Picking the top 10 sportspeople of all time

Following Tiger Woods' heroics at the US Open this week, Dominion Post sports reporter Fred Woodcock nominates 10 top sportspeople of all time.

1. Muhammad Ali (US): Widely regarded as the sportsman of the 20th century, Ali won gold at the 1960 Rome Olympics before embarking on a stellar professional career, winning the world heavyweight title three times and losing just five out of 61 bouts in the golden era of heavyweight boxing.

2. Carl Lewis (US): 10 Olympic gold medals in the 100m, 200m, relay and long jump between 1984 and 1996 and eight world championship titles in the same events, plus world records in the 100m, long jump, 4x100m and 4x200m relays, Lewis is the best track and field athlete.

3. Pele (Brazil): IOC's athlete of the 20th century and widely regarded as the best footballer of all time, Pele is the only player to have won three World Cups. He scored at a rate of nearly a goal a game during 669 club matches, and netted a record 77 times in 92 matches for Brazil. Was the most graceful player and had all the skills.

4. Michael Jordan (US): Six-time NBA champion, five-time MVP, six-time finals MVP, two-time Olympic gold medal winner, highest career scoring average (30.12), highest post-season scoring average (33.4), the list goes on and on.

5. Tiger Woods (US): 89 professional wins worldwide, including 14 major championships. At just 32 years of age, Woods has dominated his sport during the past decade and will undoubtedly eclipse any major records he doesn't currently hold.

6. Mark Spitz (US): Winner of nine Olympic swimming gold medals, Spitz holds the record for most golds won in a single Games (seven), which he set at Munich in 1972. Remains the only Olympic athlete to both win a gold medal in every individual event he entered in a given year, and to set a world record in each event.

7. Haile Gebrsellasie (Ethiopia): The best long distance runner, Gebrselassie's record speaks for itself. Two Olympic gold medals in the 10,000m, eight world championships, and 25 world records in almost every race ranging from two miles to the marathon.

8. Eddy Merckx (Belgium): The most successful and best all-round cyclist, Merckx won the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia five times each and was a three-time world cycling champion. In 1974, he won all three titles – cycling's 'Triple Crown'.

9. Donald Bradman (Australia): Regarded as the best batsman to grace the game, Bradman dominated cricket in the 1930s and 40s, scoring 29 hundreds from just 52 test matches and ending his career with a staggering average of 99.94.

10. Rod Laver (Australia)/Roger Federer (Switzerland): Laver won 11 grand slams, including all four tournaments in the same calendar year twice. Federer has won 12 grand slams and a breakthrough win at the French Open is all that stops the Swiss from becoming the greatest.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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Thobela Bentswana   #113   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

It's clear that this one man's review. Where's Michael Schumacher, Diego Maradona, Pete Sampras? It's difficult to tell the best sportmen of all time unles we categories them according to their sports code. Ali had to be on the list cause he talked a lot, but think of Maradona who revolutionised the transfer costs of players to multi-millions of dollars, single-handed won the world cup. Pele was great because he was amongst great players.

Eddy Wessels   #112   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

Lance Armstrong is waaay overated. he only participated in one event: the tour de France. No Giro de Italia, no olympics, no tour of Spain or any other major global championship. Its like if Tiger won only the masters.

phil_style   #111   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe_Didrikson_Zaharias

As spotted by commenter #27. No way she should be left off this list!

kingi   #110   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

Jim Thorpe is by far most accomplished athlete/sportsman ever

Mark   #109   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

How about Jabster Khan. Squash is one of the most physically demanding games there is!

Mark   #108   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

Also, not suprising to see many Americans in the list, only because of the global marketing of their sports and names is this happening. After all not many American sports are truly global, just push through over the air-ways!!

Mark Wilson   #107   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

Guess you have to be an individual sports person to be the best. An impossible list to make, I agree with the last comments. More of a popularity contest, and not a true account of "the best".

Snarkyspice   #106   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

They are all guys! What about some women? Someone like Nadia Comaneci (first gymnast to ever score a perfect 10 at the Olympics + 5 Olympic gold medals & she was the only woman to win the European AA title three times)? Or a swimmer like Dawn Fraser or Shane Gould? + Carl Lewis was great but he test positive for banned substances, so...

steve   #105   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

climbing is still a sport isnt it?

what about Sir Ed?

Logan Carter   #104   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

Looks to me like 100 people completely missed the Point of view of this list.... being that of, its your point of view Freddy.

I think however Bill McKenna should be on the list. All White and Mot High first XI soccer coach to us both :D

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