Top 10 Most Unlikely Winners in Sporting History

Following on from Pierre Gasly’s shock win at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix Mark Payne looks at the 10 most unlikely winners in sporting history.

10. Goran Ivanišević finally wins Wimbledon

Goran Ivanišević had been Wimbledon’s nearly man in the 90s. He’d faced tennis greats Agassi and Sampras in Wimbledon finals - and pushed them close, but had just fallen short on the big stage. His 1998 defeat to Pistol Pete marked a turning point for Goran, he described his five set defeat as “the worst moment of my life” and was visibly distressed on court. 

By the time of the 2001 tournament he was three years removed from that low point, and it appeared his Wimbledon dream had ended. He hadn’t reached the quarterfinals of any Grand Slam in that time and he’d failed to qualify for the Australian Open. His career was in a tailspin. He’d fallen to 125 in the world rankings and was no longer assured an automatic berth at SW1. 

Given his previous success at Wimbledon the organisers chose to gave him one of that year’s eight wildcard berths and Goran never looked back. Pete Sampras, the seven time champion had beaten him in the final in 94 and 94; but was defeated by a young Swiss star called Roger Federer. The man who’d beaten him in 92 Andre Agassi was defeated by Pat Rafter in the semis… But the path to the final was far from straightforward for the charismatic Croatian. He’d have to beat three current and former World number ones (Carlos Moya, Andy Roddick and Marat Safin), the man with the fastest serve on the planet (Greg Reusedski) and fellow Brit Tim Henman (who always ensured a partizan crowd). And that’s before he faced Pat Rafter a two time US Open champ looking to bounceback from his own Wimbledon heartache after losing 12 months earlier. 

It was a nervy affair. Ivanišević double faulted away two separate Championship points - the tension was palpable. One more shot from Rafter - the ball bounced inches out. Ivanišević fell to his knees and prayed where the ball landed. Rafter lobs him - the anguish is written all over his face. Finally he serves at match point - the ball smashes back into the net from Rafter - Ivanisevic collapses sobbing on the court. The crowd explodes.

9. Denmark win Euro 92

Denmark’s Euro 92 qualification campaign was far from ideal - the team were beset by internal squabbles with three of their best players; Jan Molby and the Laudrup brothers refusing to play for head coach Richard Moller at various points in the campaign. They won their final six games, but a home defeat to Yugoslavia and a 1-1 draw against Northern Ireland in Belfast left them second behind Yugoslavia a single point away from qualification.

Seven months after qualification ended and eleven days before the tournament began in Sweden, the Danes were back in. War had broken out in Yugoslavia and a UN resolution barred their football team from competing. The Swede’s still hadn’t resolved all their disputes. While Jan Molby and Brian Laudrup did join the squad, the older Laudrup, Barcelona star Michael, stayed on holiday.

The fairytale finals didn’t get off to the best start. The Danes played out a turgid draw with England in the opener, then lost to hosts Sweden in the second game. For the crucial third game against France, Kim Vilfort, the man tasked with replacing Michael Laudrup’s midfield creativity would be missing. He flew home to visit his daughter in hospital as she fought a desperate battle with leukaemia.

The Danes squeezed past France 2-1 to qualify for the semi-finals. From their they played reigning European Champions the Netherlands. The game, a hard fought tie went to penalties where a young Peter Schmeichel denied Marco Van Basten and send the Danes into the final. Their opponents Germany were competing in their first tournament since the fall of the Berlin wall, but their squad was loaded with the stars of the West German World Cup winning team of 1990. They were prohibitive favourites, but it was the Danes who won 2-0.

Kim Vilfort who returned to the finals at the insistence of his daughter Line and scored the winning goal in the final summed up Denmark’s win: "We didn't have the best players, but we had the best team." Tragically, the greatest moment in his career coincided with one of immense personal tragedy, his daughter Line died days after the tournament concluded at just seven years old.

8. Kurt Warner goes from stacking shelves to the Hall of Fame

The St. Louis Rams came into the 1999 season as big underdogs - they hadn’t won a title since 1951 - 16 years before the first superbowl was awarded. They also hadn’t had a winning season for a decade, with the last four seasons progressively worst. To make matters worse - the man they’d slated to bring them success - big money free agent quarterback Trent Green suffered a season ending injury in pre-season.

