Bekele's an unknown outside of running. Inside of running he doesn't even hold any world records.
Bekele is more well known world wide than most American sports stars. Brady plays football- only 100 million people outside the US watch the Super Bowl.
Ali was world famous and actually pointed that out once when he signed to fight in Yankee stadium and commented that he was more well known than Babe Ruth- he's right.
Jordan was well known but football, baseball players are more American known.
How is Tiger the GOAT in golf when he has not won the most majors?
Well in sports where longevity helps you have to layer in the subjective. Was Emmit Smith really better than Barry Sanders or Jim Brown? Not by a long shot. Tiger if healthy would have double the majors of jack. He had more earlier and more lopsided wins. Lost 10 prime playing years (and still won a major). I never heard any guys talking about Jack back in the day the way they talked about tiger --sort of hopeless in some majors.
Think you can have a GOAT in every sport. But I agree, the term is used way too much! Much like the word literally. The most overused and misused word in our dictionary. If we could lose both of these words I would sleep better.
The term Goat only applies to 3 people Ali, Jordan and Brady. All other uses of the term GOAT are unwarranted.
Please stop calling every Johnny Come Lately that has a little success the GOAT.
The overuse of the term GOAT is ridiculous.
You didn't adequately define 'goat.' Ok, I'll bite on sports. The category being 'NCAA Div 1 Head Coach.'
John McDonnell, Nick Saban, John Wooden, Carl Sanderson (Penn State Wrestling)
agree with Cael Sanderson, in fairness there have been a few that got within a single point of equaling him. Nick Saban is a manager of sport where you can have a huge built in advantage so he may or may not be in the top 100 football coaches. He seemed to do well even when he didnt have the most full cupboard so he is clearly good, but couldnt coach his way out of a bag in the NFL.
Could include a few in T&F but not enough people care about our sport.
This is interesting. So who are GOATS that are the most unanimous? I would say you cant really argue with Gretz, Brady, Kipchoge, Shiffrin or Phelps for example. But half of fans dont think Jordan is the goat. He was on a great team with a HOF coach which helped a great deal to get to 6 rings which really cemented opinion. Lebron has done way more with less and has many skills Jordan did not.
You're thinking of Cael Sanderson, the best NCAA wrestler of all time. He was also quite successful at the senior international level. Silver at Worlds 2003, and Gold at Athens.
he did only get 5th at Worlds in 2011, but at that point he was a full time coach and 32yo.
In NCAA, he was 159-0. Literally won every single match he contested. Even at the HS level, he was 127-3, with 4 State Titles.
Could include a few in T&F but not enough people care about our sport.
This is interesting. So who are GOATS that are the most unanimous? I would say you cant really argue with Gretz, Brady, Kipchoge, Shiffrin or Phelps for example. But half of fans dont think Jordan is the goat. He was on a great team with a HOF coach which helped a great deal to get to 6 rings which really cemented opinion. Lebron has done way more with less and has many skills Jordan did not.
That's a hilariously bad take from someone who either does not understand basketball or who never watched Jordan play.
Lebron has actually done way less (4 rings vs 6) with more (Pippen, while excellent, was no prime Dwayne Wade or Anthony Davis). Lebron has hopped around trying to (and succeeding in) get top five players on stacked teams. Jordan built up Scottie Pippen to what he became (which again, was no Dwayne Wade or Anthony Davis - each arguably the best player in the game at the time).
Sorry, but you simply don't know what you are talking about.
How can Ali be the greatest when he lost to Joe Frazier? Gotta be undefeated.
People call him the greatest because he cleverly kept calling himself the greatest on TV. That's how PR works! Say something enough times and a lot of people believe it.
One of your most nonsensical posts. Ali beat Frazier twice. And the claim that you have to be undefeated to be the GOAT? What? You think Marciano at 5'10" 185 was the greatest heavyweight of all time because he's the only one that is undefeated? He wouldn't be in the top 100 heavyweights in the modern era. And no, he wasn't the pound for pound best heavy either.
And you think 199 pound Ali is the greatest heavyweight of all time?
Could include a few in T&F but not enough people care about our sport.
This is interesting. So who are GOATS that are the most unanimous? I would say you cant really argue with Gretz, Brady, Kipchoge, Shiffrin or Phelps for example. But half of fans dont think Jordan is the goat. He was on a great team with a HOF coach which helped a great deal to get to 6 rings which really cemented opinion. Lebron has done way more with less and has many skills Jordan did not.
Wouldn't Hornet be a GOAT as well? I think he's pretty unanimous
Individual World Championships gold medals: Ledecky 14, Hoszzu 9.
I don't know if Hoszzu has officially retired, but she is basically done. (Failed to medal in her home country last year.) Ledecky still has multiple Olympics and World Championships ahead of her.
In case you think Ledekcy is just a "non-sprint freestyler" she won the US Championships in 400 IM last year. Her winning time would have been 3rd in the World Championships. She does not race IM in the Olympics and World Championships because she already has too many freestyle races. If she focused on IM, she could probably win an Olympic or World title. (She would need to work on breast, but her back and fly are already very good.)
She won gold medals in 200, 400, 800 and 1500 in the same World Championships. That's like winning 800, 1500, 3000. and 5000 in running. What kind of an absurd range is that?
Her time in 800 and 1500 would rank in the world top 100 among men. And she would qualify for the US Olympic trial for men in both events. No other woman could claim that, including Hoszzu.
She deserves the GOAT title more than most people mentioned on this thread.