ESPN UK’s greatest athletes of the 21st entury

Olympic years often provoke feelings of nostalgia and introspection as the quadrennial event marks the passage of sporting time, and 2024 is no different.

As the Paris Games swing into view amid an already-blockbuster British sporting summer, ESPN UK looks back at the past 24½ years of action since the turn of the millennium, bookended by Olympics in Sydney and the French capital, with a view to ranking the greatest 25 athletes from these fair shores in that period.

The UK continues to punch above its population’s weight when it comes to sporting success — admittedly aided by a resource commitment afforded to few other nations — and narrowing down the candidates to just 25 names proved to be no mean feat. Making comparisons of greatness across sports can be a fickle task, especially when taking both team and individual fields into account.

For this ranking, ESPN UK’s editorial, video and social teams have all weighed in on who they think should be considered and where they should stand in the list, using a voting system to choose between names and create a seeding system.

Methodologically, the primary guide given to evaluate athletes was the quality and quantity of success in the 24½ that have passed since 39 tons of fireworks lit up the London skyline, with a particular focus on longevity and tangible markers of prowess (i.e., medals and silverware). Off-field impact and legacy has been employed as a tiebreaker, though we make no claim that this list marks perfection.

Without further ado, let the arguments begin. — Matt Foster

25. Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, athletics

Winning gold at an Olympics is no easy feat under any circumstances, let alone when you have the burdensome weight of a success-hungry nation at their home Games leaning on you — and yet Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill made it all look relatively routine in 2012.

Posters emblazoned with her image lined every street in London and beyond in the buildup to her attempt at glory, which came four years after injury had prevented a first tilt in Beijing. Field events that some considered weaknesses — specifically the javelin and long jump — failed to rear their heads as Ennis-Hill stormed to the top of the podium by a comfortable margin.

None of that is to say it was easy. Aware of her fallibility, Ennis-Hill worked relentlessly to improve her throwing power in response to losing her world title in 2011, which was later reinstated following Tatyana Chernova’s doping ban. She honed her crafts to the degree that she achieved three personal bests in those heady days in Stratford.

A silver medal followed in Rio in 2016, but only after she had secured a third world championship title after the birth of her first child. She retired shortly after the Games in Brazil as an icon of British athletics and an example of how to handle pressure. — Matt Foster

– Ennis-Hill retirement ends odyssey of courage, skill and determination

24. Tom Daley, diving

The image of a barely 14-year-old Tom Daley stepping onto the 10m diving platform in Beijing still lingers in Britain’s collective sporting memory.

So too does his heartache at London 2012, and at Rio 2016, where he fell short of his expectations at each Games, winning only bronze.

Daley’s career has been a roller-coaster ride since Beijing. He became world champion again … and again. He came out as gay and soon became one of the country’s LGBTQIA+ icons. He got married and became a dad. He was a poster boy, but never Olympic champion.

Until Tokyo.

It was in Japan in 2021, at the COVID-19-delayed Games, where Daley finally broke through.

He dived with precision and knitted with flare, ending with a gold in the 10m synchro alongside Matty Lee.

He cried on the podium after. “That moment, being about to be announced as Olympic champions, I was gone,” he said. “I was blubbering.”

Daley retired after Tokyo, but announced in 2023 that he will compete again — for a record fifth and final time — in Paris, where he hopes to make an impression on his own two sons, 16 years on from establishing himself as a household name in Beijing. — Connor O’Halloran

23. Lucy Bronze, football

While maybe not the most high profile of England’s Euro 2022-winning Lionesses, Lucy Bronze’s career has become defined by success.

A last-minute wonder goal against Norway in the 2015 World Cup proved to be the catalyst of Bronze’s rise to stardom, followed quickly by a powerful header that saw England past Croatia and into the semifinals of that tournament.

Full-back is not a glamorous role but Bronze has made it her own, and for many years she has been considered one of the finest players in her position. Phil Neville employed her considerable talents at midfield for a short stint during his managerial tenure of England’s women’s team, but Bronze quickly returned to the flanks where she had proved so effective.

The 2022 triumph, England’s first major international title since 1966, was built upon the 32-year-old’s immense presence, leaving her mark on the final as she poked at a corner in extra time before the ball ricocheted in the box and landed at the feet of Chloe Kelly to send Wembley into rapture.

At club level, Bronze has won all there is. Five Women’s Champions League titles, domestic glory in Spain, France and England, and individual recognition in the form of a FIFA The Best award and second place in the 2019 Ballon d’Or Féminin — there is a serious argument to be made that Bronze, Chelsea’s latest acquisition, is British women’s football’s greatest ever export. — Matt Foster

22. Alfie Hewett, wheelchair tennis

Few sportspeople can profess to have mastered their craft as comprehensively as Alfie Hewett.

The 26-year-old is only the second man to win a singles and doubles title at every Grand Slam — following in the hallowed trail of Shingo Kunieda, widely considered to be the greatest exponent of the sport. The latest of those victories came in the 2024 edition of Wimbledon as he avenged the demons of the 2022 and 2023 singles finals to defeat Martin de la Puente and re-establish himself as the world No. 1.

