Greatest sportsperson of all time

[Lambert Simnel]

Possibly. Woods had a shot at a similar level of dominance, but appears to have blown that now.

 

[El Justo]

i would put the Golden Bear or Palmer up there before woods.

i would also probably put Jerry Rice on the list instead of Bo Jackson. Rice was unbelievable and a freak. Lawrence Taylor could probably be the defensive qualifier as he may very well be the best defensive player in nfl history.

Cy Young, Cobb, Pete Rose, Ted Williams are names that could appear for the baseball list. Mays is a nice one and listed iirc as is Ruth. a case could be made for Rickey Henderson too. his statistics are otherworldly.

Roy for the NHL is another name. tough to top Gretzky though although Lemieux was a beast.

Federer is a beast.

MJ is the best ever. that's who i voted for just completely transformed the game and athletics imo.

 

[Arriaga II]

IMO Thorpe beats out Ruth, Ali and Jordan for the greatest American athlete of all time due to his versatility. (For greatest female athlete in the US and entire world, Babe Zaharias gets my vote).

And Thorpe narrowly beats out Pelé for the greatest world athlete of all time.

My narrow list of the greatest football players of all time would be Pelé, Maradona, Yashin, Beckenbauer, Maldini, Cruyff and Di Stefano.

 

[Supr49er]

Jim Brown, mainly because beside football, he was an incredible Lacrosse player.

 

[W|M]

Look at the amount of awards Pelé has: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pel%C3%A9#Honors

And Pelé was not just a great footballer:

Prime Licensing, the company created and owned by the long time friend and fashion businessman Jose Alves de Araujo, now manages the Pele brand including contracts with Puma AG, Pelestation, QVC, Fremantle Media, Pele L'uomo and Pele Arena coffee houses, amongst others.[68]
The most notable area of Pelé's life since football is his ambassadorial work for various bodies. In 1992, Pelé was appointed a United Nations ambassador for ecology and the environment.
He was awarded Brazil's Gold Medal for outstanding services to the sport in 1995, Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso appointed him to the position of "Extraordinary Minister for Sport" and he was appointed a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. During this time he proposed legislation to reduce corruption in Brazilian football, which became known as the Pelé law. Pelé left his position in 2001 after he was accused of involvement in a corruption scandal, although nothing has been proved so far.[69] In 1997 he was created an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Pelé scouted for Premier League club Fulham in 2002.[70] He was chosen to do the draw for the qualification groups for the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals.[71]
Pelé has published several autobiographies, starred in documentary and semi-documentary films and composed various musical pieces, including the entire soundtrack for the film Pelé in 1977. He appeared, alongside other footballers of the 1960s and 1970s, with Michael Caine, and Sylvester Stallone, in the 1981 film Escape to Victory, about an attempted escape from a World War II German POW Camp.
Pelé signed a major autobiographical book deal in 2006, resulting in a giant-sized, 45 cm × 35 cm, 2,500 unit limited-edition collectible "Pelé", created by UK luxury publishers, Gloria, as the first-ever football "big book". In the same period, Pelé received a lifetime achievement award from the BBC and in June 2006, helped inaugurate the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals, alongside supermodel Claudia Schiffer. Pelé has also helped to promote viagra and raise the awareness of impotency.[72]
Pelé was guest of honour at the world's oldest football club, Sheffield's 150th anniversary match v Inter Milan in November 2007. Inter won 5–2 in front of an appreciative crowd of nearly 19,000 at Bramall Lane. As part of his visit, Pelé opened an exhibition which included the first public showing in 40 years of the original hand written rules of football.[73]
In 2009, he cooperated with Ubisoft on arcade football game Academy of Champions: Soccer for the Wii and also appeared in the game as a coach to its players.[74]
On August 1, 2010, Pelé was introduced as the Honorary President of a revived New York Cosmos (2010), aiming to field a team in Major League Soccer.[19]

 

[Earthling]

Lee Young-Ho. But also leaving out Usain Bolt or another non-US runner was a disappointment, selection there alone probably wasn't the greatest- I'd still vote Owens or something over other poll options though.

So assuming you are basing the greatest sportsperson off comparative performance in their individual field, surely Don Bradman has to be the winner.

The poll question is markedly different to the thread question, though.

Oh, I missed this, but Lee Young-Ho probably specifically takes the crown here, and a better field than cricket too.

 

[Yeekim]

This guy
Just no contest

 

[illram]

Yeah I mean, if we're talking about all 'round athlete, has anyone done what Jim Thorpe did?

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

in regards to Federer , sure his record is phenomenal . But considering he has a nemesis in Nadal who definitely has the wood on him , it detracts from his record bigtime.

It`s not like Nadal has been in his prime while Federer is in the twilight of his career .

and regarding NFL players (and I love NFL , has alot in common with my beloved Rugby League) , I would think to qualify for greatest sportsperson of all time you would have to play a sport that is played internationally . So NHL and basketball qualify and less so baseball.

