The trinity that changed the face of America:
The Father
The son
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S8VwT2CEAA
and the holly spirit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till#/media/File:Emmett_Till.jpg
In the time of COVID I have reading a lot about the life of Muhammad Ali.
world participation wrote:
George213 wrote:
Ronaldo. Dude has been at the top of his game for so many years and soccer is by far the most competitive sport on this planet.
Distance running is more competitive than soccer by a very long way. As a global sport soccer is fairly popular though.
This is pretty clearly false. Football (soccer) is the main sport in Europe, south America, Africa, and is one of the principal sports in Asia and North America. In all these regions it's popularity dwarfs that of running. In soccer rich countries a lot of runners and other athletes start out as soccer players. Rafa Nadal started out in Real Madrid's youth program (his uncle played football for the Spanish national team).
The only sports with comparable popularity are:
Basketball, a major sport in all of Americas, Europe, Asia and increasingly africa
Cricket, a major sport in all of the commonwealth, se Asia and India.
Rugby, see above.
Running is in consideration because of its universality and cheapness. But it's a major pro sport only in a few African countries and maybe Japan.
Ain't 1857 wrote:
PELE-Edison Arantes De Nascimento
Greatest Player in Greatest Sport.
HIGHLY debatable. While he was the most accomplished player, he was not the greatest athlete in the sport. I would give that to Garrincha, who despite being a raging alcoholic was an absolute beast on field.
GOAT athlete across all sports probably has to go to Jim Thorpe. We can't find someone today who could what he did at that level.
kumquat wrote:
world participation wrote:
Distance running is more competitive than soccer by a very long way. As a global sport soccer is fairly popular though.
This is pretty clearly false. Football (soccer) is the main sport in Europe, south America, Africa, and is one of the principal sports in Asia and North America. In all these regions it's popularity dwarfs that of running. In soccer rich countries a lot of runners and other athletes start out as soccer players. Rafa Nadal started out in Real Madrid's youth program (his uncle played football for the Spanish national team).
The only sports with comparable popularity are:
Basketball, a major sport in all of Americas, Europe, Asia and increasingly africa
Cricket, a major sport in all of the commonwealth, se Asia and India.
Rugby, see above.
Running is in consideration because of its universality and cheapness. But it's a major pro sport only in a few African countries and maybe Japan.
The sport with combined greatest pay and access is the most competitive. That would be soccer, period.
Steve Austin
kumquat wrote:
world participation wrote:
Distance running is more competitive than soccer by a very long way. As a global sport soccer is fairly popular though.
This is pretty clearly false. Football (soccer) is the main sport in Europe, south America, Africa, and is one of the principal sports in Asia and North America. In all these regions it's popularity dwarfs that of running. In soccer rich countries a lot of runners and other athletes start out as soccer players. Rafa Nadal started out in Real Madrid's youth program (his uncle played football for the Spanish national team).
The only sports with comparable popularity are:
Basketball, a major sport in all of Americas, Europe, Asia and increasingly africa
Cricket, a major sport in all of the commonwealth, se Asia and India.
Rugby, see above.
Running is in consideration because of its universality and cheapness. But it's a major pro sport only in a few African countries and maybe Japan.
You are conflating popularity with competitiveness. Distance running is far more competitive than soccer in any country and is far more competitive at a global level. Look at any major marathon before COVID: literally thousands of people are competing to win the race. In contrast to win a major tournament in soccer is just restricted to a few teams. Distance running is less "popular" than soccer because it is several orders of magnitude more difficult to reach the top in distance running - it does not appear as a viable option to many because of the difficulty in making it.
Soccer cannot even be considered as a globally competitive sport: every single World Cup is won by either a country from South America or a from Europe - that's just 2 continents and even then it is restricted to just a few countries: Germany, Brazil or Italy usually win. Soccer is bit like cricket in this regard.
In contrast, the marathon world record has been held by an athlete from every single continent in the world since the 1960s. That stat alone demonstrates how much more globbally competitive distance running is as a sport when compared with soccer.
MJ, Bo Jackson, Deon Sanders, Jim Thorpe, John Daly
world participation wrote: Distance running is far more competitive than soccer in any country and is far more competitive at a global level. Look at any major marathon before COVID: literally thousands of people are competing to win the race. In contrast to win a major tournament in soccer is just restricted to a few teams.
So the Olympic 5k final is less competitive than my local Turkey Trot. Got it. Thanks.
Air Jordan IV Bred wrote:
#23 Michael Jordan
This is the only person I can think of that is absolutely transcendent figure in their sport and unquestionably the greatest ever in their sport as far as the major sports. There are really only two other arguments to be made.
I think you could make an argument for Gretzky as a clear GOAT but he does not have the level of transcendence that Jordan has. Jordan's championships are a quarter-century past and he is still the most popular BB player in the world.
The one other argument you could possibly make is Babe Ruth. But given he played in a very diluted time when the sport was still segregated I think there are a lot of issues when comparing him to more recent greats like Mays, Williams, Bonds, or Trout.
