greatest natural athletes in 'athletics' history

How is Bob Hayes the fastest pure sprinter ever?

Devin Hester of the Chicago Bears!!!

Babe Dickerson Zaharius

You have to mention Hershel Walker and Bo Jackson.

good list. i don't recognize a lot of the guys on the list, but when i read the thread topic, Jim thorpe was definitely the first guy to come to my mind--hands down the most overall athletic person ever.

if you would read my original post you would see that Bo and Herschel were not track guys first and did not qualify for this. They were, indeed, tremendous athletes.

V6 wrote:

How is Bob Hayes the fastest pure sprinter ever?

Hayes was reportedely recorded (by the Japanese in Tokyo) as having run an 8.94 split for a 100m in a relay. This story, whether true or false, is the source of the "Bob Hayes is the fastest sprinter ever" legend.

I think Eddy Merckx can certainly be named in the top ten. He dominated what is arguably one of the most painful sports around for more than a decade.

What about Babe Didrikson Zaharias? You didn't say strictly male.

not an athlete but worth a mention anyway is Max Woosnam:

As a schoolboy, he scored 144 against the MCC at Lord's. He played football before the First World War for the then-significant team Corinthian Casuals and toured Brazil with them. Then he fought alongside Siegfried Sassoon for four years on the Western Front and in the Gallipoli Campaign.

After the war at Cambridge university he earned no fewer than six Blues in everything from Cricket to Golf and Squash. Then he played football for Chelsea - as an amateur, before joining Manchester City, and in 1922 was capped for England.

He declined the opportunity to become a professional sportsman, finding the idea 'vulgar'. He won an Olympic Gold medal in 1920 - at tennis (he declined the opportunity of captaining the British Olympic football team), and won the Wimbledon doubles title the following year. He won a shooting gold medal at Bisley, he scored a 147 maximum at snooker, and he challenged and beat all-comers (including Charlie Chaplin) at table tennis armed only with a bread knife. During this time he held down a full-time job at ICI, sitting on the board in later life before dying in 1965.

Tronstein wrote:

I think Eddy Merckx can certainly be named in the top ten. He dominated what is arguably one of the most painful sports around for more than a decade.

Except Eddy didn't compete in Athletics. He competed in cycling.

"Athletics" is the English way of referring to track and field"

Well....having seen Carl Lewis try and throw a baseball, I have to question his "athleticism." The long jump is pretty much a function of the same speed that made him a great 100-meter runner, so...how versatile is this guy, really? Not very.

Roger Kingdom probably belongs of that list.

The video of hayes running in tokyo is vomit inducing. It's like he's running against highschoolers.

OJ Simpson. Track Star, football legend, multiple murderer, actor, thief.

Steve Prefonataine- At one point held the American record in every running event from the 2000 meters to the 10,000 meters. set a national high school record his senior year in the two mile race with a time of 8:41.5 (breaking Rick Riley's 8:48.4 from 1966). Overall, Prefontaine broke 19 National High School Records in track.

Dean Karnazes- Ran a world record setting 350 continous miles. Get his recently published book: "Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner"

Juice wrote:

OJ Simpson. Track Star, football legend, multiple murderer, actor, thief.

This is a great line. Kudos but Sergei was not "natural" but thanks for thinking so.

another vote for Deano - generations to come will scarce believe that one such as this existed in flesh and blood and ran upon this earth.

How about Henry Rono? Not necessarily the most talented, but certainly worthy of a mention I think.

Jeff Wilson - he even had a biography about him called just a natural. He played for the All Blacks and the Black Caps - Maybe the last ever double All Black.

Jonah Lomu - All Black at 18, could run 100m in mid 10 sec while weighing 265 pounds and being 6 foot five.