This week in this ongoing series of lists of sportspeople united by some feature other than competence, we look at their ability to perform with only one fit leg. As always, we welcome your alternative selections.
My Top 5 One-Legged Performances:
1. Tiger Woods, US Open 2008 (c) – 91 holes, a 14th major, and one shot knee. Let’s hope Merv Cross does the surgery this time. He is surely the Tiger Woods of Knees.
2. Steve Waugh, The Oval 2001 – Stretchered off at Trent Bridge with a calf injury just 3 weeks earlier, Tugga peeled off 157 not out despite being unable to run. (Luckily for him, Mark Butcher was also unable to catch, dropping Waugh at first slip when on 50.)
3. Matthew Hayden, Seddon Park, Hamilton, 2007 – world cricket’s premier opener/sledger broke his toe in the 39th over of this fixture, when he was 102 not out. He called for a runner but needn’t have, tonking 79 runs off his next 35 balls. His 181 not out included 10 sixes – the most by an Australian batsman in one innings. Only problem was, the Kiwis got the runs!
4. Graeme Langlands, SCG 1975 – Rugby League’s Sixth Immortal famously had his leg deadened by a poorly aimed painkiller before the Grand Final, then proceeded to make white boots famous for all the wrong reasons. Easts handed St George a 38-0 thrashing. And he was the last line of defence.
5. Stephen Bradbury, Salt Lake City 2002 – a debatable selection, as his well-known performance at the Big Love Winter Olympics came some 8 years after his leg was sliced open by another skater’s blade. However it’s rare that a leg injury is in the near-death category – in this case Bradbury needed 111 stitches and lost 4 litres of blood.
Bradbury is also selected on the Vitas Gerulaitis principle (see last week’s column): his memorable first words after winning gold were “Oh my f*****g God!”
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