Sports Who, in your opinion, is the greatest athlete of all time?

[El Dubya]

Running is natural, we all do it, swimming is an unnatural and learned action, therefore more difficult and swimmers are better athletes.

 

[Summer Nights]

Nothing foolish about it

Serena is better than Federer


GAME SET AND MATCH!

Shut up idiot with your schoolyard s**t.

 

[Xtreme]

Shut up idiot with your schoolyard s**t.

Typical Essendon supporter playing the man not the ball...

 

[HairyO]

Typical Essendon supporter playing the man not the ball...

To be fair though, you are playing with gender balls.

 

[Summer Nights]

Typical Essendon supporter playing the man not the ball...

Whatever. Just shut up about Serena; you're ruining the thread.

 

[Xtreme]

Whatever. Just shut up about Serena; you're ruining the thread.

Shes the greatest of all time though. Last I checked 23 is better than 19........

GAME, SET AND MATCH

 

[Duritz]

Me.

 

[darklake]

Usain Bolt.

 

[imadodgyumpire]

Serena is about as big a PEDs user as there is.

 

[imadodgyumpire]

Being great at your sport and being a great athlete are not one and the same
Athleticism is the key
When I was a kid in the 1970s nobody referred to footballers golfers or tennis players as "athletes"
Back then athletes were the people you saw every 4 years at the Olympics
Referring to basketballers etc. as athletes came from US TV.

Yeah. You have to be a stickler with words to make the clearest point.

A basketballer may be athletic, but is not an "athlete".

 

[imadodgyumpire]

I don't quite revere Phelps the way others do. He couldn't defeat Thorpe and he didn't dominate the blue riband freestyle events consistently.

Nathan Adrian ≥ Michael Phelps v

 

[RedVest4]

Sam Menegola

 

[Cruyff14]

Not sure if mentioned, but Michael Phelps is also a fair shout.

 

[El Dubya]

Not sure if mentioned, but Sam Menegola is also a fair shout.

 

[iluvparis]

Until shes found guilty shes 100% innocent

So Lance was innocent until he admitted to doping?

#Xtremelogic

 

[troybe]

Mo Farah

 

[Xtreme]

So Lance was innocent until he admitted to doping?

#Xtremelogic

Yep!

 

[Thegibbsgamble]

Running is natural, we all do it, swimming is an unnatural and learned action, therefore more difficult and swimmers are better athletes.

But the best swimmer ever is a cone head

 

[imadodgyumpire]

Running is natural, we all do it, swimming is an unnatural and learned action, therefore more difficult and swimmers are better athletes.

100m freestyle is way too difficult for Phelps.

 

[Duritz]

But the best swimmer ever is a cone head

Dan Akroyd is the best swimmer ever???

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Sure athleticism, there have probably been better but just pure basketball abilty, there is no equal, he's so far ahead it's ridiculous.

Probably the greatest sportsperson of all time imo.

I'd argue that LeBron has Jordan covered, in terms of basketball ability, like if you created two basketball players for a computer simulation and one had Jordan's physique and skills and the other had LeBron's, the latter would come out on top.

What still makes Jordan the best (with LeBron running out of time to catch him), was his homicidal competitiveness and consistent ability to get it done when it mattered.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Jordan was the best player in a team that won two 3-peats. 6 time NBA finals MVP is ridiculous.

Bill Russell won 11 championships in 13 seasons, has as many regular season MVPs as Jordan (from an era when the players voted for the winner, rather than journalists) and given the Finals MVP has been named 'The Bill Russell Award' it's fair to assume that if it had been around in his day he'd probably have as many as Jordan, if not more.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Nothing wrong with typing CR7 to refer to Ronaldo. It is shorter and when discussing GOAT soccer players there happens to be another Ronaldo who is in those discussions.

Well, the problem for a thread like this is that I imagine I follow soccer more closely than three quarters of the people in this thread, I remember watching Ronaldo from when he was just coming on the scene with United and I had no idea who 'CR7' was until it was explained.

 

[Procrastinator35]

Athlete per se is a very generic term.....That said, you'd imagine it would have to be an individual highly skilled in most, if not all the traditional athletic pursuits....So clearly we are talking about the best athlete to have won the Decathlon at the Olympics.

That being the case, then it's clearly DALEY THOMPSON, who won it in both 1980 & 1984.

 

[Thegibbsgamble]

Dan Akroyd is the best swimmer ever???

That was the der Ritz Mon