Greatest Athlete Ever

[throwmonkey]

My top 5 is:

1. Bo Jackson
1a. Jim Thorpe
3. Jim Brown
4. Deion Sanders
5. Babe Didrikson Zaharias

 

[purplehazze96]

Originally Posted by Enlightened Thought

You know 90% of you cats haven't ever seen Bo Jackson play, let alone Jim Thorpe

you can learn a lot through reading about particular athletes and their accolades though.




"Accolades" does not equal athleticism

 

[xtapolapacetl]

you can learn a lot through reading about particular athletes and their accolades though.
This is stupid. 50 years from now, imagine if people only knew MJ by his numbers and nothing else, not having seen highlights, the unstopablenessof his fadeaway, etc. That would be insufficient.

 

[tmac360]

But back my boy Bruce Lee:

Here are a list of verified physical feats:

• Lee's striking speed from three feet with his hands down by his side reached five hundredths of a second.
• Lee could spring a 235lb opponent 15 feet away with a 1 inch punch.
• Lee's combat movements were at times too fast to be captured on film at 24fps, so many scenes were shot in 32fps to put Lee in slow motion. Normally martial arts films are sped up.
• In a speed demonstration, Lee could snatch a dime off a person's open palm before they could close it, and leave a penny behind.
• Lee could perform push ups using only his thumbs
• Lee would hold an elevated v-sit position for 30 minutes or longer.
• Lee could throw grains of rice up into the air and then catch them in mid-flight using chopsticks.
• Lee performed one-hand push-ups using only the thumb and index finger
• Lee performed 50 reps of one-arm chin-ups.
• From a standing position, Lee could hold a 125lb barbell straight out.�
• Lee could break wooden boards six inches thick.
• Lee performed a side kick while training with James Coburn and broke a 150-pound punching bag
• Lee could cause a 300-lb bag to fly towards and thump the ceiling with a sidekick.
• In a move that has been dubbed "Dragon Flag", Lee could perform leg lifts with only his shoulder blades resting on the edge of a bench and suspend his legs and torso perfectly horizontal midair.�
• Lee could thrust his fingers through unopened steel cans of Coca-Cola, at a time before cans were made of the softer aluminum metal.
• Lee would use one finger to leave dramatic indentations on pine wood.

really?

 

[kiddin like jason]

Uh, me.

 

[gmsboy1]

TraSoul82 wrote:
But back my boy Bruce Lee:

Here are a list of verified physical feats:

• Lee's striking speed from three feet with his hands down by his side reached five hundredths of a second.
• Lee could spring a 235lb opponent 15 feet away with a 1 inch punch.
• Lee's combat movements were at times too fast to be captured on film at 24fps, so many scenes were shot in 32fps to put Lee in slow motion. Normally martial arts films are sped up.[sup]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee#_note-35[/sup]
• In a speed demonstration, Lee could snatch a dime off a person's open palm before they could close it, and leave a penny behind.
• Lee could perform push ups using only his thumbs[sup]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee#_note-ArtExpress[/sup]
• Lee would hold an elevated v-sit position for 30 minutes or longer.
• Lee could throw grains of rice up into the air and then catch them in mid-flight using chopsticks.
• Lee performed one-hand push-ups using only the thumb and index finger[sup]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee#_note-ArtExpress[/sup]
• Lee performed 50 reps of one-arm chin-ups.
• From a standing position, Lee could hold a 125lb barbell straight out.�[sup]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee#_note-WarmMarble[/sup]
• Lee could break wooden boards six inches thick.
• Lee performed a side kick while training with James Coburn and broke a 150-pound punching bag[sup]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee#_note-40[/sup]
• Lee could cause a 300-lb bag to fly towards and thump the ceiling with a sidekick.[sup]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee#_note-ArtExpress[/sup]
• In a move that has been dubbed "Dragon Flag", Lee could perform leg lifts with only his shoulder blades resting on the edge of a bench and suspend his legs and torso perfectly horizontal midair.�[sup]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee#_note-41[/sup]
• Lee could thrust his fingers through unopened steel cans of Coca-Cola, at a time before cans were made of the softer aluminum metal.
• Lee would use one finger to leave dramatic indentations on pine wood.

