Who is the world's greatest athlete today?

[tommy]

A buddy of mine opined that it was Tiger Woods. I have a hard time going there. As a hoops guy, I naturally think of Kobe and Lebron. Without a Bo Jackson-type on the scene, who else do you all think should be in the conversation?

[hc5duke]

Depends on your definition of "greatest" but I'd still go with Kobe even after the dismal performance in the finals.

[snowdenscold]

He hasn't had that great a year this year - but a year ago Federer would definitely be in the mix.

[ugadevil]

Cristiano Ronaldo

http://www.aiesec-austin.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/632_1.jpg

And this is coming from someone who doesn't even post in the Soccer thread.

[blazindw]

I go by people who I think have completely dominated their sport. For me, that is Tiger and C. Ronaldo. Federer has dominated, but so far, he is "human" this year, so he's further down for me. Kobe and Lebron and others in the NBA are great, but they are far from dominant over everyone.

[bhd28]

I go by people who I think have completely dominated their sport. For me, that is Tiger and C. Ronaldo. Federer has dominated, but so far, he is "human" this year, so he's further down for me. Kobe and Lebron and others in the NBA are great, but they are far from dominant over everyone.

Well, since Tiger is out for the year, Federer is probably more dominant than him as of Tuesday... if you are just considering right now and not the past couple of years or anything. If you just count this year from Jan to Monday, Tiger is way better. If you count a few years, Federer and Tiger are very comparible.

Overall, though it depends on semantics. Greatest athlete doesn't mean MOST ATHLETIC, right?

I mean I always have trouble saying a golf player is as athletic as guys in sports like football, basketball, etc... I mean otherwise, old John Daily would be seen to have been a better athlete than Battier, Duhon, Maggette, etc...
http://golf-swing.net/22/john-daly-shirtless/
Sorry, but I just don't see it.

Greatest athlete, though... that would just mean most dominant in their particular sport, right? Not which guy could go into any of a bunch of different sports and be good at any of them. If THAT is what you mean... well, that is a different question altogether.

[Cavlaw]

I might have to go with Michael Phelps on this one.

[hc5duke]

I mean I always have trouble saying a golf player is as athletic as guys in sports like football, basketball, etc... I mean otherwise, old John Daily would be seen to have been a better athlete than Battier, Duhon, Maggette, etc...
http://golf-swing.net/22/john-daly-shirtless/
Sorry, but I just don't see it.

My eyes! The goggles do nothing!

[bhd28]

My eyes! The goggles do nothing!

I am seriously cracking up right now! :D

[pamtar]

I went straight to the reply button.

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:6ARuLBIN24NOpM:http://kittymowmow.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/tiger-regal_1024x768.jpg

[Lavabe]

Cristiano Ronaldo

And this is coming from someone who doesn't even post in the Soccer thread.

I wholeheartedly disagree. Especially after Cristiano's Portuguese team lost to Germany today!:D

One minor quibble with today's game: we didn't get to see whether he could blow another pk in a crucial game.:D

I loathe him. In my book, he's up there with Beaker.

Cheers,
Lavabe

[Channing]

I agree that it is important to clarify most athletic and most dominant. Tiger Woods has absolutely transcended his sport - he has won on every type of course playing many different types of golf. Federer has still never won the French Open, so he is out in my book.

No basketball player is currently thought of as almost playing a whole different game the way Tiger is with golf.

[throatybeard]

Breen's mother, let me tell you.

Where has he been, anyway?

[ugadevil]

I loathe him. In my book, he's up there with Beaker.


I guess Tyler Hansbrough and Bobby Frasor should be considered. After all, they leap from the tops of buildings.

[YmoBeThere]

Okay, what defines athlete? I ask because some would contend that the athletic ability needed to play golf isn't that great.

I might suggest Usain Bolt, who could be on his way to being the greatest sprinter ever...

[greybeard]

The golf swing is the most violent action in sport. Butch Beard told me that in Palm Springs years ago and I believe him. Tiger going away. There is no second.

