As if Valentino Rossi didn't have enough feathers in his cap already, several European publications and numerous athletes rated Rossi as one of the best world athletes of the decade. In Italy, two major publications, the Gazzetta dello Sport and Tuttosport both had over 40 percent of their readers vote Rossi as their top pick. In Spain, the daily El Mundo registered nearly 30,000 votes, with 17 percent of those marking Rossi as the best. Journalists at the prestigious French paper, L'Equipe, also developed a specific method for deciding its selection and Rossi took third.
These polls put him in with the likes of Lance Armstrong and Michael Phelps. It also puts the sport of motorcycling further into the limelight (or at least a step above jai alai). Congrats, Valentino!