Dude was an athletic freak of nature.


Is that the origin of the "take a penny leave a penny" cup?

 

[theandrea3000]

my list goes

Jim Thorpe
Wilt Chamberlin
Bo Jackson
Deion Sanders

 

[tman90]

Is that the origin of the "take a penny leave a penny" cup?

what about lance armstrong?

 

[proshares]

Roy Jones Jr? PBF? I think boxing is the ultimate test of athleticism, skill, and of both physical and mental toughness.
Sugar Ray Leonard should be above those names just for the fact of the better competition and the belts at super middleweight, light heavyweight,middleweight, welterweight and light middleweight.

 

[darthska]

Originally Posted by someone

You know 90% of you cats haven't ever seen Bo Jackson play, let alone Jim Thorpe

Enlightened Thought wrote:

---

you can learn a lot through reading about particular athletes and their accolades though.

Xtapolapacetl wrote:

---

This is stupid. 50 years from now, imagine if people only knew MJ by his numbers and nothing else, not having seen highlights, the unstopableness of his fadeaway, etc. That would be insufficient.

I couldn't disagree more with what you're trying to say.

It would be unfortunate for a person to have to only read about MJ's accomplishments without having the ability to actually be able to say they saw them,but it does not diminish their opinion one bit to think that he is a great athlete based on what they've read about him.


I don't need to have been at the game to know that Wilt scoring 100 points is crazy. And I don't need to be at Lisa Leslie's high school game tosay that her scoring 101 points in one half is crazy.

Being AT these events only makes you appreciate them MORE. You don't HAVE to be at the event to appreciate it.

WITNESSING these athletes only makes you appreciate them MORE. You don't have to have seen an athlete in order to appreciate him/her.

 

[downtown43]

i would say Bo or Deion... now i know you cant say definitively because no one has ever seen Thorpe play or even at least clips of him, but i'm gonna goahead and say that this guy:

and this guy

are better athletes than this guy:

and thats my opinion... really no way to convince me otherwise. look at him, imo that dude aint a better athlete than deion or bo. if he was dominating backthen i dont even wanna know what those guys would have done

 

[enlightened thought]

This is stupid. 50 years from now, imagine if people only knew MJ by his numbers and nothing else, not having seen highlights, the unstopableness of his fadeaway, etc. That would be insufficient.
i don't think it's stupid. i mean, it would take a great athlete to have accomplished those things...right?

 

[mrmoneyindabank]

Jessie Owens

 

[rhcp729]

one that alot of people are forgetting about...

dave winfield.

drafted in mlb by the padres
drafted in the nfl by the vikings (didn't even play college football)
drafted in the nba by they atlanta hawks
and drafted in the aba by the utah stars

now, if that's not impressive...i don't know what is.

 

[darthska]

^ I love Dave Winfield, but an easy counter to that response is this: LETTERING in multiple sports is more impressive thanbeing drafted in multiple leagues.And for that matter, actually PLAYING in multiple leagues (Deion, Bo, Dannny Ainge) is more impressive than being drafted into multiple leagues.

 

[icykicks79]

MICHEAL JORDAN... MJ WAS THE GREATEST

 

[slow motion g35]

All these athletes are great at there respective sports, ali, mj, bo jackson, owens, ...really hard for me to pick one, but I'll go with this guy....



no one has come close to his achievement or will, even with genetic refinement....only man to jump 8ft...and closest is 7'10"...every inch at thatheight is like a foot long in terms of achievement.

his dominance

 

[japanair21]

Lee could throw grains of rice up into the air and then catch them in mid-flight using chopsticks.



That's ridiculous..

Yall sleepin on my dude...

 

[berkeleybears]

steve prefontaine.

 

[japanair21]

Real talk, Pre was one of the most motivated dudes I've ever heard of, dude is an inspriation to me being a runner.