Overshadowed By Awesome / Sports

As generations pass, new players will emerge and send the legends of yesterday to the background.

• Association Football

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Cycling

• Ever heard of Jan Ullrich? He was a great cyclist in the Tour de France... who had the misfortune to be facing Lance Armstrong and his incredibly well-funded, heavily juiced, and unstoppable team during Lance's record-setting glory years. He won one Tour de France, before facing Lance and going down in history... as a footnote, Lance's "perpetual second".

Horse racing

• Affirmed was a racehorse who won the Triple Crown in 1978, becoming the last horse to do so until American Pharoah in 2015. In all three races, Alydar was a very close runner up - by a length in the Kentucky Derby, a head in the Preakness, and a nose in the Belmont. If it wasn't for Affirmed, Alydar would himself most likely have been a Triple Crown winner. Alydar did eventually score a few wins over Affirmed (they raced 10 times, Affirmed won 7 and Alydar won 3), and while both became successful sires, Alydar had the upper hand there.
• In any other year, American Thoroughbred Sham would probably have been the star of his three-year-old season. Unfortunately for him, he had the bad luck to face off against world-renowned Secretariat — who is contested only by Man O' War as the greatest horse in American racing history. Today, he is mostly remembered for losing to Secretariat in all three legs of the Triple Crown. He paced Secretariat for the first three-quarter-mile of the Belmont — but then Secretariat kicked it into high gear and took home the Triple Crown with a 31-length-lead in Thoroughbred racing's finest moment ever, while Sham faded back to finish last. Poor guy. And if that wasn't bad enough for Sham, he ended up being no better than the third-best American horse of his birth cohort... because after Secretariat was retired to stud, Forego, a big gelding who took time to come into his own, was named U.S. Horse of the Year the next three years.

Mountain climbing

• All of those really tall Himalayan mountains to the left and right of Mt. Everest that nobody ever climbs because they're a few feet shorter than Mt. Everest.

Cricket

• Rahul Dravid, a world-class batsman acclaimed by the cricketing world as the most technically correct batsman of his time. He has played many an important innings for India, and was well known for batting long periods, but also had a tendency to get overshadowed by his faster-scoring teammates—especially Sachin Tendulkar, who was one of Dravid's few competitors as a technical batsman and likened to the legendary Don Bradman by none other than The Don himself. Dravid's hard work, selfless nature, and consistency did give him a fair bit of limelight though.
• Australian leg spinner Stuart MacGill spent pretty much his entire career overshadowed by Shane Warne despite being good enough to get into many other national sides. Not to mention that he routinely outplayed Warne when they played. Then we have Warne himself, one of the greatest spinners of all time but not quite the greatest of his generation — that award would probably go to Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan.^note Though Warne and Murali had different bowling styles; Murali bowled off spin with an action unique to him.
• The ultimate example from cricket is probably poor Andy Ganteaume, a West Indian wicket-keeper batsman who scored a century in his debut Test Match and never played for the West Indies again: they had so many talented batsmen at the time, and Ganteaume took too long to score his century. So he was dropped. He at least got the consolation of finishing on a higher Test average than Don Bradman.

Olympics

• Arguably the ultimate example of this trope in sports is Eric Heiden. In any other Winter Olympics, in any other place, what he did in 1980 at Lake Placid would have made him one of America's greatest Olympic icons. Heiden won all five gold medals in speed skating, at distances ranging from 500 m to 10,000 m. However, hardly anyone remembers him because of this other thing that happened in Lake Placid... "Do you believe in miracles? YES!!!!" Matter of fact, had it not been for the Miracle on Ice, Heiden would have been the only American gold medalist in Lake Placid.
  • Even those who are familiar with Eric Heiden may not know that his sister, Beth Heiden, won a bronze medal in women's speed skating at the same Olympics.
• Missy Franklin, outside the U.S., was this at the 2012 Olympic swimming to Ye Shiwen, despite winning more gold medals. However, this was put to rest a year later when Franklin absolutely dominated the World Championships.
• Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim received two perfect 10s at the 1976 Olympics, a score that had been thought unreachable in Group-1 competition (Worlds and the Olympics). Unfortunately, her Romanian rival Nadia Comăneci got seven of them, including the first one in Olympic history.
• Any American gymnast not named Simone Biles during the '13-'16 Olympic quadrennium. After a rough start at the 2013 American Cup and US Classic, Biles won her first national title... and then won every all-around competition she entered straight through the 2016 Rio Olympics. (As well as every floor exercise event final. And she also collected medals of various colors on three of four events at the national and international level — the one exception being the uneven bars, where she was merely "very good" as opposed to "extraordinary".) The rest of the US national team during those years — which was indisputably the best in the world — cheerfully admitted that the real all-around battle was always for silver, because Simone was literally unbeatable in the all-around.
  • This became even more true in the following quadrennium. After taking a year off in 2017, Biles returned to competition in 2018, completely swept the gold medals at US Nationals, won a medal on every single event at that year's World Championships, including a silver on bars (albeit the bars field was a bit weak that year^*for comparison, she placed fifth in 2019 with an identical score, and the same score would have put her in sixth in 2017), and then won five gold medals (a number she'd been expected to reach before but had always fallen short of) at the 2019 World Championships, smashing several records in the process.
• Many USA women's gymnasts have been this beginning in the '09-'12 quad. For a complex series of reasons^*two of the big ones being the relative flexibility of the semi-centralized training system and the opportunity for full-ride college scholarships, the US has incredible depth in their gymnastics program, so gymnasts competing at a level that would make that athlete a star in many smaller programs can end up not even being top 10, and therefore not making teams, in the USA. It's great for the team because it means that even if a top athlete gets injured, it doesn't hurt the team that much because they have other strong athletes to replace them^*this has been a major struggle for many other countries; they might have a good core team, but if someone on that core team gets injured and can't compete, the alternate who has to go up instead averages five points lower in all-around score, but it makes it that much harder for each individual to make the team (except probably the aforementioned Simone Biles) — just ask 2017 World Champion Morgan Hurd.
• Olympic-level gymnast Kerri Strug — coached by legend Béla Károlyi — spent her entire career overshadowed by his gymnastic prodigies Kim Zmeskal and later Dominique Moceanu. She finally got her moment in the 1996 Olympic games, vaulting a second time despite severely injuring her ankle on her first vault. She sprained her other ankle on the landing, but stuck it — seemingly on one foot^note actually both feet, if you watch, but she immediately picks up the injured foot — and sealed the first women's team gold in USA history, becoming one of the most enduring legends of the Games in the process. It was also the last time she ever competed in gymnastics.^note The real courage of the Magnificent Seven (and countless others) was shown in the way they endured the toxic culture of Károlyi's training cult and its child-molester team doctor (now in prison). Much has been exposed and major reforms are happening for both male and female athletes.
• In the 2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing, and 2012 London Olympic Games, the Australians, French, Czechs, South Africans, and Americans trotted out some of the finest swimmers in world history... all of whom had to compete against Michael Phelps, also known as "The Baltimore Bullet". Between having the perfect build for swimming, a Determinator personality, and Nerves of Steel, Phelps practically obliterated every opponent he came up against in individual events while also dominating the relays with an equally fantastic team of fellow Americans (Jason Lezak stands out the most). Even after not finishing first in two races at London 2012, which he admitted to not training very hard for, it was still assumed by much of the world that Phelps would outswim the vast majority of his competition. He did.
• In terms of the whole Olympics, Phelps is all but the definition of a Tough Act to Follow. If they're willing to dare it, future Olympic swimmers will have the absolutely daunting task of defeating Phelps' record in Beijing 2008 of winning 8 gold medals in a single Olympics, something that even Phelps himself admits had quite a bit of luck and insanity behind it. And as of Rio 2016, with a grand total of 28 medals (23 gold, 3 silver, and 2 bronze) to his name, Phelps is the most decorated Olympian ever.
• Similar to Phelps, all the great people who won medals in track and field between 2008 and 2016 were overshadowed by Usain Bolt's outstanding performances in the sprint races. The one hit hardest by this is Mo Farah, who won the 5000 m and 10000 m in both 2012 and 2016—a "double-double" previously achieved only by Lasse Virén in 1972 and 1976.