In all, Hewett has nine singles titles and 21 doubles titles — the latter all earned alongside partner Gordon Reid. In 2021, Hewett and Reid completed an unprecedented calendar Slam by winning the doubles title at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, Roland Garros and the Australian Open.

The value of sport is not lost on the Norfolk local as he continues to accumulate silverware at a stunning rate.

“Wheelchair tennis gave me hope and a purpose back in my life when I was younger and ever since I’ve dreamt of making history at my home slam,” Hewett said of his Wimbledon win.

“To lift that first singles trophy on Court No.1, whilst completing the career grand slam and clinching a sixth doubles title with Gordon Reid on the same day is an indescribable feeling that was made even more special by having the people who have been close to me on this journey there.” — Olivia Pagden

21. Jonny Wilkinson, rugby

Arguably the biggest icon English rugby has ever produced, Jonny Wilkinson — and more specifically his right boot — broke the southern hemisphere’s hegemony of World Cups and delivered the glory England had craved for so long.

Along with the 2003 World Cup, the Surrey-born star claimed four Six Nations titles — one of which was a Grand Slam — in his illustrious career. Wilkinson was a superstar in a sport that desperately needed them, with his undoubtable influence changing the game in more ways than one. Gardens up and down the country saw hands clasped and backsides pushed out in the vein of Wilkinson’s unmistakable kicking style.

Now 45, Wilkinson remains third on the all-time points scorer list at international level, behind compatriot Owen Farrell and New Zealand’s Dan Carter.

Perhaps underrated in Wilkinson’s legacy is his longevity, aptly demonstrated by his club successes; his first major title at domestic level came in the form of Newcastle Falcons’ 1998 Premiership win, while his last was with French outfit Toulon as they won the Top 14 in 2014.

Aptly, their win in the final over Castres that year was built upon Wilkinson’s trusty left peg as he made all four of his penalties and even added a drop goal to boot. — James Regan

20. Lennox Lewis, boxing

When asked who they watched and inspired them growing up, there’s one British name that modern boxers always refer to: Lennox Lewis.

Lewis did it all, won it all and laid the foundation for the Brits we see today. It’s not just his record as a three-time heavyweight champion or even his status as undisputed champion that he earned at the tail end of 1999 — which as we were reminded recently, doesn’t happen that often — that make his case for these rankings. Just a quick glance at his boxing CV tells the true story of his greatness.

He lost just twice and avenged both defeats. Wins over Hasim Rahman, Vitali Klitschko and Mike Tyson the right side of 2000 only added to his impressive resume and show how tough he really was. While some of his contemporaries, including Tyson, have decided to return to the ring to participate in glitzy exhibition bouts, Lewis is more than content with his place in boxing history.

A regular broadcaster on big fights, Lewis told the Guardian in 2020: “When I hear the crowd’s roar, it’s like: ‘Yeah that was once for me. I remember it.’ But I don’t need it.” — James Regan

19. Dame Ellen MacArthur, sailing

Clichés of scale are easy to come by when talking about Dame Ellen MacArthur, the Derbyshire local who conquered the high seas at record-breaking pace in 2005.

Her dedication to adventure was evident from a young age — she was hooked on sailing early owing to what she described in 2008 as “an amazing sense of freedom,” causing an 8-year-old MacArthur to begin to save her school dinner money to raise funds for her first boat.

Having already finished second in the gruelling Vendée Globe race in 2001 — a solo circumnavigation of the world — the 5-foot-2 MacArthur went for greater glory four years later, spending 71 days in her 23-metre yacht which famed designed Nigel Irens adapted to suit her smaller frame. The images of the then 28-year-old arriving at Falmouth holding flares aloft continue to live prominently in the UK’s collective memory.

After completing the historic voyage and becoming the youngest-ever recipient of a Damehood (28), MacArthur retired from sailing in 2009 to focus on environmental issues, running her own foundation focusing on accelerating the growth of a circular economy. — Matt Foster

18. Joe Root, cricket

Joe Root, Virat Kohli, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson were referred to as the Fab Four — a term coined roughly a decade ago for the quartet considered the best Test batters of the generation.

You don’t hear that name much anymore, in part because Root has shot past them and entered a league of his own in terms of pure run-scoring.

He’s got nearly 2000 more Test runs than Smith, the second batter on this list, and while Smith’s average is greater than that of his Ashes rival, Root’s output has often come as a one-man band — an oasis of calmness in a desert of English batting collapses. If Root failed, England failed — for much of the 2010s it was as simple as that.

Since 2020, Root has amassed 4,377 runs at an average above 50. His seminal year came in 2021, where he scored 1,708 runs — the most by an English cricketer in a calendar year. He is England’s second highest Test run scorer and is just three triple-figure scores away from becoming their record century-maker.

Root’s greatness lies in his ability to continually add new facets to his game. Ahead of the 2023 Ashes, he introduced an array of new shots — most famously the paddle scoop — to stay in line with the ultra-attacking approach England had adopted.

