6 Days to go!

The ten final candidates are now competing in the race to become The World Games Greatest Athlete of All Time. Several of the athletes have received a lot of attention in their home countries and in the sports world at large. Squash superstar Nicol David (MAS) is still leading with 227,208 votes, but Tug of War legend James Kehoe has now climbed up to second place with tremendous support from the Irish, and even from Ireland’s National Public Service Media RTE.

With less than a week of the competition remaining, Lifesaver Marcel Hassemeier (GER) and Muaythai Champion Sofia Olofsson (SWE) are fighting for third place.

Sumo star Batyr Altyev (RUS), previously in second place, has fallen to 6th place. After careful monitoring and analysing the process of voting, it has been established that a portion of his votes have been given by a web-robot. These votes have been removed and Altyev is back in the race with the revised number of votes. Should the fraudulent voting continue, further measures will be taken and he will be disqualified from the vote. Altyev himself is not suspected to be behind these votes, and he states:

I am honored to take part in the race for The World Games Greatest Athlete of All Time! First of all, I would like to thank the International Sumo Federation for choosing me as candidate. For me it is a great responsibility and honor, so I sincerely promise to represent the sumo family with dignity! I also want to thank everyone who voted in favor of sumo. Unfortunately, modern information technologies provide many opportunities for unfair play. Sumo world and I in particular are categorically against of any forms of cheating - we are for fair play! I urge everyone to vote exclusively according to the rules of the International World Games Association! I wish all the participants good luck, everyone deserves a victory! May the strongest athlete win!

Nothing is however over yet for any of the 10 athlete legends. All sports fans can vote online for their favourite once per 24 hours. More information about the candidates can be found here: The World Games Greatest Athlete of All Time

The three best candidates will receive a trophy, a diploma and a branded gift from the official sponsor Protective Life. The winner will be announced on 1st February 2021.

All 24 candidates – all legends in their sport – will have the chance to tell their whole story in our athlete promotions throughout 2021!

Standings 26 January 2021

Nicol David 227208

James Kehoe 81076

Marcel Hassemeier 65295

Sofia Olofsson 52355

Paola Longoria 48489

Batyr Altyev 46263

Fabriana Arias 44422

Evgeniya Kanaeva 39688

Larysa Soloviova 39621

Gabrielle Goffredo & Anna Matus 39256

As a service to our readers, Around the Rings will provide verbatim texts of selected press releases issued by Olympic-related organizations, federations, businesses and sponsors.

These press releases appear as sent to Around the Rings and are not edited for spelling, grammar or punctuation.

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