Most dominant athlete of all-time?

My pick would be Wilt Chamberline. As an overall athlete, he was incredible. Not only one of the greatest NBA players, but also a great track and field athlete in high school and in college at Kansas (high jump conference champ, shot put, 100 yard dash). He could win an entire track meet in high school by himself. He also played volleyball and helped to start a league after he was done with basketball. Furthermore, he almost got into boxing with Muhammad Ali.

Holy hell wrote:

The Experiment wrote:

Alexsandr Karelin. Hands down. Discussion over.

Career: 887-2, losing once early in his career and his last match ever. 13 straight years undefeated.

Need I say more?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Karelin

Would have to agree with this. It says he didn’t get a SINGLE POINT score do on him for SIX YEARS. What the hell

Side note: this guy was 100% on drugs. If Russia was doping in 2014 you can bet your butt they were seriously doping athletes in the 90s.

Karelin did well as an amateur , he did not make it in Pro Wrestling.

Nadal on clay. His record is mind boggling.

Nothing else comes close for me given the money, incentives, competition and frequency involved. 385 wins to 35 losses, including 81 straight at a grand slam. Unreal.

72–2 record at Roland Garros, he won 81 straight matches on the surface from 2005 to 2007; he has won two other clay tournaments, Monte Carlo and Barcelona, 10 times; he has a men’s-record 52 clay titles in 60 finals; and his career record on dirt is 382–35, for a 91.61 winning percentage.

Team sport athletes are eliminated from this discussion in my opinion.

One vote for Jamin. Scoreless with women and 14:56 for a 5K. On his way to sub 14:40. How low can he go?

M.A.G.A.

you are all wrong. the only answer - hands down - is Jim Thorpe

Wladimir Klitschko

Longest boxing reign as champ.

To me, the most incredible boxer ever. Extremely intelligent as well, which is unusual for a boxer, but it was also interesting to read that they ran pretty well too!

"Wladimir hits very hard, harder than (Mike) Tyson. At one point, they ran 12 800-meter [roughly a half mile] sprints, each under 3 minutes, with a minute rest between each one. I timed every one and every one was under 3 minutes. I never saw a heavyweight do anything even close to that. They work their asses off. To be able to do that, two 250-pound guys – whew. They're two of the best athletes I've ever trained."

—Freddie Roach, who trained both the Klitschko brothers and Mike Tyson, on the athleticism of the brothers.[27]

Clifford Diffley wrote:

you are all wrong. the only answer - hands down - is Jim Thorpe

This is a good pick

Karelin sounds like an absolutely incredible athlete but being a top Russian athlete he was probably doping. How many top in the world Russian athletes have turned out to he clean?

I'd argue Moses is the most dominate athlete in history because his win streak was done clean, while also revolutionizing how athletes train. His methods of applying hard math and science to his training wasn't ever done before him. He was the first athlete to use HR to assess his level of work, and calculated the force and distance of his every step to be optimal. He was a mechanical engineer by trade and turned the sport into a math problem to be solved.

Felix, Lebron, and Woods are incredible athletes but they didn't revolutionize how one thinks about their sport. Bolt is the only athlete who maybe compares to Moses. Bolt is a genetic freak of nature and his dominance definitely rewrote the book on how to sprint. But Bolt has lost a bunch in his career and never raced as much as Moses.

Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Not a troll post.

Colin McGregor thought it was himself, but he only removed himself from consideration.

https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/celebs/conor-mcgregor-news-ufc-14500877

Wayne Gretzky. He dominated hockey far more than anyone else has dominated a sport. He has 40 regular season records, 15 playoff records and 6 all-star records. He has the most goals, assists, points and hat tricks (separately for the regular season and the playoffs). Nobody else is even close. For example, he has 2,857 career points (3,239 if you include playoffs). #2 on the all-time list (Jagr) has 1,921 points. Gretzky has more assists that Jagr has points. He has the most goals in a game, a season, in a period and in a career (with and without playoffs); the most assists in a game, a season and a career (with and without playoffs). He has the most points in a season and career (with and without playoffs). He has the highest points per game, goals per game and assists per game in a season and career. He is the only player to have 200 points in a season, and he did it 4 times (including 3 in a row). He also won the MVP a record 9 times. He has 4 of the top 10 (including the top 2) top goal seasons in history. He has 11 of the top 12 assist seasons in history (with only Mario Lemieux getting in there with a tie for #8 - Mario's top season was 114 assists, while Gretzky's was 163, while nobody else has ever even broken 100). He won the MVP in his first NHL season (as a teenager), followed by another 7 in a row. The list goes on.

Herb Elliott. Set the world record while winning the gold medal (how often does that happen in a global-champs 1500?), and was undefeated in the mile/1500m for his entire career. Yes, he retired young, but a longer career would likely have made him look better if anything.

Hockey pokey wrote:

We had to get this far before someone mentions Wayne Gretzky???

came here to post this

And he scored 50 goals in the first 39 games of the 81-82 season

Stopcecil! wrote:

Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Not a troll post.

Only at his weights!.. and, surely, that doesn't count!

Wlad Klitchko was nominated above. How do you think Floyd would have done against him?

Darwin Awards wrote:

Colin McGregor thought it was himself, but he only removed himself from consideration.

https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/celebs/conor-mcgregor-news-ufc-14500877

"He was wearing a navy polo jumper, white runners and blue jeans"

There are thousands of Russians that haven't been busted for doping. What's wrong with you?

As if we really know anyone else is dope free. C'mom. Karelin was never busted for doping..just the same as the people you mentioned. They all likely may be but until it's disclosed officially they they haven't.

Teófilo Stevenson

Teófilo Stevenson Lawrence was a Cuban amateur boxer and engineer. Stevenson is one of only three boxers to win three Olympic gold medals, alongside Hungarian László Papp and fellow Cuban Félix Savón. Wikipedia

Michael Phelps?

23 gold medals. Does anyone compare?