The scale of achievements in the longest format of the sport mean his feats in white-ball cricket often get overlooked. He was England’s top run-getter in their maiden ODI World Cup win in 2019 and has the second-most runs for them in the format. It is this versatility, combined with the gluttonous greed with which he has accumulated runs since his debut, that sets him aside from the Test captains that sandwiched his own leadership stint, Sir Alastair Cook and Ben Stokes.

The baby-face does a good job of masking the steely drive that sits behind it. A perennial student of the game, yet a master. — Shubi Arun

– Joe Root: ‘It means the most when you really have to work for it’

17. Wayne Rooney, football

“Remember the name: Wayne Rooney!” commentator Clive Tyldesley instructed viewers as the then-16-year-old celebrated scoring his first Premier League goal with his Everton teammates in October 2002.

It was the first of 366 goals for the Liverpool-born forward who had a knack for producing moments of skill and grace that were imbued with a menacing, almost violent quality. It was all captured in that first strike; a vicious effort that arced over Arsenal’s legendary goalkeeper David Seaman before crashing in off the underside of the crossbar to end the north London club’s 30-game unbeaten run.

A predictable move to Manchester United followed in 2004, where Rooney became the folk hero of Sir Alex Ferguson’s last great team, winning five Premier League titles, one FA Cup, three Carabao Cups and the Champions League.

Arguably the most talented player England had produced since Paul Gascoigne, Rooney seemed the spark that the country’s “golden generation” needed to finally satisfy the nation’s hunger for tournament triumph.

With a little luck, he might have been, but a broken metatarsal at Euro 2004 and a red card in the World Cup quarterfinal defeat to Portugal two years later robbed him of a truly defining moment in the England shirt he wore 120 times, captaining his country in 22 of those.

Rooney retired from playing at the age of 35 in 2021 having surpassed Sir Bobby Charlton as United and England’s all-time leading goal scorer. — Tom Chambers

16. Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, Paralympic athletics

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson’s haul of six Paralympic gold medals after the turn of the century is arguably already enough to place her on this list, but the career of the racer extends so far beyond the track, as her title suggests.

She was born with spina bifida and paralysed in a wheelchair from the age of seven. By her early teens, she found wheelchair racing and went on to break 30 world records on the track and won the women’s London Wheelchair Marathon six times.

Grey-Thompson’s first medal was a bronze in the 400m Paralympics in Seoul 1988, and from there she would stack up 15 more until Athens in 2004.

More than those sporting achievements, however, Grey-Thompson has campaigned relentlessly for the rights and welfare of those with disabilities, so much so that you could almost be forgiven for misremembering the Paralympic moments. She has been bestowed with several prestigious titles, most notably in 2010 when she was inducted to the UK’s House of Lords as a crossbench peer with her title of Baroness. She was named as Chancellor of Northumbria University in 2015, and over the years has been given several honorary degrees.

“When something goes seriously wrong, you can either give up or you can dig deep, recover your self-belief and focus once more upon your goal,” Grey-Thompson said of her approach to both campaigning and athletics. “It’s all about your attitude and being positive, even when everything sometimes seems stacked against you.” — Niamh Lewis

15. Sir Mark Cavendish, cycling

This column could have been written over a decade ago and it would not have been outlandish to refer to Sir Mark Cavendish as the greatest sprint cyclist of all time.

That he has maintained and extended his brilliance in the intervening years, crowned by his record-breaking 35th stage win on the Tour de France earlier in July, only amplifies the Isle of Man local’s legendary lore.

Sprinting is a particularly unforgiving and dangerous subset of a sport already littered with jeopardy. Longevity does not come easily when a single slip of the mind — or indeed a chain — comes with potentially life-threatening consequences. Most careers span barely two seasons, let alone the 17 racked up by the Manx Missile.

The 39-year-old’s exploits are not limited to the famous Tours, with a silver medal at the Rio 2016 games in the omnium adding to his track record that already included a joint-record three World Championship titles in the madison, earned between 2005 and 2016.

The roads have been his true calling, however, and even after surpassing Eddie Merckx’s Tour de France stage-win record, Cavendish’s fiery competitiveness found time to shine through the moment of otherwise-unobstructed jubilation as he vowed to chase yet more glory.

“I always have loved this race,” he said. “I love this race when I ride, I love this race when I watch it and I’ll always give it 100% so we’ll continue to do that and we’ll continue to try and win bunch sprints.” — Niamh Lewis

14. Joe Calzaghe, boxing

The man Ricky Hatton once described as Britain’s best-ever fighter, Joe Calzaghe was a formidable boxer and stands as a pound-for-pound great.

With more than a decade-long defence of his title from 1997 to 2008, “The Pride of Wales” is the longest-reigning super middleweight champion in history.

Calzaghe also had a significant presence outside the ring, winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award in 2007. His fight against Mikkel Kessler at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff that year will live in the memory of British fight fans for years to come.

With a perfect record of 46-0, 32 KOs, Calzaghe is on an esteemed list of world champions who finished their careers undefeated, along with the likes of Rocky Marciano and Floyd Mayweather Jr. That veneer of genuine invincibility sees him make this list as the highest-ranked boxer, even if he has shied away from the limelight more so than some of the other big names from his sport.

