中英双语：世界上最伟大的20位运动员

《福布斯》网站近期组织评选出了美国人心目中最近150年以来最具运动造诣的20位伟大运动员。
他们为我们诠释了体育的精髓，他们用行动挑战了人类生理和心理上的极限。
Roger Bannister: Sub-Four-Minute Mile
罗杰·班尼斯特：第1位在4分钟内跑完1英里（1.609公里）的运动员
In 1954 it seemed unlikely--maybe even impossible--that anyone could run a mile in less than four minutes. Several runners had come close--Sweden's Gunder Haess had run the mile in four minutes and 1.4 seconds nine years previously--but no one could break through the four-minute barrier. People began to believe that it couldn't be done. Until Britain's Roger Bannister, that is. Competing at Oxford's Iffley Road track on May 6, 1954, the 25-year-old medical student wowed some 3,000 spectators when he crossed the finish line in three minutes and 59.4 seconds. Once the psychological barrier had been broken, mile times kept falling. Bannister's record stood a scant six weeks before John Landy of Australia ran the mile in three minutes and 58 seconds. The current world record is three minutes and 43.1 seconds.
1954年，任何人在4分钟内跑完1英里的赛程都被视为不可能的事情。9年之前，瑞典著名运动员歌德·海尔斯曾经创造过4分1秒4的最好成绩，然而在此之后的时间里，4分钟仍然是一道困扰所有运动员的门槛。而英国天才运动员，25岁的医学院学生罗杰·班尼斯特在1954年5月6日的牛津大赛中，以3分59.4秒的成绩创造了新的1英里跑记录。
Lance Armstrong: Seven Consecutive Tour de France Victories
兰斯·阿姆斯特朗：7次环法自行车赛总冠军
Prior to being diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996, Lance Armstrong was a successful professional bicyclist. After his recovery, he became a legend. Armstrong has won the Tour de France, which many consider to be professional sports' most grueling event--a 21-stage race covering more than 3,500 kilometers (2,175 miles) in the heat of the French summer--a record seven consecutive times. Prior to Armstrong, no one had won the race more than five times.
1996年，阿姆斯特朗被诊断出身患睾丸癌，但是这一噩耗没有击溃这位坚强的自行车运动员。在身体恢复之后，阿姆斯特朗再次成为自行车赛场上的传奇人物。凭借坚强的意志力，阿姆斯特朗连续7次获得了环法自行车赛的总冠军。在他之前，还没有任何人获得过5次以上的环法总冠军。
Jesse Owens: Four World Records In 70 Minutes
杰西·欧文斯：70分钟破3项平1项世界纪录
In the spring of 1935, heading into Big Ten Conference Championships, Jesse Owens, a 21-year-old track star from Ohio State University, was suffering from a back injury he had sustained falling down a flight of stairs. He received treatment right up to race time. Then lightening struck. In less than 70 minutes, Owens broke thr

ee world records (in the long jump, the 220-yard dash and the 200-yard low hurdles) and tied a fourth (in the 100-yard dash). The following year, Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
1935年参加美国中西部10大名校（The Big Ten）大学生运动会时，杰西·欧文斯这位21岁的俄亥俄州大学学生正饱受背部伤痛折磨。然而，谁也没有想到，直到比赛前还在接受治疗的他，在70分钟内连续打破了3项世界纪录，分别是跳远、200米跑和200米跨栏，并且随后平了100米跑的世界记录。在接下来1936年的柏林奥运会上，杰西·欧文斯一举获得了4块金牌。
Nadia Comaneci: Seven Perfect 10s
纳迪亚·科马内奇：7个难以置信的满分
No one--man or woman--had ever earned a perfect score for an Olympic gymnastics routine before Nadia Comaneci mounted the uneven bars on July 18, 1976. But the 14-year-old Romanian gymnast's flawless routine did the inconceivable, earning a 10.0--a feat that was so unexpected it wouldn't fit on the scoreboard and had to be displayed as a 1.0. But Comaneci didn't stop there. The 4-foot-11, 86-pound pixie went on to score not one, not two, but seven perfect 10s during the games, winning gold medals in the uneven bars, balance beam and individual all-around. The feat remains one of the Olympic's greatest achievements--and after the games were over, the World Gymnastics Federation was forced to redesign their scoreboards.
在1976年7月18日之前，世界上没有任何运动员在奥运会体操项目中获得过满分。但这一天，14岁的罗马尼亚女子体操运动员科马内奇用自己完美的表现征服了场上的所有裁判，赢得了10分的满分。但是这还远远没有结束，这位身高仅1.5米，体重39公斤的小女孩在高低杠、平衡木以及个人全能比赛中，接连获得了7个满分。有趣的是，由于当时的记分牌还不能显示10.0这样的分数，因此只能以1.0代替。科马内奇的表现也使得世界体操联合会更改了之前使用的记分牌。
Joe DiMaggio: 56-Game Hitting Streak
乔·迪玛奇奥：连续56场击出安打
On May 15, 1941, the New York Yankee's Joe DiMaggio went one-for-four with an RBI against the Chicago White Sox in a routine, early season game (the Yankees lost 13 to 1). The very next day, "Joltin'" Joe had another base hit. And another in the next game. And in the next. In all, DiMaggio had a base hit in 56 consecutive games--a record that stands unbroken to this day.
1941年5月15日，纽约洋基棒球队以1比13的比分输给了芝加哥白袜队，纽约队惟一的1分来自于球队击球手迪玛奇奥。在第2天，迪玛奇奥再次打出了安打。令人震惊的是，这种势头在连续56场比赛中一直继续，这一记录至今还没有被打破。
（棒球比赛中的安打是指，在没有守备失误的情况下，打击手把投手投出来的球，击出到界内，

