Greatest Athlete of All Time

[Point13]

my gut tells me this has been done before, but here we go!

Personally i would say Muhammad Ali! Just darn great (stood up against the draft too!)

Note: Don't smite me oh might mods!

Note 2: American Football was a TOUGH Choice

 

[Azale]

Loius Armstrong, Jim Thorpe, Michael Jordan

But the best out of them all, Armstrong in my opinion.

 

[Inter4]

Pelé, Maradona, M. Jordan

 

[MCdread]

Eddy Merckx is the greatest. In his sport no one even comes close and I believe the domination he had during his career doesn't have anything similar in any other sport.

Btw, Louis Armstrong? Shouldn't he be instead in the thread about best jazz musicians ever?...

 

[Achinz]

A parochial choice as a tribute:

Shirley Strickland who won seven Olympic medals - three gold, one silver and three bronze - during a career that spanned three Olympic games

Died recently aged 78.

 

[Darkness]

This thread title should be "the best american athlete of all time", and btw, like MCdread said, it's Lance Armstong....

@all Americans: Armstrong isn't even the best cyclist ever, that's Eddy Merckx (again, like MCdread said). He may be American (which obviously colours your opinions, because before he started winning nobody in the States even cared about cycling) and a cancer-survivor (for which I salute him, as well as for being a great cyclist), but in no way he dominates the sport as much as Eddy Merckx did in the late sixties and early seventies.

Best American athlete of all time: it's a tie between Jordan and Gretzky...

 

[Shabbaman]

The greatest athlete award doesn't even have an athlete as competitor? Surely someone like Carl Lewis, a gold medalist in multiple olympics, deserves mentioning. Especially over some golf player. Golf isn't even a sport.

Oh wait. Obviously it is. Just like darts, and chess.

 

[Azale]

LAAAAAAAAANCE, duh. I knew something was wrong there

 

[Azale]

Well, Im not that old. All I noticed was the consecutive times hes won on one of the most grueling sports events. Just because I chose an American athlete doesnt mean it "clouded my view"

And maybe MJ dominated basketball more than Merckx dominated cycling, its an argument that could be had.

 

[Shabbaman]

Originally posted by Darkness
Best American athlete of all time: it's a tie between Jordan and Gretzky...

Gretzky is canadian

 

[col]

I think there is something of a modern bias here as well as USocentric. Tiger for example has a long way to go before he gets anywhere near Jack Nicklaus' record. Bit short of females too.

How do you compare Ali with Marciano who never lost?

LANCE Armstrong with Merckx?

How about Denis Compton who played for England at two different sports or CB Fry who played for England at cricket, won a gold medal at the Olympics and was offered the throne of Albania!

I think you'd have a better chance if you restricted your poll to one sport or era.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

In my completely unbiased () opinion, I think its Wayne Gretzky.

 

[Darkness]

Originally posted by Shabbaman


Gretzky is canadian

Ooops....

 

[Darkness]

Originally posted by col


How about Denis Compton who played for England at two different sports or CB Fry who played for England at cricket, won a gold medal at the Olympics and was offered the throne of Albania!

Or how about Bjorn Daehli, that Norwegian cross-country skier, who's won 10 olympic gold medals, IIRC and another huge load of silvers and bronzes, plus a number of world championships...

 

[Håkon]

Originally posted by Darkness


Or how about Bjorn Daehli, that Norwegian cross-country skier, who's won 10 olympic gold medals, IIRC and another huge load of silvers and bronzes, plus a number of world championships...

Damn right he did

Or Ole Einar Bjørndalen - won four olympic gold medals in the same Olympic games at biathlon, which is quite amazing when you think of all the luck involved in shooting.

My vote for greatest athlete, though...can't decide. There are too many great athletes in the world.

 

[Shabbaman]

Reinier Paping, winner of the Elfstedentocht in 1963.

 

[Stapel]

Originally posted by Shabbaman
Reinier Paping, winner of the Elfstedentocht in 1963.

Especially because he was born in Ommen, just like me!

Lemieux was better than Gretzky!

Merckx was better than Lance. Even if Lance will win the TdF 7 times in a row, he will not have won a single Giro, Vuelta or Paris-Roubaix.

The greatest football players ever are Maradona, Pele and Cruyff (imho, in that order).

 

[Marla_Singer]

Louis Armstrong ? No, I definitly disagree. Robert deNiro is THE one who rocks the most in all sports.

 

[Marla_Singer]

Originally posted by Stapel
Lemieux was better than Gretzky!

I'm not surprized. "Lemieux" means Thebest in french.

Originally posted by Stapel
The greatest football players ever are Maradona, Pele and Cruyff (imho, in that order).

No, I strongly disagree. You're considering Cruyff as the third because your point of view is biased. You're just a dutch chauvinist.

Here's the official* and totally objective Top 10 of the best footballers of all times :

1. Zinédine Zidane
2. Michel Platini
3. Thierry Henry
4. Pelé
5. Jean-Pierre Papin
6. Diego Maradona
7. Raymond Kopa
8. Franz Beckenbauer
9. Eric Cantona
10. Johan Cruyff

This list had been determined by Marla Singer Incorporated totally free of any political pressures. This, of course, guarantees the total objectivity of the players picked by MSI.

 

[Suppersalmon]

Pelé or Muhammad Ali