That low-key nature and humility is perhaps best demonstrated by the borderline-derelict gym in south Wales that Calzaghe continued to train in even in the latter stages of his career when his greatness had been well established.

“I’ve never wanted fame,” he told the Guardian ahead of his penultimate fight with Bernard Hopkins. “I’ve only ever wanted recognition.” — James Regan

– ‘You’re so focused on the fight, it’s like a dream’ – Calzaghe on fighting in Cardiff

13. Chris Froome, cycling

Though an elusive fifth Tour de France triumph continues to evade Chris Froome’s grasp, his achievements on the roads of Europe already have him placed in the pantheon of modern cycling greats.

The first Briton to win the Vuelta a España and the first rider to win the three major grand tours in succession, Froome has held a more low-key profile than many of the other Tour winners of his generation.

Perhaps unfortunate that Sir Bradley Wiggins had broken the Tour de France’s British hoodoo the year before his own maiden victory, the Kenya-born great has never seemed bothered by his relative lack of public persona. Such limited fuss allowed the self-confessed workaholic — in a sport dominated by borderline sadistic personalities and training regimes — to dedicate himself more meaningfully to the pursuit of two-wheeled history.

However, while preparing for the fifth Tour win that would place him in the top echelon of the race’s most successful riders, Froome suffered a violent accident in training which left him in intensive care with multiple broken bones, damaged lungs and the record dream in tatters.

By the time he recovered to grand-tour standard a team change and global pandemic later, he was reaching the latter part of his career by cycling standards, with the relentlessly competitive nature of the peloton moving up a gear and the dreams of more history seemingly gone with the wind. Though he is yet to retire from the sport, he was not selected by his Israel-Premier Tech team for the 2023 or 2024 Tour de France.

As with so many in his field, Froome has not escaped the controversy of doping scandal. An adverse test for asthma drug salbutamol at the 2017 Vuelta was eventually cleared by cycling’s governing body after a nine-month investigation. — Niamh Lewis

12. Dame Sarah Storey, Paralympics cycling

Dame Sarah Storey is Britain’s most decorated Paralympian, with 28 Paralympic medals, (17 of those gold), 29 world championships and a remarkable career spanning decades.

Born without a functioning left hand, she started swimming as a child, and at age 14 won two golds, three silvers and a bronze at the Barcelona Paralympics in 1992 — though none of those remarkable achievements come in the time period under consideration in these rankings.

In her first four Paralympic games she competed in swimming, before switching to road and track cycling in 2005, taking herself to the pinnacle of a second sport and winning at least two gold medals at every Paralympics since Beijing in 2008.

Eleven months after the birth of her first child in 2017, she returned to win a world championship and described the feat as one of her greatest demonstrations of strength and resilience. At 46 years old, she will go once more at Paris 2024, her ninth Games, saying she would like both of her children to see her compete.

Off the bike, Storey has been a successful campaigner in encouraging more people to cycle for transport alongside Chris Boardman, and runs her own cycling team, Storey Racing RT. — Niamh Lewis

11. Rory McIlroy, golf

Any fan who has watched Rory McIlroy in a major championship over the past decade would probably liken the feeling to that of a roller coaster.

It is never an easy ride. He can just as easily dominate a tournament as he can fall away from it. He is a supremely talented athlete for whom the past decade has been increasingly consumed by a nagging question: When will he win another major?

That question has left scars on McIlroy. Earlier this year, he told a story about how he went to see his old coach Butch Harmon. As he left for the airport, his four-year-old daughter, Poppy, asked where he was going.

“I’m going for a golf lesson, I’ll be back in a couple days,” McIlroy told her.

“But, dada, you already know how to play golf?” Poppy replied.

McIlroy was struck by the comment, as if it was news to him. He later said it was maybe the best advice he had received in years. He had become focused too much on the short-term — on the 10 long years without a major, on his inability to win the Masters — and yet, if you zoom out further, McIlroy is already a British sporting icon.

The curly-haired golfer from Holywood, Northern Ireland burst onto the scene with a powerful drive and a fearless style. In 2010, at his Open Championship debut at the Old Course at St. Andrews, McIlroy tied the course record in the first round with a nine-under-par 63. He finished tied-third that year, as he did in the PGA Championship.

A year later, though, came the first crushing blow. He was leading the Masters by four strokes entering the final day, only to record the worst collapse in major history with a score of 80.

“Right now, all I need is a hug,” he told CBS’ Peter Kostis before his post-round interview.

His story wouldn’t end there. He has gone on to become a major champion on four occasions — at the U.S. Open (2011), PGA Championship (2012, 2014) and Open Championship (2014) — as well as helping Team Europe to five Ryder Cup victories. He joined the greats Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players to win four majors by the time they turned 25. He’s spent 122 weeks as world No. 1, notching 40 professional wins.

