Who Is the Greatest Athlete of All Time?
Today’s singles tennis requires the fitness (at least) of an NBA basketball player and the strategic abilities of a chess master (well, not quite — but close). It is the duel of duels, particularly at the grand slam level where the men play a grueling best-of-five sets that can run from five-to-six hours, in rare cases even more. (Marathons are run in less than half the time.) They don’t have anyone to help them. No teammates. It’s all on them. Even their coach is of marginal aid during a match. And the season is virtually unending, with only a small time off in December before it kicks off again in January fro the first slam, the Australian. It’s physically and emotionally exhausting.
What seemed, when I was a kid, a genteel sport is hardly that. It’s war. And Roger Federer is the warrior of warriors, never flinching (well, rarely), a veritable Sun Tzu with a racket. He has the work ethic of a Kobe Bryant with far more certitude and more calm. Not only that, Federer has the most perfect tennis game, the most perfect strokes, that I have ever seen.
Nevertheless, I rarely root for Federer. He is just too good, too perfect. I was rooting for Murray to win at Wimbledon today (those folks back in Scotland seemed to want it so much), just as I was rooting for Djokovic two days earlier in the semi-finals.
But as you can see, by the end of the match he had won me over. The man is back, defeating brilliant players five or even ten years his junior. Serena Williams appears to be doing the same thing, at least temporarily, on the women’s side. But her competition is far inferior.
So is Roger Federer the greatest athlete of all time? He is to me. At least today.
Cross-posted from Roger’s blog.
Current doping charges aside, I’d have to say Lance Armstrong. He was a competitive tri-athlete before joining ranks of pro cycling, the most grueling sport on the planet. As an example, Tommy Danielson had to abandon this year’s Tour de France after crashing and dislocating opposite shoulder from one he dislocated two days earlier.
Lance survived testicular cancer and went back to race. He is spending his golden years racing in half and full Ironman distance triathlons.
The “current” doping charges against Lance Armstrong are a joke. Pretty much the USADA went to every US athlete facing a lifetime ban for doping and gave the full pardons if they would claim that Lance Armstrong did whatever the USADA believes he did. There is zero new evidence except for testimony from athletes who failed drug tests themselves and want to try and salvage their careers.
Thank you, I was hoping for a post about Wimbledon from you.
Some random thoughts about tennis:
I too was hoping for a Murray win, but I don’t grudge Federer his win: he deserved it, not to mention that he seems to be a very nice person.
Murray fought bravely: he lost only one break in any set, and fought to the very end, as a true Scot would. (I am listening to Scottish fiddling as I write this.)
Federer might be 30, but remember that Connors reached the semifinals of the US open at 39.
The strength of character that is required to win a major championship is evident when “championship point” comes up: you have to win point after point, game after game, set after set, match after match, until you get to championship point.
An additional thought: tennis is arguably the sport that demands most character … but only if we exclude the sports that are nearly suicidal. As I was going home after watching the final, I made a mental note of some (nearly suicidal) sports that require even more character: boxing, mixed martial arts, mountaineering, Antarctic exploration; and most heroic of all: hunting man-eating big cats.
By this criterion, I nominate Jim Corbett as the greatest sportsman of all time.
Well, it depends on what you mean by “greatest athlete”. If you mean the ability to run fast, jump high, endure physical stress for long periods, coordination, et al….it was probably Wilt Chamberlain. There has never been anybody to match him as a physical specimen.
Frankly, I think you can eliminate tennis players, golfers, boxers, bikers and hundreds of other minor sports. Unless an athete competes against the sports to which the greatest athetes flock, you can’t really measure them. The major sports are soccer, baseball, football and basketball. It’s virtually a certainty that the greatest athlete in modern times is or was a competitor in one of those arenas.
I don’t follow soccer so I won’t comment, but the greatest baseball player, hands down, was Babe Ruth. He was the only athlete in any major sport that was so overwhelmingly good that he totally changed a sport. And his body fat was about 20 times Tiger Woods, and he was drunk half the time. What if he had taken care of himself like modern athlete’s do? Some kind of ancient genes that had been recessive for hundreds of years popped up in Mr. Ruth. In football, the most dominant player ever was Jimmy Brown. If you have have never seen him run, find some old clips on utube. He was a man among boys. In basketball, you have Wilt, Michael Jordan, and you have to consider Bill Russell as well. Anybody who could beat Wilt consistently had some kind of awesome secret. Wilt had good players around him too.
Just FYI – tennis is the fourth most popular sport in the world and the most popular individual sport. Basketball, my secoNd favorite, ranks nine, considerably behind tennis.
http://www.mostpopularsports.net/
Tennis players are mostly caucasian which removes them from consideration as the worlds greatest athlete.
As someone with largely caucasian DNA I was reminded of this everytime I step onto a basketball court.
How racist. Making a judgement based upon ones racial makeup? Then obama is the greatest politician, ever. That would be incorrect. A great politician, in my book, is based upon his amount of integrity. And, as has been demonstrated time and again, he has none.