Instead of his high price star, head coach Dick Vermeil had to turn the team over to a 28 year old quarterback who had never started an NFL game. A man who’d been stacking shelves on the nightshift in his local supermarket alongside a journeyman career that had seen him play in indoor football and NFL Europe - Kurt Warner.

Charged with salvaging something from the Rams season, Warner starred. Winning the league MVP award, the Super Bowl and Super Bowl MVP. Running a feted offence known as the ‘Greatest Show on Turf’ he racked up his second MVP season in 2001 on his way to a Super Bowl.

Then in 2008, when everyone had written him off - he nearly pulled off the feat again. He made another Super Bowl appearance with the equally unfancied Arizona Cardinals. Kurt Warner earned a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017 and his story is set to hit the big screen in the film American Underdog next year.

7. Dominant Man O’War is upset by Upset

Man O’War may be the most successful race horse in history. Racing back in 1919, he broke in a world record at the Prestigious Belmont Stakes and won by twenty lengths. He raced the horse that had just won the triple crown by seven lengths and was recognised as the co-Athlete of the year alongside baseball legend Babe Ruth in 1920. On top of all that his bloodline is said to be found in every successful US racehorse. Quite the legacy. Racing 21 times he won 20… the only defeat, a horse literally called Upset!

Upset snuck in by a head. Man O’War would beat Upset six more times in his career before heading to stud. 

6. Steven Bradbury wades through chaos to Olympic gold

A journeyman speedskater who was in the twilight of his career when he reached the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002. Hailing from Sydney he’d been a pioneer for the sport. Winning Australia’s first olympic medal when he won bronze as part of the country’s 5000m relay team at the Lillehammer games in 1994. His career had been beset by a string of horrific injuries including a broken neck in training and a slashed thigh in a World cup event that resulted in four torn muscles in his leg, four litres of lost blood, 111 stitches and an 18 month recovery. 

His top end speed had gone by the time 2002 had arrived. But that didn’t stop him winning his first heat. He appeared to have been eliminated in the quarter finals finishing third of four… until Marc Gagnon was disqualified.. Putting Bradbury in the semis. After chatting with his coach Ann Zhang he decided to hang back off the pack and weight for the drama to unfold. In his semi he was last place until the top three crashed on the last corner allowing him into an Olympic final for the first time. 

In the final the same thing happened, the field smashed into the final turn and Bradbury provided an unlikely Olympic gold. In Australia the phrase “doing a Bradbury” became commonplace for describing unexpected success. 

5. Argentina beat the Dream Team in 2004

If you look through the history of the men’s Olympic basketball tournament you’ll see the USA are pretty dominant. In fact, since 1992 when the USA have been able to draw on the talents of the NBA professionals, they have looked unbeatable. In that time only one team has taken on the dream team at the Olympics and won.

In 2004, the US team included LeBron James, Dwayne Wayde, Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson and Tim Duncan… but they only took home the bronze thanks to Duncan’s Spurs teammate Manu Ginóbili and Argentina. 

Ginóbili scored 29 points and Pepe Brown provided seven assists as Argentina gave the dream team nightmares and secured them a final berth against Italy. In the final Argentina cruised to a fifteen point victory.

4. The Miracle on Ice

The USA have dominated Olympic basketball, but the Soviet Union were the dominant force in ice hockey during the Cold War. By 1980 they had won five of the six previous gold medals, their squad was full of professionals and were overwhelming favourites. The US team was filled exclusively with college students and entered the tournament ranked 7th out of the 12 teams. The USA team scraped into the final after finishing second in their pool and beating Finland in the semis. Few gave the amateur team a chance. The Soviets scored first - and were pegged back, a pattern that repeat again, and again… until the fiftieth minute of sixty when Mike Eruzione who’d just entered the ice hit the winning shot and put the US in front. The game became known as the Miracle on Ice and became one of the biggest moments in US Sporting Lore. 