 

[Dachs]

and regarding NFL players (and I love NFL , has alot in common with my beloved Rugby League) , I would think to qualify for greatest sportsperson of all time you would have to play a sport that is played internationally . So NHL and basketball qualify and less so baseball.

What the hell does that have to do with "greatest sportsperson"?

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

What the hell does that have to do with "greatest sportsperson"?

I don`t see the confusion ??. I`m simply saying that to be rated "the greatest sportsman" you would need to play a sport that is played to some degree internationally . If the sport you are a legend at is only played in one country then it rules you out of winning this poll .

 

[Dachs]

I don`t see the confusion ??. I`m simply saying that to be rated "the greatest sportsman" you would need to play a sport that is played to some degree internationally . If the sport you are a legend at is only played in one country then it rules you out of winning this poll .

I'm not confused about what you're saying at all; I'm just saying it's total nonsense. Perhaps the choice of smiley was poor. I don't see why the sport has to be internationally played at the current time (since apparently the late NFL Europa doesn't count?). Seems like an asinine rule that has nothing to do with how good a sportsman a given football player is. It's not like non-Americans are barred from playing in the NFL, or anything, which would limit the possible pool and theoretically mess up comparison.

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

I do realise you are not actually confused.......I was just being a bit smart in reply . Let`s take as an example my favourite sport , unfortunately it is only played on the east coast of Australia , northern England , NZ and PNG (to any large degree) . so even though I personally think the athletes who play this game are some of the best in the world , I think it would be ridiculous for me to name the best rugby league player as the world`s best sportsman .

Because an American or Brazillian would (rightly) say "hang on , we comprise 10% of the world`s population and have never even heard of this sport!"

and let`s be honest , your point about the Europa league is stretching things in regards to international participation in American Football

 

[Dachs]

I do realise you are not actually confused.......I was just being a bit smart in reply . Let`s take as an example my favourite sport , unfortunately it is only played on the east coast of Australia , northern England , NZ and PNG (to any large degree) . so even though I personally think the athletes who play this game are some of the best in the world , I think it would be ridiculous for me to name the best rugby league player as the world`s best sportsman .

Because an American or Brazillian would (rightly) say "hang on , we comprise 10% of the world`s population and have never even heard of this sport!"

and let`s be honest , your point about the Europa league is stretching things in regards to international participation in American Football

Popularity oughtn't have much of anything to do with how "great" a sportsperson is. Look at that Don Bradman dude that people in this thread keep talking about. Who the hell was this guy? The fact that I - and almost all people outside the former British Empire - have virtually no clue who any cricket players are or were doesn't make the late Don Bradman any less transcendent of a sportsman. He's just not as well known in some places as somebody like Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky or Pelé. But since you're an Aussie, you put him on the poll and ignored the NFL players, and a bunch of other people from the Commonwealth are going to vote for him, because they're disproportionately represented on this forum. Is that more or less excusable than an American ignoring Bradman altogether and instead putting together a list including a bunch of guys like Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith, and Joe Montana?

Meh, whatever, I'd still have voted for Jordan anyway.

 

[Perfection]

That Japanese guy who eats like a million hotdogs.

 

[Azale]

That Japanese guy who eats like a million hotdogs.

His reign was short and I think his record has already been broken. But he did transform competitive eating forever!



LOOK AT THOSE GUNS!

 

[schlaufuchs]

Cy Young, Cobb, Pete Rose, Ted Williams are names that could appear for the baseball list. Mays is a nice one and listed iirc as is Ruth. a case could be made for Rickey Henderson too. his statistics are otherworldly.

No love for DiMaggio? Hitting safely in 57 consecutive games should be statistically impossible, which is why it's a feat that will probably never be repeated. Consider that the next closest is like 45 straight games.

Pitchers that throw perfect games, or hitters that bat for .400 should be considered, since the list is small, and doesn't happen often at all (there hasn't been a .400 hitter since Williams in '42(?))

The great thing about baseball is the stats have not really changed like in other sports. Hitting .400 is just an incredible feat now as it was in 1903, so you don't have to account for differences in time.

 

[El Justo]

ahh, yes. most definitely slipped my train of thought atm. incredible, his record. almost untouchable. and to think that he accomplished it when there were, what? 16 teams in MLB? insane. edit - it was 56 straight iirc.

also, i think i sort of took the gist of this thread a little differently in that it's probably suggested that the best 'sportsman' is the best overall athlete. imho, this discussion differs from the very best at their respective sports. of course it's a neat discussion putting the 'very best at their sport' against the 'best athlete'.

 

[jeps]

One thing I can say about gretzky (not sure who I think is the best yet, but something to consider):

He BUILT hockey in California. He was traded to LA, and the state started caring about a sport they were ambivalent about, and the results are paying off now (two californians went in the first round of the draft this year)

 

[El Justo]

yeah, you could even say that he brought it to the forefront of the american sports world. sure, the nhl was around long before his arrival in LA. but what it did imo was it opened up the possibility that the nhl could sustain teams in warm weather climates. this undoubtedly had a tremendous impact on the brand.