Baseball

• In a single-game example: On May 6, 1998, Chicago Cubs rookie Kerry Wood struck out 20 batters and set a rookie franchise record which was 15 strikeouts and a rookie starting pitcher record which was 18 strikeouts, and a National League record which was 19 strikeouts. While this became the story of the game, Houston Astros opposing pitcher, Shane Reynolds, struck out 10 batters, but gave up two runs losing the game. What's even more unfortunate for Shane Reynolds was that one of the runs scored, happened because of a defensive error, not because of his pitching.
• Duke Snider. A Hall of Famer in his own right, the Brooklyn Dodgers slugger was only the third-best centerfielder in New York, behind the Giants' Willie Mays and the Yankees' Mickey Mantle. Also an aversion of First Installment Wins, as Snider's major-league debut was four years before the others.
• If an entire baseball series counts, then the 2004 NLCS qualifies. It was a fantastic 7-game series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Houston Astros. They went toe-to-toe (they finished all games within three runs of each other), with several memorable moments (including two of the games ending in a walkoff home run, and Carlos Beltran tying Barry Bonds' single postseason home run record), which ended up with a St. Louis win. The problem? The ALCS that year was the Red Sox and Yankees. And not just that, but the Red Sox were rather busy rallying from a 3-0 game-win deficit for the first time in baseball history on the way to their first Series win in 86 years. It also doesn't help that the Cardinals proceeded to immediately get swept by the Red Sox in one of the most anticlimactic World Series ever seen.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates of the early 1990s had some of the best young players available. Names like Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla, Doug Drabek, and Sid Bream among others completely overwhelmed their opponents within their division with their raw talent, but then, in the playoffs, the Pirates were bested two out of three years by the Atlanta Braves, who had slightly more experienced players, like future Hall of Famers Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, as well as David Justice and Rafael Belliard among others... not to mention Bream himself, who was signed by the Braves as a free agent after the 1990 season. Making it even crueler for the Pirates, Bream scored the winning run against them in Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS!! Several of the Pirates relocated to other teams and became huge stars on those teams. Bonilla went to Florida after the 1991 season, while Bonds and Drabek left after the 1992 season, respectively to San Francisco and Houston.
• If you're only a casual baseball fan, the name Hank Greenberg might not ring a bell. The Detroit Tigers first baseman was only a Hall of Famer, one of the all-time dominant sluggers, and notable for being the first Jewish superstar in American sports. Unfortunately, though, Greenberg's career neatly coincided with those of the two greatest first basemen of all time — Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx (also American Leaguers!). As a result, his All-Star invites were sparse, and he failed to become the household name he'd have been in any other era.
• Major Leaguer Sammy Sosa came in second in the home run race three times, twice to Mark McGwire (including the record-setting 1998 race, credited with saving Major League Baseball from a major collapse) and once to Barry Bonds (during his record-setting 73 HR year in 2001.) As such, people tend to overlook the fact that Sosa is the only man to hit 60+ homers in a season three times.
• The St. Louis Cardinals as a team qualify. Their 11 World Series championships are best in the National League and second-best in all of MLB. Unfortunately that's a distant second to the New York Yankees and their 27 World Series titles.
• On a similar vein to the Cards, two teams are tied for third overall in World Series titles: the Boston Red Sox...and the Oakland Athletics. The Sox subvert this trope by virtue of being the Yankees' mortal enemy and a storied franchise in itself (in spite of the "Curse of Bambino" which lasted from 1918 to 2004). The A's, on the other hand, suffer this trope in spades. While they have had successful teams in their history (e.g. the '72-'74 three-peat, the "Moneyball" era) and quite a few famous names (e.g. Catfish Hunter, Rickey Henderson, Mark McGwire), the A's are most well known for being moved around the country twice^note first from Philadelphia to Kansas City, then from KC to Oakland, with a third move to Las Vegas coming soon, having a lower budget than most teams, subsequently losing their best players to richer teams ^note  particularly during their years in Kansas City, when they served as a farm team of sorts for the Yankees , and having what is perhaps the worst stadium in Major League Baseball right now. It's worth noting that they're more well known for being the main subject of a movie than for their somewhat remarkable achievements in baseball.
  • The A's also struggle to stand out in the Bay Area, particularly versus their San Francisco based counterparts. The A's MLB rivals in the San Francisco Giants often overshadow them, despite having less overall titles, due to their richer budget, recent success, and superior stadium. Even outside of baseball, the A's also have to compete with two other storied, championship-winning SF-based teams in the San Francisco 49ers and the Golden State Warriors. Even in the South Bay Area ^note  consisting of San Jose and Santa Clara , the A's struggle to stand out versus the 49ers ^note  based in San Francisco, but play their games in Santa Clara , the Sharks ^note perennial playoff chokers, but still a consistently competitive team , the Warriors ^note based in San Francisco, but are well-supported around the Bay Area , and, of course, the Giants ^note  who consider the South Bay as part of their territory AND have their Low-A affiliate based in San Jose . Going back to Oakland, the A's played second or third fiddle at times to the Raiders and Warriors, before the Warriors moved across the Bay to San Francisco and the Raiders bolted to Las Vegas. Speaking of which, since the A's couldn't get a stadium deal done in Oakland, they have one foot out the door to Vegas, having bought land for a new ballpark in that area and received approval for the move from other MLB team owners.
• Till the day he died, Hall of Famer Ted Williams advocated for his teammate Dom DiMaggio to be elected to the Hall as well. DiMaggio was a great centerfielder for the Boston Red Sox whose numbers compare favorably with some Hall of Famers from the same era. Unfortunately, he lost 4 years of his prime due to World War II and he not only played next to one of the greatest players of all time in Williams, he just so happened to be the younger brother of another of them: Joe DiMaggio.
• Mike Mussina was a fantastic pitcher with a great peak and a long, very productive career. However, his career happened to nearly completely coincide with four other pitchers — Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, and Pedro Martínez — who all have a legitimate stake in the greatest pitcher of all time argument, and three of them (all but Maddux) spent time in the same league as him during his prime. While Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Curt Schilling also suffer from this to some degree, having pitched in the same time period, the former two were at least able to win a Cy Young twice and once respectively before Johnson came over to dominate the National League (as well as got a ton of national attention by pitching alongside Maddux on the legendary 90s/early 2000s Braves teams); Smoltz also joined Dennis Eckersley as the only pitchers with 20-win and 50-save seasons; and Schilling won three World Series rings with legendary postseason moments, including being a pivotal player in the Diamondbacks' first (and only) World Series win and in the Red Sox finally ending their 86-year championship drought. Mussina, on the other hand, never won a Cy Young (with the one time he finished runner-up in 1999, Pedro happened to throw arguably the greatest pitching season ever), and he never won a ring, with him spending the 90s on some lousy Orioles teams (which also deflated his win total in a time that was considered one of the most important pitching stats), while when he went to the Yankees the year after their 2000 World Series win, they wouldn't win again until 2009... the year after Mussina retired. This played a big part in why it took Mussina six tries to get voted into the Hall of Fame, when a pitcher of his caliber should have sailed in on the first ballot, and it would have taken even longer if not for the rise of sabermetrics making his career get more appreciated in hindsight.

American football

• The Baltimore Ravens:
  • This team was an example of this when compared to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League during the mid-2000s. While the Ravens did win a Super Bowl in 2000, they were mostly the second-best team in the AFC North behind the Steelers, whom often beat them during their rivalry match-ups to seal the divisional title, and in two cases went on to win the Super Bowl. Not to mention a lot of players on the 2000 Baltimore Ravens team were once Steelers players. Furthermore, the Ravens modeled their playing style after the Steelers — a run-to-pass offensive with a strong defense. However, in 2010 the Steelers began to decline as seasoned players got old, while the Ravens slowly built up their team as Super Bowl contenders. They began getting wins over the Pittsburgh Steelers more often and reaching the AFC championship games as a result. It finally paid off in 2013, as they won their second Super Bowl in franchise history, and then beat the Steelers in the playoffs for the first time in 2014.
  • In 2014, they played the New England Patriots in the playoffs and lost, based partly on one particular trick play. That play was essentially Loophole Abuse - it was deemed legal during the game itself but after the season ended, the rules were promptly changed to prevent it from being used again. This was forgotten in the wake of the "Deflategate" scandal.
• During the San Francisco 49ers' Super Bowl years, Joe Montana, Steve Young and Jerry Rice were the only players that any casual NFL fan could name. And maybe Dwight Clark, Deion Sanders, Roger Craig, or (more rarely) Ronnie Lott. This tends to happen on any NFL team with a superstar quarterback in any era.
  • While those 49ers were widely known for their West Coast offense, a huge factor in their success was their defense. The 1984 15-1 season and subsequent Super Bowl run was not just the work of Joe Montana and the Niners' high-flying #1-ranked offense, but also the product of a stingy, Ronnie Lott-led defense that was ranked #1 in the league. The 1994 title was also a product of a great defense; Eddie DeBartolo's big spending on defensive players such as Deion Sanders, Ken Norton Jr. and Rickey Jackson (to supplement studs such as Dana Stubblefield and Merton Hanks) was what turned the Steve Young-led Niners from merely very good to championship-level.
  • Speaking of said 1984 season, the 49ers played this to their Super Bowl opponent, the Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins that year were 14-2 behind Dan Marino's record-smashing passing season, and not a whole lot else. Still, in the run-up to the Super Bowl most believed that the game would at least be a high-scoring shootout. They were right - for one quarter, after which the 49ers' defense clamped down and shut down Marino's offense.
• It's rare that a quarterback gets overshadowed by his teammates, but this can happen with Super Bowl-winning teams. Just ask Jim McMahon (1985 Bears), Jeff Hostetler (1990 Giants), Mark Rypien (1991 Redskins), Trent Dilfer (2000 Ravens), and Brad Johnson (2002 Buccaneers). This usually happens when a running back, receiver, or defense is more well-known than the quarterback. Not many people know the QB who threw passes to Randy Moss in the Vikings (the most prominent being Daunte Culpepper), the QBs who handed the ball to Barry Sanders in the Lions (Rodney Peete, Erik Kramer and Scott Mitchell), or the QB who led the defensively-strong Giants to a Super Bowl appearance in 2000 (Kerry Collins).
• Plaxico Burress has probably the most forgettable game-winning touchdown in Super Bowl history due to the fact that it was preceded by David Tyree's legendary "Helmet Catch" earlier in the drive. Just to drive home how overshadowed it is: a fan channel created a list of Top 10 Greatest Forgotten NFL Plays; Burress' touchdown, which the video ranked as #3, is the only play on the list in which the player's team actually won the game (with all nine others being forgotten largely because they were of the Negated Moment of Awesome variety).
• Drew Bledsoe was the Patriots' star QB during the '90s. Unfortunately, he got injured and replaced by none other than Tom Brady.
  • Later, while playing for the Dallas Cowboys, Bledsoe once again lost his starting QB job because of injury, this time to Tony Romo.
• Similarly, Don Majkowski was the Packers' star quarterback until he fell to a severe ankle injury in Week 3 of 1992 and was replaced by some guy named... Brett Favre.^note  Amusingly, one of Majkowski's best friends is also Brett Favre!
• Not many people know that the 49ers had great teams before Joe Montana; the "Million Dollar Backfield" of the 50's frequently gets overshadowed by the Montana-led teams. Oh, and the Patriots had Super Bowl appearances before Tom Brady suited up for them. Additionally, the Aikman-Smith-Irvin trifecta of the Cowboys overshadows the Staubach-led teams of the '70s, at least in the eyes of recent fans. Even the most diehard Seahawks fans have started to forget the likes of Steve Largent and Shaun Alexander thanks to Russell Wilson and the Legion of Boom's Super Bowl win.
• Just about every great receiver in the NFL during Jerry Rice's prime. Henry Ellard and Sterling Sharpe in particular probably would be in the Hall of Fame right now had Rice not overshadowed their best seasons.^*Sharpe also was only able to play for seven seasons, suffering a neck injury that revealed a condition that prevented him from playing again. Rice also got Steve Largent with this hard - Largent was arguably the best receiver of his time and retired with most of the NFL receiving records, but Rice followed him by only a few years and broke most of them.
• Sharpe actually gets this from two directions, since not only was he playing in the shadow of Jerry Rice, but his injury-forced retirement from the Packers coincided with the Robert Brooks and Antonio Freeman stepping into the spotlight. It doesn't help that he played much of his career during the Packers' Audience-Alienating Era and just missed some of the team's prime years of the 1990s, so other Packers receivers such as Brooks and Freeman are more memorable because their play came when the franchise was getting more attention.
• Make that three directions: Sharpe's younger brother Shannon is a Hall of Fame tight end.^*Though Shannon called Sterling the best player in his family in his induction speech.
• The 1970s NFL has been described as a time when giants walked the earth, with the likes of the Steelers, Vikings, Dolphins, Raiders, and Cowboys dominating the league and sucking up all the oxygen. Unfortunately, this has meant that many great teams from that decade have faded from the popular consciousness, most notably the LA Rams, who were just as good as the teams listed above but just could not for the life of them get past the Vikings or Cowboys come playoff time.
• Dwayne Johnson was once seen as a very talented collegiate footballer who could've had a career in the big leagues had the cards fell in his favor. The reason they didn't was because he was playing for the same team (the Miami Hurricanes) and position (defensive tackle) as Warren Sapp, who consistently got the starting position over him. It's fair to say that things turned out well for both people: Sapp is a Hall of Famer while Johnson is a wrestling and acting megastar. But "what if Dwayne was not overshadowed by Warren?" remains perhaps one of the biggest What Could Have Been questions in all of entertainment.

