Rafael Nadal just won his 12th French Open title in 15 attempts. This got me thinking about other sport streaks are out there:
Byron Nelson had 11 straight tournament victories in 1945 on the PGA tour.
Martina Navratilova won 13 straight tournaments in 1984.
Bobby Orr won 8 straight Norris trophies for best defenceman in NHL.
Richard Petty won 10 races in a row (and 27 overall) in 1967.
Boston Celtics won 8 straight NBA championships.
Mark Allen won the Nice Triathlon 10 times in 10 attempts.
Cameron Brown won Ironman New Zealand 12 times.
My vote for best sport streak in history would be US 400m hurdler Edwin Moses who was unbeaten between 1977 and 1987. He won 122 straight races, set multiple world records and won 2 Olympic gold medals > likely would have been 3 golds but for the 1980 Boycott.
I am not as familiar with sports outside North America but I imagine NZ All-Blacks Rugby have some pretty impressive numbers. My hometown had a girls ice hockey team, the Preston Rivulettes, that played over 350 games throughout the 1930’s and only lost twice.
Forgot about that one! This is particularly impressive because the team changes every year due to graduating players, and the sheer level of competition with # of teams competing. I imagine coach John Wooden would have been the primary reason for their ongoing success along with recruiting top-level high school players.
as i’ve read it, most ‘steaks’ are actually mostly expected within standard models of statistics. the one most often cited as a ‘true’ outlier is dimaggio’s 56-game hitting streak.
Australia (Cricket)
**Streak: **25 consecutive World Cup wins (1999-2011)
a Pakistani squash player (Jahangir Khan) won 555 matches consecutively, the longest winning streak by any athlete in top-level professional sports as recorded by Guinness World Records.
Notable achievements:
Won World Amateur Championships at age 15Youngest ever World Open Champion (aged 17)Unbeaten in 555 consecutive matches over 5 years and 8 monthsWon the British Open Championship 10 times in succession (1982–1991)Six-times World Open ChampionFirst player to win World Open Championships without dropping a gamePlayed the second longest match in the squash history 2.46 h
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I realize there was a long-delayed disqualification of the 2008 4x100 relay, but that aside, Usain Bolt’s 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympic three-peat in the 100, 200 and 4x100 has got to be up there. Not to mention all the World Championships he earned in the meantime.
To me, a far more mind-boggling accomplishment than what Phelps did.
as i’ve read it, most ‘steaks’ are actually mostly expected within standard models of statistics. **the one most often cited as a ‘true’ outlier is dimaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. **
here, for instance, is stephen jay gould:
https://books.google.ch/...tosaurus&f=false
My one gripe about that streak - or in general re: Dimaggio - is that Ted Williams was the better hitter and, because he was kind of a dick to reporters while Broadway Joe was, well, Broadway Joe, didn’t get quite the recognition his talents demanded when he was playing. And that said, my interesting fact re: Dimaggio’s streak: Ted Williams had a better OBP during Dimaggio’s streak than Joe did. AND Williams reached base safely in 84 consecutive games during the 1949 season.
My addition to the (non-US) list: Aleksandr Karelin, Russian wrestler who won three consecutive Olympic golds, 800+ straight match wins including 33 straight OLY and WC matches, until he lost the 2000 gold medal match to US wrestler Rulon Gardner. 887-2 career record, his lone blemishes coming in 1987 (1-0 defeat) and 2000 (1-0 defeat). Best greco-roman wrestler of all time.
UCLA basketball won 10 titles in 12 years. Final Four 13 out of 15.
And 88 straight games at one point. College basketball has changed somewhat but even in the 70’s for a men’s team to win 88 straight was crazy.
UConns womens basketball won like 100+ games in a row. I know the game is slightly different than mens, but I assume the recruiting / 4 year nature of the beast was pretty similar to UCLA’s.