More recently, he has been one of the dominant voices on the PGA Tour as civil war rages in golf over the LIV Tour’s emergence and its Saudi Public Investment Fund funding. That debate has become a constant topic in McIlroy’s news conferences amid the latest slew of increasingly near misses, none closer than at last month’s U.S. Open, where McIlroy missed two three-foot putts to allow LIV’s Bryson DeChambeau to claim victory.

Despite the ongoing agonies and feeling of helplessness in the PGA Tour-LIV divide, McIlroy’s achievements have already made him one of this century’s greatest British sportspeople, and who could rule out another glorious chapter being written? — Connor O’Halloran

– The Open: Rory McIlroy’s final bid to end decade-long major drought

10. Dame Kelly Holmes, track

Dame Kelly Holmes can stake a claim for being the toughest competitor on this list.

Her injury history was so tortured that by the time Athens 2004 came round, she believed she was cursed, even if she never let it stop her competing. She raced with a stress fracture in her shin at Atlanta 1996 that left her in a cast for seven weeks after. A year later at the world championships, she was the favourite to win but tore an Achilles tendon and ruptured a calf in the 1,500m heats but refused to pull out, instead taking injections and soldiering on — perhaps unsurprising given her nine-year military career as a sergeant.

Holmes considered retiring on several occasions. At Sydney 2000, she led in the 800m with just half the final straight to go before being reeled in at the line to return home with bronze. It had been a decade filled with disappointment and setbacks for Holmes until those six magic days in Athens when her career at last took off as she sewed her name into the annals of British Olympic history.

The first gold came in the 800m as demons of Sydney’s past were banished into the background, before six days later, she returned with an incredible 1500m performance that saw her emerge from the back of the race entering the final lap and motor past the field in the last 200m.

“Has she got enough in the home straight!?,” fellow middle-distance alumnus Steve Cram shouted on commentary. “Kelly looking around to see where the danger is. There doesn’t appear to be too much. Now she’s got to push on! Now she’s got to kick for home! Kelly Holmes — going for two gold medals! It’s going to be a historic second gold!”

Since retiring in December 2005, Holmes has spoken passionately about mental health, candidly revealing how she would self-harm during her career, particularly through the periods of injury that punctuated so much of her prime. Her athletic and cerebral resilience, combined with an undeniable racing prowess, see Holmes break our top 10. — Connor O’Halloran

9. Gareth Bale, football

For a fan who makes sense of careers according to trophy haul, describing Gareth Bale as the UK’s greatest footballing export makes perfect sense.

Fifteen major trophies in nine years at Real Madrid, including five Champions League titles, makes for compelling evidence. However, those numbers overlook what made Bale fundamentally different to the thousands of other footballers born on these isles.

Bale was a player capable of transcendent moments who often struggled to produce consistent brilliance over a sustained period. That is, except for when he went on a nine month-long hot streak for Tottenham in 2012-13 which still stands as one of the all-time great individual Premier League seasons.

Blessed with jaw-dropping physical attributes — he ran the 100 metres in 11.4 seconds as a 14-year-old — Bale is a man credited with some of the most famous goals scored this century.

Whether it be any one of the freakishly identical trio he scored against Inter Milan in 2010, the scarcely believable run around Barcelona’s Marc Bartra in which Bale briefly left the pitch before scoring the winner in the 2014 Copa Del Rey final, or that bicycle kick in the 2018 Champions League final, the winger was always appointment viewing.

And yet, many will still argue that for a player of his attributes, Bale did not achieve as much in the sport as he could perhaps have done had he not been plagued by frequent muscular injuries or lived in Cristiano Ronaldo’s shadow at Madrid. Perhaps, they ponder, if Bale had spent a little more time honing his skills on the training pitch instead of the golf course, his achievements would be held in higher esteem by the UK and Spanish publics.

However, in truth, Bale could never really be claimed to represent the UK — he belongs to Wales and his compatriots understandably love him for it. Before Bale’s coming, Wales hadn’t qualified for the World Cup for 58 years. By the time he retired in 2023, he had led a country of roughly 3m people to the tournament in Qatar and a European Championship semifinal. — Tom Chambers

– Gareth Bale retires on his terms after glittering career of incandescent moments for club and country

8. Sir Mo Farah, track

Sir Mo Farah’s achievements rank among the best in British Olympic history.

He produced one of the defining images of London 2012: Farah, pumping his arms and legs before crossing the line, performing his trademark “Mobot” as he won the men’s 10,000m on “Super Saturday” — the day he, Greg Rutherford and Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill all collected gold within 45 minutes.

Farah’s repeat winning performance days later in the 5,000m made him a double Olympic champion. As if practice makes perfect, he did the same again in Rio four years later, winning both distances to become a four-time champion and establishing himself as Team GB’s most successful track athlete in history.

To say no Brit will repeat his feats would not be out of the question, particularly given the Ethiopian and Kenyan competitors in both races had tactically teamed up in an attempt to prevent Farah completing his quest for the double-double.

Farah’s career will always be tainted by his association to disgraced American coach Alberto Salazar, who was given a four-year ban from athletics for doping allegations that shut down the Nike Oregon Project — though no investigations have ever been raised into the runner himself.