Basketball

• The Chicago Bulls during the Michael Jordan era caused this for great teams that couldn't win one during the period (aside from Hakeem Olajuwon's Houston Rockets during Jordan's brief retirement) and almost all of the roster. Scottie Pippen is revered, though any discussion of his greatness must mention he shined as Jordan's Number Two. Though Dennis Rodman got his own recognition, partly by being a good defender and rebounding savant, and partly by being too weird to miss. Steve Kerr's role as a player for the Jordan-era Bulls is largely overlooked in favor of his tremendous success as a head coach.
• James Worthy, known as "Big Game James", was a major part of the "Showtime" era Lakers and won the Finals MVP award in 1988. But he remains less well known than teammates Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
• The Utah Jazz might be the best example of this. Back in the '90s, they had two superstar players in Karl Malone and John Stockton. They also had all the right role players to win multiple championships. Unfortunately, they had to deal with Michael Jordan's Bulls in both finals they reached. Karl Malone is even more of a tragic example. He would make the playoffs for majority of his career at the Jazz, only to lose to a better team (such as the Bulls or Hakeem Olajuwon's Houston Rockets). Then aiming for a championship ring, he went to the Los Angeles Lakers... who lost at the finals to the Boring, but Practical Detroit Pistons, making Malone retire without an NBA title.
• Dwyane Wade had already led the Miami Heat to a title. Then LeBron James (and Chris Bosh, who ended up overshadowed as well) came to his team, and despite the ridiculous hype failing in the first attempt, "King James" won his first ring, plus the MVP and Finals MVP title, in 2012.
  • Poor Chris Bosh. Despite being a talented forward in his own right, he was frequently mocked as LeBron and D-Wade's "Third Wheel".
• History repeated itself when LeBron returned to Cleveland and teamed up with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. LeBron is... LeBron, and Irving is known as the best point guard not named Stephen Curry or Russell Westbrook. Love? He's known for getting injured in the 2015 playoffs (and possibly costing Cleveland the title), a scapegoat for when the Cavs perform like crap and a big-man who can't play defense. He was also known as the guy who would probably get traded when LeBron demands another superstar teammate... before Kyrie, apparently tired of being in LeBron's shadow, demanded and got a trade during the 2017 offseason. Ironically, Love was the player from this trio that remained after the trio broke up for good after the 2017-18 season ended... but Love remained as a forgotten piece, failing to shine like he did in Minnesota for the Cavaliers afterward, at least in part, due to injuries (and depression) affecting him throughout his time afterward with Cleveland.
• According to an interview with Kevin Durant, then of the Oklahoma City Thunder, he confessed that during his basketball career up to that time, he was always second best compared to someone else, and he wss afraid this might be the legacy of his professional career, so he chose to fight against it. Thankfully, he wasn't a case of Hard Work Hardly Works. Ironically, he decided to solve his championship woes by moving to the Golden State Warriors, where he was bound to be overshadowed the likes of Stephen Curry (who was a TWO TIME MVP!), Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. He was then recognized as one of the team's biggest stars (probably even bigger than Curry himself).
  Kevin Durant: I’ve been second my whole life. I was the second-best player in high school. I was the second pick in the draft. I’ve been second in the MVP voting three times. I came in second in the finals. I’m tired of being second. I’m not going to settle for that. I’m done with it.
• Speaking of the Warriors, not many people realize the role that David Lee played in turning the team into a contender. Before Lee was signed, the Dubs were a perennially terrible team that struggled to attract free agents. When Lee arrived, he was, for all intents and purposes, the biggest star on Golden State's roster, thanks to Stephen Curry's injury woes and Monta Ellis's inconsistency. The tide then changed in 2012, as Lee got overshadowed by Curry, who got over his tendency to frequently get injured and became a bona fide star, and sophomore player (plus Monta Ellis' replacement) Klay Thompson, formerly deemed a first-round bust, steadily improved and became a sharp-shooting offensive weapon. Lee's fall from glory was further accelerated by the arrival of Andre Iguodala in 2013 and Lee's own injury in 2014, which allowed some guy named Draymond Green to take over the starting Power Forward slot and become part of the team's big 3 (alongside Curry and Thompson). This led to David Lee leaving the team after they won the Championship in 2015; sadly for him, he was a bench-warming journeyman for the rest of his career, retiring in 2017.
  • And even after Lee's retirement, he's been overshadowed in his personal life... his wife is now-unretired Danish tennis star and former world #1 Caroline Wozniacki.
• International men's basketball is essentially "Team USA and everyone else", at least when the biggest American stars show up, though Spain and Argentina can occasionally challenge the Americans' hegemony. (Team USA finished seventh in the 2019 FIBA World Cup and fourth in 2023—after a full squad worth of NBA superstars passed on both events. However, their goal was only to qualify for the Olympics, which they did both times.) On the women's side, Team USA has proven even more untouchable than the men, with a slightly different cast of pretenders.
• Before 2017, when FIBA expanded its Asian championship to include its Oceanian zone, Asian basketball was practically dominated by China and Iran, with the Philippines, Lebanon, and Korea occasionally crashing the party. Basketball in Southeast Asia is worse, with the Philippines pretty much guaranteed a gold medal in tournaments (coupled with really huge margins of victory). The first men's Asia Cup to include Oceanian sides, held in 2017, was won by Australia's Boomers.
• In Oceania, Australia pretty much rules the roost, but New Zealand is pretty darn close.
• If one mentions the greatness of the Golden State Warriors, the Splash Brothers and the 2015 Championship come to mind first before the great teams of Rick Barry in the 70's and the Run TMC teams of the 90's. Likewise, Dirk Nowitzki's tenure with the Mavs, and now that of Luka Dončić, garners more attention than the era of Mark Aguirre and Rolando Blackman. People know the Spurs due to Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginóbili, and more recently Kawhi Leonard and Victor Wembanyama, but George Gervin and David Robinson also brought the Spurs glory before Duncan suited up for them. The Cavs, contrary to popular belief, had stars before LeBron James and Kyrie Irving; Mark Price and Larry Nance were also pretty good players.

Auto racing

• Formula One has a history of domination by an exclusive elite. During Michael Schumacher's succession of championships, many good or even great drivers were entirely outshone such as Rubens Barrichello, Juan Pablo Montoya, Ralf Schumacher, etc. Between the years of 1985 — 1993, you could kiss any chances of a championship goodbye if your name wasn't Prost, Senna, Piquet or Mansell. During The New '10s, the only driver not named Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel to have a genuine shot at the world title was Hamilton's teammate Nico Rosberg, who retired right after winning the 2016 world championship. And after Max Verstappen dethroned Hamilton in 2021, then added two more titles in 2022 and 2023, he seems to be the driver poised to dominate the 2020s.
  • At an individual level, Formula One fans have adopted the term "Vandoorned" to describe a promising rookie getting stuck in the shadow of his more experienced teammate after Belgian driver Stoffel Vandoorne, who raced for McLaren in 2017 and 2018, pulling some decent results out of the uncompetitive cars he had to drive, but could never match the pace of his teammate, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, and by the end of the 2018 season he was left without a seat in F1 and left for Formula E.
• While IndyCar was the pinnacle of American motorsport ever since the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911, during the last twenty years it has become completely overshadowed by NASCAR due to the latter's bump-and-grind, down-n'-dirty-style racing. Where do Formula One drivers go whenever they retire in America? Here's a hint: It's the most-watched sport in America.

