Tiger Woods voted decade’s No.1 athlete
For all his strife on the home front, Tiger Woods remains a golfing phenomenon – and now has been voted Athlete of the Decade by members of The Associated Press.
The winner of 64 tournaments, including 12 major championships, Woods garnered a total of 56 titles in one decade on the PGA Tour.
He reputation has taken a battering after revelations of his alleged affairs with a string of women and he face a likely divorce from his wife of five years, Elin Nordegren.
But the sports editors who chose him for the honour on Wednesday say they focused on Woods only as an athlete.
Mike Strain, of Oklahoma’s Tulsa World, said: “The only reason I wouldn’t vote for Tiger Woods is because of the events of the last three weeks. And I didn’t think that was enough to change my vote. I thought he was a transcendent sports figure.”
Voting was not smooth sailing. Although Woods received 56 of 142 votes cast since last month, more than half the ballots were returned after the November 27 car accident outside his Florida home that sparked the allegations about him.
Lance Armstrong, a cancer survivor who won the Tour de France six times this decade, finished second with 33 votes, followed by Roger Federer, who has won more Grand Slam singles titles than any other man, with 25 votes.
Seattle Times sports editor Don Shelton discussed the vote with his staff, who he said were torn between Woods, Armstrong and Federer. He voted for Woods in the early stages of the scandal.
“I’m not sure I would change my vote,” he said. “I looked at him as an athlete, I really did. I separated him a little bit. If this had happened three years ago and his performance had dropped off, that’s a different factor.”
Source: Splash News