使打者本身能至少安全上到一垒的情形。）
Muhammad Ali: Three Heavyweight Titles
穆罕默德·阿里：3次获得重量级拳王头衔
On February 25, 1964, a young boxer named Cassius Clay faced off against Sonny Liston, the heavyweight champion of the world. The odds were seven-to-one against the mouthy upstart, known as "The Louisville Lip"--a boxer so brash he promised during the weigh-in to "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." But Clay proved true to his word, pummeling Liston so badly that the champ quit before the start of the seventh round. Soon after, Clay joined the Nation of Islam, changed his name to Muhammad Ali and refused to serve in the Vietnam War--a move that got him stripped of the championship belt. But in 1974, Ali came back, pulling the "rope-a-dope" on George Foreman in "The Rumble in the Jungle" and regaining the belt. In February 1978, Olympic champion Leon Spinks defeated the aging star in a 15-round decision. But only a few months later, Ali won a rematch and regained the title. The victory made him the first man in heavyweight history to win three heavyweight titles.
1964年2月25日，一位名叫凯谢尔斯·克莱的年轻拳击手击败了当时的世界重量级拳王桑尼·里斯顿。赛前，人们对这位自称“移动像蝴蝶，出拳像蜂刺”的傲慢年轻人不屑一顾，克莱用成绩证明了自己的实力。拳王里斯顿在第7回合开始前宣布弃权。克莱此后改名为穆罕默德·阿里。1974年，阿里击败了乔治·福尔曼重新夺回了拳王称号。1978年2月，奥运会拳击冠军里昂·斯宾克斯击败了阿里，登顶拳王宝座。但仅几个月之后，阿里又从里昂手中夺回了拳王金腰带。凭借此次胜利，阿里成为历史上第1位3次夺得重量级拳王称号的运动员。
Mark Spitz: Seven Gold Medals
马克·施皮茨：7枚游泳金牌
Going into the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Mark Spitz was a cocky 22-year-old swimmer who had failed to win a single individual gold in the 1968 games in Mexico City (although he did get two team golds). Nonetheless, Spitz bragged he would win six gold medals in Germany. He didn't. He won seven--the most anyone has ever won in a single Olympiad--and broke seven world records in the process. Spitz's career total of 11 medals ties him with fellow swimmer Matt Biondi for the most decorated U.S. Olympic athlete.
当1972年德国慕尼黑奥运会举行时，马克·施皮茨只是一位22岁的小将。在经历了1968年墨西哥城奥运会个人赛失利后，雄心勃勃的施皮茨宣称自己起码能在慕尼黑夺得6块金牌——而他最终获得了7块游泳金牌，并且打破了7项世界纪录。在施皮茨的职业生涯中，总共为美国代表队取得了11块金牌，与同伴马特·比昂迪并列第一。
Gertrude Ederle: Swims The English Channel In Record Time
格特鲁德·埃德尔：最短时间内横渡英吉利海峡
The choppy waters