Farah’s complex story took a human turn in 2022 after he discussed his childhood experiences in a documentary made by the BBC — a story he only shared after the Home Office confirmed they would not deport him. The British public had long-known he was born in the breakaway state of Somaliland but did not know that his birth name was Hussein Abdi Kahin, nor that he was trafficked to the UK as a child after his father had been shot and killed in stray gunfire. His revelations led to a national conversation around human trafficking. — Connor O’Halloran

– The unrelenting Sir Mo Farah

7. Sir Chris Hoy, cycling

Every one of Sir Chris Hoy’s six Olympic gold medals came after years of repeated, self-inflicted agony.

The cyclist from Edinburgh, Scotland, was renowned for his gritty training regime in which he would ride so hard he would have to be helped off the bike.

“It’s the worst pain imaginable,” he said before London 2012. “You feel as if you are dying. You’re physically sick and you writhe around on a mat in a world of pain until you can form a fetal position, which you stay in for 15 minutes thinking you can’t go on.”

Hoy reaped the benefits of that maniacal training and rode his way on the track to a silver medal at Sydney 2000, followed by a combined six Olympic gold medals at the next three Games in Athens, Beijing and London across all four sprinting disciplines (individual sprint, time trial, keirin and team sprint).

He also became world champion on 11 occasions before retiring in 2013. At least he doesn’t have to go through the training anymore.

“Every time, you think it’s worse than ever,” Hoy added on his post-training routine. “Every time, you convince yourself that something’s wrong, you must have a virus, or you’re ill, or something.

“You have pretty much decided you’re not going to do it again, ever. Then after 15 minutes, almost to the second, the pain subsides, you sit up, start talking and get on with it.”

Hoy revealed in February he had being undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer. “However, I currently feel fine — I am continuing to work, ride my bike and live my life as normal,” he said.– Connor O’Halloran

6. Sir AP McCoy, horse racing

As with many members of this list, it is the raw numbers that immediately leap out at you when considering Sir AP McCoy’s career.

The first of his 4,358 wins came surprisingly in a Flat race in 1992 as the 17-year-old Northern Irishman coaxed Legal Steps past the post at Thurles racecourse in Ireland. An accident shortly after that triumph saw McCoy break his leg before growing to a height more favourable for Jumps — and the rest is indeed history.

Twenty consecutive Champion Jockey titles for most wins in a season from 1995-6 to 2014-15, a rare Cheltenham Gold Cup/ Champion Hurdle double in 1997, Grand National glory with Don’t Push It in 2010 after a 15-year crusade for arguably the sport’s most prestigious prize — the list of achievements could almost literally be endless. And it is that final season in 2014-15 that best sums up the aptitude, dedication and demonic competitiveness of the otherwise softly spoken County Antrim native.

Having started his swansong campaign in blistering fashion with 100 winners by August, McCoy set his sights on an unprecedented 300-win season, only to have his hopes dashed by a series of injuries that included a punctured lung and fractured collarbone which he attempted to ride through in pursuit of his potential magnum opus.

“That broke my heart, really,” McCoy said of the moment he acknowledged the feat was not possible to the Guardian in 2015. “It was the first time ever as a jockey that I felt broken … Yeah, I’ve broken every f—ing- bone in my body but bones heal. This was feeling broken inside.”

Such visceral feeling despite remarkable success is often what sets aside sports stars who transcend their field — an innate refusal of failure regardless of the past’s events where mere mortals would simply give in — and McCoy’s career undoubtedly stands alone in a sport with 300 years of history. — Matt Foster

5. Dame Laura Kenny, cycling

Dame Laura Kenny’s cycling story started in a doctor’s office. She had suffered a collapsed lung as a baby, causing severe childhood asthma. When the doctor prescribed some exercise, she took up trampolining but kept passing out midair. The medical experts never knew why. Eventually, she took up cycling and never looked back.

By age 20, the then-named Laura Trott was taking to the track at London 2012 and was soon pronounced double Olympic champion in the team pursuit and omnium. She added another two golds in the same two events at Rio 2016, by then engaged to now-husband Jason Kenny, a sporting power couple who need much more than a mantelpiece to display all their Olympic medals.

Laura Kenny returned again for Tokyo 2020 for what turned out to be her Olympic farewell, winning the madison alongside Katie Archibald as well as a silver in the team pursuit. Kenny’s impact and responsibility soon extended beyond the track as it was at those Games that she learned she was pregnant with their second child.

However, she suffered a miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy, before bravely sharing publicly the pain it caused and shining a light on how motherhood can affect competitive spirit. “All I wanted was this little baby,” Kenny told Women’s Health Magazine. “I didn’t want gold medals. I didn’t want to go and race in the [2022] Commonwealth Games. I wanted a baby. And it just wasn’t happening.”

Kenny initially planned to race at Paris 2024 but retired in March to spend more time with her 6-year-old son Albert and 11-month-old baby, Monty. She remains Team GB’s most successful female athlete in history by gold medals, earning her a much-deserved spot in the top five of our rankings. — Connor O’Halloran

4. Sir Jason Kenny, cycling

Sir Jason Kenny’s incredible success would evoke moments of wild celebration for most, but perhaps it is his calm nature that propelled the Bolton man to feats achieved by no other British Olympian.

