WHO IS THE WORLD’S BEST ATHLETE EVER?

WROTE FOLLOWING COLUMN ON AUG. 19, 2008

WHO IS THE WORLD'S BEST ATHLETE EVER?

There are an alarming number of people who lack historical perspective in deciding who is the world’s best athlete and are close-minded in not considering athletes in individual sports (except for golfers for reasons that are mystifying to me).
The issue of who is a great athlete is a common topic this week because of the performance of Michael Phelps, who won eight gold medals in swimming in the Beijing Olympics. Listening to talk radio and reading blogs, it seems that almost everyone agrees that Phelps is the greatest Olympian of all time.
Phelps, 23, might deserve recognition someday as the greatest Olympian, but he doesn’t right now. Excelling in one more Olympics would put him near the top of my list. Currently, though, he has been great for four years. Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses, Al Oerter, and, I’m guessing, several athletes in sports that I don’t follow were great over a period of 12 years. Wasn’t there a Soviet gymnast who won several gold and other medals over several Olympics, but was ignored by the American media despite repeatedly crushing Olga Korbut because she wasn’t that cute?
I know Phelps holds the record for most gold medals, but why is that the sole criteria? If Pele scored 50 goals in six games in the 1968 Olympics and duplicated that feat in 1972 and 1976 he would have 150 goals and, at most, three gold medals. By the cumulative gold criteria, EVERY athlete in a team sport is excluded. So is every athlete in a weight-class sport (boxing, wrestling, weightlifting).
Swimming is one of the only sports that gives you an opportunity to win several gold medals in one competition. It’s no coincidence that the records Phelps broke (seven golds in one Olympics, nine overall) were also held by a swimmer – Mark Spitz.
Yet, I heard a radio talk show host proclaim Phelps the greatest Olympian of all time and not one caller disagreed with him in a three-hour show. The same broadcaster said Phelps should not be on anyone’s list of great athletes and then cited several quarterbacks and basketball shooting guards as people who should be on his list. Not one caller disagreed with him.
The fundamental argument of these sports fans was that only sports that us Americans paid attention to should be counted. Thus, they said, most of the best athletes were football and basketball players with a few baseball and hockey players also deserving consideration. There was no logic expressed in a three-hour show – no justification for ranking someone who throws a football or shoots a basketball as more athletic than someone who bicycles thousands of miles or is the world’s best runner or swimmer.
Incredibly, the broadcaster went out of his way to say that decathletes do NOT deserve to be ranked as among the world’s greatest athletes.
I believe Jackie Robinson is the best athlete ever. Most sports fans know he was courageous as Major League Baseball’s first African-American player. He was an excellent hitter, runner, and fielder who made the Baseball Hall of Fame. Fewer know he was an NCAA long jump champion who might have won Olympics track medals if World War II didn’t cancel the games, was a running back on a national college football all-star team, led the nation in scoring as a UCLA basketball player, won area tennis tourneys, and was a U.S. Army ping pong champion.
Jim Thorpe and Babe Didrikson Zaharias also deserve consideration. He won Olympics gold medals in the decathlon and heptathlon, starred at several positions in college and pro football, and played professional baseball and basketball. She won Olympic medals in hurdling, javelin throwing, and high jumping; won 41 golf tourneys, and was an all-American in basketball.
In modern times, Bo Jackson’s ability to hit a baseball 450 feet and run through and around the NFL’s best players made him one of the best athletes ever. He also won the Heisman Trophy, had world-class track speed, won two Alabama high school decathlon titles, and hit 29 home runs after having hip replacement surgery. I’m also impressed by other multisport stars like Deion Sanders, a future NFL Hall of Famer who was good enough in baseball to win a league triple title and finish second in steals, and also was a college track star.
And yes I am more impressed by decathletes like two-time Olympic champions Bob Mathias and Daley Thompson and heptathletes like three-time Olympic champion Jackie Joyner-Kersee who can in two days run fast, jump high and far, throw objects a long way, and run a distance race after nine prior events (six for women) than someone who excels in one team sport.
I don’t expect people to agree with all my conclusions, but I am flummoxed when there is unanimity that publicized achievements in popular team sports equals being a great athlete.
Who is your nominee for world’s greatest athlete?
Shalom,
ZWrite