Greatest athlete of all time (US)
So ESPN did a "Top (US) Athletes of the 20th Century (ESPN, 1999)" ....
https://www.topendsports.com/world/lists/greatest-all-time/athletes-espn-century.htm
And the top 5 were ...
1 Michael Jordan basketball
2 Babe Ruth baseball
3 Muhammad Ali boxing
4 Jim Brown American football
5 Wayne Gretzky ice hockey
Now, i can argue up and down a few things - like Ali and Brown not belonging there. Like Gretzky being higher, like no Michael Phelps or Jesse Owens etc..
But one thing i don't think is subjective, how in the hell is Secretariat not only not in the top 5, but not number one on any list?
Im curious - what would everyones top 3 be? And what are your thoughts on Secretariat? Is he not high or on top of lists because, he is a horse?
Mine would be ...
1) Secretariat
2) Wayne Gretzky
3) Michael Phelps
1) Tom Harmon
2) Charles Woodson
3) Desmond Howard
1) Jack Johnson
2) Caitlyn Jenner
3) John Daly (for overcoming his physique)
I really hope that list made it clear it was MALE athletes. If I were going to include animals too, mine would be:
1. The Road Runner
2. Aleksander Karelin
3. Muhammed Ali
4. Gary Kasparov
5. Secretariat
You forgot Alan Greenspan.
Isn't Gretzky ... Canadian?
Don't stop him he's rolling.
logged in to upvote
So was Gordie. They are North Americans.
Well technically it is America’s hat...
1. Bo Jackson - final answer
A phrase forever ruined for me by that asshole Jerry Sandusky.
Michael Phelps is 21st century and Secretariat is not a human
If we're including animals in this list then we have to add the top racing dogs, chimpanzee hockey players, and rodeo monkeys.
Bet on a greyhound at a Florida track once. He won by 31 lengths. I nominate him.
Thank you for acknowledging my fellow Primates on Skates. Very few homo sapiens acknowledge our accomplishments on ice.
Okay then...
1) Mean Joe
2) RGard
3) RGard's mom.
RGARD's mom has way more stamina than me. Trust me . . . I know. She's #1. Her agility is off the charts.
Does not say anything about human. Secretariat is on their list - just low.
Yes, and that's stupid
Right - Secretariat isn't a damn human!
Secretariat being well-known is simply a function of what animals mankind decided to "sportify."
If, for whatever reason, mankind decided to start racing black bears instead of horses 200 years ago, then I suppose Secretariat would be unknown and some currently obscure black bear that lived in Wyoming in the 1950s would be well known.
... and there would be fewer jockeys in the world.
And Wayne Gretzky isn't American.
Canada is in North... wait for it... AMERICA.
So then where are the Central American or South American athletes? Where's Pele? Maradona? Leonel Messi? Awaiting your reply...
And the OP said the list was for.... wait for it... US athletes.
Simone Biles deserves to be in the conversation for best athlete of all time
I don't think a lot of people genuinely understand how crazy Biles is. She's literally doing things that people thought were impossible
Wrong century.
Yes, but just as an aside comment
Thread title says Greatest Athlete of All Time though.
did the ol Control F to find this...well said. My wife was an elite gymnast back in the day, coaches now, does all the routines for her kids and she says to me all the time "you dont realize what you are living through and witnessing right now. We'll never see another like her"
They said the same thing about Olga and later, Nadia too.
dude...there will NEVER be another all around gymnast like her.
You are disrespecting her greatness by mentioning those two in the same topic...and those two were elite.
Dont just say shit and not have anything to back it up. What were there strengths, which events? Do you know what sills they threw compared to Simone? Do you know how skills are judged?
Ill give you a hint, their skills never came close to what Simone's is throwing out there. Judges are basically admitting that what Simone is doing is basically unfair because other gymnasts just cant do it.
Bo Jackson.
Jim Thorpe.
Jim Brown.
All three were great at multiple sports. To the o.p.--you could not be more wrong about Jim Brown. He's STILL known as the greatest lacrosse player ever. And his acting game was tight.
Thorpe is an excellent one too. But on Brown, i always view him similar to Chamberlain - just bigger and stronger than everyone else during his era.
In my mind, I try to normalize for the era a bit. Imagine if Thorpe, Ruth, Wilt had modern nutrition and fitness - would they still dominate modern competition? I think they probably would.
Wilt would still absolutely dominate in the modern era. Looking at the centers on the playoff teams this year, I could only see Gobert, maybe Embiid, putting up any resistance down low. Wilt would absolutely bully down low Ayton, Jokic, Zubac, Porzingis, Nurkic, Davis or Drummond, Valancuinis, Griffin, Lopez, Randle, Capela, Bam, Thompson, or Len.
And if they try to go small ball, Wilt also has the athleticism and length to switch and cover the perimeter. Sometimes being the biggest and strongest is enough to be the best...
I think Wilt would be one of the best centers in the league but it was just such a different game back then that it's hard to tell how some of his successes would translate to the league now. I mean, Chamberlain might have been 7' 1" and 275 lbs, but he played during an era when the average center was around 6' 10" and 230 lbs while now the average center is 6' 11" and 250 lbs. That doesn't seem like much (except for the weight difference) but the average size in the NBA in 1965 was 6' 5" and 207lbs while now it's a bit over 6' 6" and 217lbs. That's a pretty significant change spread out over the entire NBA, and so you wonder how he'd handle the increase in size and athleticism he'd face by NBA defenses. To say nothing of the game changing in terms of efficiency; Wilt's shooting was reasonably efficient but there's no world wherein a center shoots 35 times a game and that's a good thing in 2021.
I would like to see how someone like LeBron would translate to Wilt's era - a guy with his freakish athleticism playing against guys who sorta-trained and would drink beer and smoke at halftime and have off-season jobs.
I assume that LeBron would have done the same stuff in that era. And Wilt was a freakish athlete too. His highest scoring record was off the court.
Ya but think how much taller Wilt would have been if he was born with this generation. He’d be like 7’8”.
Being bigger and stronger seems like a positive mark in determining athletic greatness, not a mark against, no? UNLESS I JUST DISCOVERED DAVID ECKSTEIN'S MGO HANDLE??
Yeah, being a great athlete means being bigger, faster, and stronger than everyone else, AND translating that into sport. Bo Jackson was a large man in the pre-steroid era. And Chamberlain should absolutely be on that list. He was also a dominant volleyball player.
Brown was so damn dominant in Lacrosse they changed the rules because of him. Brown is in three separate Halls of Fame.
Pro Football
College Football
Lacrosse.
Nobody else has done that.
And he was great in The Dirty Dozen.
And "I'm Gonna Get You, Sucka!" , severely underrated comedy.
YES!! +!
"Who are those guys?"
Bernie Casey - also an NFL great. That movie has it all!
The One Rib scene still cracks me up.
I was going to add Bo Jackson he should be near the top
Vincent 'Bo' Jackson