Greatest athletes who never won the 'big one'?

[DBoi]

Who do you think are the greatest athletes who never won the big championship in their sport? I've made a top 10 list on this new blog: http://minsminions.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/athletesnotbigone/
Do you agree?

[Mark]

You make such a list and don't include Sir Stirling Moss? Madness.

[DBoi]

It was very hard to leave him out but I could only include one F1 driver and I chose Villeneuve because I think he is generally more underrated as a driver and doesn't get the credit he deserves.

[Rollo]

Can you include horses in this list?

I'd like to nominate the horse Quixall Crossett who ran in 103 races and never won any of them, and that includes a race set up in his honour called the Quixall Crossett Stakes.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/horse_racing/1781839.stm

If the Sydney Morning Herald can include on its list of "The 100 Greatest Australians", a horse... which was from New Zealand... then surely you can include the legend which is Quixall Crossett.

[BleAivano]

Tommy Jansson and Leigh Adams.

Tommy Jansson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Jansson) was the biggest talent of his time and was predicted as a future world champion but destiny had other plans.
On May 20th 1976 Tommy was killed in a crash at Gubbängen speedwaytrack in Stockholm.

Leigh Adams (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Adams) is an Australian speedway rider who belonged to the best of the best for a large part of his career but he never managed to
become an individual world champion. But i'd say though that he probably is the greatest team rider ever lived.

[A.F.F.]

Markku Alen.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Sir Stirling Moss for sure. Paul Tracy in Indycar....Kyle Busch for not winning the Sprint Cup or coming close in NASCAR with all the wins he has in lesser series. In sport? Well for the last 43 years, the Toronto Maple Leafs in hockey...not even seeing a final. The Detroit Lions in the NFL....one of the few teams to never make the Super Bowl since the merging of the leagues.

[schmenke]

... Well for the last 43 years, the Toronto Maple Leafs in hockey...not even seeing a final. ...

Oh, get over it :p :

[Mark in Oshawa]

Oh, get over it :p :

Give it time....The Habs may not see one for some time either!!!

[Garry Walker]

Markku Alen.

He won the WRC in 1978.

[AndyRAC]

He won the WRC in 1978.

He won the FiA Cup for Drivers in 1978 - which was the World Title in all but name. But strictly speaking 1979 was the first WRC for drivers, won by Bjorn Waldegaard.

[Bob Riebe]

I would pick Chris Amon for racing drivers. Moss crashed himself out of the game, but Amon had bad-luck or poor choices depending on how one looks at it.
Villeneuve won the biggetst prize in snowmobile racing on a machine that had a tiny budget compared to the hundreds of thousands spent at the time by the top factories.
A case could also be made for Loyd Ruby at indy.

There are actually far too many choices in sports to pick a THEE one.

[Garry Walker]

He won the FiA Cup for Drivers in 1978 - which was the World Title in all but name. But strictly speaking 1979 was the first WRC for drivers, won by Bjorn Waldegaard.

Name difference only, meaningless. Alen was a world champion.

[555-04Q2]

Michael Schumacher.

[Mark]

He never won the big one then?

[555-04Q2]

Number 8. He tried so hard and never got it, thanks to a fast young buck called Alonso :)

[JackSparrow]

Platini

Van Basten

[00steven]

I think Kyle is a little to young to add in the conversation...

Tony Stewart for not winning the Daytona 500 or Indy
Michael Andretti for never winning Indy
Dan Marino for never winning the Superbowl