Board 8 > Is there any athlete who completely embodies public perception of their sport...

(+) Yeah! (+)

More than Tony Hawk?

Like, even athletes like Wayne Gretzky or Tiger Woods, who i would imagine are the immediate icons of their craft, compete in sports where the general public probably knows at least a couple other big names. I feel like Tony Hawk is pretty comfortably the only skateboarder people who aren't directly engrossed in the sport know about.

Maybe this is a weird question, but I am very tired and saw an ad with Tony Hawk in it, and my brain went in an odd place I guess, but I thought this was an interesting thought exercise, so sorry if it actually isn't.

Probably not, no.

Shaun White and snowboarding maybe

For a time, cycling and Lance Armstrong (at least in the US)

maybe still lance armstrong for better or worse, though obviously it depends where you'd ask

Michael Jordan in some parts of the world

As with Jakyl's post, I think there's a lot of Olympic sports kind of end up having one or two people that have become the main poster children of their sport due to multiple records and very minimal reminders to the others around them.
Without looking them up I couldn't even name Michael Phelps' own teammates, but of course we also have Ledecky there who's easy to remember. But that also might be because I'm American, how easy are those names around the world still?

Usain Bolt is another name up there that outside of being really in tune with all the contestants of the different track events, how long after the Olympics are you naming people other than him?

I'm sure there's many more, and then there's some sports we may just forget the names of people from because it's less relevant for our country. Like I remember a group of us asking Ermine twice in a voice chat to name famous curlers for us.

Serena and Venus Williams, maybe?

But we know other swimmers (if not from recent times then from the past, although I would argue Ryan Lochte is infamous enough to be a name people know) and other track and field stars from the past as well

Snowboarding and skateboarding are recent enough that the pioneers are still around.

Cycling is an odd one since its so old but at least here in the US, Armstrong is the only cyclist to have ever gotten ANY press

A funny one I thought of is Joey Chestnut

But Kobayashi was too famous before him

Jakyl25 posted...

Ryan Lochte is

Who?

Colegreen_c12 posted...

Who?

He's a swimmer who's famous for lying about being robbed/mugged at the 2016 Olympics, if I recall correctly.

Nope

Kane Waselenchuk?

Federer is known worldwide. Ronaldo or Messi for soccer. And Id say more know LeBron worldwide than Jordan at the moment, though anyone 35 years or older would argue that likely.

Same thing with Tony Hawk btw, hes old now. A lot of people below 25yo probably wouldn't know him.

junk_funk posted...

Same thing with Tony Hawk btw, hes old now. A lot of people below 25yo probably wouldn't know him.

Idk about that. He's still pretty present in the media even if he isn't skating competitively. I think he still does stuff with Nickelodeon every now and then too.

Forgot to mention in the OP but I meant more strictly in the US. I have no clue what perceptions are in other countries. Lance Armstrong and Shawn White are solid picks imo.

Can I present a counterargument that anyone who's played a tony hawk game would know of some other notable people? Tony hawk games were immensely popular, and I personally know about guy slike burnquist or mullens because of those games.

Emeraldegg posted...

Can I present a counterargument that anyone who's played a tony hawk game would know of some other notable people? Tony hawk games were immensely popular, and I personally know about guy slike burnquist or mullens because of those games.

This is how I feel too

People disproportionately know Tony Hawk here because of his games-- don't feel he's Tiger Woods or Gretskylike but yeah if you're actually into his games then you know a bit more than just Tony Hawk

Seems you'd primarily be dealing in gamers who are aware his games exist but didn't play and/or enjoy them for his notoriety.

I don't think I agree with that. Tony Hawk only got the game franchise because he was already so well known. The games have definitely expanded his popularity, but I don't think there's reasonable evidence to suggest they are the reason he's a household name. Unless I'm misunderstanding the argument you're making.

Maybe Travis Pastrana or Tony Bou?

Ash Ketchum - pokemon fighting

tazzyboyishere posted...

I don't think I agree with that. Tony Hawk only got the game franchise because he was already so well known. The games have definitely expanded his popularity, but I don't think there's reasonable evidence to suggest they are the reason he's a household name. Unless I'm misunderstanding the argument you're making.

My argument is "Enough people played the tony hawk games that there's no way a sizable amount of people don't know at least one other major skateboarder."

My argument is both

Skateboarding is too niche to have a "face" that matters in the context of this topic and the only reason people pretend it is is because we are video game players and the game is good/known. And that people who have played the games know other Skateboarders.

But I guess Emeraldegg was not actually going all the way with that so my bad misrepresenting

I played a lot of THPS2 and I can't name another skater from the game. Were there even other skaters in the game?

I'd say that nyjah Huston is on track to supplant tony hawk, at least on the skateboarding zeitgeist, although probably not in public perception

So the exercise is to name someone who plays a sport but would be the only one person a high amount of random people on the street can name for that sport?

I do think it goes Lance Armstrong > Tony Hawk for random people, Usain Bolt would be above Tony Hawk but may be reasonably ineligible since Im sure people know other runners. Shaun White I dont think is at the top two's level of notoriety.

A silly one I can think of is Ken Jennings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goMYHB2Grvg

mnk posted...

I played a lot of THPS2 and I can't name another skater from the game. Were there even other skaters in the game?

You cant name Spider-Man?

GTM posted...

So the exercise is to name someone who plays a sport but would be the only one person a high amount of random people on the street can name for that sport?

I do think it goes Lance Armstrong > Tony Hawk for random people, Usain Bolt would be above Tony Hawk but may be reasonably ineligible since Im sure people know other runners. Shaun White I dont think is at the top two's level of notoriety.

A silly one I can think of is Ken Jennings.

I feel like the exercise is Are you the only person in your sport who we can put in an unrelated commercial without naming you and expect people to know who you are

Since Tony Hawk in the NBA Finals commercial is presumably what inspired this topic

junk_funk posted...

And Id say more know LeBron worldwide than Jordan at the moment, though anyone 35 years or older would argue that likely.

Jordan brand alone keeps MJ at the top. The real argument is whether Lebron or Kobe is number 2, and I think it's Kobe tbh

Jakyl25 posted...

You cant name Spider-Man?

No, his identity's a secret.

Shaquille O'Neal is leveraging his name in a few different places, so even though Jordan and Lebron are probably at the top of a lot of people's minds, someone is going to recognize Shaq for his insurance and Icy-Hot commercials.

Arnold Palmer is the king of tea drinks