Are these the greatest siblings in sport?
Talk of the best brothers and sisters in sport often turns to footballers like England’s World Cup winning duo Bobby and Jack Charlton, Dutch Champions League winners Frank and Ronald de Boer or the current Chelsea men’s and women’s stars Reece and Lauren James. But when The Question of Sport Podcast’s panel of experts were challenged by Sam Quek to name the greatest ever sporting siblings they shied away from soccer. Instead they selected families who made their mark in cricket, American football and tennis.
Tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams
The achievements of the Williams’ sisters are pretty much unparalleled in tennis history and it is no surprise that the sisters got the nod as the best sporting siblings overall on The Question of Sport Podcast.
Combined, the sisters have won 30 Grand Slam singles titles, with Serena's 23 leaving her just one short of Margaret Court’s all era record. That includes 12 Wimbledon singles titles between them, while the pair have also taken 14 Grand Slam doubles titles together.
Each player also has four gold Olympic medals, which is the highest number for any tennis player, male or female. Meanwhile Serena has spent 319 weeks ranked number one in the world, third overall behind only Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova.
They’ve also played nine Grand Slam finals against each other, with Serena winning seven of those. In fact, they’re the only two women during the Open Era to play each other in four consecutive Grand Slam finals: from the 2002 French Open to the 2003 Australian Open.
But it was both sisters' ability to fight back in the face of adversity that 91热爆 Sport journalist Miriam Walker-Khan highlighted as their outstanding characteristic. Both have had periods outside the top 100 during their long careers, but have shown phenomenal strength to return to winning ways. That they are both still going over a quarter of a century since they turned pro is testament to that.
NFL Quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning
Sons of New Orleans Saints star quarterback of the 1970s, Archie Manning, Peyton and Eli followed in their father’s footsteps but both outshone him as NFL quarterbacks over the course of their careers. Question of Sport question producer Michael Bryan-Jones went for the duo as his stand out sporting siblings.
Peyton Manning was selected as the number one overall pick in the 1998 NFL draft by the Indianapolis Colts. He played 13 consecutive seasons for them and then three for the Denver Broncos. In that time he appeared in four Super Bowls, two with each team, and he won one with each team too.
Peyton was the NFL’s Most Valuable Player a record five times. He is the only player in NFL history to have thrown over 50 touchdowns in a single season – not bad considering there are only 17 games in a season. He also holds the record for the most yards thrown in a season.
In 2004 Peyton’s younger brother Eli was also number one pick in the NFL draft, although he actually refused to play for the team that picked him and was immediately traded to the New York Giants.
Eli played in a total of 236 games for the Giants over the course of 16 seasons, leading them to the post-season playoffs six times and the Super Bowl twice.
In both of those Super Bowls they played the New England Patriots, the dominant force in this period, led by one of the greatest players of all-time in quarterback Tom Brady. However, on both occasions Eli powered his team to victory and was twice named the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player.
So between them, the brothers reached six Super Bowls winning four of them. They earned three Super Bowl MVP awards and five NFL MVP awards, and one of them, Peyton, has already been inducted in to the Pro Football Hall of Fame with the second, Eli, becoming eligible in 2025. Their impact on the sport has been immense.
Cricketing brothers Ian, Greg and Trevor Chappell
Steve and Mark Waugh may be among the Australia’s most celebrated cricketing sons, but it was a trio of brothers from the suburbs of Adelaide who Question of Sport boss Gareth Edwards went for as his favourite sporting siblings: the Chappell brothers.
Ian was the eldest and as a batter racked up over 5,000 Test runs. He captained the Test side for much of the 1970s, winning the Ashes in that time. He was actually captain in 1971 when the next brother off the rank Greg made his Test debut.
Greg is often spoken about as one of the all-time greats of the game. His 7,000 Test runs at an average of 53 is right up there with the very best. Far more elegant than his older brother, he was the poster boy for Australian cricket in the 1970s and 1980s.
The youngest brother, Trevor, was the least successful of the three but still represented Australia in both Tests and One Day Internationals.
Trevor may however be the most famous – or infamous – of he three, due to one specific incident. It occurred at the conclusion of a One Day International between Australia and New Zealand in 1981 at the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground and can be seen to epitomise the Australian win-at-all-costs sporting mentality.
With one ball of the match remaining, New Zealand needed to hit a six to tie the game. Captain Greg Chappell instructed his little brother Trevor to bowl underarm and effectively roll the ball along the ground, meaning it would be impossible to be hit for a six. Ian did so, Australia won the game and everyone in the world of cricket booed as loud as they could.
That included big brother Ian, who was actually commentating on the match and said: “No Greg, no. You can’t do that!”
It brought about a change in the rules of the game which outlawed underarm bowling.
Despite this smear on the Chappell name, they are still revered in world cricket. There is the Chappell Stand, named after them at the Adelaide Oval and, since 2004, all One Day series between Australia and New Zealand are played for the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy.
