Greatest Athlete Ever

[quest uno]

bengie molina

 

[RyGuy45]

The thing is for me questions like this are impossible to answer because I wasn't alive when Jim Thorpe was playing so what basis do I have to say he is a better athlete than say Bo Jackson and vice versa.
One way is to compare them to the rest of their generation.

Babe Ruth for instance was batting against whites, yes. But when comparing him to other players in that era (who also were "just" facing whites) hewas hitting more HRs than entire teams were. Babe probably would have been a monster no matter who he faced then.

With that said all one needs to do is look up Thorpe on his wiki:

Olympic gold medal in pentathlon and decathlon
All American college football player
All-NFL football player
Pro baseball player, first Native American to win the world series
Pro basketball player
Named to Pro Football HOF in 1963. Also is named to college football, US Olympic, and national track and field HOFs.
Named greatest athlete of the 1st half of the century by the AP.
Named greatest pro football player of the 1st half of the century by the AP.


One can compare Thorpe to that generation and conclude there is a very high likelihood Thorpe is the greatest pure athlete ever.

Obviously there are others on the short list no doubt.

 

[koolbarbone]

NO ONE has done what Thorpe has done. He is the best athlete hands down.

 

[koolbarbone]

It's really unfair to compare modern athletes to yesterday's athletes. The technology and training just wasn't there. You can only compare athletesagainst their era. In that context Bo was a beast, but as a multisport athlete he has peers in someone like Deion or Herschel Walker. But there is no one whoeven comes close to how good an athlete Thorpe was across the board in his era and that's why he gets the nod.

 

[RyGuy45]

Thorpe was way ahead of his generation, but that doesn't mean he is the greatest. it just means he was way ahead of his generation. i can't look to much into some of those achievements, because some of those sports had nowhere near the athletes they have today. (i'm talking about baseball, basketball, and track mostly, but football applies to)

Bo Jackson would have COMPLETELY destroyed that era
Guess what, a ton of our current athletes would have destroyed that era.

And if that era had access to today's training methods they would have successful ones now too. It's obviously a matter of opinion because we don'tthe exact details. But we can use some facts presented.

Do we completely dismiss all of yesteryear's athletes cause it was a different time? We can't. We know that.

I'm not going to argue against Bo's cause simply because Bo would have been a beast in any era and any future era. He was that absurd. But, when onesees the different sports Thorpe not only played in but excelled in then you gotta go with him. We've also seen quotes from people who saw him live. Theman's name has been the definition of "athlete" for 70 years, there's a reason for that. Hell I just called my old man real quick (60 yearsold) and asked him "dad who's the best athlete ever?" and he said for 2 seconds and responds "Jim Thorpe." (true story)

Simply put everything he did he almost dominated. That's an athlete. And you rarely saw any other athlete in that era compare. No one else did it.

Discussions like these have wide ranges of opinions, I'm not going to discredit others. Shoot, one could use a variety of track stars as theirchoices....Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses, etc.

 

[wstcoastgotti]

so Ska, you saw Jim Thorpe play?
I thought the same thing... there are NO correct answers for a question like this... Bo Jackson, in terms of pure athlete, was insane.

Ima have to go with Bo

 

[jules300]

Jackie Robinson

 

[wstcoastgotti]

Jackie Robinson
Influential, important, etc. then yes... athlete, no

 

[trasoul82]

An oft slept-on candidate:

Bruce Lee - Lost interview - Click here for this week's top video clips

 

[27th4thehood]

Originally Posted by WstCoastGotti

Jackie Robinson

Influential, important, etc. then yes... athlete, no

Robinson chose to attend the nearby University of California, Los Angeles, where became the school's first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football and track.

 

[cjgenius368]

gotta be Jim Brown or Jim Thorpe.

Jim Brown is seen by some as the best Lacrosse player ever... forget football.

I knew Thorpe did a lot, but I didn't know he did all that.