Surrounded by a sea of success — his wife, Laura, has five Olympic gold medals, while old teammates Sir Chris Hoy and Sir Bradley Wiggins have six and five respectively — Kenny has always remained more publicly shy than those irrefutable British sporting icons, even saying after his final Olympic triumph that he would happily have foregone the closing ceremony to get an early night. In the end he did attend, but only in the role of loving husband as Dame Laura carried the Union Jack around Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium.

Such unflappability helped Kenny to the extraordinary honour of being Team GB’s most decorated Olympian. His seven gold medals — and nine medals in total — across four Games is unparalleled. It is his longevity, as well as his supreme talent, that puts him above the rest and sees him sit higher in this list than any other cyclist in the strongest of all British fields.

Kenny was one of the figureheads of British cycling’s golden generation, the group that delivered Team GB a huge haul of medals and left a legacy of expected excellence within the sport that will need sating in Paris to avoid criticism. The now-retired 36-year-old will be part of the team attempting to maintain Britain’s two-wheeled dominance, joining as a sprint coach in the wake of his decision to hang up his helmet.

“I genuinely wanted to carry on to Paris,” Kenny said of his retirement, “but I creak quite a lot these days and I always knew I wanted to go into coaching off the back of it, and this opportunity came along.”– Connor O’Halloran

3. Sir Andy Murray, tennis

For years, Sir Andy Murray seemed to be destined to be another British nearly-man. He was a gifted player — that was without doubt — but in an era with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, you wondered whether it would ever happen for him. He thought the same.

Murray buried his head into his arm and cried on Wimbledon’s Centre Court in 2012 after losing the final in four sets to Federer, in doing so becoming the first man since Ivan Lendl to lose his first four Grand Slam finals. “That’s the closest I had been, and it was obviously difficult. It was quite an important moment in my career,” Murray said earlier this month, standing in the same spot on Centre Court after his Wimbledon farewell match.

“I’m not saying I’m the most outgoing or bubbly personality, but I think people probably saw how much I cared about the sport for the first time maybe.”

It was after those tears that Murray’s most prolific period arrived. He returned to Wimbledon weeks later to beat Federer in straight sets and claim Olympic gold at London 2012. “Definitely to that point, it was the biggest week of my life,” Murray said.

From there, it would only get better. First, he broke his deadlock at Grand Slams later that summer at the US Open, slaying Djokovic in five sets over five hours.

The increasingly loquacious Scot followed that up by returning to the Wimbledon men’s final in 2013 and beating Djokovic again — becoming the first British man in 77 years to hold the famous gold trophy aloft. He would go on to win Wimbledon again in 2016 and heroically defended his Olympic title at Rio 2016.

That era saw him become Sir Andy Murray, and he was rewarded for his upturn in major silverware with three BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards between 2013 and 2016.

Then came the final period of Murray’s career, defined by grit and perseverance as opposed to titles. He “retired” in 2019 due to hip surgeries, before miraculously returning to the fray with an artificial hip as a different sort of player. His matches lasted for longer as the comebacks became more frequent and drawn out. The barely human determination in the face of unimaginable pain was on display clearer than ever before, as a British public once polarised by his supposed boringness and disaffection for the England football team grew to appreciate his gargantuan efforts.

Murray is bowing out of tennis this summer. He ends his career as one of the “Big Four” of his time, and as a man who single-handedly transformed tennis in Britain. — Connor O’Halloran

– Andy Murray’s legacy at Wimbledon, and in British tennis

2. James Anderson, cricket

The top-line numbers tell their own extraordinary tale: 704 wickets in 188 Tests, spanning more than 21 years.

In terms of endurance alone, James Anderson would be worthy of his place among England’s all-time greats. But factor in his genius as well, and you are looking at a once-in-a-lifetime competitor, whose unique blend of steel and style will never be seen again.

The drilled-down numbers state that Anderson got better as he got older. In July 2017, he turned 35 — the sort of age at which most fast bowlers tend to be pensioned off. Instead, his already formidable career went into overdrive, with his final 224 wickets coming at an average of 22.71 in 63 Tests — which in itself was more matches than many of his most illustrious predecessors managed in their entire careers, among them Andrew Caddick, Steve Harmison (both 62) and Darren Gough (58).

No-one could have predicted the heights he would reach in his two decades at the top. However, when Anderson’s international career took its first steps during England’s winter tours in 2002-03, it was clear — even at the age of 20 — that he had talent to burn.

Few bowlers in history have swung the ball as lavishly as he managed in his raw rookie years — his yorker to Mohammad Yousuf at the 2003 World Cup still takes the breath away — but like the breaking-in of a frisky racehorse, the manner in which he harnessed his powers in later years was the true unlocking of his potential.