Golf

• Name a pro golfer whose name isn't Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods.
• If Phil Mickelson had played in an era that didn't have Tiger Woods, he'd be one of the most dominant golfers on the planet.
• In the 1977–78 school year, the University of Houston men's golf team had one group of three roommates. Blaine McCallister went on to win 5 times on the PGA Tour, which would make him the most accomplished member of most any college golf team. Except one of his roommates was Fred Couples, who won 15 times on that tour, including the 1992 Masters, and upon reaching 50, transitioned to PGA Tour Champions, winning 13 times there, including two of that tour's majors. The other roommate left the Cougars golf team after that season. However, he wound up graduating from UH and greatly averting this trope, becoming one of the most recognizable American sportscasters, most notably in the NFL and on the PGA Tour. His name: Jim Nantz.

Hockey

• Hockey defensemen with conservative, defense-focused styles and relatively low offensive numbers often find themselves overshadowed by their slapshot-happy, goalscoring counterparts at the position. A good example is Marc-Édouard Vlasic; despite being a key member of the San Jose Sharks and one of the best defensemen in the NHL (as proven by advanced analytics), poor offensive numbers mean that Vlasic is constantly overlooked for the Norris trophy race in favor of offense-gifted contemporaries like Erik Karlsson, P.K. Subban, Drew Doughty, and his shaggy-bearded, high-scoring Sharks (and Canada) teammate Brent Burns.
• Mario Lemieux, "The Magnificent One", widely considered one of the best players in hockey history... who had the misfortune of being a contemporary of the best player in hockey history: Wayne Gretzky, "The Great One".
• Mark Messier is also in Gretzky's shadow. Once Gretzky left Edmonton for Los Angeles, "Moose" emerged as the heart of the team and one of the great leaders in any professional sport, taking them to the Stanley Cup in 1990 (something that was considered impossible without Gretzky's presence) and cementing his reputation when he took the Rangers to the Stanley Cup. Still, even though he had his number retired by two teams (the Rangers and the Oilers), a remarkable achievement, Gretzky's 99 was retired by the league. Some days you just can't catch a break...
• Brad Park is widely considered the best defenseman to never win any awards, as he unfortunately was a contemporary of Bobby Orr, who took the Norris Trophy for 8 consecutive years (and was considered the best player ever until Gretzky's emergence).

Boxing

• Was sadly the story of Joe Frazier during the golden era of heavyweight boxing. Though he fought hard with no special sponsorships to become the heavyweight champion of the world. He was always overshadowed by the exiled, charismatic, people's champion, Muhammad Ali, which many fans still considered the true champion. After helping to get Ali's fighting license back so he could prove himself, he then dealt with both Ali and the pubic media mocking him. After beating Ali the first time, he didn't get any credit, because both Ali and the boxing media claimed it was because of ring rust after the three year lay off. He would go on to lose the trilogy to Ali, but would eventually gain respect because of the heart and determination he showed during his career. He's now considered a boxing legend and just as great as Ali for different reasons.

Tennis

• This has happened in men's tennis in the early 21st century due to the dominance of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray (to a lesser extent). Together, the "Big Four" won 34 of the 36 Grand Slams from 2005 to 2013, with Federer and Nadal in particular overshadowing everyone else for much of the 2000s. To put the Big Four's sheer dominance into perspective: at the end of 2013, the Big Four member with the least impressive record was Andy Murray who had won 2 Grand Slams, reached 5 other Slam finals, and won 9 Masters 1000 titles. The four players who came the closest to challenging the Big Four during that period (David Ferrer, Juan Martín del Potro, Tomáš Berdych, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga) had won 1 Grand Slam, reached 3 other Slam finals, and won just 3 Masters 1000 titles. Combined.
  • As a reference to the "Big Four"'s domination, when Pete Sampras retired, his 14 Grand Slam titles were considered an outstanding achievement and a potentially long-lasting all-time record. Less than 20 years later, it had been surpassed thrice, and all three who surpassed Sampras now have at least 20 Slam titles.
• On the women's side, Lindsay Davenport won three Grand Slams, a year-end championship, and an Olympic gold medal, and was year-end No. 1 four times—the last of these feats being equaled or surpassed only by Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, and Serena Williams. However, she's somewhat forgotten because her career at least partially overlapped those of all of the aforementioned players except Evert. Not to mention those of other all-time greats such as Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Justine Henin, and Serena's sister Venus.

Drafts (multi-sport)

• Happens a lot during drafts, where some otherwise solid players are overlooked or become busts due to the presence of legendary stars in their draft classes.
  • NBA
    • LaRue Martin, who was the #1 overall draft pick in 1972, is often cited as the worst bust in NBA history (at least until the surprise selection of Anthony Bennett in 2013 came into mind), as his career was over in four years. Only making matters worse was the fact that he was in the same draft as Hall of Famers Bob McAdoo, Julius Erving, and Paul Westphal.
    • Sam Bowie, contrary to popular belief, was a solid player whose career was affected by injuries. It was just unlucky on his part to be selected after Hakeem Olajuwon and before Michael Jordan.
    • Most of the 1996 NBA Draft Class will be ignored or overlooked simply because they're not named Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, or Steve Nash. By the time of his death in 2020, Kobe practically overshadowed everyone else in the class, Iverson and Nash included, and people forget he was only picked #13 (Iverson was picked first). The ones hit hardest by this are the two other Hall of Famers in that draft class—Ray Allen (who went #5) and Ben Wallace (who wasn't even drafted!).
    • Poor Darko Miličić, #2 in 2003. He was a forgettable player who had the bad luck of being in a highly packed class. The next three names drafted after him? Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade. The guy who came before him? LeBron James.
    • Yes, Greg Oden's injuries have ensured that he would become one of the biggest busts in NBA history. Being healthy wouldn't have helped him, though: he was drafted before Kevin Durant!
    • 2009: Tyreke Evans may have won the Rookie of the Year award, but he's not the best, nor the most famous, player from the 2009 draft class. That honor belongs to none other than Stephen Curry. Downplayed with #1 draft pick Blake Griffin, who has been successful himself, but certainly not on Curry's level.
    • Evans was also overshadowed by superstars James Harden and DeMar DeRozan, drafted third and ninth overall respectively. But it could have been worse: Hasheem Thabeet, the second overall pick, is considered one of the biggest draft busts in NBA history.
    • There are a few reasons why BYU standout Jimmer Fredette became a bust: he wasn't good enough at defense or passing, and he was drafted ahead of Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard, and Jimmy Butler.
    • Poor Anthony Bennett. As the first Canadian to ever be selected as the #1 pick in the 2013 NBA Draft (with Andrew Wiggins being taken at #1 a year later), Bennett was never even intended to be a #1 selection, with that honor usually going to the likes of either Victor Oladipo, Nerlens Noel, or even Alex Len back in the day. Even worse, there were future talents that could have been better selections at #1 that year (even without retrospection in mind), including C.J. McCollum, Rookie of the Year winner Michael Carter-Williams, Steven Adams, or even All-Star players (who were drafted outside of the lottery that year) Giannis Antetokounmpo and Rudy Gobert! Instead, Bennett was traded away from Cleveland after one poor year with them, playing in the NBA for four years with four different teams before going in the NBA G League and overseas for the rest of his playing career (though he did compete with the Canadian national team for a bit and won a EuroLeague championship in Turkey), all because of his health betraying him early on.
