The greatest athelete if all time

[qwertyMike]

Jesse Ownens
"At the Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor on May 25, 1935, Jesse set three world records and tied a fourth, all in a span of about 70 minutes."


"In 1936, Owens qualified for the Olympics by setting a record in the 100-yard dash. He won four gold medals in the 100-meter, 200-meter, long jump, and 400-meter relay. The gold medals that he won at the Olympic games in Berlin were achieved with Adolf Hitler in attendance. Owens success disproved Hitler's theory that there is a supreme Aryan race and that blacks were not on the same level and therefore inferior to this master race."

Hitler accused the USA of using 'black auxilairies'

The officials hauled Owens off in the middle of the the long jump to compete in the 220 yds dash.

THERE WAS A MAN

[BrotherBuzz]

1. Seems that Jim Thorpe should fit in here, too.

[fishnfla]

8. Another vote for Jim Thorpe

[Brother Buzz]

9. Thorpe gets my vote

Any guy that can hit three home runs into 3 different states in the same game gets my vote. Hey, the gold medals for the decathlon and pentathlon events at the 1912 Olympics aren't bad either.

Olympic champion Jim Thorpe played in a semi-pro baseball game in a ballpark on the Texas-Oklahoma-Arkansas border...He hit his first homer over the leftfield wall with the ball landing in Oklahoma...Then he hit a homer over the rightfield wall, into Arkansas...His third homer of the game was an inside-the-park home run in centerfield, which was in Texas!

[Droopy]

2. I can't think of any to top yours

Although I think Barry Sanders should at least be in the top ten.

[lpbk2713]

3. Babe Didrickson Zaharias

She had no peers. Good at everything she tried.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

12. The Babe was all around

You dont see talent like that often.

[alwynsw]

4. I gotta go with Thorpe

Met Owens in '76. Great accomplishments, narrow man. Sorry. I still think Thorpe was the best.

Owens is a top 5 candidate as is Babe (not Ruth) along with, so help me I always forget his name, not the greatest athlete, but the US wrestler in -was it '88 or '84 - who overcame cancer and won Olympic gold who gets it for sheer guts and determination.

[Fight_n_back]

5. Owens couldn't hit a curve ball

and was a terrible jockey.

Criticism is so easy...

[beanball]

6. The greatest

Jim Brown of Syracuse U. 1.football 2.la cross 3.basketball 4.high school.baseball.(there is little doubt he was the greatest running back of all time)

[sasquatch]

7. Jim Thorpe and Jim Brown were the best in my opinion

[charliebrown]

10. I agree that Thorpe and Owens but

Bo Jackson was in a much more competative time and was a superstar in baseball and football. I think it is comparible.

[Spider Jerusalem]

11. Jim Thorpe.

No question.

Runners-up: Jackie Robinson (great baseball player, accomplished track-and-field competitor, golfer, tennis player, a great running back in football, an excellent point guard in basketball, etc...four letter man at UCLA, first in the school's history).

Muhammad Ali.

Babe Didrikson Zaharias.

And number five is tricky...Jim Brown, maybe. Or Ty Cobb (miserable human being, but probably the greatest all-around player the game of baseball has ever had).

[GregW]

13. The greatest athletic PERFORMANCE of all time

is hands down, Bob Beamon's winning long jump in the '68 Olympics. In the 53 years leading up to the Olympics, the long jump record had been extended exactly 8.5 inches. Beamon's first jump (the first legal jump of the competition) broke the existing record by 21.75 inches! He jumped so far that he jumped past the upper limit of the measuring device, and almost jumped out of the pit. Beamon never came close to this mark again, the record stood for another 23 years, and Carl Lewis never beat it.

[happyslug]

14. Why stay with the 20th Centruy?

Why not William Marshall:


Did tournaments from his teen years till he turned 40 and never lost one. Unhorsed at least 130 knights at a time when real weapons were used instead of blunted weapons of the Renaissance tournaments. For more see the following:

http://www.castlewales.com/marshall.html

http://www.magnacharta.com/articles/article01D.htm

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~anacnaut/wmarshal/

They had to be other European and Non-European athletes that equals William Marshall but records are incomplete (We only know of William Marshall’s exploits do to his son hiring someone to write a book about William Marshall).

We do have some records of the achievements of some of the Roman Gladiators (Through the Romans preferred the Chariot races in the Circus). Both the Chariot races and the Gladiators produced some well known (in their time) athletes that equal many of those today.

And let us not forget the Ancient Olympic Games which lasted while into the 5th Century AD (It was believed that the ancient games ended in 405 AD when the Roman Emperor burned down the Olympic Stadium, but recent archaeology indicate that games were held AFTER 405 AD. Thus the 405 AD Act of the Emperor was just showing the withdraw of Imperial support for the Games not an actual ban on them. After 405 AD no written records were kept, but neither was any attempt to stop the games, thus leaving historians with a question when did the ancient games end? ). Many of the Ancient Athletes equal the actions of their modern Olympians, right down to the drugs and other forms of Cheating.

My Point is to keep this to 20th Century Athletes is to restrictive and what about Secretariat and his overwhelming victory in 1973? Why do we have to keep this to Humans of the 20th Centruy?

Official Secretariat Fan Club:
http://www.angelfire.com/ky/secretariatfan/

http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016464.html

http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/commodity/1881/secretariat.htm1

Some information on Roman Gladiators:
http://romegiftshop.com/noname10.html

http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/consortium/gladiator3.html

The Roman Circus:

http://abacus.bates.edu/~mimber/Rciv/ludi.htm

http://www.historyhouse.com/in_history/circus_maximus/

At let us not forget the greatest “Athletic Event” riot in History, the Nika Riot of 532 AD:

http://myron.sjsu.edu/romeweb/LATEROME/art13.htm

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