[Ignatius07]

The golf swing is the most violent action in sport. Butch Beard told me that in Palm Springs years ago and I believe him.

Don't believe him. If it were the most violent action in sport, we would see way more serious golf injuries than we do. Off the top of my head, I would think much of offensive line play in football is more brutal. Also, major league pitching completely ruins shoulders and arms.

[bhd28]

Don't believe him. If it were the most violent action in sport, we would see way more serious golf injuries than we do. Off the top of my head, I would think much of offensive line play in football is more brutal. Also, major league pitching completely ruins shoulders and arms.

Oh come on... offensive line in football? Violent? You must be kidding. Next year, once the senior NFL tour starts (must be over 55 to play) you will see how easy offensive linemen have it. That is no where near as violent as a golf swing. Believe me, I should know... my dad has taught golf for years and played 4+ rounds a week for the past 30+ years. ;)

[dukemomLA]

Tiger, Tiger, Tiger.

No one else even comes close. If we were picking 'best athlete' in the past, or 'of all time' there are others who come to mind. But, for now, this is a no brainer. Tiger Woods.

[camion]

Roman Šebrle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_%C5%A0ebrle)

[bdh21]

Oh come on... offensive line in football? Violent? You must be kidding. Next year, once the senior NFL tour starts (must be over 55 to play) you will see how easy offensive linemen have it. That is no where near as violent as a golf swing. Believe me, I should know... my dad has taught golf for years and played 4+ rounds a week for the past 30+ years. ;)

By the time they're 55, many NFL linemen have so thoroughly destroyed their bodies that if they can move gingerly it's considered a good day. I think a lot of people underestimate the lasting and devastating toll professional football takes on athletes' bodies.

[unexpected]

if we were to broaden our definition of "best athlete" to "person who's most athletic", who would your pick be?

Mine would be Terrell Owens.

[greybeard]

Don't believe him. If it were the most violent action in sport, we would see way more serious golf injuries than we do. Off the top of my head, I would think much of offensive line play in football is more brutal. Also, major league pitching completely ruins shoulders and arms.

Baseball ruins shoulders and arms in pitching because pitching is performed in a manner that almost has to cause such injuries. There is a viable option perfected by former Cy Young award winner Mike Marshall that doesn't do that; however, it looks like a girlie throw or worse so no one will promote it. See a segment of Real Sports a few months ago.

The head of a golf club in the hands of a pro is traveling at well more than a 100 miles per hour. The entire body is involved in creating that force. I'm no physisist (I did take a course called "Physics for Poets" to fulfill my lone hard science requirement to get my BS at Cornell) but being on the inside end of a clubhead swinging with that kind of momentum with a radius of more than what, 7 plus feet, has to be pretty darn "violent." Miller used exactly that term on I think it was Sunday, or was it Monday.

On the other hand, I'd rather be holding the end of one of those golf clubs than be hit by LT, the first and real LT I am talking about here, or any of his ilk.

Tiger is the most exciting athlete to watch; in person, it would have to be one of those hockey phenoms.

[Channing]

if we were to broaden our definition of "best athlete" to "person who's most athletic", who would your pick be?

Mine would be Terrell Owens.

That is very hard to quantify. Do you count hand eye coordination in that definition? If not its hard to arfue against whoever wins the decathlon this summer. What about ewndurance which brings soccer players to the front. If it is just running/jumping and what a general consensus of athletic is, I go with josh smith.

[bhd28]

Tiger, Tiger, Tiger.

No one else even comes close. If we were picking 'best athlete' in the past, or 'of all time' there are others who come to mind. But, for now, this is a no brainer. Tiger Woods.
All time, I would have to throw in Jim Thorpe, who played professional football (named "greatest American football player" of the first half of the century), baseball, and basketball. He also won olympic gold in the pentathlon and decathlon and collegiate national championships in football and ballroom dancing (yep, dancing).

