I doubt it. Steve Fleck the triathlete is Canadian so I think that would pre-empt him from working with the U.S. Olympic committee.

Kind of odd. Went to lots of lengths and then choose someone who doesn't excel at several of the criteria at all. Decathlon events take minimal amounts of vision, minimal reflex (everything is repetitive motions), only repetitive sorts of coordination (just train it into muscle memory), debatable flexibility requirements and a sport that isn't competitive relative to major sports around the world (by their definition). Not to mention that the ability to work with teammates on synergistic achievements is an enormous skill onto itself...one they left out of their criteria.

Oh, the inhumanity! No Tiger!?

I would move the hockey and soccer players higher on the list.

anyone who can jump over Shaq is ok in my book.

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Definitely. Also, what about other sports that might not be as popular?

I'd say that lacrosse, soccer, field hockey/hurling, australian rules football athletes should dominate the list. Hockey is intense, but you only play 20ish minutes out of 60 with 2 rest breaks and shifts of no more than 2 mins, max. Speed of the game is what makes that sport more intense.

The first four I listed are generally performed at a trot to a dead run, for 45-90 minutes with an independently moving ball, and various implements to move said ball. Speed, endurance, hand/eye, vision, all of it.

After that, start looking at lesser known sports such as keirin racing. Racing 110 meter hurdles? Please. Get thee hence. I'd put a steeplechaser over a sprint hurdler any day of the week.

John

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Top notch coaching: Francois and Accelerate3 | Follow on Twitter: LifetimeAthlete |

lol is that a joke or something, not of of those athletes even deserves to be listed as the greatest athlete of all time.

wheres michael phelps or pre? thats what i thought, bs list.

I like this: "He could throw a 16-pound ball the length of a 53-foot yacht." I kept waiting for the description of his height, "He is as tall as a six foot one inch tree".

No kidding. And not a single cyclist on the list. Someone like Cancellara or Contador is certainly a much better choice than many of the people on that list.

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"Rock and roll, dude." -- Dave Z., on winning TTs in all 3 Grand Tours.

ESPN The Magazine came out with a list a few years back that took different aspects of sports and then ranked them based on those. I like the way it was broken down and I think it makes a lot of sense... Here's the link

You can also sort it by the categories... for example to find out what the hardest Endurance sport is, click on Endurance and you'll see that the top 3 sports are Cycling (distance), Track and Field (distance), and Swimming (distance). Huge surprise eh?

Dre

Kind of odd. Went to lots of lengths and then choose someone who doesn't excel at several of the criteria at all. \\

I don't know, I think a decatathlete is a good choice, it would be like picking a triathlete. Doesn't excell in any of the one sports, but combined makes for a great athlete. As to the team aspect, it looks like half the list are team sports, so I don;t think they neglected that. At least they left games off the sports list, and I'm sooo glad there was no race car drivers on the list. I do think that an enudrance athlete would have been nice, I'm sure Eric Heiden pulled for one, but got out voted. And it looks to be a current list, not of all time. A few years ago, I'm sure Lance would have made it, but who in cycling has anything near his record right now?? Not even close there, so no cyclist, and the distance runners are interchangable on given weekends, so no real standouts there either. I think for triathletes that Javier or Vanessa might have made the original big list, but not quite big enough names yet, perhaps after a gold medal..

PS. I do think Phelps should have made the list, but swimmers just get no respect I guess....Talk about dominance in a sport, and the best of all time too....

Those are always amusing. Basketball and Ice Hockey have higher ratings for "endurance" than middle distance running. Isn't kind of odd that elite middle distance runners run 80 miles/wk with 15 mile long runs, yet basketball players often struggle to finish the 2 mile pre season run.

I think they under estimate how much endurance it takes to run a race that lasts well under 2 minutes.

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-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
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This is not the same Steve Fleck from slowtwitch on the panel is it?

No that is not me - although people have confused us in the past. That Steve Fleck is a Professor of Physiology and a leading expert on weight and strength training at Colorado College in the U.S. He is often sited in articles on weight and strength training. If you knew me to see me, you would know that I have not been near a weight room my whole life!! :)

As for the list it's interesting one. I would agree with most of it. I know that the crowd here will be disapointed that no endurance athlete made the top 10, but the reality is that we are pretty one dimensional in what we do with limited skill involved. If their was an endurance sport athlete that was a candidate for the list my vote would be to the top Nordic Skier in the world.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I'd agree with you Steve you just have to ask Teemu and Pauli about that.Those ski-ing Finns showed us a thing or two.

I'd actually pick a Nordic combined or nordic biathlete over a straight nordic skiier.

John

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Top notch coaching: Francois and Accelerate3 | Follow on Twitter: LifetimeAthlete |

Reading comprehension FTL!!

I don't think it's a greatest of all time, it's a current list. However, it is BS as you noted.

John

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Top notch coaching: Francois and Accelerate3 | Follow on Twitter: LifetimeAthlete |

First, Pre, while inspirational, wasn't even the best runner of his time, let alone the best runner of all time. And that's before you even weigh running against other sports.

Second, it's clearly a current (or nearly current since Mayweather is "retired") list, not an all time list.

As much as I'm a Wariner nuthugger, I'd actually give you Phelps over Wariner though. Phelps pretty clearly outclasses Wariner in flexibility, success, and strenght/size. An argument could be made either way on the rest.

pre was pretty awesome, we never got to see him in this prime. who knows what he wouldve done. that mystery factor makes pre even more inspirational.

I would say Phelps really belongs on that list. Consider the fact that he is competitive with world record holders in every stroke and he has got to outrank the runners. The hurdler and the 400 runner might be fast at their own events, but I doubt they would be as competitive in other events (let alone MANY other events) as Phelps is.

I'm surprised that there aren't any wrestlers on the list. I can't remember his name but there was some Russian guy who Roland Gardner beat who had been undefeated for years. It was big news when it happened. Wrestling takes coordination, endurance, agility, strength and brains too.

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-Darrell

Alexander Karelin. Undefeated in 13 years previous.

just a weird FYI, Rulon only has 9 toes.

John

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Top notch coaching: Francois and Accelerate3 | Follow on Twitter: LifetimeAthlete |

I remember reading about his toes. I believe that he got frostbite after getting lost snowmobiling in the winter which cost him a toe. This was after his Olympic win if I recall.

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-Darrell

I agree with Monty, when you are looking at total athlete, the top selections MUST be good at multiple things including strength, coordination, endurance, speed, etc. Personally, I would essentially the narrow the list to people who are very proficient in multiple sports. I wouldn't be able to include runners, cyclists, or swimmers in that list because of their single dimensionality. With that criteria, I also take soccer players out of the mix, or at least rank them below hockey, and as hockey players are doing the same thing, but have to do it on a tougher medium (thin support structure = blade, multidirectional surface = ice, etc.)...and basketball players (who include more frequent "power" exertions and play more in a multidirection environment). I'm not even that big of a hockey fan :-)


Now, if Tiger gave up golf...and went and dominated...bowling?...then maybe....

...well...probably not :-)

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I can't believe they left Tiger out!

And Lebron #2??? What kind of sick joke is that??? The greatest athletes are those that WIN, not those that choke when presented with the opportunity to win. Being a great athlete is also about mentral strenght, and we all know that Lebron has zero mental strenght.

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The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist.