Who is the greatest athlete in history? My top 3 picks are Muhammad Ali and...

[imisslily]

The greatest athletes in history and why they are so great

My top 3 are - Muhammad Ali, Floyd Mayweather and Michael Jordan. Reasons go beyond sporting achievement, but their impact on the world and cultural beliefs as well. Just watched a documentary on Ali and damn that is one incredibly talented sportsman. Respect

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Wayne Gretzky

Mariano Rivera or Pedro Martinez

Pele

 

[rightwinger]

Babe Ruth
Ali
Tom Brady

 

[Oddball]

Jim Thorpe

 

[Harry Dresden]

you can only judge this by decade,athletes get better as training methods and equipment improves and knowledge of the sport...

 

[Taz]

Wayne Gretzky, Babe Ruth and Bobby Orr.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Ogie Ogelthorpe

 

[Eric Arthur Blair]

Jim Brown, Wilt Chamberlain, Bobby Hull.

 

[SmokeALib]

Jordan, Ali, Prefontaine.

 

[Unkotare]

The greatest athletes in history and why they are so great

My top 3 are - Muhammad Ali, Floyd Mayweather and Michael Jordan. Reasons go beyond sporting achievement, but their impact on the world and cultural beliefs as well. ...

Hmmmm...really? Being duped by a hate-group cult, domestic abuse, and gambling addiction? Quite the achievements.

 

[BlackFlag]

Jordan, Secretariat, and the Great Bambino

 

[Dale Smith]

Bo Jackson, Jim Brown, Jerry Rice with honorable mention to Deion Sanders.

 

[Yarddog]

Bo Jackson..... Muhammed Ali .... and ...

 

[candycorn]

Impossible to quantify greatness across sports and generations. Athletics is being an athlete. Sports is a game; you keep score to see who wins. If the question is who is the greatest sportsman--you have to look at successful players of those sports. If the question is who is the greatest athlete, that is a different matter all together. In our society, however, athletes are not recognized until they play a game...so you have to look at that as well. So that is my criteria; someone who was clearly athletic while successful.

Someone mentioned Jim Thorpe. He would have to be on the short list. I'd put Michael Phelps on there; 23 gold medals out of 28 overall...I mean..c'mon. In 23 events, he beat the other who were best in the world at that game.

I think you have to eliminate anyone who was in a team sport although their athleticism is clear; they didn't achieve their success on their own.

If you're looking at great athletes in team sports, it also matters about your body in that sport meaning that Michael Phelps would probably not be a great football player like Michael Jordan was not a very successful baseball player at the highest level (making the minor leagues is not a small accomplishment in my opinion).

So... If you want to give team sport athletes oxygen, I'd say that Lebron is probably the greatest athlete in basketball. I don't watch enough baseball to say definitively but Rickey Henderson was probably the single greatest athlete in baseball when I did watch it. Nearly 300 HRs and 1400 stolen bases...very impressive. Football and hockey are too hard to quantify.

 

[rightwinger]

Jordan, Ali, Prefontaine.

Pre was a great distance runner but not on an international level. He did not even medal in the Olympics

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Babe Ruth

Wayne Gretzky

Tom Brady

 

[AzogtheDefiler]

Bo Jackson
Babe Ruth
Roger Staubach

 

[candycorn]

Bo Jackson
Babe Ruth
Roger Staubach

Staubach?

 

[AzogtheDefiler]

Bo Jackson
Babe Ruth
Roger Staubach

Staubach?

Read about him. I saw a documentary. His athletic prowess was outstanding in every sport.

 

[SmokeALib]

Jordan, Ali, Prefontaine.

Pre was a great distance runner but not on an international level. He did not even medal in the Olympics

Pre was an idol of mine growing up. As was Jordan and Ali. I could have mentioned Bolt, Ruth, Thorpe, etc, but it was Pre that had the most influence on me, and therefore consider him one of the greatest of all time. JMHO.