Best Athlete of All Time?

[china444]

Who do you think it is?

Here is china444's Top Ten Best Athletes of ALL TIME!


1. Muhammed Ali
2. Michael Jordan
3. Lance Armstrong
4. Jackie Robinson
5. Gordie Howe
6. Tiger Woods
7. Joe Namath
8. Venus and Serena Williams
9. Magic Johnson
10. Babe Ruth

What is your pick (or list) of the best athlete(s) of All Time?

 

[Archer 007]

What criteria are we to go by?
This should be in Sports Talk, btw

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Moved to Sports...

 

[Greadius]

How America-centric China... I'm proud of you

Still, Namath is highly overrated. Any list like this is too superfluous, since best isn't an objective measurement.

 

[mayakovsky]

Carl Lewis. Although I wish he would go away now. Too much unnecessary embarrassment.

 

[Inter4]

Where's Pelé and Maradona?

 

[Globber]

No particular order:
Pele
Babe Ruth
Michael Schumacher
Secretariat
Jack Nicklaus (not quite there yet Tiger)
Wayne Gretzky
Muhammed Ali
Michael Jordan
Pete Sampras
Lance Armstrong

 

[Anti-EUA]

1 - Pelé
from 2 to 10 no specific order:
Maradona, Muhammed Ali, Nigel Mansell, Garrincha, Alain Prost, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Ayrton Senna and of course, ZICO!

 

[thestonesfan]

In no order -

Jordan, Ali, Teddy Williams, Ruth, Tiger, Jim Brown, Payton, Montana.

My favorite of all time? Why, George Foreman, of course!

 

[da_greatest]

Jim Thorpe

 

[lord_byron_nz]

It always amazes me how one person always gets left of these lists. Parvo Nurmi still holds the record for most golds - 13, I think - won at the Olympics, 80 years after he competed. He owned long-distance in the 1920's winning golds in 5000, 10000, Cross-Country and Team events. Yet he never rates as "Sportsman of the century" or "Greatest Athlete Ever". He dominated his events like no one has since over a period of four (or maybe three) olympics.

 

[MCdread]

Eddy Merckx is the greatest athlete of all times. As if his athletic power, shown time and time again was already not enough, he has a record of wins that speaks for himself. I agree with lord byron regarding Nurmi, but Merckx was even more dominator.

The other 9, in no particular order, and with all the subjectivity this has: Paavo Nurmi, Diego Maradona, Pelé, Michael Jordan, Hailé Gebreselassié, Mark Spitz, Michael Schumacher, Giacomo Agostini, Magic Johnson.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

For me, a key identifying feature of a truly great athlete is how much superior he is/was to all others in his sport. On that basis, I think Don Bradman and Babe Ruth have recorded careers, which, statistically, are simply overwhelming compared to all others who (at any time) took part in their sport. I'm not sure that many of the other athletes so far mentioned can truly be said to have dominated their sport across eras to the extent these two did.

However, as I suspect the Tour de France is the most gruelling of all sporting events, requiring the greatest degree of athleticism, I'd also have to second Eddie Merckx and nominate Miguel Indurain. (And, given his personal history, Armstrong's achievement is also close to unbelievable.)

 

[Vraslosken]

Bjørn Dæhlie

 

[floppa21]

Best athlete of all time...

If you take one's numbers and look at the percentage that these numbers broke the previous standing record by, the one and only answer is Wayne Gretzky. This is what I mean...

Gretzky's career scoring total is 54 percent greater than that of runner-up Gordie Howe. By comparison, the total accumulated by the NBA's all-time scoring leader Kareem Abdul Jabbar is a mere 22% better than that of Wilt Chamberlain. Dan Marino, the NFL's all-time leader in passing yardage is only 14% ahead of John Elway, and the 755 home runs hit by Henry Aaron are just six percent more than the Babe's 714.

Here's the link...

That's my 'proof' and that's my opinion.

 

[Stapel]

Originally posted by MCdread
Eddy Merckx is the greatest athlete of all times.

Indeed!

I was a bit surprised I saw Armstrong twice before Merckx was mentioned. There is no doubt Merckx was the best cyclist ever. It is simply not disputed.

My list:

Eddy Merckx
Manuel Francisco dos Santos
Edson Arantes de Nascimento
Diego Armando Maradona
Johan Cruyff
Bernard Hinault
Marco van Basten
Lance Armstrong
Gerd Mueller
Ronaldo Luiz Nazario de Lima

 

[prettyvacant]

a few random points:

worlds greatest - we should therefore ignore anyone whose prowess has only been demonstrated in a sport played in only one or two countries - thus ruling out players of: basketball, american football, rounders, kabbadi etc.

If you look at how far someone was in front of all other players of that sport then you might end up with Eric Bristow (darts!!). However using that criteria DonBradman would have to be right up there. A Test average of 99, anyone getting 40-50 is considered really good, and a handful of players have got between 50 and 60. He therefore has nearly 100% better record.

There is an english rower who has gold olympic medals in five games in a row in a sport wich requires a high level of fitness. No one else has done that. (Michael Redgrave is an actor but its something like that)

If people put athletes who may be unfamiliar can they expalin who they are please? eg Bjørn Dæhlie, dos Santos, Jackie Robinson, Gordie Howe (not from Newcastle is he?)

 

[Stapel]

Originally posted by prettyvacant
If people put athletes who may be unfamiliar can they expalin who they are please? eg Bjørn Dæhlie, dos Santos, Jackie Robinson, Gordie Howe (not from Newcastle is he?)

Dos Santos is known as Mane Garrincha. He was the star of the 1958 (with Pele) and 1962 Worldcup.

Though Pele is the 'best football player ever' by most people in the world, many Brasilians think Garrincha was.

 

[floppa21]

Gordie Howe played for the Detroit RedWings back in the day and was part of the Production Line with Sid Abel and Ted Lindsay. Nickname is 'Mr. Hockey' and he played in 3 decades. Actually played in four but that was just a publicity stunt. He was tough, could score, and had some great longevity.

 

[Håkon]

I didn't post Bjørn Dæhlie, but as I'm able to explain it, I will. He's a former cross country skier, and he won nine Olympic gold medals from '92 to '98. He also won many World Championship titles and a number of World Cups (which is an event consisting of 15 to 20 stand-alone competitions, rather like the Golden League in athletics, but you don't have to win all the stand-alone competitions to win the World Cup)

Oh, and he was Norwegian.