The Big Wins Athletes Dream of Achieving

As we know, each sport has their own version of the ‘big win’ – achievements, trophies, titles or awards – that really demonstrate who are the best of the best. Whether it be Football or Horse Racing, Tennis or Athletics, every athlete pours their blood sweat and tears into their passion and has the dream of being the best to go down in history. 

Football 

Football is the most popular and most watched sport around the world, with countless tournaments and competitions held across the globe, but some hold more weight than others. 

The FIFA World Cup is a worldwide competition that includes 32 teams and winning the Cup is a desire of all participants. Many countries are yet to win the prestigious tournaments, but others are more than familiar with the victory. 

Whether your team is playing or not. If you’re a football fan or not. The Cup draws everyone in and its significance comes from the fact that each team battled against each other giving the winners not only the title, but also a sense of pride that they are the best in the sport and have that achievement for four years, until they can battle it out again. 

There have been 21 FIFA World Cups since its inauguration in 1930: 5 of which have been won by Brazil, 4 by Germany and  Italy,  2 by Argentina, France and Uruguay; 1 by Spain and England. 

Horse Racing 

The sport of Horse Racing is one of the oldest sports and has kept its popularity throughout the years along with the inauguration of many prestigious events all around the world. There are many well respected awards and races in the sport, such as Royal Ascot and The Grand National,  but the ‘big win’ for competitors would have to be the Triple Crown. 

The Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing is considered to be the greatest achievement to have won in the sport and consists of three competitions, in which all three must be won. Competitors must win the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket Racecourse, The Derby at Epsom Downs Racecourse and The St Leger Stakes at Town Moor. There have only been 12 Triple Crown winners and the most recent winner was in 1970, but 2012 saw an attempt that was unsuccessful due to falling short at the last competition – St Leger. 

Tennis 

When it comes to achievements the Grand Slam is in the dreams of any professional tennis player. The competition consists of four tournaments: Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open, all considered the most important tournaments in the sport.  The Grand Slam is a term that refers to winning all of the above tournaments within one calendar year, with each stretching a two-week period, this sounds grueling but it is certainly not impossible and has been done many times. Roger Ferera holds the record for most Grand Slams, with 20, closely followed by Rafael Nadal with 19 and Novak Djokovis with 17. 

The Olympics 

When it comes to sporting achievements I’m sure the Olympics pops in the majority of people’s minds. The Olympics is the most recognised sporting achievement for almost any athlete, the games pit the best of the best from each country around the world against each other, not only sending athletes home with a medal for their country but with the pride of knowing they are the best in the world at what they do; what’s better than that.

The Winter Olympics, Summer Olympics and Paralympic games allows athletes of almost any sport to participate in order to win a medal. The Summer games are held every four years since being first held in 1896 and the winter games are also each four years but are a newer competition and were first held in 1924, but the newest addition to the Olympic family are the paralympics which were first held 1960.