Professional athlete's

[mnwild]

I didnt know where else to post this. I was listening to 93x this morning (people out of state this is our TC rock station) and they were wondering out of every sport who would you rank as the top athlete of all time. Alot of people were says Lance Armstrong due to winning 7 straight tour's. I think I would have to agree with that. You have to be in excellent shape to be able to ride that long and far.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Nuttin against Lance, he's definately a stud.

Greatest all time ever???? I'm thinkin Wayne Gretzky.

[buzzsaw]

I like the Gretzky call as well! Michael Jordan would also be in that conversation...........

[FI Guide]

No offense to all those guys but if we are talking about athletes I would have to say Deion Sanders. This guy is a freak pro football and baseball. Also I read something that he said he had no time for pro basketball.

[buzzsaw]

oh yeah, Bo jackson coulda shoulda would have been the greatest ever.... possibly if not for injury.

Don't forget John Kruk.... dude was in shape!!

[bigbucks]

I would say a preinjury Bo Jackson could fall into that conversation as well, along with Dave Winfield who was drafted in all three professional sports & he never even played football. Perhaps Julius Peppers, pro bowl D lineman, would have been a very solid NBA power forward.

I guess it depends on your criteria, but I think it would have to be somebody who was good at more than one sport if you're talking greatest athlete.

[rundrave]

I think this is a great debate, there is just so much different criteria, its hard to break it down to just one person that is the greatest athlete ever. Its too broad of subject to say just one athlete.

One way that I look to compare greatness is look at the next closest person per sport, category, titles, records etc.

For Lance Armstrong, his task is by all means, truly amazing! In a endurence event, to be that consistent is just unreal. He won 7 in row, next person to accomplish anything close was 5 in row. I am not familar with cycling so its hard to relate how great of task that was for him to accomplish, but its probably safe to say it wont happen again.

Then somebody mentions Gretzky, I am not a hockey fan, and you dont need to be to realize what he accomplished. Just look at the records he holds, and campare him to the next person, his numbers are almost double the next closest person in almost every scoring category. As I said I dont know alot about hockey but compare his scoring and assists in a season to players today, he is off the charts. No other athlete has dominated baseball or basketball as Gretzky did to hockey.

Marathon runners are great athletes, with great endurance and strength, but could they hop on a bike and win the tour de france, probably not. But I guess you could say the same runner doesnt win the Boston Marathon 7 years in a row.

Basically there are great athletes, but they are all great athletes in their own individual way or sport.

[PierBridge]

TIGER....?

The poll was for most Dominating "current" Athlete of the decade in their own Sport

Lance Armstrong, Shack, Barry Bonds, Tiger, Serena Williams,Roy Jones jr were on the list.

Dominating their sport I could see maybe Lance Armstrong, although that's in one event the tour D'France, Lance is less then stellar in his other events throughout the year, plus I beleive there is quite a bit of Team play involved in the Tour D'France.

I think Lance is the greatest endurance Athlete of all time,but not close to the best Athelete of all time.

I use to think Carl Lewis was the greatest Athelete of all time until he tried to throw out the first pitch at a baseball game it was ridiculous out of 3 throws not one made it more then 5 feet it was the most embarassing thing I have ever seen, worse then when Jeff Gordon at a Cubs game first saying how happy he is to be at Wrigley stadium even though he was at Wrigley feild,and then trying to sing and not knowing the words to Take Me Out to the ball game in front of 35,000 fans and being booed back to Darlington.

Nobody dominated their sport like the GREAT ONE!

[mnwild]

I thought this would be a nice subject. This was also a subject on KFAN Friday around 4pm

I don't know alot about cycling either but to win the tour 7 times in a row after beating cancer is something else. I could of gave a better criteria for this subject but so far I like the names I have been seing. Bo Jackson was one, if he would of stayed healty he could of been the leading rusher of all time. Gretzky was the best of his time with the Oilers, look at who he had around him.

[genegodawa]

I think the hardest thing about all this is for team games it is hard to judge just how much an impact the "no-names" have on helping the superstars.

For me, "athlete" would probably be somebody like Bruce Jenner who was in multiple events. Greatest ever in diff sports? Gretzky in hockey, Jordan in Basketball, Sayers in Football RB's (now go pick every other position), and in Baseball I think it is hard to beat Ripken both for endurance and accomplishments but I also would take good old Charlie Hustle over Bonds.

Whatever you do people, just don't nominate a Horse as an "athlete" or I'll have to blow lunch.

[SledNeck]

Wayne Gretzky without a doubt best athlete ever. An he was unselfish.

notable great athletes.

Ted Williams

Jim Brown

Mike Tyson

Sandy Koufax

Jerry Rice

Larry Bird

[buzzsaw]

Sled, bud I think your great and all but you lost me on the Mike Tyson post! He was very good until Buster Douglas put the big whoop on him, he's pretty much been garbage ever since. If you were going to name a boxer in that group you should have said Jack Johnson or Muhammad Ali... I agree with the other guys you posted however.

[SledNeck]

Mike Tyson was one of the best boxers in his prime

[The Grebe]

Sled...I have to differ with you on Tyson, (This ones easy to spell) he will go down as one of the best punchers in his prime, maybe THE best, but not one of the best boxers.

He could box some, no doubt, but that explosiveness and devastating punching power made up for alot of ring skills he did'nt have.

[genegodawa]

Almost nothing better than watching 2 "athletes" beat on each other.

[buzzsaw]

I really just enjoy trying to immitate Mike Tysons lisp when he's mad.

Some of his quotes have got to be the most ridiculous ever made!

[juggs]

There are different categories here. When we think of athletes we typically think of team sports, maybe because of our culture. But there are probably more comprehensive ways of measuring pure athletic ability like track and field/type competition. That's why the decathalete is typically considered the best athlete in the world. He has to compete in ten different events and be relatively sucessful in every one in order to win. But that kind of athleticism doesn't include team competition which has to do more with hand/eye coordination plus the standard running, jumping and throwing abilities as well as mixing in the dynamic of playing within a team framework. Those qualities can't be left out either. Team sports also tend to give built in advantages that really don't have anything to do with true athleticism, such as height in basketball and raw size in football. Having said all this, I can vote only for athletes that have excelled in more than one sport, unless perhaps that sport is a decathelete like sport. Some names that come to mind are Jim Brown, Jim Thorp, Jackie Robinson, maybe Jesse Owen, Deion Sanders (although I despise considering such a shameless self-promoter) and definitely Bo Jackson. Wilt Chamberlain and Hakeem Olajuwon were also terrific all-around athletes. There are plenty of others, too, many of them may be from other countries and we may have never heard of them. I wouldn't even consider Lance Armstrong, Mike Tyson, Tiger Woods or Wayne Gretzky, as good as they were/are at what they do--just too narrow in scope. We have no idea of how fast they can run, how high they can jump, throwing, strength, etc. From what I've read about Thorpe, he did pretty much everything extremely well--Olympics, pro football and baseball, golf, you name it. What I saw Bo Jackson do on the football and baseball fields was eye-popping. He threw a guy out on the fly at home plate from the left field wall, for crying out loud! If only he had stayed healthy. Babe Didrickson was good at everything, too, but there's just no way she could compare across the board with the men. Far and away the best female athlete ever in my humble opinion. So that's my input.

[The Grebe]

Juggs...I'd have to say thats some pretty good input!