Advertise here with Carbon Ads

This site is made possible by member support. 💞

Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.

When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!

kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.

Beloved by 86.47% of the web.

🍔  💀  📸  😭  🕳️  🤠  🎬  🥔

What Are the Most Untouchable Records in Sports?

I ran across this post on Threads the other day: “What’s the hardest record in sports history to ever break?” A sampling of the replies:

  • “Bill Russell’s 11 NBA championships including 8 in a row.”
  • “Lionel Messi scored 91 goals in the 2012 calendar year.”
  • “Cy Young 749 complete games.”
  • “Fernando Tatis (Sr) - 2 Grand Slams in the same inning. Most of the others mentioned here are highly improbable, but there’s no way anyone ever hits 3 slams in one inning.”
  • “Lionel Messi’s 8 Ballon d’or”
  • “Sir Donald Bradman’s batting average in Test cricket. His 99.97.”
  • “Russian wrestler Aleksandr Karelin. Undefeated for 13 years. 887 wins and 2 losses, both by single point.”

Last year, The Athletic offered a list of their own, which included Wayne Gretzky’s 1,963 career assists, the furthest goal in soccer (96.01 meters), Michael Phelps’ 23 Olympic golds, and Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game.

Poking around the internet a bit, there’s also FloJo’s 100m record, UConn women’s basketball team’s 111 wins in a row, Cal Ripken’s consecutive game streak, and Simone Biles’ 30 world championship medals.

Any additions to the list?

Fave · 0

Comments  6

Sort by: thread — thread . latest . faves

Jared Crookston

Hard to imagine John Stockton's records for career steals or assists being broken. 

T
Terence Fox

As long as they keep playing, nobody is ever going to "beat" the Philadelphia Phillies for losingest sports franchise - they've lost over 11,000 games and counting.

A
Andreas Karsten Edited

From the world of tennis: Roger Federer’s 237 consecutive weeks as Number 1 (followed by Jimmy Connors with 160). Steffi Graf’s 377 total weeks as Number 1 (followed by Martina Navratilova with 332). (Plus Steffi Graf’s Calendar Golden Grand Slam, as mentioned in the Atlantic).

R
Ross Bell

Wayne Gretzky - 50 goals in 39 games in 1981-82; next best is 50 goals in 50 games (several players, including Gretzky).

T
Tom Boegel

Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game consecutive hitting streak in 1941 seems untouchable. It’s a whole different game now. 

Craig Beilinson

I'm going with Johnny Vander Meer's back to back no-hitters.  Someone's going to have to throw 3 straight no-hitters to beat this one... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Vander_Meer

In order to comment or fave, you need to be a kottke.org member. Check out your membership options.

Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions. Or try logging out and then back in. Still having trouble? Email me!