Top 50 Greatest Sprinters of all time Male and Female (Ranked)

He lost those medals. The other 'dopers" didn't. It is as simple as that.

Sha'Carri is #1 or you're a racist.

Steve Williams

Definitely Ashford! 👊🏾

I don't even know who that is????

sprintguy wrote:

I don't even know who that is????

Than you should not do such a ranking - Koch on 31...

not well thought of wrote:

sprintguy wrote:

I don't even know who that is????

Than you should not do such a ranking - Koch on 31...

Don’t bother, the guy is either 15 years old or just an absolute idiot. Koch definitely belongs way up the list…those of us that were around during her running days definitely know that.

Who ever steve williams is, he is clearly not relevant enough

[quote]sprintguy wrote:

1. Bolt

2. Johnson

3. Fraser-Pryce

4. Lewis

5. Owens

6. Greene

7. Rudolph

8. Gatlin

9. Perec

10. Thompson-Herah

11. Tyus

12. Morrow

13. Tolan

14. Blankers-Koen

15. Borzov

16. Devers

17. Tommie Smith

18. Szewinska

19. Betty Cuthbert

20. Ottey

21. Ashford

22. Flo-Jo

23. Hayes

24. Felix

25. Metcalf

26. Hines

27. Carr

28. Koch

29. Jerome

30. Lenox Miller

31. Fredericks

32. Stanfield

33. Mckinley

34. Marion Jones

35. Brisco-Hooks

36. Bryzgina

37. Mel Patton

38. Armin Harry

39. Carlos

40. De Grasse

41. Bailey

42. Christie

43. Gay

44. Burrell

45. Sime

46. Lee Evans

47. Gore

48. Peacock

49. Figuerola

50. Charlie Greene

You rated Felix too high.I have high regards for her but most of her

gold medals were in relays.Outside of the 21,69 at 2012 trials,she

never ran times that wow you.

This is an awful list. Really not worth debating seriously.

Elaine Thompson-Herah at 10. Seriously, how do you have the 5 time Olympic gold medalist behind Campbell Brown (3-time gold medalist and even slower) and Perec ( 3 times gold medalist, relatively slower). I'd put her even with Pryce. Felix has an impressive range and medal tally, but only one individual Olympic gold medal. It's hard to rank all these women.

Flo Jo at 25 is just stupid. You either have her near the top or not on the list at all. She is either one of the best all-time (3 time gold medalist and 100/200 world record holder) or doped out of her gills. Her 100m time is wind-aided most likely, but her 200m time is legit if you believe she wasn't doping. There is no in-between. Make the judgement call and stick to your guns.

Jesse Owens at 36. This is also pretty low.

Torrence seems a bit high.

Men, in chronological order, the last two being at this point equal:

Hayes, BJ, Bolt

Hayes the best of the initial era, the last two defining new eras. Arguably we are still in the BJ era, he is arguably the best male ever.

Women, FloJo. Not even close. We are STILL in the FloJo era. Maybe Ashford or Jackson for the initial era, but too hard to tell.

Overall: FLOJO. And it’s not close. The times, the wins, the form, the absolute zenith. Had she been able to keep going like Bolt, we may have seen 10.3/20.x, almost surely good 10.4

Best clean? Maybe Lemaitre. Medaled twice in the PED era, absolutely incredible. Excellent times. Squeaky clean like no other. Maybe Pender if he was clean.

Best for sprinting heart and soul? Collins. Absolute giant his whole life.

For me, it’s between Collins and FloJo. It’s soul vs insanity, hard to choose between the two,

I think I would go with FloJo.

Btw I don’t include the 400, it is the shortest middle distance. The 60-100-200 are the sprints.

Jeter. Sanya Richards. Noah Lyes.

Sprintgeezer wrote:

Overall: FLOJO. And it’s not close.

Come on now. I understand these things are subjective at best, but FLOJO is number 1? And it's not even close? I operate under the assumption that all sprinters have doped or used performance enhancers. Flo Jo had one great year. Her times that year were historically ridiculous but they were equaled or bettered by ETH. The 10.49 is the world record on the books, but she did that with a +4.0 tailwind. What was Flo Jo before 1988? And of course she retired immediately after, Longevity absolutely must be considered here. She had arguably the greatest single year any sprinter had (Bolt 2009 is the one that may eclipse it), but she was essentially a one-hit wonder. SAFP and ETH are EASILY greater career sprinters.

As for the men, I don't mind including Ben Johnson in the discussion although it's hard to argue in favor of him being listed as a "great" since he doesn't have an official gold medal to his name and he didn't run the 200m. Hayes was a historical great and did a lot of sprinting firsts. What he did in 1964 is legendary stuff (from the borrowed spikes to the margin of victory in the 100 to the comeback in the relay). He also won 49 straight 100yd/m races at one point. He held the record in the 200m at one point. He's the "go-to" for old heads. I'd suggest his competition was weak for a variety of reasons, but you can only run against who lines up beside you and one can only be compared to the folks you ran against in that time period.

I'd say Bolt is the unquestioned, unequaled sprint king but you've certainly shown in the past your distaste for all things "Dolt." But, I'd love to hear you argue why Bolt is at best "tied" with the likes of BJ and close to Hayes.

I should clarify that my number 2 choice is michael johnson not ben johnson

Sprintgeezer wrote:

Arguably we are still in the BJ era,

You’re correct when you say that we are arguably still in the BJ era. That’s the only thing you got right, to be honest.

The World Lead is 9.77, 9.80 won the Olympics this year and 9.76 won the last World Championships. Those are BJ times all right.

On the other hand, we haven’t even scratched the surface of the “Bolt era” yet, because Bolt wasn’t an era, he was a singular phenomenon.

The WR is 9.58. NINE POINT FIVE (5!!!!!) EIGHT. Since 2009 (I know it only seems like it was yesterday, it was in fact 12 years ago).

Chances are the sprinter who will break that record hasn’t even laced up a pair of spikes yet.

I think 19.19 will be broken this decade probably by Erriyon Knighton but I am yet to see a sprinter that can break 9.58!!! That time is just insane!!

In the 200m, Blake and Michael Johnson are in the same tier as Bolt in terms of speed but in the 100m, Bolt is in a tier of his own. Nobody even comes.

By different tier, i mean you could have the race a 1000 times and barring any injuries or false starts, a prime Bolt will win every single one of them against any other sprinter that has ever lived.

sprintguy wrote:

By different tier, i mean you could have the race a 1000 times and barring any injuries or false starts, a prime Bolt will win every single one of them against any other sprinter that has ever lived.

I agree with this, Prime Bolt (2009 Berlin version) wins both the 100 and 200 races against anybody from history, in any shoes on any track, in any form, 1000 out of 1000 times. And in most cases, the races would be blowouts.