Mine are:
1- Muhammad Ali
2- Hank Aaron( I saw him hit his record homerun )
3- Michael Jordan
4- Joe Montana
5- Lance Armstrong
Honorable Mention- Edwin Moses
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This is based on athletic dominance in their sport (s) or era…not athletic prowess. If that was the case I would pick a Michael Vick or Bo Jackson, both physical specimens…they would pretty much take the cake.
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Babe Dickerson Zacharias
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Wilt Chamberlain
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Lance Armstrong
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Wayne Gretzsky
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Edwin Moses
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Miguel Indurain
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Michael Jordan
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Wayne Gretzky
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Micheal Johnson
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Lance Armstrong
I don’t know about Joe Montana, but at least its not a NASCAR DRIVER!
In no particular order:
Jesse Owens- very impressive given the era.
Jack Nicklaus- has set the standard for the world of golf to follow both on and off the course.
Pele- Brilliant, and even managed to captivate the US audience
Lance Armstrong- could be 7… enough said.
Paula Radcliffe- Should have a woman in here, and she is without a doubt the best female athlete in the world.
Weeman
glad to see LA in the lists so far.
i think he will once again prove all the nay sayers wrong.there is no tactician like him , he’s from another planet .
Pele was brilliant,so was Chamberlain…i had a tough time w/ my 5.
it’s a bit like comparing apples and pears… but if you can take into account the generation, competition, opportunity and success achieved in light of circumstances there are some outstanding athletes…
Ali is a great example, Gretzky, Woods, Michael Johnson, Sampras and Navaratilova all deserve a consideration…
Tough one.
Weeman
- emil zatopek
- dave bedford
- scott molina
- greg lemond
- paula radcliffe
not the 5 best. my 5 favorite. honorable mention:
dave wottle
scott tinley
mark allen
dave scott
steve prefontaine
eddy merckx
juha vaatainen
roger bannister
billy mills
lasse viren
seb coe
steve ovett
steve scott
rick wolhuter
edwin moses
and all the sub-9 minute 2-milers in high school.
Not too sure Lance would even be in my top 3 cyclists. The six or seven Tours are nice. But Eddy M has about as many wins than Lance has starts as a pro.
Phidippides died for his cause.
Ali may have had more impact in the world than most others.
Jackie Robinson / Hank Aarron have to be in the hunt.
Pele should be in there.
MJ has got to be, although they didn’t have to change basketball rules because of him.
Satchel Paige on longevity and games pitched.
Joe Montana? come on guys
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Jim Thorpe
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Emil Zapotek
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Jackie Robinson
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Eddy Merckx
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Ali
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Ali
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#23
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Mark Spitz
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LA
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Ellen MacArthur
HR: Larry Bird
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I can’t believe that Jim Thorpe’s name hasn’t been mentioned yet. He is so far ahead of everyone else in terms of greatness, it’s scary…
- Jim Thorpe
- Jim Brown
- Jesse Owens
- Wayne Gretzky
- Secretariat
HM1: Michael Jordan
HM2: Al Oerter
HM3: Roger Bannister
I couldn’t pick just one Honorable, it was too hard…
in no particular order
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Bjorn Daelhie
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Steve Redgrave
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Steffi Graf
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Eddy Merckx
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Dailey Thomson
I guess coming from multiple sports that were not endurance sports, I generally consider athletes who can compete in multiple sports at the top of their field a better “athlete” (not who was most important, or who was my favorite).
Jim Brown (not only a great running back, but also averaged something like 30+ points per game in H.S. hoops, was offered a minor league contract with a pro baseball team (yankees maybe?), was a track and field star, and also did something like lacrosse. Growing up in Chicago, I will always argue how Sweetness was a better all-purpose running back, but when it comes to “athlete”, Brown was up there.
Jim Thorpe
Michael Jordan
Bo Jackson
Babe Zaharias (even though I still have a tough time calling golf “athletic” 
There are just too many multi-sport athletes out there who could do it all. However, if you were to say who were the most influential, or dominant, it would definitely change (M.J., Gretsky, Ali, Tyson’s early years, Ruth, and I always liked Edwin Moses. Any guy who says “if I take x amount of steps in every race, I should win with a time of y”…and does that for like 432 years straight…that’s pretty dang dominant 
I guess you meant 432 races straight
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I like those as well. Can’t believe I left out Daehlie, although I always liked Vegard Ulvang. I remember watching Dailey Thompson duking it out against two Germans in a Euro Championship way back. Good times.
HM: Sergei Bubka.
bubka is definitely up there…
no…I meant years
I know it was a gazillion races, but didn’t he go something like 10 years without ever losing?
Kinda like how you would be if we lived in the same area and ever trained together. You’d probably go 75 years in a row beating me at running races, tris, tt’s, etc…although Edwin was a bit taller and so probably just would SEEM more dominant
and I think it amount to about 400 races…something just amazing. and you can’t say that 400 Hurdles is easy!
Endurance: Paula Newby-Frasier. 8 Hawaii Ironman wins, with 2 sub 9 hr times, and countless other Ironman victories. WOn 3 Ironmans in 5 weeks once.
Versitility: Eric Heiden- Won every gold medal at every distance in speed skating, retired to bike racing, qualifyied 1st American for olympics in the kilo(which in our infinite wisdom we boycotted), then won first US pro championship and richest race in the history of cycling, 165 miles. Basically he donimated everything from 20 seconds to about 7 hours.
Longevetity: Al Orter- Won four consecutive gold medals in four olympic games, setting a world record each time.
Style: Michael Jordon- He turned basketball into an art form, building of course on the likes of DR. J and Magic Johnson…
Guts/ Determination/ knowledge: Lance Armstrong- You can argue about the many greats of cycling, but there is no denying his story, his drive, and most of all, his results. He has captained less than great riders, as well as some of the best, but always finds a way to get himself to the line first. Final chapter here, yet to be written…
My boyhood hero: Mark Spitz- 7 golds, seven events, heats and finals. That’s a lot of racing and winning to do in a few days when the rest of the world is gunning for you. Would have made my top five if he hadn’t quit cold turkey. Was really pulling for him when he tried the 42 year old comeback to qualify for olympic trials. Too many years out of the pool was just too much to overcome, but 58seconds or so for the 100 meter fly at his age wasn’t too bad…
ok, not that much…
undefeated for 9 years, 9 months, 9 days and 122 races…