    • Early on in his career, Deandre Ayton has had unfortunate luck with getting his name out there. While he has always been a pretty good center for the Phoenix Suns, he had the misfortune of going first overall in the 2018 NBA Draft, ahead of two players seen by many as transcendental talents: Luka Dončić (picked 3rd overall) and Trae Young (picked 5th overall). As such, he has been prematurely deemed a bust in some circles, in spite of his brilliant statistics (for example, he was the only rookie that season to average a double-double (double digits in any two positive statistics, most often [and as such in Ayton's case] points and rebounds) in his rookie season), and the fact that he was arguably the third-best player in that draft class.^note Ayton was actually shortlisted for the Rookie of the Year Award alongside the aforementioned Young and Dončić. Dončić won, by the way. An untimely suspension in his second season and a perceived downgrade in production during his third season hasn't helped his perception much either, though he has gotten a lot better as the third star player for the Suns during the 2021 Playoffs behind Devin Booker and Chris Paul, to the point of even being a key part of leading the Suns to the NBA Finals that year. In the 2022-23 season, he was overshadowed twice in completely different ways; first by the likes of rival big man Jaren Jackson Jr. (who was selected #4 in Ayton's draft year) earning an All-Star spot before him and then by having Kevin Durant of all players join in on the trio of Booker, Paul, and Ayton, thus relegating his production to either a third man or fourth man, depending on circumstances throughout a game-to-game basis.
    • Even Trae Young himself is constantly compared to Dončić, for whom he was traded on draft night. Young is a gifted player, but Dončić is widely considered to be even better. Ironically enough, both Ayton and Young won their first playoff series matches in 2021 before Luka did, with Ayton & Young almost being able to meet in the NBA Finals that same year.
    • The jury is still out on the 2019 NBA draft, in which the highly touted Zion Williamson was drafted first overall by New Orleans. Williamson has shown the potential to be not just a star but a dominant player in the NBA, but his career has been hampered by nagging injuries and struggles with his weight. Meanwhile, second overall pick Ja Morant has emerged as a superstar in the making with the Memphis Grizzlies.
  • NFL
    • In 1979, the Bills got first pick selecting Tom Cousineau, via a trade with San Francisco. Turns out the 49ers ultimately came out with the gold, as Cousineau decided to go to Canada before flopping during his return to the U.S. Meanwhile, San Francisco grabbed a late-third round quarterback pick. His name? Joe Montana.
    • Russell Maryland, a defensive tackle, was picked #1 in 1991 before going on to a forgettable 10-year career with Dallas, Oakland, and Green Bay. Then at #33, the Falcons picked some small-name Southern Miss quarterback named Brett Favre.
    • Speaking of the 1991 draft, Favre was the third quarterback to be picked. The first two QBs picked wound up as major busts—Dan McGwire, also in the "General examples" list below, at #16 and Todd Marinovich at #24.
    • Tony Mandarich, who had the misfortune of being drafted in the same Top 5 as Troy Aikman, Barry Sanders, Deion Sanders, and Derrick Thomas.
    • The 2000 draft class was a fairly quiet one in the first 5 rounds (that said, Brian Urlacher became a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and Shaun Alexander was also a stud). Then some scrawny guy named Tom Brady was selected in the sixth round.
    • Brady was the seventh quarterback drafted in 2000. Of the six chosen ahead of him, only Chad Pennington and Marc Bulger became regular NFL starters.
    • Everyone knows that 1999 #1 pick Tim Couch and #3 pick Akili Smith were bad quarterbacks, but their selections caused a lot of pain for their teams (the Browns and Bengals) since Donovan McNabb was sandwiched between them.
    • Charles Woodson may be one of the best cornerbacks to ever play in the NFL, but his draft class was better known for producing Peyton Manning, Randy Moss, and Hines Ward (along with colossal bust Ryan Leaf).
    • Ken O'Brien was a fairly solid 11-year starter for the New York Jets, being a two-time Pro Bowler, AFC Player of the Year in 1985, and statistically the best quarterback in team history outside of Joe Namath. Unfortunately for him, he's a member of the famed "Quarterback Draft Class of 1983" that also includes football legends John Elway, Jim Kelly, and the man who was drafted after him, Dan Marino. As a result, most Jets fans only think of him as "the guy who got picked instead of Marino".
    • O'Brien at least had a more successful NFL career than Todd Blackledge, the QB drafted seventh overall by the Kansas City Chiefs that year.
    • In a similar vein, the Jets selected wide receiver Al Toon with the 10th overall pick in 1985. While Toon had a relatively solid career, he severely paled in comparison to a wide receiver selected by the 49ers six spots later: Jerry Rice. Jets fans rue this selection, especially since the Jets' divisional rival, the Bills, selected another Hall of Fame receiver in the 4th round of that same draft: Andre Reed.
    • JaMarcus Russell was the #1 draft pick in 2007, and he was a colossal bust in the draft. Later in the first round, we saw, Calvin Johnson, Adrian Peterson, Marshawn Lynch, Patrick Willis, Greg Olsen, and Darrelle Revis. An honorable mention goes to the last draft pick of the first round, Ohio State wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez by the Indianapolis Colts. While Gonzalez didn't do much in the NFL, he added something much more impressive on his résumé in 2018: United States Representative.
    • Much to the chagrin of Chicago Bears fans, the team traded up to draft quarterback Mitchell Trubisky second overall in 2017. MVP and Super Bowl champion QB Patrick Mahomes was chosen seven picks later by the Kansas City Chiefs.
    • Philip Rivers had a solid career as quarterback for the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers and Indianapolis Colts, even if he never made it to the Super Bowl. However, he was part of the 2004 draft which included fellow QBs Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger, both of whom won 2 Super Bowls for the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers, respectively, with Roethlisberger also appearing in a third. Making it worse is that Rivers had originally been drafted by the Giants till Manning refused to be drafted by the Chargers, prompting the two teams to trade them, leaving many fans wondering what his career would have been like had he signed to the Giants after all.
  • NHL
    • Brian Lawton and Sylvain Turgeon, the first two players drafted in 1983, had journeyman NHL careers at best. The next two players chosen were Hall of Famers Pat LaFontaine and Steve Yzerman. Another Hall of Fame player, Cam Neely, went ninth overall.
    • Owen Nolan, #1 in 1990, was a solid but not spectacular player. Too bad he came in the same year as Jaromír Jágr and Martin Brodeur.
    • A particularly laughable case was 1993 first pick Alexandre Daigle, who said "I'm glad I got drafted first, because no one remembers number two", only to be an underachiever who was out of the league by the age of 25... while the second pick, Chris Pronger, was a dominating defenseman who won a Stanley Cup, two Olympic golds, and an MVP award before entering the Hall of Fame in 2015.
    • Pretty much the entire 1999 Draft class, particularly notorious draft busts Patrik Stefan (selected 1st overall) and Pavel Brandl (4th overall), can be seen as this compared to the second and third picks: twin brothers Henrik and Daniel Sedin.
    • Rick DiPietro, the 2000 #1 hasn't done too badly, but is barely a blip on the radar compared to number 205 — Henrik Lundqvist.
    • Erik Johnson, the top pick of the 2006 Draft, has had a solid career as a defense-first Defenseman. That being said, he's had the misfortune of being selected before the likes of Jonathan Toews (third overall), Claude Giroux (22nd overall), and Brad Marchand (71st overall).

