MOST POINTS, ALL EVENTS 1. Carl Lewis (100, 200, LJ) 332; 2. Haile Gebrselassie (5000, 10,000, marathon) 230; 3. Usain Bolt (100, 200) 188; 4. Michael Johnson (200, 400) 187;
MOST POINTS, ALL EVENTS 1. Carl Lewis (100, 200, LJ) 332; 2. Haile Gebrselassie (5000, 10,000, marathon) 230; 3. Usain Bolt (100, 200) 188; 4. Michael Johnson (200, 400) 187;
Im going to put a vote in for single eventers.....seems weird that someone who can double 800/1500 or 5k/10k is pretty natural and not as special as an Al Oerter, 4 x Discus OG champion, Edwin Moses, 9 years,9 mo, 9 days undefeated 400H, Lewis for that matter, LJ 10+ years undefeated, 4 golds, close to WR. There's probably a few more. Yeah, a list is incomplete without Owens. Some would argue the WR holder in decathlon is the world's greatest athlete.
Medal haul, records etc is one thing but those long winning streaks in TF are impressive.
MOST POINTS, ALL EVENTS 1. Carl Lewis (100, 200, LJ) 332; 2. Haile Gebrselassie (5000, 10,000, marathon) 230; 3. Usain Bolt (100, 200) 188; 4. Michael Johnson (200, 400) 187;
FYI, "Most ranking points" and "Greatest T&F athlete ever" are not the same exact thing.
This is true, but it's hard to argue against Lewis as the greatest and/or at least make a strong case for him. And we all know about Jesse Owens but the eras do matter.
He was simultaneously dominant on the track and in the field which will never ever happen again. It's hard to put into context how good he was in Tokyo 1991. WR in the 100m and that series of jumps that are still hard to believe. 5 legal jumps in the final and the "worst" of them was 8.68 including an 8.87 legal jump and the 8.91 wind aided jump. If Powell doesn't have the blueprint "once in a lifetime" jump (and full credit to him), Lewis probably stakes claim to the greatest championships performance ever with WR's in the 100m and LJ.
Throw in back to back 100's at the OG's and 4 straight LJ's including 96 when he had his Tiger Woods 2019 Masters moment (winning at the end of his career when he was well past his prime).
But beyond just times and medals, Lewis was a truly global athlete who was on the same level of familiarity as Jordan, Maradona, Navratilova etc - maybe not in terms of pure volume, but definitely in terms of reach across number of nations etc. A lot of people knew who Carl Lewis was and being the fastest man on the planet meant a lot more in the 80's than it does now or even when Usain Bolt was at his best.
And sure, Lewis was probably doing (certainly?) exactly what a lot of his peers were doing in that era but if we ran everyone though that scrutiny and eliminated them all we might not have many left. But the reality is he did what did and was as universally popular as he was for a variety of reasons and deserves GOAT discussion.
Some would argue the WR holder in decathlon is the world's greatest athlete.
Maybe they would, but would they have the slightest idea who that is?
The question is, would anyone care. Knowing is a matter of just looking where .a y of the rest of the answers could be found. Example: An Analysis of Kevin Mayer vs. Ashton Eaton’s Decathlon Record and a Progression of the World’s Greatest Athlete
MOST POINTS, ALL EVENTS 1. Carl Lewis (100, 200, LJ) 332; 2. Haile Gebrselassie (5000, 10,000, marathon) 230; 3. Usain Bolt (100, 200) 188; 4. Michael Johnson (200, 400) 187;
