Athletes Deaths Thread

heywoodu · June 3, 2020

Again, not an Olympian, but despite what the title says it'd be weird to not post non-Olympians here. Motorsports legend Carlo Ubbiali passed away aged 90. Some small notes:

- He was the last surviving rider who raced in 1949, the first Grand Prix season

- In 71 races, he won 39 times and finished on the podium an insane amount of 68 times...he missed the podium only three times, including in his debut (4th) and then almost ten years later when he finished 5th twice

- In 12 years of GP racing, he didn't have a single noteworthy crash

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Ubbiali

Nickyc707 · June 3, 2020

4 hours ago, heywoodu said:

Again, not an Olympian, but despite what the title says it'd be weird to not post non-Olympians here. Motorsports legend Carlo Ubbiali passed away aged 90. Some small notes:

- He was the last surviving rider who raced in 1949, the first Grand Prix season

- In 71 races, he won 39 times and finished on the podium an insane amount of 68 times...he missed the podium only three times, including in his debut (4th) and then almost ten years later when he finished 5th twice

- In 12 years of GP racing, he didn't have a single noteworthy crash

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Ubbiali

I wonder the same thing sometimes but I guess it's a question of where do you stop. In May, in addition to 25 Olympians, more than 120 other notable sportsmen and women died from both Olympic and non-Olympic sports. Paralympians and Youth Olympians usually get a mention but then it becomes more difficult to know who to include and who not to. For instance, last month I was unsure whether to mention the death of the Australian tennis player Ashley Cooper who won eight Grand Slam titles including four singles.

heywoodu · June 3, 2020

1 hour ago, Nickyc707 said:

I wonder the same thing sometimes but I guess it's a question of where do you stop. In May, in addition to 25 Olympians, more than 120 other notable sportsmen and women died from both Olympic and non-Olympic sports. Paralympians and Youth Olympians usually get a mention but then it becomes more difficult to know who to include and who not to. For instance, last month I was unsure whether to mention the death of the Australian tennis player Ashley Cooper who won eight Grand Slam titles including four singles.

It's pretty easy: we are a sports forum full of people. If someone finds an athlete's death noteworthy, everyone is free to post it

dcro · June 3, 2020

12 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

It's pretty hard: we are a forum full of commrades. Even if someone finds an athlete's death noteworthy, everyone is forbidden to post it