General examples

• There is a possible sub-trope here for sports, crossing this trope with Retirony. Team X has been terrible for the last few years, but there was a time when they were good, and their now-retired legend(s) represent their best years or championship seasons. What happens here is said player or players' legacy CONTINUES to overshadow the team. Textbook cases of this are...
  • Major League Baseball: Cal Ripken Jr., Baltimore Orioles; George Brett, Kansas City Royals; Tony Gwynn, San Diego Padres; Ken Griffey Jr./Randy Johnson/Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle Mariners (Griffey and Ichiro even played with this when they came back to Seattle for their last seasons).
  • National Football League: Joe Namath, New York Jets (although the Jets are good again as of 2009-2010, they still can't seem to move past Joe); Barry Sanders, Detroit Lions; anyone who played for the Oakland/Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders Super Bowl teams.
  • National Basketball Association: Allen Iverson, Philadelphia 76ers (the team hasn't won more than two rounds since he left in 2006); Chris Webber and Peja Stojaković, Sacramento Kings (while they since had guys like DeMarcus Cousins, Tyreke Evans, De'Aaron Fox, and Domantas Sabonis, the Kings were crap from the mid-2000s departure of Webber and Peja until 2022–23); Shaquille O'Neal and Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic. This could have happened to the Dallas Mavericks after Dirk Nowitzki retired, but it now looks like Luka Dončić will keep them relevant for years to come.
• This is what happens when pro athletes have parents, children, siblings, spouses, or relatives who outshine them in their sport. It can also happen across sports, where one relative is greatly eclipsed by another who became a bigger name in a different sport. Or in some cases, a sporting relative can be greatly eclipsed by a non-sports relative.
  • Basketball:
    • Jellybean Bryant was an OK player, but his son Kobe Bryant was nothing short of legendary.
    • Dell Curry was an excellent shooter, but people now know him as the dad of perennial All-Star Stephen Curry. Steph also outshone his brother Seth Curry.
    • First-round pick Mychal Thompson was a solid starter for the Showtime Lakers. Nowadays, people only know him as the dad of sharpshooter (and Steph Curry's Number Two) Klay Thompson, who also outshone his brother Mychel Thompson. Trayce Thompson, on the other hand, has tried to step out of his dad's and brothers' shadows by playing baseball instead.
    • Robert Jaworski is arguably one of the best Filipino basketball players of all time. His son, Dudut, was mocked as one of the WORST basketball players in the Philippines.
    • Same goes for Ato Agustin and his son Marc Agustin. Ato was christened "The Atom Bomb" due to his explosiveness and skill; Marc, on the other hand, is known as a "Watusi" (a band of firecracker) due to his comical lack of skill.
    • Funny (or sad, depending on how you look at it) example: USC standout Pamela McGee had some success in the WNBA, but her son JaVale became even more famous... due to his unfortunate tendency to make dumb plays and get featured in blooper reels, though he improved greatly in later years. Her daughter Imani McGee-Stafford has so far had a decent but not great career in the WNBA and several overseas leagues.
    • Neither Jeffrey Jordan nor Marcus Jordan were ever able to escape the shadow left by their father Michael.
    • Tim Duncan's sister Tricia made her name not in basketball but in swimming. Nevertheless she was not able to reach her brother's heights.
    • Cheryl Miller has done OK... but nowhere near as well as her brother, Indiana Pacers legend Reggie. Though she has a good excuse; bad knees forced her to retire from play in the late 1980s, a decade before the WNBA came around.
    • Jeff Teague isn't a star, but he's had a solid NBA career on a few playoff teams. His brother Marquis, on the other hand, hasn't really played much in the top level, and is mostly known as a bust whom the Bulls picked ahead of Draymond Green and Jae Crowder.
    • Horace Grant was a solid role player for the Bulls and Magic, winning three rings with the former as the third scoring option behind Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. His twin brother Harvey didn't quite follow his lead, bouncing around multiple teams without much success. Harvey does have one small thing over his brother, though; he fathered current NBA role players Jerian Grant and Jerami Grant.
    • Harvey Catchings, an NBA journeyman in the '70s and '80s, saw his daughter Tamika become one of the WNBA's greatest-ever players and eventually earn a place in the Hall of Fame in 2020.
    • Rick Barry made his name as a brilliant scorer and an effective, though unorthodox, free-throw shooter who led the Warriors to their last championship (1975) before the current Splash Brothers era. His sons, on the other hand, have had mixed success: Brent Barry was a solid role player, with some achievements such as winning the 1996 Slam Dunk contest and earning two NBA Championships with the Spurs, while Jon Barry didn't do much in his journeyman career, finding more success as a TV analyst in his post-retirement days. Canyon Barry, from Rick's latest marriage and a generation younger than Brent and Jon, wound up on the international 3-on-3 circuit and won a gold medal with Team USA at the 2019 FIBA 3x3 World Cup.
    • After a solid if slow start, Lauri Markkanen emerged as a true NBA star in 2022–23. Even before his emergence, he attained more glory in basketball than his brother Eero did in football/soccer; Eero was released from Real Madrid due to weight issues, and has bounced around several countries without attaining stardom.
    • Walter Moyse is something of a basketball version of Eero Markkanen. While he never got close to the NBA, the Canadian bounced around several European leagues, though usually not at the highest level. He wound up being overshadowed by his older sister Heather. She ran track and played basketball at the Canadian university level. And then went on to a rugby career, both in 15s and sevens, that put her in that sport's Hall of Fame. While at the same time winning two Winter Olympic gold medals as a bobsledder. And also representing Canada internationally as a track cyclist.
    • Stan Love didn't do too much of note in the NBA, spending his short career as a role player for the Bullets and the Lakers. His son Kevin has established himself as an all-star forward for the Timberwolves and Cavaliers, winning a championship with the latter. That said, both are themselves overshadowed by several other members of Stan's generation—older brother Mike and first cousins Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, four of the core members of The Beach Boys.
    • Former #1 pick Andrew Wiggins didn't exactly blossom into an All-Star until his career resurrection in 2021–22, but even before then he had marginally more success than his father Mitchell, who spent a long career as a nondescript journeyman. However, it took said career resurrection for Andrew to once and for all step out of the shadow of his mother, the former Marita Payne, who won two Olympic silver medals as a sprinter for Canada.
    • Luke Sikma has had a solid career in Europe, especially in Germany, where he's been the top league's MVP. However, his father Jack had a Hall of Fame career in the NBA with the Sonics and Bucks.
    • Two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo has several less-famous siblings playing professional basketball. Thanasis is a bench player in the NBA, currently Giannis' teammate on the Bucks; Kostas has bounced around the NBA, G League, and European leagues, currently in Turkey (though he did win a championship with the 2019–20 Los Angeles Lakers before his more accomplished sibling); and Alex plays in the NBA G League. Eldest brother Francis has played soccer in Greece and Nigeria.
  • Football (American):
    • Archie Manning was a solid quarterback who was held back by crappy Saints teams. His middle son Peyton Manning is arguably one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history. His youngest son Eli, though not quite as legendary as Peyton, is also a successful quarterback who made a name for himself in 2008 by pulling off one of the greatest Super Bowl upsets of all time.^note As for Archie's oldest son Cooper, he was a promising high school receiver whose career ended before he could take the field in college when he was diagnosed with a spinal condition that made football a life-threatening risk. He ended up a very successful businessman, and his son Arch signed with Texas as one of the most sought-after QBs in the college recruiting class of 2023.
    • Dewey Selmon was a solid defensive end and linebacker, but he was constantly outshone by his brother Lee Roy Selmon, who eventually found his way into the Hall of Fame. Dewey himself overshadowed his son Zac on the field, with Zac having a decent but not great career as a tight end at Wake Forest, but Zac became a rising star in sports administration. Zac, who doesn't turn 40 until November 2024, became Mississippi State's athletic director in 2023.
    • Brian Griese had a short career as a quarterback for the Broncos and Buccaneers, but he was never able to reach the stardom level of dad Bob Griese, who led the Dolphins to the NFL's only perfect season.
    • Craig Bradshaw, brother of the legendary Terry Bradshaw, had a far-from-legendary career, as he only ever played two NFL games.
    • Rob Gronkowski has three brothers who have also played in the NFL. None of them are as recognized as he is.
    • Tom Harmon was one of the University of Michigan's greatest football legends, winning the 1940 Heisman Trophy. While he had less success in the NFL as a player, he found a lasting niche as a sportscaster. His youngest child and only son, Mark, tried following in his father's footsteps, becoming a star quarterback at UCLA, but decided not to pursue an NFL career. Mark would end up averting the trope in spectacular fashion, becoming one of TV's biggest stars from the '80s to the 21st century. In fact, outside of hardcore old-school Michigan football fans and college football history nerds, Tom is now overshadowed by Mark.
    • Jack Harbaugh is exclusively a college football coach, so he is generally not as well-known as his sons John and Jim, who were NFL head coaches.
    • Calvin Hill had a very good NFL career, with two All-Pro selections, four Pro Bowls, and a Super Bowl ring. Even so, he doesn't quite have the status in the NFL as his son Grant had in basketball, eventually making the Hall of Fame. While Grant never won an NBA title, he did have two NCAA titles with Duke, and trumps his dad in league-wide playing honors with five All-NBA selections and seven All-Star Game nods.
    • Heath Irwin had a great college career, earning All-America nods twice as an offensive lineman at Colorado before going on to a decent but not great NFL career. As such, he overshadowed his father Phil, who was a starting linebacker at Colorado for three seasons but didn't make it to the pros. Heath also overshadowed his uncle and Phil's brother Hale, who was a two-time All-Big Eight Conference safety at Colorado. Or, more accurately, Heath overshadowed Hale when it came to football. However, Hale ended up hugely overshadowing his brother and nephew—he was also an All-America golfer and opted for that sport at the next level. Hale went on to win 20 times on the PGA Tour, including three U.S. Opens, and make the World Golf Hall of Fame. And after making the HOF, he turned 50 and became eligible for the U.S. senior tour now known as PGA Tour Champions, winning a then-record 45 titles on that tour, including seven of its major championships.
    • James Laurinaitis had a spectacular college career at Ohio State, followed by a decent but not earth-shattering NFL career. However, even a good NFL career wouldn't have kept him from being known more as the son of Road Warrior Animal. James is also somewhat overshadowed by his uncle John.
    • Andrew Luck was far from a standout in the NFL, despite being a #1 draft pick. But he has gotten far greater recognition than his father Oliver ever did. The elder Luck found more "luck" off the field in executive roles.
    • Marshawn Lynch is cousins with Josh Johnson and JaMarcus Russell — neither of whom have come close to Lynch's success, with Russell in particular being a notorious draft bust.
    • Not relatives, but nonetheless close: Two boys born in 1955 in the small Upper Peninsula town of Iron Mountain, Michigan became best friends throughout childhood, as well as college roommates at NCAA Division II Northern Michigan. One of them, Steve Mariucci, went on to a fairly successful coaching career, most notably with the 49ers. The other, Tom Izzo, went into basketball coaching, and enormously overshadowed his friend by becoming a Hall of Fame coach at Michigan State.
