Michael Johnson gives Noah Lyles a 50% chance to beat Usain Bolt's 200m record, rates himself as the 3rd best sprinter ever. Agree?

I've never been a fan of ranking athletes all time because they compete in different eras.

As a Canadian who witnessed Johnson LOSE vs. Bailey in the much hyped 150m race, I think Johnson was a great 200/400 sprinter but not even the best pure sprinter of his era.

That would be Bailey/Greene.

3rd all time? ok whatever Michael.

That would be like complaining about JI losing an 800m😂nobody pretends MJ was a great 100m guy but he dominated the 200/400 for almost a decade. I struggle to come a list of sprinters besides bolt I would rank in front of him. The pre professional guys though are hard to measure.

No, its about comparing Johnson to a 100m sprinter (Bailey) when both agreed to meet halfway at 150m.

In fairness to Johnson he said he was injured and handle the media with much more class than Bailey during this event.

He still lost.

I think they are errors, as usual. Pull it together.

If you’re serious, no, it was supposed to have been Bolt’s 200 WR.

This is egregious even for rojo headlines.

Usain Bolt is the greatest athlete track and field has ever seen. Period

Jesse Owens is the most over rated sprinter in history. The guy had a 3-7 record vs Temples Eulace Peacock, he once lost five races in a row to Peacock. Injuries to Peacock ruined his Olympic hopes in 1936. Owens lost to Ralph Metcalf numerous times, was beaten by James "Who?" Johnson at our 35 Nationals. Owens was the greatest long jumper ever up to Ralph Boston in the 60's.

Tommie Smith held 11 world records, he was the first sub 44.00 4x4 relayer, his 19.5 200 straight was considered to be the greatest mark in the spors histrory at that time. He beat the great Lee Evans in the 400 and ran down the soon to be Olympic 100m champ Jimmy Hines on a pre Olympics 4x1 anchor leg. Smith has to be on that Mount Rushmore for sprinters.

I worked with Willie Neal the uncle of NFL fullback Lorenzo Neal, he ran with Tommie while at Lemoore high school, they were good friends. He talked about how all that raised fist stuff was because of pressure from Tommie's wife, she was the one pushing that stuff not Tommie In his book "Blackthink" Jesse Owens says the same thing, more about doing what the wife wanted.

Bob Hayes was the first sub 6.0 60 cat, histories first sub 10.00 on dirt (windy) twice ran a 200m world record, ran the 100 yard world record at 9.3, 9.2 and a gang of 9.1's. From the beginning of time up to the arrival of Bob Hayes nobody in history had ever ran faster. That Olympic 4x1 anchor the greatest display of speed ever seen up to 1964. If hed stayed in the sport he's beatng Hines UP in Mexico City in 68, 9.85 sounds about right.

Obviously Bolt has to be there and we can go with Johnson also for obvious reasons.

How about

1.Bolt

2.MJ

3.Tommie Smith

4.Bob Hayes

Carl Lewis the greatest track AND field athlete.

Read the story dumb dumb. “World record”.

Why doens't LR interview Bailey and ask for his opinion on best sprinters?

I bet Donovan ranks himself ahead of Johnson.

Johnson is certainly the greatest long sprinter in history and the greatest 200m/400m runner in history. But, he didn’t even break 10 in the 100m. There is no doubt he could have broken 10 in the 100m, but he never actually ran the 100m when he was in great shape. He also never competed on the global level at 100m. In my opinion, that takes him out of the discussion for best sprinter ever. If you want to be called the greatest sprinter ever, you need 100m global titles and records. Sorry MJ. You were awesome, no doubt about that, but without 100m credentials, you ain’t one of the greatest sprinters of all time. Just like Rudisha isn’t one of greatest middle distance runners of all time. Greatest at 800, but without 1500m/mile credentials, he isn’t a complete middle distance runner.

All respect for MJ for recognizing Carl’s greatness, even though there was some competitive-induced bad blood between them.

MJ and Carl should be superstars in the country!!

I actually agree with this ranking. I'm shocked that someone like MJ could even consider putting Bolt anywhere aside from number 1. Triple Olympic gold and 5 time world 100m champion should speak for itself.

Smith's 19.5 doesn't get enough appreciation these days. Otherworldly performance, especially for 1968. His 400 vs Lee Evans was something else - it's an amazing story.

Shame Bob Hayes switched to the NFL. I get it though, these were still the AAU days.

Downvote for making this whole thing political for some reason. No one cares what you think about BLM. This is a thread about sprinting. Go soapbox somewhere else.

10/10 trolling by Michael Johnson. He knew that ranking would be controversial.

If anyone ranks Bailey ahead of Johnson, they are wrong.

Bailey won 2 individual global championship gold medals in his career. Johnson won 9.

Bailey broke 2 world records in his career. Johnson broke 7.

Johnson’s 19.32 200 is far superior to Bailey’s 9.84 100.

Johnson had a much better career than Bailey. It’s not even close.

I don't seriously see how you can't put Bolt as a clear #1 for best sprinter.

Jesse Owens might be the best track and field athlete ever, but I'd probably agree with MJ and say that's Carl Lewis.

I was thinking that MJ putting himself third is a little much, but he broke the 200m record twice, the 400m record once (and is still, IMHO, the best 400m runner ever), and has a large handful of medals. Give Noah Lyles another few years and I think the list will look different, but right now, maybe he's right.