Backyard badminton is also probably played by more people than basktball (and badminton played hard to win is a great sport too!!). My point isn’t which sport is played the most but which sport attracts the most great athletes. Is there any question that more great athletes elect basketball than tennis? I don’t think so. It isn’t really even a question of the sport itself. It’s the money. Thre is lots more money in basketball than tennis, by far. More spectators, more TV contracts, more action, more popularity, more money.
btw, I’ve probably played more tennis than any other sport. Good game, very hard, lot’s of fun, extremely challenging, great sport. About 1/10th the money as there is in basketball. For every tennis gazillionaire, there are dozens of basketball gaziollionaires.
And cricket and field hockey were No.2 and 3.
I think anything that makes lots of money should attract people.
Best athlete ever, easy. Secretariet
Secretariat was done under by parasites; A specific family of the same genus of organisms infecting our government.
BAM! ZAP!!
…..good one!
Jim Thorpe.
you beat me to it. we have had a lot of really great athletes in this sport or that sport. for me, the greatest athletes are those that can be great in one sport, walk off that field and be just as great in another. in Jim’s case, he excelled in football, baseball, boxing, lacrosse, hockey and more. he won olympic medals and had them taken away by crooked pol’s, only to reinstated in 1983?
Yes!
Well different sports test different skill sets, so it’s real hard to tell. But my vote goes to our Special Forces men. They have to have so many different skills, more so than anyone who plays a sport, have to be in overall phenomenal shape. Plus they have to abide by certain rules at all times, while their opponent A/Q – Taliban have essentially no rules. Oh, and they have to perform while getting shot at.
Our SF may be playing rugby, while their opponent is playing Calvinball.
Fair enough; but then I guess you have to recognize Yoni Netanyahu as the greatest “sportsman” of all time.
Though I think that Elfego Baca, Gunnar of Hlidarendi, and Grettir the Strong have strong claims as greatest one-against-many fighters of all time.
If we’re going to select a best athlete of all time, shouldn’t we pick a sport that has been played for thousands of years? Tennis, basketball, football and soccer are relatively new creations,right? Track and field and greco-roman wrestling are the core sports of the Olympics. How about the decathlon? Isn’t that supposed to be a test of best all-around athlete? By that measure I’d say Jim Thorpe stands alone.
Good point. I then vote Porphyrius the Charioteer for the award of world’s greatest athlete.
Two words: BRUCE JENNER.
Before he got mixed up with those Armenian idiots in Hollywood, he won the gold medal in the decathlon.
I always thought that Dan Gable’s performance at the 72′ Olympics pretty much sealed the deal for him being the greatest athlete ever.
In 3 years of college wrestling, he only lost one match – his very last unofficial match to a teammate. Then he went to the 1972 Olympics and won a gold medal in freestyle wrestling.
He didn’t just win a gold medal, he did something you will probably see no one ever duplicate at an Olympics. No one scored on him. In the entire Olympics. Not an escape, not a reversal, takedown, nothing. That is like throwing 7 or 8 no-hitters back to back as a pro pitcher. And the Soviet Union trained 3 or 4 guys specifically to beat Gable and no one could even get a single point on him.
Then he goes on to be the best college wrestling coach of all time, won 16 national titles between 1976 and 1997. Pretty much single-handedly shaped the sport of wrestling in the United States.
So until Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods or Roger Federer learn how to coach national championship teams, I don’t see anyone being a better all-around athlete than Dan ‘The Man’.
You raise a valid point. Have a cookie.
gable was a legend before his junior year in college. [i was a hs wrestler at that time.]
By your yardstick, we are measuring the greatest athlete evah based upon his/her domination of their particular sport.
Woods has not yet reached the plateau of Snead, yet some would say that he is the greatest athlete of all time (certainly not the best husband however, but that is a different kettle of fish) such is the weaving of golf of body and mind.
Ruth dominated the sport of baseball in his day but was eclipsed by Aaron, who did not dominate the sport in any manner like the Babe.
Armstrong can make a profound case – the Tour is a month’s long grueling marathon of endurance. And he did it after suffering and recovering from cancer. No small feat.
Thorpe? Zaharias? Good bets. Too bad they’re so far in the past that they’re practically forgotten.
bobby jones may have been the best golfer.
did he ever lose [not win] a tournament ?
Jim Thorpe is absolutely the best athlete ever (in my opinion) when it comes down to playing games, but RBJ’s point cannot be dismissed. Having been a member of SOCOM at one time, I can assure you all that the level of physical fitness our operators possess EXCEEDS that of the athletes of any particular sport you may name. When you throw in the variables of hunger, thirst, sleep deprivation, psychological factors of stress and fear, sometimes almost equally prepared operators on the other team trying to KILL you, environmental hazards…….well, there’s just no comparison when you look at the big picture. God bless all of you out there tonight on missions we will never hear about – unless Obama’s polling numbers drop further
A Navy operator may not win the men’s singles final at Wimbledon, but he’ll still be humping that 110lbs ruck long after you’ve quit, he’ll survive on food that you would never put inside your mouth, and he’ll kick your singles title winning *ss if you force him too.
