I think it's a blasphemy for anyone to rank a boxer or baseball player etc. ahead of the most popular and significant sport in the world. The greatest athlete who ever lived is either Diego Maradona or Zinedine Zidane; the only players in history of any team sport who won a world cup by doing pretty much everything for the whole team.
Jim Thorpe and Jesse Owens I believe would be highly qualified. Babe D Zaharias was a phenomenal athlete as well. Muhammad Ali was the most recognized man and an important figure not just in sports but he was a voice of a generation the 1960s. Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey were also in this category for there eras.
There are individual sports and team sports. There's simply no comparison between a soccer superstar as Pele or Maradona and a boxing superstar as Muhammad Ali. To the dodos who said that Ali was only known and idolized by the 300 million Americans, you are dead wrong. Ali was and has been known and widely popular in Asia, Africa, North and South America and Europe, including the then USSR and the so-called Warsaw Pact countries. Ali is the first athlete not only to transcend the boundaries among sports but also sports itself by serving as spokesperson for various social and political as well as cultural matters and issues of his days and even to these days and for his advocacies for peace, brotherhood and equality among peoples of the world. If there is a greatest athlete ever for his global impact not just in sports but also on domestic, international and world affairs, its Muhammad Ali, no question. Tis been said that an unofficial ceasefire occurred in Indochina and various areas of armed conflicting around the globe whenever Ali fought.
You may not have heard of him, but statistically it would have to be Donald Bradman, the cricketer from Australia. Cricket is the 2nd most popular sport on the planet by viewership.
Statistics show that "no other athlete dominates an international sport to the extent that Bradman does cricket". In order to post a similarly dominant career statistic as Bradman, a baseball batter would need a career batting average of .392, while a basketball player would need to score an average of 43.0 points per game.
Bradman averages 99.94 with the bat, to put that in context the 2nd highest average in the history of cricket is 60.97. His record is virtually unbreakable. These days an average of 40-45 would be seen as exceptional.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/co...
A small excerpt from his profile: "Unquestionably the greatest batsman in the game, arguably the greatest cricketer ever, and one of the finest sportsmen of all time, Don Bradman was so far ahead of the competition as to render comparisons meaningless and to transcend the game he graced."
However with that being said, IMO the most popular athlete of all time would have to be Muhammad Ali
Wow Great question.
Wise men say it's Donald Bradman the cricketer. Some equation was worked out that suggested his 99.8 batting average was one of the best sporting achievements. But surely Gary Sobers would be better as he was an awesome bowler too.
For me the most dominant sportsman ever is either Bill Russell, Richie McCaw or Henry Armstrong.
Michael Jordan
you do know that there are sportsmen outside of america ,i as well as most of the world know nothing about the men you mention other than Ali , how on earth can a sportsman that play a game that only 300 million americans play and the other 7 billion people of this world have no idea about be the best sportsman , what about pele or maradonna how about jesse owens or carl lewis ...words fail me here
Hands down Jim Thorpe
I dont think you can have a greatest athlete of all time considering there are numerous types of sports which require different skills, therefore you cant compare every athlete there ever was solely based on just being good at what they did
It would be hard to pick one for "all time". Rules, training, and all other things were different at each time. Of course the one I would pick is Secretariat!!! What an animal and his time still unbeaten!!!
Which athelete do you feel should be claimed as the greatest of all time?
Would it be Muhammad ali?
Or would it be babe ruth?
Or would it be kobe Bryant?
Possibility it could be jose aldo or maybe even ..... ?
Tell me who you would label the greatest of all time in all of sports.
http://hoops-nation.com/community/topic/...
