[Stormbringer]

The modern equivalent is probably something like Harry Potter - mass popular appeal but from a technical point of view not well written, or maybe Stephen King - extremely prolific within his particular niche.

I think you are grossly overestimating the social position of actors in the days of Shakespeare, from what I've read they were regarded as little better than prostitutes (and some were, they were not at all well paid for their stage work).

Additionally, your 'nitpick' about Shakespeare being compared to Virgil etc actually proves my point, that we tend to hold older writings in higher regard than modern writings. Whereas with athletes, this is not the case. Roger Bannister is famous for running the first (recorded) four minute mile, whereas today running a four minute mile isn't even considered noteworthy. Sporting records regularly tumble, and when they do the athlete that set the previous record diminishes a little in our eyes (I'm not arguing that this is good or right, just that it is), whereas Shakespeare and Tolkein are always going to be up on their pedestals.

When I used to read lots of Fantasy I would pick up books in shops and read the blurbs on the back, and almost everyone was going to be 'the next Tolkein' or 'bigger and better than Tolkein' or some such hyperbole. Now I can easily imagine someone being better than Tolkein (he spends an entire page describing a forest just talking about trees for goodness sake. They're big green and leafy, move on for goodness sake!), but you're not the next Tolkein until everyone compares their books to you instead of him. If you see what I mean.

[Travis]

I think the King comparison might be the most apt yet. Most people view him as a Crichton/Tom Clancy level populist, but his Dark Tower series really is an impressive literary piece.

WRT the sports thing: do you think some of that difference could be ascribed to the simple fact that we don't play the same sports as they did back in the day? While sport isn't a modern invention, the particular sports (and the fierceness of pursuit due to the money, fame, etc.) are new.

And finally, I'm not sure if my comment further proves your point, or if it means that we can only compare literature to sport in comparable times. If you accept the idea that sports used to be less important (possible due to the physical nature of regular work and the lack of leisure time), then you can really only compare sports (nearly exclusively happening in the 20th century) to 20th century literature.

In short, sports have just started to catch their stride.

Further, it could be argued that the ethos of the warrior was the true analogue of athletes in premodern times. Hercules, et al.