Greatest Athlete Of All-Time Is...

Wilt Chamberlain.

His combination of strength and athleticism is unmatched by any other athlete, ever. Don't believe me? Do some research and educate yourself.

drink good whiskey wrote:

Babe Didrikson Zaharias

2 gold and a silver in track and field in the 1932 Olympics, 41 wins on the LPGA tour (including 10 majors), All-American at basketball, set 4 Track and Field world records in one day (javelin, hurdles, high jump, baseball throw), and was an excellent diver, swimmer and bowler. She could also sing and shoot pool.

that is a good call

i have a tutored eye on golf ( play poorly but seen helluva lotta majors on tv/satellite last 40y + )

i also watched lotta women's maajors on tv last 20y

there are only 2 women i have ever seen with a

"man's drive"

babe on youtube & wie, except wie can't drive straight

babe is hands down best intrinsic woman golfer of all time

Limiting this to the actual question, who is the greatest ATHLETE of all time, I have to say...

...LeBron James.

He's not (not yet anyway) the greatest basketball player ever, because that is Michael Jordan, but he's the best athlete ever.

He could have gone into the NFL and been a hall of famer there. Just freak of nature athleticism.

Bo Jackson would be another to consider, but LeBron James has got to be it.

Ok guys, so technically speaking, if we are talking about all around best athlete ever, the world record holder in the decathlon (Eaton in this case) has probably gotta get some love. But I think if Bo Jackson or Michael Jordan or someone along those lines would have gone into the decathlon and trained for years for it, they'd be better, so I don't really know what my answer is...

oh please wrote:

Michael MF Jordan.

Athleticism merged with fierce competitiveness. Agility, speed, coordination, explosiveness, reflexes, mental quickness and toughness...

too bad that nicker had zero endurance and couldn't run 800 meters if his life depended on it.

Pippi Longstuffing wrote:

Bill Russell and Haile G. are both one-dimensional. They each only did one sport. How can they be the greatest when only good at one sport? I am tons better than both of them. I played Div. 1 basketball, I was a competitive swimmer. I am a very good golfer. I ran Div. 1 track and cross country. I am a very good martial artist. I am a very good tennis player. I was a decent high jumper and long jumper. I was also high school chess champion. How is anyone lister here a better athlete than I?

What sh*tty a$$ D1 school did you go to where you ran cross country, played basketball and ran track?

Dennis Reynolds 2.0 wrote:

Bill Russell destroyes Haile on all counts.

Here are Hailes weaknesses: degree of difficulty of sport, competition depth of sport, gap over rivals/competitors.

the only reason you like bill Russell is because he is black and you are black.

It has to be someone who is universally recognized as the greatest ever in his sport. So it must be Pele or Jordan

On the subject of best all around athlete, it's almost impossible to make a judgment. Excellence like Haile's in one sport is like a meter stick; with decathlon for example you almost have to say "okay, if he only focused on his best event, how good would he have been?" - practically converting a lot of events into one .. and that's a pretty tough assessment to make (which we still try, but it turns out very subjective).

"Well-rounded" people are everywhere, they say that colleges for example want people who "are good at lots of things." Yet isn't it those who are excellent at one that're guaranteed to get into the school they like? So the best one-dimensional athlete will immediately get in the discussion like Haile G and Michael Jordan did, but it's much harder to choose someone who spread their talents.

Just to make it clear:

Event Performance

Decathlon 9039[a]

100 metres 10.21 (+0.4 m/s)

Long jump 8.23 m 27 ft 0 in) (+0.8 m/s)

Shot put 15.40 m (50 ft 61⁄4 in)

High jump 2.1 m (6 ft 101⁄2 in)

400 metres 45.64[c]

110 m hurdles 13.35

Discus throw 47.36 m (155 ft 41⁄2 in)

Pole vault 5.3 m (17 ft 41⁄2 in)

Javelin throw 66.64 m (218 ft 71⁄2 in)

1500 metres 4:14.48

Wow.

DforDaisies wrote:

Ok guys, so technically speaking, if we are talking about all around best athlete ever, the world record holder in the decathlon (Eaton in this case) has probably gotta get some love. But I think if Bo Jackson or Michael Jordan or someone along those lines would have gone into the decathlon and trained for years for it, they'd be better, so I don't really know what my answer is...