But….Mark Spitz’s 7 gold medals in 1972 and Phelps’ 8 gold medals in 2008 are remarkable accomplishments that I do not believe and SEAL could beat.
There are many amazing physical specimens and single-sport specialists, but choosing one is no easier than choosing the prettiest girl in the world, or the best beer.
I guess Federer must be good but like Sampras he’s boring to watch, and I mostly don’t. The matches between McEnroe and Connors or Borg – that was sport, teensie wooden or aluminum rackets, or not.
And while I never saw Babe Ruth play, I watched Michael Jordan, and he alone was pretty much ready to advance to a higher league for most of ten years, in a highly physical sport.
FWIW
I don’t think there’s an answer to “who’s the best athlete of all time”. That’s like asking which language is the hardest in the world.
I think each individual sport has it’s “best athlete”. No one athlete can be supreme in all sports….that would be what it would take to be “the best athlete of all time” and it’s never going to happen. Babe Ruth might be the best baseball player “of all time”, but how much of a swimmer was he? Or a tennis player?
That said, I agree that Federer reigns supreme in tennis. He is to tennis what Shakespeare is to literature. Many have come close to equaling them in achievenment, but none has ever surpassed them and most likely no one ever will. They are both artists without parallel.
In addition, Federer has achievements beyond tennis. He has established a foundation for the world’s unfortunate, basically sharing his considerable wealth. His personal record is spotless, he speaks 3 or 4 languages and is a “normal” family man. Thanks to him, this is the golden age of tennis and we’re lucky to be around to partake of it.
Martina Navratilova and Jesse Owens get my votes. Wilt Chamberlin is another one that comes to mind. Dan Gable was terrific too, I don’t even like wrestling and watched him whenever he was on.
Wilt Chamberlain is a good choice.
Statistically he dominates all NBA players including Bird, Jordan, and Magic Johnson. He won several championships. He was well liked by the teammates, competitors, and the 10,000 women he had sex with.
Wilt? No way. Bill Russell won back-to-back NCAA titles (2 undefeated college years at USF). His Olympic team won the gold medal, defeating opponents by an average of 50 points. And his Celtics teams won 11 NBA championships in the 13 years he played. Wilt won zero NCAA titles and, I believe, only 2 NBA titles. Not even close.
Could Martina beat the best Connors or McEnroe? They do play mixed doubles, so perhaps you can tell; I don’t know the sport. Although I think tennis is unique in that the men have to thank the women for making the professional sport popular.
Hint: Not a tennis player…
The only time I get disgusted watching Federer is when they show Anna Wintour sitting in his player’s box.
Bo Jackson should be figured in the discussion.
I was going to say, but then it comes down to other nominations – and after all I don’t know how to rate someone who tears his own leg off.
One of the greatest athletes of the past 20 years. He makes it look effortless. Just as Jordan and Tiger (at his best) did.
Floats like a butterfly stings like a bee.
The Greatest.
Competitive eater, Takeru Kobayashi is the best athlete of all time.
I have been a sports buff my entire life of most of the major sports, including the Olympics, and I think the only one who got it right is Eli.
In no particular in my lifetime since 1960, because their athletics spans just one field but two:
(1) Deon Sanders – All Pro Football, All Star Baseball
(2) Bo Jackson – All Pro Football, All Star Baseball
(3) Carl Lewis – 8 time gold medal winner, one time world’s fastest human, and 10+ year streak of never having been beat in the long jump.
When guys like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Roger Federer can excel at two sports at top level, long jump 29 feet three times in one meet, then run 9.86 in the 100 meters, get back with me.
Interestingly, back in the 70s when they did match up professional greats from different fields, far and away the most dominant sports players were either track & field or soccer. Nobody else was even close.
And they wouldn’t even let the decathletes compete.
It’s because the track and field athletes spend their lives concentrating on raw skills, whereas baseball players, and the athletes in all other sports, concentrate on the complex speciality skills of their selected sport instead of just running fast and thowing heavy objects a long ways.
Sports are like capitalism. The best ones go to where the most money can be made. That’s not track and field, even though in a head to head competition, the track and field athletes will win their specialities against a Michael Jordan without much trouble. But Jordan would have competed adequatly, because of his raw athleticsm. Reverse it, and a track and field athlete would look like a high-schooler against Michael in basketball, because it takes years to become good at a complex sport.
Michael Jordan couldn’t cut AA baseball – and the only reason he was there, was his money. He was a complete failure and didn’t deserve to see the minor league field.
So even by your standards, Bo and Deon were far superior athletes by your own definition.
Like I said, they put it to the test in the 70s. Elvin Hayes, a pretty good athlete himself in the NBA, was near rock bottom of the final standings.
P.S. – things like the pole vault are pretty specialized. I doubt Jordan could go 10′ feet.
