The Greatest Athlete of All-time

[Old Pio]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Let's include poker players, too! I mean, 12+ hours of pure mental strength, crunching numbers, 3-4 days in a row, maybe more...it's difficult. Not a sport, but hey, we're counting games/activities/hobbies, so why not?!

And we just lost the immortal Don Carter.

[The Rube]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

And we just lost the immortal Don Carter.

First rule of Sport/Non-sport:

Can you smoke a cig/have a beer while performing said activity, with little to no deviation from your skill set?

Bowling is #1 on that list.

[Old Pio]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

First rule of Sport/Non-sport:

Can you smoke a cig/have a beer while performing said activity, with little to no deviation from your skill set?

Bowling is #1 on that list.

How about Desi Arnaz? Banging on that conga drum during Babaloo has got to require both strength and endurance?

[bigblue_dl]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Animals are not athletes. Sorry, but they are not.

What's next? Let's find some greyhound racing champion! Woo hoo!

Back to horses, what about dressage (basically horse dancing)? Horse racing : skating races = dressage : ice dancing

I know what you think about it and I don't care. Secretariat is included along with golfers and race car drivers. If you don't like it, just don't vote for them.

[manurespreader]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

So what makes an athlete. Strength, speed, quickness, endurance, but also superior skills to other athletes. I'd vote for Secretariat in a heartbeat, or if you want Man-o-War, he might even have been better. Both were far superior to the competition. But yeah, horses count in my book. And the Belmont is significantly longer than two minutes.

[JF_Gophers]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

You should crowd source the list, pare it down to say 128 names (or 64 if you get fewer nominees). Then, rank them by nominations received and do head-to-head votes till you get to a final 2. Be almost like march madness then.

[bigblue_dl]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

You should crowd source the list, pare it down to say 128 names (or 64 if you get fewer nominees). Then, rank them by nominations received and do head-to-head votes till you get to a final 2. Be almost like march madness then.

My goal is 128 names. Then I'm going to put them into polls with 16 athletes, spreading out the highest "seeds" among 8 different polls, and filling down until all polls are full. I'm going to take the top 4 from each poll to get down to 32, and then it will be head to head after that. 1 vs. 32, 2 vs. 31, etc.

[The Rube]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

I know what you think about it and I don't care. Secretariat is included along with golfers and race car drivers. If you don't like it, just don't vote for them.

Dressage represent! I demand it!

[jmh]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Animals are not athletes. Sorry, but they are not.

What's next? Let's find some greyhound racing champion! Woo hoo!

Back to horses, what about dressage (basically horse dancing)? Horse racing : skating races = dressage : ice dancing

I have to agree with Brent here. Even if you consider racehorses athletes, it just makes too much sense to restrict the tournament to *human* athletes. Otherwise don't you have to look into racing greyhounds and fighting birds and bulls that killed a lot of matadors and any other examples of athletic animals?

[JF_Gophers]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

I have to agree with Brent here. Even if you consider racehorses athletes, it just makes too much sense to restrict the tournament to *human* athletes. Otherwise don't you have to look into racing greyhounds and fighting birds and bulls that killed a lot of matadors and any other examples of athletic animals?

Aren't humans animals? Pretty much eliminates everyone!

[The Rube]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

Aren't humans animals? Pretty much eliminates everyone!

I am not an animal! I'm a human being! /Elephant Man

[bigblue_dl]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

I have to agree with Brent here. Even if you consider racehorses athletes, it just makes too much sense to restrict the tournament to *human* athletes. Otherwise don't you have to look into racing greyhounds and fighting birds and bulls that killed a lot of matadors and any other examples of athletic animals?

Well, Bodacious is already on the list.

[LynahFan]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

I have to agree with Brent here. Even if you consider racehorses athletes, it just makes too much sense to restrict the tournament to *human* athletes. Otherwise don't you have to look into racing greyhounds and fighting birds and bulls that killed a lot of matadors and any other examples of athletic animals?

Forget those. The slowest, most uncoordinated cheetah you could ever find is a better athlete than *any* human. Humans only, please.

[manurespreader]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

I think horses should be included, but if not, my nomination is Usain Bolt.

[FreshFish]

Re: The Greatest Athlete of All-time

If you are looking for a well-rounded athlete, a combination of strength, stamina, agility, quickness, and endurance, you'd be hard-pressed to find a tougher sport than wrestling. I'd nominate Dan Gable.

So many of our nominations for best athlete are people who have developed a freakish ability at a highly-specialized skill: hitting a baseball, shooting a basketball, running really fast, running really fast while jumping over things, etc.

Oh, also if you are looking for a good place for additional nominations, I'd suggest anyone who ever made the cover of a Wheaties cereal box....

The tradition has included hundreds of athletes from many different sports, and also team depictions.

When I first had the idea, I had no idea that there were so many athletes depicted there at one time or another! I guess you'd have to pare it down to get to 128, and even then there are lots of people from outside the US to consider.


link added in the word "cover"