Greatest Athlete of All Time

[DrJuice1980]

So ESPNs Sport Science has the bracket going to dissect which athlete is the greatest of all time and it would be interesting to hear everybody's take on it. Here is my top 5 list, what is yours.

1. Bo Jackson-multiple sports dominated by Bo Jackson, could've easily been an Olympian if he trained for it. Ran a 4.1 40yrd, complete specimen, the injury was way too early in his career, was on track to be a multi sport HOF'er football for sure

2. Michael Jordan-dominated for years in one of the most athletic sports, AA baseball player yeah he got preferential treatment but he didn't suck and he hadnt played since high school

3. Deion Sanders-do I even need to explain this freak of an athlete?

4. Jim Brown-wasn't alive then but he obviously was great

5. Jim Thorpe-guy succeeded in everything he did, very well rounded athlete, yeah I know it was like 100 years ago but his size and talent in today's world would transfer over quite well

Notables: Gretzky, Tiger, Phelps, Ali, Ted Williams, Jackie Robinson, and many more that I am sure I'm missing

[thatoneguy]

For me, it's a two-man race between Bo Jackson and Thorpe. Everyone else can fall in line behind them. I'd give an honorable mention nod to Dave Winfield, who was drafted in THREE professional sports.

[Cicada]

Maybe consider Muhammad Ali? Olympic gold, world champion, something like four times, with the prime of his career taken from him by the government.

Jesse Owens? Big kahunas to go into Hitler's Berlin and throw the superior race thing in his face with multiple gold medals. Performance under pressure.

[JBMasterAngler]

I liked the piece ESPN did back in 2000 when they had the top 100 athletes of all time, and it spawned the show sports century.

I believe the top 5 was...

5. Jim Brown (possibly Jim Thorpe)

4. Wayne Gretzsky

3. Muhammad Ali

2. Michael Jordan

1. Babe Ruth

[itchmesir]

Bo Knows who the greatest of all time is

[DrJuice1980]

Babe Ruth shouldn't even be mentioned.

[JPenny]

When you're covering all time that's a lot of time to consider. In modern times I think Dan Gable deserves consideration. Winning gold in wrestling at the Olympics while never having even a single point scored against him is quite an accomplishment.

[DrJuice1980]

Gable was/is a maniac, I heard he is still teaching shooting take downs with young guys. Guys crazy he's like 70 and still grappling with college guys.

[harvey lee]

Owens and Ali.

[ted4887]

1. Bo Jackson

2. Babe Zaharias

3. M.J.

4. Jim Brown

5. Jim Thorpe

[JBMasterAngler]

No Hulk Hogan?

[nofishfisherman]

This is a tough question to answer since great athlete can mean different things. Are you asking for the person with the most overall athletic ability or are you looking for the athlete that accomplished the most?

If you are talking about pure athleticism I'd for sure say Bo Jackson. Physically there wasn't anything he couldn't do. Seemed like he could run faster, jump higher, and out muscle anyone on the planet.

If you are talking about most accomplished I'd say probably MJ. However if you put MJ against Bo in some sort of NFL style combine that measures athleticism Bo would likely beat MJ in almost every test.

[Scott M]

Along those same lines, LeBron is a physical specimen in terms of athleticism, same for Usain Bolt and Michael Johnson. Lots of goodies on here - Jackson, Owens, Brown, Thorpe, Ali.

[EBass]

Um does Bruce Lee get a nod? Anyone ever heard of him?

[DrJuice1980]

On the ESPN bracket they got Bo over Jordan. Bo was such a physical specimen. I wonder how true the non training thing is.