Greatest basketball probably. Jordan as greatest athlete? Not even close.
Addendum. I would throw Secretariat in that mix. Any horse than can win the Triple Crown by 31 lengths and to this day, still hold 2 of the 3 triple crown track records for distance (he got screwed by a timing malfunction in the Preakness or he would hold all three) definitely deserves a place on the mantle.
I believe that was recently rectified. See: http://www.secretariat.com/fan-club/1973-preakness-time/
Thank you. I noticed that was very recent too.
Lance Armstrong and Joe Montana, tie.
As some have said already, it really is a very academic discussion, but I find some of the comments funny because they seem to be based on noteriety and not on anything scientific, and that goes for the article as well. I have no idea who the greatest athlete in the world is, or was, because I’m not looking at any reasonable metrics by which to make a decision.
This is nothing against Roger Federer, but most professional athlete are at a supreme level of physical fitness. However,just because he won seven titles in his sport, does not the greatest athlete in the world make him. I would say there a multi-sport athletes out there who compete in two different sports at most successful levels.
As others have commented, and I agree, I would have a hard time putting Roger Federer above Lance Armstrong. Tiger Woods was a fantastic golfer, and in great physical condition, but pardon me if I don’t take a golfer’s word on who the greatest athlete is. What about a decathlete like Bruce Jenner. I don’t know that I would put Tennis in the top 5 fitest sports either. Boxing, Hockey, Formula One, the Decathlon, Cross-country skiing and Biathlon; all would rate higher in my book than Tennis for sustained endurance and fitness. Top 10, certainly.
In closing, you haven’t convinced me that Roger Federer deserves the award you are bestowing on him, though I take nothing away from him as an elite athlete.
It doesn’t make sense to compare great athletes in different sports, I just don’t see how you can do it. They test different physical and psychological skills often in different combination, with differing degrees of competition. Agreed that Federer is probably the greatest tennis player who ever lived, but how do you compare his achievements to say Carl Lewis or a great marathoner? What of the great soccer player Pele?
Tennis has always been my favourite sport btw, and Federer is superhuman in his skills set, simply scary how good he was in his prime. A little OT, but whatever happened to American tennis? Who would have imagined just twenty/thirty years when Americans still dominated the sport how bad it’s gotten for the US re tennis. I mean in men’s tennis the British, who were nowhere for years, are outshining you! (well they have Murray, who do you have?). That actually deserves an article here at PJMedia, whatever happened to US tennis and what can you do about it? Frankly does it matter?
title ix. it has devastated college men’s sports. to add insult to injury the courts said that the more % of women in college the more % to get athletic scholarships. + the more women athletes adds more, + they started giving single mothers free college + welfare + food stamps + child care +++. you get the idea. now i hear they are having trouble finding enough women to play some college sports, on a competitive level. chess anyone?
oh, and another +. they also ruled that female cheerleaders are not athletes to be counted towards the total.
The Greatest Athlete of all time? Barry Bonds, to hear his agent tell it. I listened to the idiot one day on the radio…it was a fascinating performance, how this one-dimensional player became better than the Babe, Magic Johnson, and so forth, just because he could hit homeruns (with some chemical assistance, of course).
Don’t really follow tennis, so I’m not qualified to judge…but hitting a baseball, or pitching it successfully, is reputed to be the hardest thing you have to do in sport. That would tend to argue towards the Babe, who did both extremely, ridiculously well.
Only three hitters in major league history had truly great years after the age of 35. Williams and Ruth each had one year when they transcended their age. They are acknowledged as the two best hitters of all time. Bonds had FIVE great years after 35, even though before that age he was a good player, but not even close to being in a league with Ruth, Williams, Cobb, Hornsby, Mantle, and a dozen others. Several all-time greats, like Hornsby, Foxx, and Mantle were essentially washed up at 35. Others like Dimaggio and Greenberg retired rather than face sub-superman status. Alex Rodriquez is the latest. He is less than half the player now that he is 36 or 37 as he was 15 years ago.
If you look at the statistics of hitters by age, the pattern is as rigorously consistent as fall following summer. Players peak at 28, in rare cases as late as 30 for top power hitters. Look at career stats for any long-time player. It’s always the same; find the best 2 or 3 years; it’s always when they are 27, 28, or 29. Most players are washed up and out of the league by 35; reflexed, you know. The really great players can hang on to 39 to 41, but after 35 they become mortal, good but not great. Ruth and Williams were the only two exceptions in 100 years. The database spans between 5 and 10 thousand players, so it’s a very stong database.
But Barry Bonds had ALL of his greatest years after 35, and they were off the chart of his previous performance. Some of those years even exceeded Ruth and William’s greatest years, when they were in their late 20′s, the normal age of peak performance for hitters. Bond’s eerie emergence as a physical phenomenon coincided with his hat size increasing by 3/4 of an inch, and packing on 40 pounds of rock hard muscle at an age when every other male who has ever lived is loosing muscle mass and coordination.