 

[theandrea3000]

Very underrated in terms of most athletic discussions. I still believe that the answer is probably Jim Thorpe but the fact that Wilt Chamberlain never getsmentioned is a crime. Dude was a 5 star college track athlete and having sex with 20'000 women has to count for something...

"As he did at Overbrook, Chamberlain again showcased his diverse athletic talent. He ran the 100-yard dash in 10.9 seconds, threw the shotput56 feet, triple jumped more than 50 feet, and won the high jump in the Big Eight track and field championships three straight years.[sup][1"[/sup]
[sup]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilt_Chamberlain#_note-hickoksports[/sup]

 

[offbad]

Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. aka Muhammad Ali

 

[ku de gras]

Lance Armstrong hands down.

 

[imsolesick]

deion sanders

 

[fanatic15]

Babe Didrikson Zaharias

I win!

 

[j rain 23]

my vote goes to vick. his athletic abilities are/were unreal.

 

[zoom air panda]

having sex with 20'000 women


ok, how was this f'ing possible?

 

[fanatic15]

Originally Posted by Zoom Air Panda

having sex with 20'000 women

ok, how was this f'ing possible?


I'm guessing a number of them were at the same time?

 

[bballah3]

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[/h1][h1]Carl Lewis[/h1][h3]
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[table][tr][td]Medal record[/td] [/tr][tr][td]
Carl Lewis[/td] [/tr][tr][th=""]Competitor for United States[/th] [/tr][tr][th=""]Men's athletics[/th] [/tr][tr][th=""]Olympic Games[/th] [/tr][tr][td]Gold[/td] [td]1984 Los Angeles[/td] [td]100 m[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Gold[/td] [td]1984 Los Angeles[/td] [td]200 m[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Gold[/td] [td]1984 Los Angeles[/td] [td]4x100 m relay[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Gold[/td] [td]1984 Los Angeles[/td] [td]Long jump[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Gold[/td] [td]1988 Seoul[/td] [td]100 m[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Gold[/td] [td]1988 Seoul[/td] [td]Long jump[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Gold[/td] [td]1992 Barcelona[/td] [td]4x100 m relay[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Gold[/td] [td]1992 Barcelona[/td] [td]Long jump[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Gold[/td] [td]1996 Atlanta[/td] [td]Long jump[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Silver[/td] [td]1988 Seoul[/td] [td]200 m[/td] [/tr][tr][th=""]World Championships[/th] [/tr][tr][td]Gold[/td] [td]1983 Helsinki[/td] [td]100 m[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Gold[/td] [td]1983 Helsinki[/td] [td]4x100 m relay[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Gold[/td] [td]1983 Helsinki[/td] [td]Long jump[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Gold[/td] [td]1987 Rome[/td] [td]100 m[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Gold[/td] [td]1987 Rome[/td] [td]4x100 m relay[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Gold[/td] [td]1987 Rome[/td] [td]Long jump[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Gold[/td] [td]1991 Tokyo[/td] [td]100 m[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Gold[/td] [td]1991 Tokyo[/td] [td]4x100 m relay[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Silver[/td] [td]1991 Tokyo[/td] [td]Long jump[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Bronze[/td] [td]1993 Stuttgart[/td] [td]200 m[/td] [/tr][/table]

 

[downtown43]

^carl was also an NBA draft pick

 

[japanair21]

None of the guys yall listed can compare to...








HIBACHI!

Being serious, I always thought this was the most ******ed questionto ask. It's like comparing guys from the past in the NBA, to the players today, but only 100 times worse. Also, don't forget about Kimbo Slice, dudeis the definition of athlete.

 

[rawsheed]

Randy Moss

 

[illmaticsoulchild]

Roger Federer

 

[darthska]

K8be wan Kenobi wrote:

---

so Ska, you saw Jim Thorpe play?
The question wasn't, "Who's the greatest athlete you ever saw play?"If you're responding about the way I responded (callingthose 3 answers 'the only 3 correct answers'), then... I was just stating my opinion, bro.

Nothing more.

I like Fanatic's answer, too.

And I never knew Jackie Robinson lettered in 4 sports. Interesting.