MAYBE Bo Jackson could have been good at decathlon, but not Michael Jordan. Jordan was the greatest basketball player ever, but his baseball stint proved he was no great overall athlete.

Marcus Dupree, If it wasnt for his knee injury hed be the best of all time. Insane amount of talent. He was the most highly touted high schooler of all time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceBCDiRA1zA

Jim Thorpe

ventolin^3 wrote:

i have a tutored eye on golf ( play poorly but seen helluva lotta majors on tv/satellite last 40y + )

i also watched lotta women's maajors on tv last 20y

Anybody get the impression Ventolin's life consists of watching sports on TV? I've seen him opine about athletics, tennis, golf, chess, cricket, and horse racing (at least) and on every one he claims to be an expert watched based on how much he has seen on TV.

Alberto Salazar.

Jackie Robinson.

So far no one has been able to come up with anyone close. Some of the names on here are a joke.

Carl Lewis? First of all, he was a steroid cheat. Second, He broke 3 indv WR's in his career, all in the 100M and all by a mere fraction, and one of those he was pulled by co-steroid cheat Ben Johnson, who blew him away.

Longevity for Lewis? He remained competitive as a long jumper for 12 years (and never broke the WR once), but as a sprinter he was only at the top for 8. And he was only dominant for about 2 years.

Jesse Owens was far more dominant than Lewis, and in more events (Owens also broke the hurdles WR) and without roids.

Lewis does not even rank at the top in sprinting, much less overall.

Bolt, Michael Johnson and Owens are all far ahead of Lewis.

Some others names? Bo Jackson? Is this a joke? True he was a very talented athlete, but he does not have one single significant all-time accomplishment and is not in the HoF in any of the sports he played. LOL.

Bill Russell? LMAO. He played in an 8 team league and faced centers who were much smaller than him and still couldn't crack 20 ppg.

Some said Bekele. Bekele is great, no doubt, but to compare his resume to Geb just further shows how great Geb is. Bekele is 10 years younger than Geb and has only broken 6 WR's, and he has specialized in two events, not the range Geb has. Bekele had an 8 year run of dominance before he started breaking down with injuries. Bekele is making a comeback now, but the last three years he has been a non-factor.

Bekele has had entire years wiped out due to injury. And he has yet to tackle marathon. Maybe he can one day approach Geb, but he has a long way to go still.

Michael Jordan is worthy of being in this discussion and the closest anyone has gotten. He has almost everything Geb has except range (did Jordan ever play center?) and longevity and dominance early in his career (didn't win first title until age 28) or gap on competitors (He is 3rd all-time in scoring and second in MVP's to Jabbar).

To put an athlete in this discussion they have to have the accomplishments first, they must be incredible feats. Then look at the other categories. He/she had to dominate over a long period of time. Been durable and consistent.

Athletes like Sugar Ray Robinson, Pele, Jordan, Gretzky, Karelin

Ashton Eaton is a great athlete, but he's only been at the top for a couple years. And, let's face it, decathletes are only decathletes because they weren't competitive enough to dominate an individual event.

Compare Eaton to Geb. Eaton does 10 events, but he is not ranked in the top 100 in the world in any of those events and never will be. Geb has broken WR's in 11 different events. On the road, track, indoor and outdoor. Case closed.

Longevity is not a good guide to The Greatest of All Time. In the past , when athletics was pretty much amateur in many countries , a lot of athletes had no choice but to curtail their sporting careers to concentrate on earning a living. Snell and particularly Elliott spring to mind here. Bannister is another who sacrificed his running for his career. He would surely have dominated a pretty mediocre 1500 in the 1956 Olympics?

My suggestions from track and field ; (you can't have any 100/200m sprinters or throwers or jumpers because those events are easy and make very few demands on the individual. I'm stretching thigs to include a 400m runner in the list!!)

Zatopek ; gold medals and he redefined the sport in many ways

Elliott ; for total domination of THE event (even if for only a short period)

Johnson ; medals and a 400m record that nobody gets close to these days.

If you want to include other sports then check out the Australian cricketer Don Bradman for total dominance and and stats that no other player comes close to emulating.