But Barry didn’t take steroids or anything.
Sorry, but Babe Ruth owns the title. Not only was he THE franchise in baseball hitting, but he was on track for a Hall of Fame career as a pitcher before they realized what he could do at the plate playing every day.
Incidentally, Ruth credited his swing to copying a player he saw from the bench when the Red Sox played the Indians in his rookie year: Joe Jackson.
Estragon, Babe Ruth was a baseball great, but he pales in comparison with Don Bradman the greatest of all cricketer batsmen, who has a strong claim to being to most outstanding sports player among his peers of all time. Look him up. Incidentally, cricket has been an international sport since the 1870s [England vs Australia then]. Bradman retired in 1948, yet still figures in international records, AND he lost about 8 years in his prime because of WWII, and was still great at 40..
I agree. I would consider Secretariat, but let’s say horses are excluded for now. The “Babe” out hit most teams, and beside pitching, he was an accomplished base stealer. The Babe was the greatest for over decade, not a one time event.
IMHO only Gretzky is close.
I don’t think Gretzky is close, I think he is the man. Consider that Gretzky dominated his sport for years. Consider that this is a real sport – hitting people, moving at great speeds, expending max effort. Consider that the most basic skills of this sport include ice skating and using a stick to hit a puck. Now, Babe Ruth had to hit a baseball with a stick – but not while he was on ice skates. Similarly, basketball and football players don’t have to contend with this. People used to say Michael Jordan was the greatest athlete ever – I said put him on skates, hand him a stick, and see what happens. It would be good for a laugh.
Federer has the most perfect tennis game, the most perfect strokes…
Put another way, he’s mastered the head game and doesn’t have a technical weakness: he can play all strokes flawlessly from all positions.
Tennis is a complex and difficult sport, certainly among the most demanding and least forgiving of all, especially when you consider the psychology and stresses at the top level. Ain’t no place to hide, all alone and fully exposed in the middle of center court.
Federer will be mentioned in these conversations for a very long time.
You Americans! Very fine folks, but you’re all overlooking what is unquestionably the most demanding sport of all — hockey. Played ON SKATES, moving at close to 30mph, manipulating a tool, vast range of skills and tennis-level endurance required, with the threat of wheelchair-level violence being visited upon the players at a split-second’s loss of concentration, easily requiring as much tactical and strategic acumen as tennis but with even less time to think, a constant transition between offence and defence… I could go on, but watching a game should make it all self-evident.
And given that, the greatest athlete of all time is clearly The Great One, Wayne Gretzky, who destroyed all of hockey’s most venerable scoring records by percentage amounts unmatched by anyone in any major sport, while being among the least physically imposing players in the league.
Sorry to say it, but all other athletes fight for second place. Eh?
yabanjames.. Ah you Canadians! Ever heard of the Australian Don Bradman, the amazing cricketer whose batting average has never been equalled in some 64 years to now since 1948? It is STILL 80% better than anyone before or after him! -100 to about 55] Look him up, mate.. Let Gretsky’s greatness wait that long…
Fair play, mate!
The problem with bringing a cricketer into this is that no one outside of England and a few of the colonies (Australia, apparently, one of them) understands the sport. Since we don’t understand the sport, the guy might be great, he might be awful, we don’t know. But the Babe, we do know, and we know he was great.
One of the “few colonies” is India, which has over a billion people in it. The number of cricket fans in south Asia alone is probably more than the number of baseball fans worldwide.
Maurice Richard was not the greatest hockey player ever but his flair for the dramatic was unmatched by any athlete. Knocked unconscious in the second period of a playoff game, even the announcer thought he had been taken to the hospital, he suddenly appeared at the bench late in the third period, the scored tied, stepped on the ice, stick-handled through the whole team, and scored the winning goal. When he got back to the dressing room he asked what’s the score and then collapsed again. When Richard two years later was suspended before the playoffs after slugging a referee during a brawl, claiming he couldn’t see because of the blood streaming down his face, it triggered a city-wide riot in Montreal. I may be wrong but I don’t think any athlete ever can claim that.
Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.
US Army pentathlete champion. Gold medals. Requires Horsemanship, Fencing, Running, Swimming, Marksmanship. He designed a new saber, finding the old designs to be inferior. It is still the standard saber for the US Army, and is called “The Patton”. Fencing is exhausting.
Those skills were not just used in sports. He used them on the battlefield, as well. He killed Pancho Villa with one of those ivory-handled revolvers.
Oh, he was also big and unbelievably strong. He used to do strongman stunts. He played in many other sports. He was great at everything he tried. He was the whole package. He just did not commit to a career of sports. He could have, and he would have outshined everyone. Sports is just a simulation of the warrior/hunter, and Patton was the best, both physically and mentally.
He didn’t kill Pancho Villa. He killed some of Villa’s men, but Villa survived until 1923.
