OT - Greatest Athletes of All Time

Best ever...Mr. Perfect!!!

If you take his personal bests in each event - he tacks on almost 500 points to his decathlon score. No doubt a tremendous track athlete.

I think the decathlon is a good event in this debate because it combines a mix of events requiring strength, speed, agility, cardio (to a lesser degree - though you can argue that the level of fitness required to complete 10 events over two days itself is a key component of the event).

One problem with using decathlon is that other sports do not have an equivalent event. Triathlon might come close - but the focus is more on cardiovascular endurance than say strength or agility. Would be interesting to see if other sports could come up with an "equivalent". Maybe combine swimming/diving into a competition. 

I strongly agree. The moniker "Greatest athlete in the world" has been associated with the decathlon for quite awhile, and rightly so. I understand there are wonderful athletes in more popular sports (Bo, Lebron, Pele, etc.) but having strength, speed & coordination be the hallmarks of an athlete, the decathlon measures this better than any singular sport. So aside from Bo, who was incredible, no one else IMO can really be in discussion than someone who has demonstrated dominance in such a multi-facited, multi-disciplined sport

thought the same thing but then I developed a random fascination with horse racing after reading Sea Biscuit. (I do that some times, other random obsessions range from Mt. Everest to the Challenger Disaster, it really could be anything).  Race horses are in some ways the most natural form of athlete.  They are bred and trained from birth to compete.  They develop a real and sometimes highly aggresive competitive streak. They are in fact so competetive that they have to be seperated from rival horses during training and races. They are acutely aware when they when or lose, and many times ignore directives from Jockeys and develop their own stradegy in the middle of races. 

I know it is a subject of jest "controversy" but I very much believe them to be athletes.

(yes, I just find excuses to post this gif whenever possible)

not trying to be rude just to do it, but this is a very ignorant post.  Let me know when professional golfers start riding carts, and is your measure of athletic greatness whether an all time great in one sport could also be so in another?  Seriously?

Tiger Woods was the best golfer ever to live(Jack included) and changed the way entire generations of golfers played and approached the game.  He had shots that nobody who has ever played the game had, and was the most physically dominant and imposing figure to ever play the game.

On the other hand, if your primary argument is that golf "is not a sport," than your post is ever worse than I originally thought and does not warrant a response.

Ah, the old "is it a sport or not" debate, defined by parameters that are:

- developed entirely by the individual declaring whether or not X is a sport

- designed specifically so as to include or exclude X, due to the fact that the declarer feels that X is/is not a sport