[Other Sport] Best sportsman / athlete of all time

[Triggaaar]

not necessarily the answer to the original question, but Usain Bolt is my all time favourite

If doping doesn't disqualify you from this award, the Bolt is a good shout. Of all sports, sprinting probably has the most people attempt it, and Bolt is the best there's ever been. Not as big a sport, but if doping is allowed, then Lance Armstrong was also pretty good.

As for clean athletes - that's a tough one. But it's not Mohammed Ali. His mouth and status are bigger than his achievements.

 

[drew]

These were the two I was going to post.

I have never been a boxing fan, but I can remember being transfixed by Cassius Clay literally dancing around Sonny Liston

And Ed Moses was untouchable!

Luckily for Ed I never took up hurdling!!

 

[Triggaaar]

The best footballers, Maradona, Pele, Messi have to be up there because there has to be some weight added to the popularity of the sport worldwide.
Some of the names mentioned on here like Redgrave and Bubka were dominant in sports that in comparison to football one man and a dog participate in! It got to be much more difficult to get to the top (and stay there) in a sport that 100's of millions of people play worldwide.

Exactly, which is why the answer would be Bolt if he was clean.

 

[Triggaaar]

Luckily for Ed I never took up hurdling!!

Yeah, 'cos you'd have touched him all over

 

[Doonhamer7]

Interesting with football - is the great player who was surrounded by other excellent players (e.g. Pele in the 60s Brazil team) or the great player who carried average/good players to greatness (e.g. Maradona with Argentina in 1986, and Napoli).

The real GOAT I probably think is Sir Don Bradman - his test average of 99.96 is so far ahead of all other players before and after him (I think second best is c60), this despite England having effectively to resort to sporting ‘GBH’ with bodyline to stop him.

 

[Gwylan]

Has to be Bradman - he's so far ahead of anyone in his/her sport. He's literally twice as good as anyone else.

He must also be the only sportsperson who, indirectly, nearly caused a diplomatic rupture between two countries.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Don Bradman.

I think I'm right in saying that Bradman is, statistically speaking, the most outstanding player from any sport (taken over any sort of lengthy career), since he averaged about 1.5 times more than literally everybody else who's ever played the game. So in a sense he's a "correct" answer.

On the other hand, my great grandad apparently much preferred Charlie Macartney, so maybe numbers and statistical achievement aren't everything.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Has to be Bradman - he's so far ahead of anyone in his/her sport. He's literally twice as good as anyone else.

He must also be the only sportsperson who, indirectly, nearly caused a diplomatic rupture between two countries.

Even if I restrict myself to cricketers, I'd throw in Basil D'Oliveira as somebody who actually did cause a diplomatic rupture between two countries. And took far more wickets than Bradman while he was at it.

 

[PeterT]

If we are talking best sportsman, other than Bradman it could only be Brian Jacks

 

[drew]

Yeah, 'cos you'd have touched him all over

Odd? Can't say I'm familiar with that phrase.

 

[Swansman]

Looking at the big sports (arguably my sumo wrester in the original post are quite big but you know...), I give you "the Mozart of table tennis" - Jan-Ove Waldner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSbE_CTc-Fc

In the 90s he was the second famous foreigner in China, just after Jordan and just ahead of Bill Clinton, and remains the only non-Asian player to win the Olympics in table tennis. Played in five Olympics, won six World Cups, with a professional career lasting 34 years in a high-intensity sport, which is also one of the most popular sports in the world.

 

[Mackenzie]

If we are talking best sportsman, other than Bradman it could only be Brian Jacks

A superstar

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Inigo Calderon.

End of thread!

 

[METALMICKY]

Georges St Pierre!

 

[Eeyore]

Interesting with football - is the great player who was surrounded by other excellent players (e.g. Pele in the 60s Brazil team) or the great player who carried average/good players to greatness (e.g. Maradona with Argentina in 1986, and Napoli).

The real GOAT I probably think is Sir Don Bradman - his test average of 99.96 is so far ahead of all other players before and after him (I think second best is c60), this despite England having effectively to resort to sporting ‘GBH’ with bodyline to stop him.

Well, they kept his average down to 56... Only Eddie Paynter did better.

I see your all Scots list.

You don't like tennis then....

 

[Baldseagull]

Interesting with football - is the great player who was surrounded by other excellent players (e.g. Pele in the 60s Brazil team) or the great player who carried average/good players to greatness (e.g. Maradona with Argentina in 1986, and Napoli).

The real GOAT I probably think is Sir Don Bradman - his test average of 99.96 is so far ahead of all other players before and after him (I think second best is c60), this despite England having effectively to resort to sporting ‘GBH’ with bodyline to stop him.

If we are going with Footballers, it's probably Maradonna, however Zidane is the player I most admired.

Bradman was out for a duck in the first innings of his last Test, Australia beat England by an innings so he never got a second innings. 4 runs in that innings would have given him an average of 100.

 

[Popeye]

Tony Hawk

 

[The Clamp]

Alex Honnold, for me.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Honnold


Alexander Honnold (born August 17, 1985) is an American rock climber best known for his free solo ascents of big walls. Honnold rose to prominence in June 2017 when he became the first person to free solo El Capitan in Yosemite National Park,[3] a feat that one commentator described as "one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever."[4][5] Honnold also holds the record for the fastest ascent of the Yosemite triple crown, an 18-hour, 50-minute link-up of Mount Watkins, The Nose, and the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome.

 

[Brovion]

Has to be Bradman - he's so far ahead of anyone in his/her sport. He's literally twice as good as anyone else.

He must also be the only sportsperson who, indirectly, nearly caused a diplomatic rupture between two countries.

Agreed. In fact he was so good that the Mafia started calling their senior figures 'Don' in acknowledgement.


DISCLAIMER: The above statement may not be 100% accurate.

 

[Billy Seagull]

Tiger Woods.

He took golf to another level winning multiple tournaments and major after major along with changing golfers into athletes.