Anderson’s breakthrough as a Test bowler came with his recall in New Zealand in 2008, but it was his starring role in Australia three winters later that kick-started his seemingly never-ending pomp. By then he’d toned down in his magic balls and settled instead for a relentless, forensic pursuit of perfection. Like a master puppeteer, the subtlety in his fingertips could unleash any combination of swing, seam and cut, with barely a loose delivery to ease the examination of a range of hard-pressed opponents.

Anderson’s 704th and final Test wicket, that of Joshua da Silva at Lord’s in July 2024, epitomised this long-established mastery. It was a ball that bent in just enough to crank Da Silva’s stance wide open, before zipping away to kiss the edge of his flummoxed blade. It was genius distilled into half a bat’s width of movement. It gave a packed Lord’s crowd one last sight of perfection.

Oh, and he also took 269 wickets in ODI cricket too, despite not having played the format since 2015. That’s another England record that will surely never be challenged. — Andrew Miller

1. Sir Lewis Hamilton, Formula One

He is the most successful driver in Formula One history with 104 victories to his name, but Lewis Hamilton’s story has always been about more than just numbers. As the first and only Black driver to race in F1, Hamilton has described his career as a “lonely journey” and commits a significant amount of his time, energy and money to increasing diversity in his sport.

Hamilton’s route to F1 defied the odds, starting out racing remote control cars aged six before his father worked three jobs to fund his early go-kart career. Spotted by McLaren as an emerging talent at 13, the F1 team funded him through the junior formulae and gave him his F1 debut aged 22. He narrowly missed out on a title in his first season in 2007 before becoming the sport’s youngest champion the following year in a final-lap showdown with Felipe Massa.

A switch from McLaren to Mercedes in 2013 resulted in a period of unprecedented success from 2014 to 2020, with six further titles from seven attempts. However, as he rose to fame Hamilton felt the need to do more with his career than simply lift trophies.

“I’m winning all of these races, but it doesn’t actually mean anything unless you do something with the platform it provides you,” he said after securing his seventh title in 2020.

In 2021, a commission launched by Hamilton conducted research into the sport’s lack of diversity and presented a report which F1 and Hamilton’s own charity, Mission 44, are acting upon to increase opportunities for students from underrepresented backgrounds.

A record-breaking eighth world title was ripped from his grasp at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix by the controversial actions of race director Michael Masi. The FIA later put Masi’s incorrect handling of a late safety car period, which provided Max Verstappen the opportunity to pass Hamilton for the title on the final lap, down to “human error” but Hamilton still carries the mental scars from that evening.

“Honestly, when I came back in 2022, I thought that I was over it,” he said recently. “I now know I wasn’t and it’s taken a long time for sure to heal that kind of feeling.”

Despite a fallow period through 2022 and 2023, Hamilton continues to break records as he prepares to race into his forties. In July, he took an unprecedented ninth British Grand Prix victory, making him the first driver with more than 300 grand prix starts to win a race.

The emotional scenes at Silverstone point to an almost underrated sense of longevity when it comes to Hamilton’s career that sees him sit atop this list. The British public has watched him mature from a playboy racer with celebrity girlfriends into arguably the most conscientious sportsman of his generation, all the while dominating his field for over a decade.

While it is easy to level accusations of F1’s unfair playing field as an caveat to Hamilton’s success, there is a reason he has found himself in those more fortunate seats — he is the closest the sport has come to a sure thing since the days of Michael Schumacher, the man with whom he shares the record for most world championships. There truly is little left for the Stevenage-born icon to prove.

The next chapter of the Hamilton story starts in 2025 when he will don the famous red of Ferrari in pursuit of his elusive eighth drivers’ title that would separate him from Maranello’s favourite son, as well as giving the team their first triumph since 2007. — Laurence Edmondson

– British GP: Lewis Hamilton ending 945-day drought makes for ‘special’ win

Honourable mentions:

A few names fell a hair’s breadth short of qualifying for this article, but were no doubt worthy of a sentence at the very least to explain their absence.

Tyson Fury: Britain’s second greatest heavyweight of the period in our eyes. Defeat to Oleksandr Usyk in the historic unification bout in May this year saw Fury slide out of contention for this list at the final juncture.

Ellen White: England’s top scorer and one of the victorious Lionesses from Euro 2022 was a difficult omission from the list, but her individual accomplishments didn’t stack up to those of Lucy Bronze from that tournament who has made the cut.

Phil Taylor: Undoubtedly the greatest darts player ever but the sport’s professional uptake is too limited (and athletic requirements too negligible) for “The Power” to make our list.

Ronnie O’Sullivan: Similar to Taylor, snooker’s small-scale popularity as a professional sport ruled The Rocket out of the running.

Matthew Pinsent: Several rowers could lay considerable claim to a spot on this list, and none more so than Pinsent, but the pre-eminence of cyclists in Team GB’s all-time medal table mean he falls just short of the threshold.

Harry Kane: A familiar criticism for England’s captain and all-time top men’s goal scorer, Kane’s failure to lift any meaningful silverware made it difficult to include him in spite of his individual brilliance.

Charlotte Dujardin: Three gold medals is a hard case to argue against, but dressage again suffers from it’s limited pool of competitors.