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CLICK HERE to Register for a free account and login for a smoother ad-free experience. It's easy, and only takes a few moments.This is really two very different questions, are you talking athlete which is just pure God given ability or player which adds in drive, willpower, and intangibles. For example Lebron is probably 2-3 times the athlete MJ is yet I would take prime MJ 11 out of 10 times in a game. Prime Pay me a Ton could do things with a football few have ever seen. I still want Brady when the shots are real. Brady is somewhere around 10,000th best athlete but HAS to be top ten of any player list. For the question of top 10 athletes I think you have to throw out the results like Super Bowl wins etc and just look at the OMG did you see THAT moments. I admit to not watching enough sports besides football to have a list of my own.
Strongmen sportsman are amazing of course but when i think "athletic" that is not where i go. When i think athletic I think what are the chances you can pick up a random sporting activity and be really good with it.
Like if Michael Jordan at 25 was asked to run track would he do well? Well he would not set records but he would be able to instantly do better than 99.9% of the population. What about Jumping? Yep. What about a pull up competition? Probably pretty amazing for his size. What about asked to play WR in football? Could do that pretty well instantly. Bo Jackson is a great example of this though he had an extensive back round in both football and baseball he was able to do both and could do a lot of other athletic things well.
These strong men are great at strength I do think of them in the same way. Incredibly hard to do what they do and i have them respect for it but it I don't think I could be talked into putting one up.
I won't do a top-10 list because I don't think I can make an accurate assessment of all the sports out there. But in terms of football players I do believe that Cristiano Ronaldo certainly belongs in the conversation. He is just one phenomenal athlete. Power, speed, jumping ability. He has the complete package.
Here's the thing about short distance track, our best athletes are not going into track because we have the option of football and basketball. i.e. could chris johnson, AP win the 100 yard dash with elite short distance training, probably. could Vince Carter being the best high jumper, most likely. Also how do you compare a swimmer to a runner.
Anyway my top 5 athletes
1. Jordan
2. AP
3. Deion
4. Hasek
5. Randy Moss
This conflicts with your op where you babe Michael phelps number 1 and all he does is swim.Strongmen sportsman are amazing of course but when i think "athletic" that is not where i go. When i think athletic I think what are the chances you can pick up a random sporting activity and be really good with it.
Like if Michael Jordan at 25 was asked to run track would he do well? Well he would not set records but he would be able to instantly do better than 99.9% of the population. What about Jumping? Yep. What about a pull up competition? Probably pretty amazing for his size. What about asked to play WR in football? Could do that pretty well instantly. Bo Jackson is a great example of this though he had an extensive back round in both football and baseball he was able to do both and could do a lot of other athletic things well.
These strong men are great at strength I do think of them in the same way. Incredibly hard to do what they do and i have them respect for it but it I don't think I could be talked into putting one up.
This conflicts with your op where you babe Michael phelps number 1 and all he does is swim.
This conflicts with your op where you babe Michael Phelps number 1 and all he does is swim.
His athleticism would clearly transfer well over to other activities. Every athlete tends to specialize their bodies to do a few things particularly well being being an athlete does not just equal being strong. It is a balance of good speed, agility, quickness, strength, endurance, ect. Phelps has all those things in spades. Body builders don't. They are strength specialist. While impressive I don't think it is unfair to make a distinction.
However as another poster said this is more for speculation and fun. There will never be an official list of who are clearly the best athletes but it is interesting to talk about.
In that case, here's one that will surely piss off all of the macho men around here: Bruce Jenner.In that case, it's Rafer Johnson and Bob Mathias
Decathletes have to be the best athletes
I made mention to @BobDigital that given my objection his list, if I had time the other day, I'd provide him with a list of my top 10. I'm having real difficulty narrowing it down to a top 10 but if your qualification is true, then the top 10 is going to be the most physically gifted athlete in every sport ever. I can't agree with that because even though you may laugh, Phil Taylor has been one of the most dominant sportsman of all time in his chosen profession of darts. He's not particularly athletic but he's incredible in a highly competitive sport.People are confusing best athlete and most dominant in his particular sport.
I made mention to @BobDigital that given my objection his list, if I had time the other day, I'd provide him with a list of my top 10. I'm having real difficulty narrowing it down to a top 10 but if your qualification is true, then the top 10 is going to be the most physically gifted athlete in every sport ever. I can't agree with that because even though you may laugh, Phil Taylor has been one of the most dominant sportsman of all time in his chosen profession of darts. He's not particularly athletic but he's incredible in a highly competitive sport.
@BobDigital, my apologies. The Olympics have taken over the past few days.
Russell deserves to be on there, Olympic gold medalist, 11 time NBA champ, 2x NCAA champ, 1(?) time high school state champ.