F1 News: Max Verstappen named among 'greatest living athletes' on popular podcast

Verstappen en FIA-president met wereldbeker — Photo: © LAT Images

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Verstappen named among 'greatest living athletes' on popular podcast

The Dutchman was put in exceptional company on the Bill Simmons podcast

Cal Gaunt

Tuesday 30 January 2024 09:57

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Max Verstappen has been considered as a contender for the title of 'greatest living athlete' on a prominent sports podcast.

The question was posed by Bill Simmons, the founder of The Ringer, during his podcast following Sunday night's NFL playoff games.

Simmons challenged his fellow podcaster, Sal 'Cousin Sal' Iacono, to identify anyone on the level of Patrick Mahomes after the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback secured his team's fourth Super Bowl berth in five seasons.

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Novak Djokovic was ruled out of the conversation thanks to his Australian Open loss to Jannik Sinner, with the likes of LeBron James and other stars from soccer, baseball, tennis and boxing.

Verstappen has won the last three Formula 1 world championships, taking a record 19 wins from 22 races in 2023, and is showing no signs of slowing down.

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'Verstappen's the guy in F1'

Speculating on whether Mahomes could win a third Super Bowl next month, Simmons said: "I was thinking the cross-sport stratosphere becomes kinda interesting at that point. Comparing him to basketball players, baseball players, soccer, tennis. You're talking about 'is this our greatest living athlete?' comes into play at that point."

He clarified: "I'm talking about current stars in different sports, he's holding the championship belt."

Iacono suggested Djokovic and 'Vanstappen [sic], that F1 guy' and while Simmons pushed back on the Serbian tennis star, he brought in producer Steve Ceruti to give a second opinion on Verstappen.

"It's Verstappen, Verstappen's the guy in F1. And everything's no fun."

Succinctly put.

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