    • Speaking of draft busts, Dan McGwire, a first-round pick of the Seattle Seahawks in 1991 who started all of three games in his brief NFL career, couldn't come close to living up to his older brother Mark, one of Major League Baseball's greatest home-run hitters (even if Mark later admitted to having been chemically enhanced).
    • Brothers-in-law John Bosa and Eric Kumerow were both first-round busts for the Miami Dolphins in the 1980's. John's sons Joey and Nick have outshone their father and uncle; both claimed NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honors, respectively with the Chargers and 49ers, and have since earned multiple Pro Bowl selections.
    • Tiki Barber is generally better known than his twin brother Ronde, via Tiki being a member of the New York Giants during their Super Bowl runs in the 1990s. Tiki is the more recognizable twin (especially now, with Tiki's post-sports media career), but Ronde (a perennial Pro Bowler with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) was considered the better player.
    • Like the above, though Michael Dean Perry was overshadowed by his pop culture icon older brother William "The Refrigerator" Perry, he was considered by experts and more knowledgeable fans the vastly superior player.^note Michael Dean was a 2x first-team All-Pro, 2x second-team and was a 6x Pro Bowler. William never made a single Pro Bowl.
    • Buddy Ryan had a fairly solid career as coach, but not enough to gain the recognition of Rex Ryan, his son.
    • Zach Ertz is a very good NFL tight end, most notably with the Philadelphia Eagles, earning a Super Bowl ring and three Pro Bowl nods with that team. Nonetheless, he's overshadowed by his wife Julie, who has two World Cup winner's medals with the US women's soccer team.
    • On the subject of tight ends, Darren Waller, currently with the New York Giants, gets this from two directions. First, his great-grandfather was legendary composer and jazz pianist Fats Waller. Second, he married WNBA superstar Kelsey Plum in 2023.
    • Another crossover between the NFL and WNBA: Hroniss Grasu, a center for the Las Vegas Raiders, married the much more famous Sabrina Ionescu in March 2024.
    • In a rather sad case, the pressure the public put John Elway's son Jack to live up to his father's legacy took a toll on his mental health and he eventually decided to quit football entirely after only one year in college.
    • Super Bowl-winning brothers Travis and Jason Kelce are an interesting example. Travis, who plays for the Kansas City Chiefs, is more familiar to casual fans, due to his exploits as one of the best pass-catching tight ends in the NFL, and more recently his relationship with Taylor Swift. Jason, who plays for the Philadelphia Eagles, hasn't gained as much attention, in spite of his three Pro Bowls, since he plays as an offensive lineman. That being said, Jason has established himself in public consciousness due to his memetic speech in the Eagles' Super Bowl parade.
  • Soccer:
    • Les Ferdinand was a great striker during the '90s. His nephew, Rio Ferdinand, is known as one of the best ever defenders for England and Manchester United.
    • Frank Lampard Sr. was a West Ham legend, but Frank Lampard Jr. became one of the best midfielders to ever play for Chelsea and England.
    • Poor Jordi Cruyff. Being only a fringe player at Manchester United's treble-winning squad was bad enough, but the fact that he was the son of the late great Johan Cruyff further cemented his embarrassment.
    • Dondinho was never really a stand out in Brazilian football, nor was his grandson Edinho. The guy in the middle? Just a little someone named Pelé.
    • Hugo and Raúl Maradona, brothers of Diego.
    • Carles Busquets was a little-known goalkeeper for Barcelona in The '90s. His son, Sergio, has earned greater fame as a defensive midfielder (and a notorious diver); sadly, he's also been overshadowed by his star-studded teammates.
    • Congolese forward Roger Lukaku wasn't that famous, nor was his Belgian-born younger son Jordan. His older son, on the other hand, is renowned Manchester United, Inter Milan, Chelsea, and Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku.
    • It's safe to say that Thorgan Hazard and Kylian Hazard will never be able to reach the greatness attained by their brother: ex-Chelsea and current Real Madrid star Eden Hazard. However, as time went on things have changed a little bit for Thorgan as he went on to become a key piece in Borussia Dortmund's squad, while Eden on the other hand has not only struggled at Real Madrid (mainly due to weight issues) he also became one of the most expensive flops in the sport's history, costing Real Madrid a total of 115 million euros while boasting 6 goals in 3 years.
    • In a similar vein, twin brothers Florentin and Mathias Pogba have been perennially outshone by their younger brother: Paul Pogba. Kinda helps that Pogba plays for a bigger club team (Manchester United, and formerly Juventus) and a more renowned national team (France) than his brothers ^note  Florentin has been capped for Guinea, and has played for the likes of Saint-Étienne and Gençlerbirliği. Mathias was also capped for Guinea, but has mostly floated around much smaller clubs like Wrexham, Crawley, and Sparta Rotterdam. Sadly, Mathias is without a club as of 2018. , and that he was once the world's most expensive player.
    • Manchester United and France winger (and memetic FIFA Ultimate Team menace) Anthony Martial has seen way more success than his older brother Johan, who bounced around several lowly French teams before plying his trade in Israel.
    • Jack Charlton may be well-known among older football fans and the Leeds United faithful, but he never really attained the fame and legendary status of his younger brother: Manchester United standout Sir Bobby Charlton.
    • The four Congolese-French Mandanda brothers (Steve, Riffi, Parfait, Over) have all played the Goalkeeper position, but only Steve has gone on to great club success, keeping goal for relative French powerhouse Marseille. Parfait, on the other hand, backstops lowly Belgian club Charleroi, while Riffi plies his trade in second-tier French side AC Ajaccio.
    • Here's an interesting two-fer: not many sports fans know about Senegalese soccer international Souleymane Sané or German Olympic gymnast Regina Weber. Soccer fans, on the other hand, know very well about their son: Manchester City standout and German international Leroy Sané.
    • Alf-Inge "Alfie" Haaland had a solid career in the English Premier League and the Norway national team before his career was ended by persistent knee injuries.^note Not, as popular opinion has it, a horror tackle from Manchester United's Roy Keane—Keane hit Haaland's right leg, while the problems that led to Haaland's retirement were with his left knee, and had started years before Keane hit him. Nowadays, Alfie is better known as the father of Erling Haaland, rising superstar with the Norway national team who set a new record for goals in a Premier League season with Manchester City in 2022–23.
    • Zach Ertz and David Lee aren't the only sportspeople overshadowed by spouses. In a soccer-only example, MLS journeyman Servando Carrasco is better known to most fans as the husband of USWNT icon Alex Morgan than he is as a player.
    • And in a mirror image of Zach Ertz' situation, Kealia Watt enjoyed a good career in the NWSL, including three appearances with the USWNT. However, her husband J. J. was one of the NFL's greatest defensive ends, winning three Defensive Player of the Year awards before retiring at the end of the 2022 season with a Hall of Fame place all but assured.
    • Trinity Rodman has shown tremendous promise in her fledgling soccer career, with NWSL Rookie of the Year honors and an NWSL title to her name. Nonetheless, she has a good way to go before approaching just the athletic prominence of her father, NBA great Dennis Rodman. And even if she does, she probably won't come close to her father's pop culture prominence. In turn, Trinity has greatly overshadowed her older brother DJ, who opted for their father's sport but didn't became a regular college starter until his fourth season at Washington State in 2022–23.
  • Baseball:
    • Bobby Bonds had some of the greatest combination of power and speed ever seen, despite being woefully underrated in his day (with him ranking 5th all-time on the Power-Speed ranking). His son, Barry, would not only do the Lightning Bruiser deal even better (being ranked first on that aforementioned ranking by a massive margin), but he would become arguably the greatest baseball player ever^note depending on one's views on steroid usage.
    • Cal Ripken Sr. was an Orioles legend as a scout, coach, and minor-league manager, plus a disappointing stint as the O's manager. Cal Jr., on the other hand, became a legend for both the Orioles and the ENTIRE LEAGUE; and he also broke Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played. Not to mention that he was a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Both Cals overshadowed Junior's younger brother Billy, who had an undistinguished 12-year MLB career.
    • Ken Griffey Sr. had decent success in the big leagues (including three All-Star Game appearances), but he would be upstaged by his son Ken Griffey Jr., who is seen by many as one of the best Major Leaguers in recent history.
    • Pat Mahomes was a journeyman pitcher in the 1990s and early 2000s for six MLB teams, plus one in Japan. His son Patrick^note in full, Patrick Lavon Mahomes II is one of the NFL's best quarterbacks, earning two league MVP awards and leading the Chiefs to four Super Bowls, winning three.
  • Hockey:
    • Ever heard of Brent and Keith Gretzky? They're Wayne's brothers, and neither ever had a fraction of the success "The Great One" had.
    • It's safe to say that Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Malcolm Subban will never reach the stardom of his brother P.K., who was one of the best defensemen in the NHL before his 2022 retirement. Especially since at all of Malcolm's NHL stops to date, he's been the definite #2 goalie (behind Tuukka Rask with the Boston Bruins, Marc-André Fleury in Vegas, and Corey Crawford in Chicago).
    • As for P.K., he was in a relationship from 2017 to late 2020 in which he was overshadowed, at least in athletic accomplishment. Said relationship was with Lindsey Vonn, American alpine skiing great with three Olympic medals (one gold), a women's record 82 World Cup race wins^note since surpassed by fellow American Mikaela Shiffrin, 16 World Cup season titles in three disciplines, and four World Cup overall titles. Vonn experienced this trope herself in one of her previous relationships, having dated Tiger Woods for two years in the mid-2010s.
    • Somewhat subverted by Brett Hull; while his dad Bobby is known as one of the best hockey players of all time, Brett's widely respected as a legend in his own right (particularly among Gen X'ers). His son Jude, on the other hand...
    • Mark Howe obviously has not come close to the impact made by his father Gordie, but he was able to stand out on his own throughout the '80s. Marty Howe, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky.
    • Also subverted by the Sedin twins; it's common knowledge that BOTH of them were equally skilled and renowned.
    • The three Šťastný brothers left Communist Czechoslovakia to play for the Quebec Nordiques in the early eighties. Although Anton and Marian Šťastný were talented players, both were overshadowed by their brother and teammate Peter, who became one of the NHL's top scorers. Peter in turn overshadowed his sons Yan and Paul (who render the family name as Stastny). As for the sons, Paul did enjoy a long and successful NHL career as well as many appearances on the US national team, but Yan was only briefly in the NHL, spending most of his pro career either in the North American minors or overseas.
    • Ted Irvine's son Chris never pursued a hockey career, but he ultimately became a professional wrestler under the name Chris Jericho. The result? A son who is far more successful in his sport than his father was in his.
    • Scott Thornton was a solid, gritty winger who specialized as a checking forward, but he's largely played in the shadows of his cousin Joe Thornton, who has established himself as one of the NHL's best playmakers with the Boston Bruins and the San Jose Sharks. Interestingly, the two would be teammates in San Jose for one season.
    • Blake Geoffrion and his father Dan Geoffrion couldn't quite reach stardom in the NHL. Quite ironic, given that both of them were related to two Canadiens legends: Dan's father (and Blake's grandfather) was Bernie Geoffrion, and Dan's maternal grandfather (and Blake's great-grandfather) was Howie Morenz.