Patton was a great athlete in his time. He would have probably won gold at the 1912 Pentathlon had the judges not robbed him of his shooting score. The idea that Patton missed the paper completely and the rest of his shots were so tightly grouped it was hard to count is ludicrous. Especially when he was the odds on favorite for the shooting win the day before in practice. However, as other have mentioned. Jim Thorpe actually won the pentathlon for 1912 and would have beat Patton regardless. So it would have probably been an American 1-2 instead of the 3 2 Sweeds who are currently in the record books due to Thorpe losing his medals because of his professional status.
Those medals were re-instated 30 years later, but the record books don’t reflect it. So Thorpe was still a better athlete than Patton. I’m a huge George S. Patton fan, however.
Mr. Simon, having played tennis for many years, I certainly cannot argue against Roger Federer being considered as the greatest athlete. Tennis is very deceptive to the uninitiated watching from afar. Playing tennis at a high level combines extreme mental and physical challenges. Just a couple examples of which there are many more:
If you’ve ever participated in a long rally from the baseline, 20 shots or more, you understand quickly how exhausting that is and how the top players make it appear to be easy. For us ordinary mortals, we’d be wheezing and gasping to try to catch our breaths.
The mental aspect of tennis isn’t self-evident either. There are certain opponents, usually the better players, who have an ability to drain the energy and mentally exhaust their opponents, and this is quite a different fatique than physical fatique. You could be physically fresh but so exhausted mentally you can barely get yourself to move for the ball.
As someone who has played all the major sports such as football, baseball, and basketball, tennis has proven to me to be the most physically and mentally demanding of all. Tennis is like watching ballet: so beautiful and graceful on the surface, yet underneath the beauty and grace a battle roils that would make General George Patton wince.
Roger Federer as the greatest athlete of all, no argument from me.
You probably have to go by rbj’s suggestion about soldiers in combat, but not just our special forces men. Even plain G.I.s, in combat defending their buddies and carrying them out to safety — excellent.
Now compared to combat conditions, the athletic field is configured for *optimal* performance conditions: coaches and trainers on the sideline, smooth level track, green grassy field, hydration during time outs and between rounds, the crowd commanded or generally expected to remain quiet. For that group, you have to go with Jim Thorpe.
As for Federer, give me a break! No way can he be the greatest except for maybe the current tennis scene. But for the super smart, classy people in Hollywood, I guess, the tennis greats are the proverbial cat’s pajamas.
Seabiscuit.
But Federer is second. He’s been too good for too long and proved his mettle under pressure too many times not to be.
The “of All Time” thing would require us to check only for sports that has been played since long ago, like, disc throwing, fighting and so.
Then, there is a difference also between individual sports (like tennis) and the ones requiring an insertion in team (like football). If one is to choose the Athlete, then I’d go and look for it in the individualistic sports.
Then, what is “greatest” ? Jesse Owens for instance, not only won medals, but become the living refutation of a blatantly wrong theory. Jesse Owens was as ‘Epic’ as was Pheidippides in the original run after the Marathon battle.
There are only three athletes that proved themselves in at least three sports at the highest levels:
Jim Thorpe – Football, Baseball, Track
Jim Brown – Football, Lacrosse, Basketball (he actually held the NY state high school record for single season average points until just about ten years ago – most fans have no idea of that record!) and Track
Babe Didricksen-Zaharias – Golf, Track, Basketball, Softball
No single sport athlete deserves to be ranked above these three, regardless of how dominant they were in that sport
If you’re going to count Brown’s Lacrosse history then you have to put Deion Sanders ahead of him. Deion was perhaps the best cover corner in the history of the sport, the best return man (at the time, since surpassed by Hester) and a World Series winning MLB player. He was also an All American in Track in Field in college.
Tennis is much more taxing than basketball never mind baseball so when it comes to pure athleticism the top tennis players are certainly more athletic. And let’s not talk about American football players sucking air after a 12 yard run!
“when it comes to pure athleticism the top tennis players are certainly more athletic”
I have to reach for my Col Potter on this one;
“Horse manure.” “Hockey Puck” “Horse feathers”
http://www.muscleprodigy.com/top-10-most-athletic-sports-best-athletes-in-a-sport-arcl-1913.html
Snipped
“First we need to ask the question of what being athletic means? The dictionary defines it as physically strong, fit, and active. Hmmm…not much help in relating this to specific sports. So let’s break this down a bit further. Well, if we are taking strength and power in to the mix, we would have to include bodybuilders and powerlifters, but we obviously know that doesn’t feel right; and if we’re taking just speed and agility into account, then we would just have to include track and field, but that, too, doesn’t serve this debate justice. Therefore, our definition has to take into account a combination of 5 categories: strength (combination of raw power and muscle endurance), speed (40 time), agility (ability to change direction with quickness and explosion), endurance (stamina), and hand-eye coordination (ability to react quickly to sensory perception). ”
“An athlete, by definition, can play multiple sports and succeed in every single one of them.”
Tennis players are SLOOOOW, weak and lack endurance. Excellent agility and top of the heap hand eye coordination.
“The ultimate athlete in our book is the decathlon winner: Bryan Clay.”