that separate France from England are icy-cold, crisscrossed with powerful currents and subject to sudden squalls. By 1926, hundreds of people had tried to swim the English Channel, but only five had been successful--all of them men. Then Gertrude Ederle, a native New Yorker, donned her swimming cap, slathered herself with petroleum jelly and lard and jumped in the water off the coast of France. It took her 14 hours and 31 minutes to cover the 21 miles to Kingsdown on the English coast, shattering the men's record by nearly two hours. Ederle's record remained untouched for nearly 25 years.
分隔英国和欧洲大陆的英吉利海峡一向都以冰冷的海水和汹涌的海浪而著称。在1926年之前，已经有数百人尝试过横渡，其中只有5人最终成功，且都是男性。埃德尔花费了14小时31分钟，完成了21英里（约33.8公里）的横渡，并将之前的纪录缩短了近两小时。新的纪录一直保持了25年。
Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay: Climb Mt. Everest
埃德蒙·希拉里和丹增·诺尔盖：成功攀登珠穆朗玛峰
The peak of Mt. Everest reaches a height of 29,035 feet above sea level--the highest point on Earth. Finally, the British were allowed access in the early 1920s. They mounted a number of full-fledged expeditions, including one in 1924 that claimed the lives of world-renowned Alpinist George Mallory and a young Oxford graduate named Andrew "Sandy" Irvine. Further attempts on Everest were stalled by World War II. But on May 29, 1953, two members of that year's British Expedition reached the summit: Edmund Hillary, a beekeeper from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a professional mountaineer from the Everest foothills.
珠穆朗玛峰位于中国西藏和尼泊尔的边境线上，是地球上最高的山峰。英国运动员在1920年后被允许进行珠穆朗玛峰的攀登行动。曾经有多位大登山家尝试过但都未成功。突然爆发的第二次世界大战使攀登珠穆朗玛峰的热潮一下子消退了下去。直到1953年5月29日，新西兰人埃德蒙·希拉里和尼泊尔人丹增·诺尔盖顺利登顶，成为有据可考的首次登顶的人。
Babe Ruth: 60 Home Runs In a Season
贝贝·鲁思：一个赛季60次本垒打
You don't get a nickname like "The Sultan of Swat" without being able to knock the ball out of the park. George Herman "Babe" Ruth was the first player to hit 30 home runs in a season. And the first to hit 40. And the first to hit 50. His 1927 record of 60 home runs in just 155 games represented 14% of all of the home runs hit in the American League that year
毫无疑问，棒球场上的本垒打才是所有观众瞩目的焦点。而贝贝·鲁思是美国职业棒球大联盟历史上第1位一个赛季打出30支本垒打的选手。接下来，他又接连创造了一个赛季40支、50支本垒打的记录。1927年，贝贝·鲁思更是在155场比赛中，创造了60支本垒打的成绩，个人本垒打

数量甚至占大联盟本垒打总数量的14％。
（棒球比赛中的本垒打，是指击球员击出的球直接飞出有效区内的外场挡墙，而使垒位上的本方球员可以直接安全地回到本垒。）
Wilt Chamberlain: The 100-Point Game
威尔特·张伯伦：单场比赛得100分
Wilt Chamberlain--the 7 foot 1 center for the Philadelphia Warriors--had a reputation for pounding opponents into submission with basket and after basket. But on March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pa., "The Big Dipper" put all his previous efforts to shame. Chamberlain scored 100 points--a new single-game scoring record--in leading the Warriors to victory against the New York Knicks, 169 to 147. No player since has ever reached triple digits in a professional game of basketball.
身高2.16米的张伯伦是费城勇士队的核心。1962年3月2日，张伯伦率队以169比147击败了不可一世的纽约尼克斯队。张伯伦在本场比赛中还创造了单场得100分的惊人纪录。迄今为止，还没有其他篮球运动员单场得分达3位数。
Bob Beamon: World-Record-Shattering Long Jump
鲍勃·比蒙：1968年的惊人一跃
World records in track and field are typically broken by the slimmest of margins--a fraction of a second faster, an inch or two further. At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, the world record for the long jump stood at 27 feet 4 3/4, and the best in the sport were vying to be the first to break the 28-foot barrier. On Oct. 18, Bob Beamon, a 22-year-old New Yorker, broke the 28-foot barrier. And the 29-foot barrier. After 19 strides down the runway, he hit the board perfectly and flew through the air like no athlete before him. When he finally landed, 29 feet 2 1/2 later, he had shattered the world record by nearly two feet. It would be 12 years before anyone jumped even 28 feet again.
众所周知，世界纪录之间的差距总在毫厘之间。不过1968年墨西哥城奥运会上的一幕算是例外。美国男子跳远选手鲍勃·比蒙以29.25英尺（约8.91米）的成绩，将此前27.475英尺（约8.37米）的世界纪录整整提高了约两英尺， 直到12年之后才有人再次跳过28英尺。