazing about Zanardi’s
comeback is that it was more than just one event, and more than one sport as
well. Throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s, Zanardi was racing in Formula One,
Indycar, and Champ Car, where he won the Champ Car title twice in 1997 and 1998.
He moved back to Formula One for 1999, but unfortunately didn’t get a drive for
2000. Due to this he moved back to Champ Car for 2001, where he wasn’t quite in
the same form of old, until a race at the Lausitzring in Germany. Here, he
was back in his form of old, he was leading the race in the closing stages and
came in for a final pit stop, however upon leaving the pit lane, he lost
control of the car and spun into the track ending up sideways. One driver
avoided him, a 2nd driver behind, didn’t and T-boned Zanardi’s car
at 200mph. The impact resulted in Zanardi losing both of his legs. Medical help
was tending to him immediately, but he was losing pints of blood. He was air
lifted to hospital, and was read last rites on the helicopter. But he just
about managed to hold out, made it to the hospital and performed lifesaving
surgery. Since the crash, he had lost over ¾ of his blood and medically should
have been dead, but he survived. He then started a long road to recovery with prosthetic
legs, and only 2 years later was back behind the wheel of a specially adapted
Champ Car with hand controls to complete the final 13 laps of the Lausitzring
that he never did. Since then, he moved onto the World Touring Car
Championship, where he achieved podiums and victories amongst fully able bodied
racers, despite his handicap, which in itself is a remarkable. But then Zanardi
wanted a new challenge, and began hand cycling. He was so serious about wanting
to do well in hand cycling that he gave up motorsport to focus on it, and all
the practice he did was for the London 2012 Paralympics. It had been announced
that the Paralympic road cycling course would be using Brands Hatch race
circuit, which spurred Zanardi on even more, it almost felt like it was meant to
be. At the age of 45, he wasn’t the youngest entering the race, but even still
managed to overcome the age factor and take not one, but two gold medals at
Brands Hatch, as well as a silver medal. Ever since 2001, almost everything has
been stacked against Zanardi, but he still managed to defy doctors, age,
handicaps, and various other difficulties to be a success in two different
sports. Personally, I think this is the greatest sporting comeback as it goes
beyond sport. When he was medically dead, sport didn’t matter at all, but he
still came back and he is still coming back after 11 years.
Alex Zanardi's Crash and His Recovery
Alex Zanardi's Crash and His Recovery
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