The above site rates MMA (mixed martial arts) as #1, tennis as #6. I think he overrates both. Since there is nothing but opinion involved, you enjoy yours while I enjoy mine.
I would like to point out that Tennis has just as much rest between actions as football. If you are any good, you spend as much time walking to the other side of the service court as you do hitting the ball back and forth. Long rallies are a sure sign of incompetence.
You are obviously not a tennis player.
I would like to point out that Tennis has just as much rest between actions as football.
Good grief. You are not even trying. Don’t forget Federer being able to send in his defence and special teams when he needed them! LOL
The greatest athlete of all time is 11 time (and maybe 12 this year) World Surfing Champion, Kelly Slater. He has pioneered and re invented the sport. He continues to innovate and win against opponents from all over the world.
Anderson Silva and Manny Paquiao are great athletes, and true gentlemen.
LeBron James is a great Athlete as is Koby Bryant.
Steve Nash has unbelievable vision and court sense. He is often 2 steps ahead of anybody on the court.
Stan Musial was a great athlete. Hard man from the depression who played multiple sports.
Sandy Kofax, John Stockton, Greg Louganis,…
Burt Lancas……..er, Jim Thorpe.
Larry Bird, he dominated a sport with out having an ounce of natural talent, Joe Montana, and the tops physical contenders are dog sled drivers, 1000 miles through conditions that are unbelievable to most people, days and days of endurance.
Larry Bird lacked even an ounce of natural talent? I’ll grant you he worked hard and was very smart…but not even an ounce?
Obviously, you never watched him play…I did, for years, as he frustrated my Lakers repeatedly…
Best Athlete: Hobey Baker
Don’t know who he is? You should. Look him up.
The best college football player of his era. Not even close.
The Canadians were in awe of him playing ice hockey. When they picked the first 8 guys for the Hockey HOF, he was the only non-Canadian elected.
He played only two sports at Princeton because in his day a student could only play two. He was a terrifc baseball player. He could have played virtually anything and been world class at it.
He was a pilot in World War I and was killed in a plane just after the war ended over in France.
His ghost still walks the grounds at Princeton.
Dave Winfield- drafted by the NBA, NFL and MLB. Chose MLB and went on to a HOF career.
Greatest athletes?
Babe Didrickson Zaharias; Jim Thorpe
Federer can be nominated for the best athlete of all time just for his footwork. He seems to be flying while the others are running around.
Tennis is an athletic event, no doubt, especially 21st century tennis. Having said that, I can’t agree with calling a tennis player “the greatest athlete of all time.”
Jim Thorpe is still the greatest of modern times when all things are factored in. It is impossible to make an assessment on athletes of ages past.
Ashton Eaton is the greatest current athlete in terms of pure athleticism as that term has been understood since ancient Greece. Maybe at some future date it will be a “Cross Fit” multi-time winner, who knows. But a tennis player? Nah.
I am for Wilma Rudolph, myself.
Al Bundy. Polk High ’66.
Who is the greatest athlete of all time? The man able to outrun Usain Bolt, outswim Michael Phelps, outfly Superman and outplay Bobby Fisher? The answer is obvious: Obama.
Accounts of his real name vary, but let’s go with Thersipus.
In case you aren’t up on your ancient Greek history, he was the messenger who ran non-stop from Marathon to Athens, pronounced “Nenīkēkamen” (“We have won!”), and collapsed after proclaiming Greek victory over Persian invaders.
I would say not the greatest but the dumbest: an Iranian pointed me to something so obvious nobody notices: why in the hell didn’t he make the trip on horseback?
Since speedy delivery of the new was crucial (the Persians could have reemebarked and landed elsewhere) it is difficult to believe so smart a commander as Miltiades wouldn’t have thought of keeping some horses and some couriers ay hand. Having Miltiades and all his staff failed to do something his messenger Thersipus could still have commandeered a horse on his way to Athens.
No idea why they deliberately chose not to use horses. Perhaps it would have made him a more visible target? I’d say there was a reason for the decision, whatever it was.
Anyway, if you wanted to include athletes of the four legged persuasion, I nominate Seattle ?Slew!
IMHO, the only way to compare the greatest athletes from different sports is to envision the athletes playing different sports, with minimal training, and envision how’d they do. Jordan tried baseball with minimal training and was a below average AA player (still way better than you or me). The other great two sport athletes (Bo, Deion) played both sports in college and more or less continuously throughout their lives.
Football is unique in my opinion as not demanding the kind of 10,000 hour fine motor skill training of all other major sports. Usain Bolt would be a great NFL caliber wide receiver with about a year’s dedicated training (provided he has good natural ability to catch a football). With the same dedicated year-long training, he’d be a lousy tennis player, lousy hockey player, lousy baseball player, or lousy basketball player (maybe he could be a defensive stopper).