Primo Numero Uno wrote:
Air Jordan IV Bred wrote:
#23 Michael Jordan
This is the only person I can think of that is absolutely transcendent figure in their sport and unquestionably the greatest ever in their sport as far as the major sports. There are really only two other arguments to be made.
I think you could make an argument for Gretzky as a clear GOAT but he does not have the level of transcendence that Jordan has. Jordan's championships are a quarter-century past and he is still the most popular BB player in the world.
The one other argument you could possibly make is Babe Ruth. But given he played in a very diluted time when the sport was still segregated I think there are a lot of issues when comparing him to more recent greats like Mays, Williams, Bonds, or Trout.
Michael Jordan is undoubtedly the most famous player that has ever lived but I would say Lebron has surpassed him in the sport and is a better athlete beyond basketball.
John James.....41 year old Man on steroids deadlifts 547.
elephino wrote:
world participation wrote: Distance running is far more competitive than soccer in any country and is far more competitive at a global level. Look at any major marathon before COVID: literally thousands of people are competing to win the race. In contrast to win a major tournament in soccer is just restricted to a few teams.
So the Olympic 5k final is less competitive than my local Turkey Trot. Got it. Thanks.
got him
to me, Honnold's free solo of el cap is the single greatest sporting achievement of all time. i don't see how anything else can compare. i do not think, however, that this makes him the greatest athlete of all time. i think that title would go to an athlete you pull from their primary sport, put them into a number of other sports and/or physical tests and they score the highest cumulatively. decathletes probably have the most well rounded athletic nature. the cross-fit question is a dead end... bulky folks that can recover quickly from anaerobic stress, but not long endurance athletes. ocr athletes are more impressive to me than cross-fitters.
lkfhsdlkfsdlhfds wrote:
CartmanBrah wrote:
Alex Honnold. Perfect execution, or death.
I came here to say Honnold as well. Honnold makes most sports into a joke. I think wrestling, running, boxing, are an avenue to approach the brilliance of Honnold, but c'mon, soccer? Or baseball?
Sure, Pele was a great athlete, but soccer is just such a horrible platform to display athletic ability, baseball as well, maybe basketball is a little better, and football a little better than that.
Honnold's court/field/stadium was made be geology. There were no rules to exploit, no calls to go in his favor, no teammates to help. No silly limiting factors like speedwalking, not using your hands, TV timeouts or a dumb replay. There was no possibility of a lucky break, and there could not be an unlucky one. The consequence of anything but perfection was. a grizzly death.
Making a jumpshot at a "clutch" moment, frankly, seems like a quaint joke or a youth sports thing.
Additionally, his performance required absolutely top level mental and physical preparation. Every single aspect of every single detail was trained to brilliance.
Simone Biles
Who is, regardless of sport or sex, dead or alive, the greatest athlete ever?
I'm not sure if anyone gave this answer yet, but the answer is obvious. The best athlete ever, and it's not even close, is Caitlyn Jenner, Decathlon, 1976 in the female division.
Eliud Kipchoge.
The criteria used here is varied, so I'll use dominance in their sport which would be Michael Phelps.
U.S. Jim MF Thorpe
Run, jump, throw, severe adversity, guts and cahones.
U.S. Babe Dietrich
Way ahead of her time
Honorable mentions Simone Biles, Jackie Robinson.
Not sure about other nations and continents. It’s a big planet.
Soccer is a contest of lower body, endurance, and agility (balance/reaction/body control). Speed, jumping, and throwing are extremely helpful, but the greatest soccer player doesn’t have to dominate that trifecta to dominate the sport.
And in terms of being an influencer, like Pele, you need to level the playing field to make the evaluation. Give other sports and individual athletes the level of media exposure and spotlight coverage as soccer got in the 1970s, or take that away, and what do you have? Fame stands apart from athleticism IMO. Pele was the best player on the best team at the time televised soccer began rising as a thing with the BBC, right? Malcolm Gladwell might say, right time + right place.
Coach Jeff ROC wrote:
Bo Jackson deserves consideration. All-Star in both MLB and NFL.
Worth a search on YouTube if he was before your time.
It's BO, easily could have won the 1984 or 88 decathlon if he choose track
High jump 6'9 in high school
Heisman winner
First pick the NFL draft
First MLB player to run up the Home run wall like spider man catch it and run down (Check it out youtube very cool )
Major league baseball player Amazing talent
Injured and was never the same
Overcame massive studder
One of the few athletes Nike considered on the Jordan level for advertising
Mike bin Salman DDS wrote:
My answer is someone from the last 30 years, dominating a global sport (with a low barrier to entry). Thats really only soccer and basketball, right?
Soccer has a much lower barrier than basketball, and running (at any distance) has an even lower barrier. (I will exclude hurdles here.)
So my answer is Frederick Carlton Lewis. People didn't call him "King Carl" for nothing.
