Professional cycling is unique both in its physiological demands and its seemingly intrinsic corruption. Ardent bikers who try riding with those athletes soon get left bicycling by themselves. The competitors bodies just process an incredible amount of oxygen, leaving out the pharmaceutical use. So you start with people genetically different from most. Also, the history of the sport started with brutal tactics, anything that could be done to ruin the others' bikes and injure the other riders. That's gotten more controlled, but other cheating continues.
I lean now toward sports that don't imply brain injury and early death. I have amazing Superbowl memories of fourth quarter and overtime plays that rocked my mind, but now I enjoy sports where there are fewer concussions, like NBA and college bb, and football (soccer). A vastly under-appreciated sport, diminished by its commercial namesake, is high school and college wrestling. It's a fascinating chess game. The lighter weights scrap around on the mat in subtle (and not so subtle) combat and the heavies conduct almost Sumo style matches with many fewer take-downs. It is a science and an art that (apparently) can't be replicated for commercial purposes. Professional wrestlers are master athletes, but the competition is theatrical by design, though many fans live in denial. Many professional moves would be lethal if performed as they appear, of course. Even with school wrestling, broken bones and other injuries are not unusual, so it is hardly a gentle sport.
Yes, Croatia winning would be a kind of David and Goliath victory, a historical mark.