3. Buster Douglas downs Mike Tyson

Buster Douglas wasn’t expected to win against Mike Tyson. He wasn’t expected to leave the ring standing. The biggest betting was not on who won - but in what round the Ohio born boxing star would hit the canvas. Mike Tyson was undefeated - and hadn’t seen a bout go past the fifth round for three years. The fight was seen as a tune up fight for Tyson’s matchup with Evander Holyfield…but it didn’t work out that way. 

The early fights were close with Douglas landing more heavy punches on Tyson… amazingly by round 8 Tyson was behind on the judge’s scorecards and talk of a shock was brewing. That chatter appeared to be silenced when an uppercut sent Buster crashing to the canvas. The fall was heavy, but Douglas rose to his feet with the count at nine… with the bell saving further abuse. 

In round 9, Tyson began loading up his shots trying to secure a knockout.. Buster struck back and wobbled the champ… Tyson survived the round. But in the next round a flurry of punches led to a KO and left the 42-1 shot celebrating as undisputed champion in Tokyo. 

2. Brawn GP rise from the ashes to win F1 titles.

At the end of the 2008 season Honda pulled out of Formula One. The remaining team were left jobless. Drivers Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button, now approaching the Autumn of their careers faced the very real prospect that their F1 careers could be over. For the hundreds of staff that had worked so hard on the 2009 car it was a devastating blow. 

For one, Honda F1’s technical Director Ross Brawn, the answer was simple. Buy out the Honda team and race under a new name - his. But Honda also supplied the team’s engines and were no longer willing to give the team their old motor forcing Brawn to seek power from elsewhere. In F1, space is limited and engines are both unique and large. So Brawn’s decision was based less on which engine was fastest and more on which engine he could fit in the back of his chassis with the least adjustments. THankfully for Ross - the engine that he chose - Mercedes, was also the fastest. 

The team who were out of the job less than a month ago showed up at the first race in Australia with the fastest car. Jenson Button secured his first career pole and followed it up with a win, Barrichello started and finished second. It was the first time a team had earned a 1-2 on debut since 1954… They became the first team since the first F1 season in 1950 to start their F1 journey with back to back wins in the next race. 

Button and Barrichello would win eight races between them, with Jenson Button taking the drivers title. Brawn would win the constructors championship and the following season the team would be bought by the now all conquering Mercedes marque.

1. Rulon Gardener beats Aleksandr Karelin

Alexsandr Karelin was a Greco-Roman wrestling behemoth. He came into the Sydney Olympics on the back of one of the most dominant runs in sporting history. Fighting at the Super heavyweight 130kg class Alexsandr had earned three straight Olympic golds stretching back to Seoul in 1988, won ten straight European titles, nine straight World championships and was undefeated for 13 years… what’s more he hadn’t conceded a point in six years... He’d fought 887 times… and lost just once… 

In fact he was so dominant that in the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 he won the final with one arm after injuring his shoulder in the semifinals…

Then in the Olympic final the unthinkable happened. 

Facing off against Rulon Gardner a dairy farmer from Wyoming - who literally trained by wrestling with cows…Karelin made a mistake - and following a broken hold, gave up his first point in six years. He couldn’t move the American to the mat - losing his final contest. Karelin left his shoes on the mat - and retired on the spot. Gardner became a star of the US talkshow circuit - and when Gardner earned bronze at the Athens Olympics in 2004, Karelin watched on as Gardner too left his shoes in the ring.  

Subsequently Karelin has become an activist for Vladamir Putin and Gardner appears to be living through a real life version of final destination - including a snowmobile crash that left him stranded in freezing conditions (and ultimately lost him a toe) and crashing into a lake in Utah in a light aircraft! 

This article is taken from the latest episode of the Good Time Sports Club podcast. In this week’s episode listen to sailing legend Lawrence Lemieux discuss his journey from living in a van to the Olympics and why he explain why he turned his back on Olympic glory to rescue a competitor. Plus TeamGB’s wheelchair basketball co-captain Sophie Carrigill tells us how she came back from a devastating car crash to reach the Paralympics.

The Good Time Sports Club is available every Friday on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and your favourite podcast host.