As a tennis player, let me assure you that any elite athlete from another sport just picking up tennis would lose to a quality 10 year old girl. Is there any other sport where this is true (not counting sports tailored for 10 year old girls, like gymnastics)? Put another way, first make a list of who you think are the candidates for best athlete ever. Then think, would Roger Federer beat that sport’s elite 10 year old girls? Football, baseball, basketball, hockey, all obviously yes. All track and field sports, similarly yes. Swimming and bicycling, probably. Golf, iffy (don’t know how good Fed is at golf), but that’s an ultra-specialized “sport.”
Thus, Federer is the greatest athlete of all time. QED.
Probably the dumbest thing I’ve read in this article’s comments. Let’s stick Roger in a pair of skiis and see how many 10 year old Austrian girls he beats through the gates. I’m willing to bet none. Do you want to throw Roger on some skates and see how he fair against some junior hockey players? I’ll be there are some 10 year old girls that would crush Roger on the Go-Kart track. Your 10 year old girl litmus test is ludicrous.
In a series of test that measured endurance, stamina, strength, agility, and speed, would anyone bet on Roger Federer to come out on top against elite hockey players, Formula One drivers, professional boxers, Olympic biathlete and cross country skiers? He may win a category, but I don’t think he’d top them all, thus, he would not be in contention for world’s greatest athlete.
I’d put any soccer(futbol) player above a tenhnis player. And, what’s so great about hitting a little tennis ball with a BIG tennis racket? Try hitting a little baseball with a baseball bat!
Ah, the tennis v. baseball debate over which is harder to hit. Tennis wins this by a landslide.
First, the balls are about the same size and despite tennis serves traveling about 25-40 MPH faster than the fastest baseball pitcher can throw, because of the extra distance from baseline to baseline over the 60′ 6″ from pitcher’s mound to home plate, reaction times are about the same. Plus, both pitchers and servers use a variety of spins and velocities, so no advantage or disadvantage on these criteria.
Baseball is more difficult on the size of racquet vs. size of baseball bat aspect. But on every other criteria, tennis wins handily in the difficulty department, more than making up for the size difference in hitting instruments.
In baseball, the pitcher has to throw the ball to one side of the hitter, in a small box about two feet square right in the batter’s proverbial “strike zone” – i.e, the ideal bio-mechanical place to hit the ball. If you get hit with the ball, you go to first base. In tennis, the server can serve to either side of the returner (or right at him) in a relatively huge box, high or low, short or long. If you get hit with the ball, you lose the point. Advantage: tennis.
In baseball, you get three chances to hit the ball thrown in the “strike zone.” If you hit the ball safely one out of three times (in any one out of three chances) you are in the Hall of Fame. In tennis, you have to break the server’s serve to win a set (and not get broken yourself). Hence, you have to average safely returning serve more than 50% of the time to have any realistic chance to win a match (you could, of course, save all your returns in play for a single one of your opponent’s service games, losing every other return game at love, but you don’t win the point simply by getting your return in play, so I think an average “return in play” of over 50% is a must, and probably higher). Advantage: tennis.
In baseball, you have a huge field to hit safely in, guarded by nine guys, two of whom are largely irrelevant defenders (pitcher and catcher). Hitting it over the fence is a good thing. In tennis, you have to return the ball over a three-foot high net, into a relatively tiny court guarded by one guy (who has to guard much less area than each baseball defender is responsible for). Hitting it over the fence, or even a touch too long, is a bad thing. Advantage: tennis.
In baseball, starting pitchers pitch slightly more than 100 pitches every five or six days. For half the league, pitchers don’t hit or run. In tennis, grand slam tournaments require you to play 7 best of five set matches, one match every two days. In a five set match, the player serves around 250-300 times, then runs around as quickly and nimbly as any sport demands, all the while swinging the racquet and hitting the ball with the same serving arm hundreds, if not thousands, more times. The workout of a tennis player’s arm is 10 times that of a baseball pitcher, and done every two days. Advantage: tennis.
athleticism is not the end all/ be all for success in sports
look at gretzky
not the fastest
not the strongest
not the biggest
but arguably the best hockey player
a better theme would be – who is the greatest champion? (many of the greatest champions are those who would be labeled as “untalented” and “non athletic” by many posters on this thread)
fwiw – i would not say federer is the best tennis player of all time (look at his competition during the early years of his accumulation of major titles)- his body of work would put him on the top ten list though
No energy drinks, steroids,on staff trainers, or all the other aids science offers, Jim Thorpe is the best of the best…
I have to laugh when someone asks who is the best of all time. People immediately name someone who is currently or who has recently competed in whatever category is being considered. All time covers a lot of area and we will probably never know who is the best of all time in any category such as sports but for recent time I will put my money on Jim Thorpe.
Those who mentioned Jim Thorpe, Jim Brown, and Dan Gable all have a good case. All were truly exceptional. The Babe was so great he could have had a Hall of Fame career as a Pitcher, but he was such a dominant hitter , they couldn’t afford to pitch him regularly and take his bat out of the lineup. Nevertheless, I’d have to put the other three a smidgeon ahead of him.