[hc5duke]

There is a viable option perfected by former Cy Young award winner Mike Marshall that doesn't do that; however, it looks like a girlie throw or worse so no one will promote it. See a segment of Real Sports a few months ago.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-marshall051007 (with video demo of fastball, curveball, screwball)


if we were to broaden our definition of "best athlete" to "person who's most athletic", who would your pick be?

James White (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdhRgZXNo5w) from Cincinnati.

[Mal]

The WSJ Weekend section article today on just this subject agrees with Camion. Others to make their list and named in this thread included Lebron at No. 2 and Federer at No. 5. No Tiger, because the panel chose criterion that focused more on the athletic traits actually displayed by the athlete on the field of their chosen profession, and not in training. That hurts Tiger because he doesn't actually show his endurance, reflexes or speed (running, that is, not clubhead) on the course, whereas LaDanian Tomlinson uses all the tools in an actual game. Golf and other more obscure sports were also downgraded because of a lower level of "competitiveness" so that hurt him, too. Swimmers were downgraded because apparently they "don't perform well out of the water" so no Phelps, either.

I think their whole attempt to "quantify" this was rather bogus. I think you get closer by using your imagination and a lot of speculation, which is why this should have stayed as a bar conversation/internet message board thread and not a WSJ article. Start with 5 sports that you think to be a cross-section of all the traits you think of as "athleticism." Then imagine, for any given athlete, how good you think they'd be at each of those sports if they had trained for it all their lives. I haven't seen Roman Sebrle perform, but you'd be hard pressed to get me to believe that LeBron James wouldn't be just as good a decathlete as anyone else on Earth if that's what he had chosen to focus on as a 12 year-old. Could Sebrle get through the lane and jam over Kevin Garnett, though? Could he, had he focused on American football, go over the middle and make acrobatic catches in the end zone? I have no doubt ARod would be able to. Christiano Ronaldo, not so much.

The whole thing about the decathlon world champion being the automatic best athlete in the world has always sort of irked me, for two reasons. One, no one competes in decathlons. Way too many potential competitors are siphoned off the track and field route way too early. Two, for all its variation, it still doesn't test two critical athletic traits, hand-eye coordination and quickness. Speed, strength, endurance, jumping, throwing, yes.

[jimbonelson]

[QUOTE=ugadevil;160437]Cristiano Ronaldo

http://www.aiesec-austin.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/632_1.jpg

i agree love him or hate him he is awesome and if not him maybe Lionel mesi

[Bluedog]

Yeah, the title of this thread is somewhat misleading because I personally was expecting who is the greatest athlete. I personally don't really consider golfers athletes - sorry. If it had said, "who is the greatest sportsman today?" then yeah, golf could be included. In my opinion, golf is more of a skill - obviously, physical gifts are necessary, but nowhere near the same levels as basketball, football, etc. Even tennis is so much more physically demanding than golf, it's not even funny. To be on the senior tour in tennis, you have to be 35. To be on the senior tour in golf, you have to be 50. Enough said.

I recall reading an article a while back about the most difficult sports to play as ranked by ESPN - based on several criteria such as the requirements on the basis of endurance, hand-eye coordination, quickness, strength, etc. as well as more obscure things like potential for injury/danger (helped NASCAR a bit). Boxing was found to be the most demanding sport - and I certainly would agree with that. Golf was WAY down on the list - high marks for hand-eye coordination, but low for most everything else. Tennis was also up there. I can't seem to find the list though....I recall fly fishing came in last ;)

Based on the wording as it is now of who is the greatest athlete in the world, I'd vote for Kobe, but I don't follow football (soccer), so my view is particularly narrow....

For what it's worth, Federer has won the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsman of the Year the past four years. Tiger has won it twice - back in 2000 and 2001. Tiger has been nominated 7 times to Schumacher's 6 and Federer's and Armstong's 5. Schumacher has won it twice. It's only been around since 2000.

[blazindw]

I'd also throw out Floyd Mayweather, Jr. as a candidate.