    • Another Montreal Canadiens legend, Henri Richard, had a very successful career (including a record eleven Stanley Cup wins) but his older brother Maurice "The Rocket" Richard is considered one of the greatest players of all time. Henri was actually nicknamed "the Pocket Rocket".
    • The aforementioned Chris Pronger is the younger of two Pronger brothers who made the NHL. However, Sean, who didn't make it to the NHL until two years after Chris, was a journeyman who bounced between the NHL and minors, and only had two seasons in an 11-season pro career in which he played most of his games in the NHL.
    • The late Doug Wickenheiser never lived up to expectations after being drafted first overall by the Montreal Canadiens in 1980, but still had a respectable NHL career. His cousin Hayley, however, is widely considered one of the greatest women's hockey players of all time and is a well-known celebrity in her native Canada.
  • Boxing:
    • Floyd Mayweather Sr. was never as famous, successful, or controversial as his son Floyd Jr. In fact, the defensive techniques that Floyd Jr. is hated or admired for were taught to him by Floyd Sr. This also applied to his uncle and primary trainer for years, Roger Mayweather. He had great offensive skills, which he taught to Floyd Jr., had more power in both hands, and was known as a knockout artist. He was successful enough to become a two-time world champion in his weight class, but had a very weak chin, which resulted in some brutal knockout loses. His other uncle, Jeff Mayweather, who taught Floyd Jr. his ring IQ, was the least successful of the brothers professionally, but became a decent boxing coach. However, Floyd Sr. overshadows him in that as well.
    • Subverted by Laila Ali. Despite being the daughter of the late, great Muhammad Ali, Laila is known as a good boxer in her own right; many consider her as the best female boxer of all time. Some things do run in families. Furthermore, she defeated Joe Frazier's daughter, Jacqui Frazier, making it 3-1 in the rivalry between the families. Played perfectly straight, however, between Muhammad and his brother Rahman.
    • Speaking of the Frazier family, Marvis Frazier, son of the legendary Joe, is famous for one thing... getting the crap beat out of him by Iron Mike Tyson, which shortened his boxing career, forcing him into early retirement.
    • Bobby Pacquiao's career as a boxing is nowhere near as successful as his brother Manny Pacquiao, who is considered one of the best boxers of his generation. But Bobby did become known for something else... being a dirty fighter and getting disqualified for illegal hitting in many of his fights.
    • Subverted by the Klitschko brothers, Vitali and Wladimir. Both are almost equally iconic, although Vitali slightly more so for his foray into politics.
  • Gymnastics
    • Valeri Liukin was a star on the USSR's 1988 men's Olympic gymnastics team, but he's not nearly as popular and recognized as his Olympic all-around champion daughter Nastia.
    • Gymnast McKenna Kelley has a large legacy to live up to, as she is the daughter of the legendary Mary Lou Retton.
    • Farhat Mustafin was a pretty good wrestler for the Soviet Union, winning a bronze medal in 1976. But he is entirely overshadowed by his daughter Aliya Mustafina, an all-around world champion, two-time Olympian, and seven-time Olympic medalist who is indisputably the greatest Russian gymnast since Svetlana Khorkina and by far the best Russian gymnast of her generation.
  • Motorsport:
    • Jos Verstappen is known mainly for two things: getting set on fire, and fathering his more successful son Max.
    • Ralf Schumacher was a solid Formula One driver, where he ran for eleven years and won six races. All but one of those while older brother Michael became the most victorious man in F1, with 91 wins and seven championships, five of them consecutively.
    • Lee Petty is justifiably remembered as a NASCAR great, but he's still remembered more as the father of NASCAR icon Richard Petty. Richard's son Kyle had a long NASCAR career, but didn't reach the level of his grandfather, much less his father. Kyle's son Adam was sadly killed in a racing accident before his career truly got started.
    • While Dale Earnhardt Jr. was a legitimate NASCAR great, he didn't quite reach the iconic status of his father.
    • Dale Jr. did far outshine his brother Kerry and nephew Jeffrey Earnhardt, whose NASCAR careers were largely undistinguished.
    • Michael Waltrip also enjoyed significant NASCAR success, but his older brother Darrell was one of the circuit's all-time greats and went on to an almost-as-iconic NASCAR broadcasting career. Michael's greatest NASCAR accomplishment was overshadowed as well, but by tragedy instead of awesomeness—he won the 2001 Daytona 500, which is more remembered for the elder Dale Earnhardt's fatal crash on the final lap. Though Michael did one-up Darrell in one respect: he also won the Daytona 500 in 2003, while his brother only won the 1989 edition.
    • Kurt Busch won 34 NASCAR Cup Series races and the championship in 2004, but still finds himself overshadowed by his younger brother Kyle, a two-time Cup Series champion with 63 wins. Kyle has won 229 races (and counting) in all three of NASCAR's national racing series compared to Kurt's 43.
    • The late John Andretti had a successful career in NASCAR and IndyCars, but couldn't escape comparisons to his uncle Mario Andretti and cousin Michael Andretti, two of the most accomplished American race drivers of all time.
    • Dave Blaney had a long career in NASCAR, but spent most of it driving for mid-field and low-budget teams, and never won a race. His son Ryan Blaney currently drives for the dominant Penske team and has 10 wins and a Cup Series championship to date.
    • Emerson Fittipaldi, a two-time Formula One World Champion and two-time Indy 500 winner, is by far the most successful racer from that family. His brother Wilson had an undistinguished F1 career (and is arguably better known for persuading Emerson to join his Copersucar Fittipaldi racing team, with disappointing results) while nephew Christian Fittipaldi did the best he could with the uncompetitive Minardi and Footwork teams. Grandson Pietro earned a one-off drive for the Haas F1 team in 2020, replacing the injured Romain Grosjean.
    • Brazilians Nelson Piquet and the late Ayrton Senna are two of the most successful Formula One drivers of all time, winning three World Driver's Championships apiece. Nelson Piquet Jr. and Ayrton's nephew Bruno Senna had mostly undistinguished careers, with the former best known for deliberately wrecking his car to help teammate Fernando Alonso win the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. The younger Piquet did win a season title in Formula E, but he's still very much in his father's shadow.
  • Australian rules football:
    • The two Gary Abletts avert this trope. Gary Sr. was one of the greatest forwards of all time with Geelong (though he started out at Hawthorn), while Gary Jr. was one of the sport's greatest midfielders, mostly for Geelong with an interlude at Gold Coast. Played straight with Gary Jr.'s younger brother Nathan, who enjoyed far less AFL success.
    • Roger Kerr enjoyed a decent level of success in the Western Australian and South Australian state leagues (in his playing days, what would become the AFL was still the Victorian Football League). He was overshadowed to a degree by his son Daniel, who enjoyed somewhat more success during a decade-plus in the AFL at West Coast. And now both have been greatly overshadowed by Daniel's younger sister Samantha, known to one and all as Sam, who made her name in soccer, winning multiple MVP honours in both the country's W-League (now known as A-League Women) and the NWSL in the States. Not to mention becoming the face of the Matildas (the national team).
  • Tennis:
    • The Sánchez family of Spain has four siblings who played professional tennis. The oldest of the group, Marisa, barely cracked the WTA top 400. Next came Emilio, who topped out at No. 7 in the ATP singles rankings. While he never made the semifinals of any singles Grand Slam, he was much more successful in doubles, reaching No. 1 and winning three Slams in that discipline. Then came Javier, who wasn't quite as successful as his brother, topping out at No. 23 in singles and No. 9 in doubles and never reaching a Slam semifinal in either discipline. All of them ended up being overshadowed by their younger sister, who chose to use both parental surnames and became known as Arantxa Sánchez Vicario. Arantxa won 14 Slams in all (4 each in singles and mixed doubles, 6 in women's doubles), was on five Spanish teams that won the Fed Cup (now known as the Billie Jean King Cup), and is one of only seven players (six women, plus John McEnroe) to have been No. 1 in singles and doubles at the same time.
    • Speaking of John McEnroe, he has a younger tennis-playing brother, Patrick. While John became an all-time great, Patrick was in the "good but not great" category, topping out at No. 23 in singles and No. 3 in doubles (and having an overall losing match record in singles), winning only one Slam in doubles, and only reaching one singles Slam semifinal. Even as a commentator, he's overshadowed by John.
    • The former Miroslava "Mirka" Vavrinec, a Slovakia-born Swiss player, showed promise in the WTA at the dawn of the 21st century, but was forced to retire at age 24 in 2002 due to chronic foot problems. By that time, she'd entered into a relationship with a fellow Swiss player, and eventually married him. She's now known as Mirka Federer. Yes, that Federer.
    • All-time great Chris Evert greatly overshadowed her first two husbands—first British tennis player John Lloyd, and then American alpine skier Andy Mill. Averted with her previous relationship with fellow American tennis great Jimmy Connors and her brief third marriage to Aussie golf great Greg Norman.^note While she overshadowed Norman's accomplishments in their respective sports, Norman had every bit as large a place in pop culture as Evert, if not more so.
    • The Korda family has multiple examples of this. For starters, Petr Korda overshadowed his wife, the former Regina Rajchrtová. Petr won the Australian Open in 1988 and reached a high of #2 in the rankings, while Regina never won a pro tournament in either singles or doubles.
    • Petr and Regina have three children—in order of age, golfers Jessica and Nelly, and tennis player Sebastian. Nelly in particular has so far overshadowed the rest of her family; as of April 2024, she's won 12 times on the LPGA Tour, including one major; won the women's gold medal at the 2020 (21) Olympics; and has had three stints at #1 in the world rankings (including the end-of-year #1 in 2021). Jessica has won six LPGA events, but has yet to win a major or end a year in the top 10. Sebastian had notable success in the junior ranks, but didn't significantly dent the top 40 in the ATP rankings until late 2022, and has yet to reach a Slam final.
  • Volleyball:
    • Wink Davenport was a very good volleyball player, making the US Olympic team in 1968, but made his true mark in the sport after his playing career as a referee. However, he would be overshadowed by the tennis success of his daughter Lindsay — who, as mentioned above, was herself an example of this trope in her own sport.
  • Figure skating:
    • At least one men's singles skater has (semi-)joked that they have a Moment of Silence for whoever is unlucky enough to be skating right after Yuzuru Hanyu in competition. If the event allows it, after he finishes skating fans will produce a "Pooh rain", throwing plush bears onto the ice as encouragement for him. While the immediate next skater has more time to prepare (as they have to clean up the ice), he would also be intimidated because Hanyu is almost guaranteed to be a Tough Act to Follow who had vowed the audience. He is considered by analysts to be an accomplished and versatile skater known for his ability to combine strong technique with mature and versatile artistry. 2006 Olympic silver medalist Stéphane Lambiel described him as "the most complete athlete in figure skating, probably ever." He is a two-time consecutive Olympic champion (2014, 2018), a two-time World champion (2014, 2017), a four-time Grand Prix Final champion (2013–2016), a Four Continents champion (2020), the 2010 World Junior champion, the 2009–10 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, and a five-time Japanese national champion (2012–2015, 2020). Hanyu became the first male singles skater to achieve a Super Slam in 2020, having won all major competitions in his senior and junior career. Regarded as one of the greatest male figure skaters in history, Hanyu has broken world records nineteen times — the most times amongst singles skaters since the introduction of the ISU Judging System in 2004.

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