Who was the best athlete of all time?  Was it Jim Thorpe, 
Michael Jordan, Deion Sanders, Bo Jackson, Pele, Wayne Gretzky? 
Who?  Can one even make an educated guess?  This is what we will 
look at. 

   A number of years ago Sports Illustrated did an article on 
which sport requires the most athletic abilities to play it well.  
They listed what they believed were individual abilities like 
speed, coordination, strength, quickness, etc.  Then they 
assigned points to these abilities, listed for each sport which 
abilities were required, and to what degree.  Handball ended up 
with the most points.  If this is true, then one could say that 
the best handball player of all time was the best athlete of all 
time.  Fine.  But I don't think anyone would believe it, other 
than handball players. 

                   MULTI-SPORT ATHLETES

  How about the best athlete being the one who excelled at the 
most sports?  Jim Thorpe immediately comes to mind.  He may have 
been the best football player of his time.  He also was an 
Olympic champion in the decathlon which requires a number of 
individual skills.  And he also played major league baseball for 
several years.  He was not a great baseball player, but he did 
hit 320 one year. 

  How about Deion Sanders?  A better baseball player than 
Thorpe, and probably a Hall of Fame cornerback in the NFL.  I 
even saw him play basketball once, and he looked pretty good. 

  How about Bo Jackson?  Before sustaining a career ending 
injury, he was one of the best running backs I ever saw. In major 
league baseball, even though his batting average was never high, 
he could hit for power, make some great plays in the outfield, 
and had a terrific arm.  It appeared to me that he would have 
become even better if his career had not been cut short.  Who is 
to say? 

  And how about Jackie Robinson?  I think he is the best athlete 
to make it to Baseball's Hall of Fame.  He displayed fantastic 
athletic ability playing major league baseball, and was also an 
outstanding college athlete in football, basketball, and track.

  Of these four great multi-sport athletes, I can not say that 
one was clearly better that the others.  Thorpe probably did 
better than the others, but played against weaker competition.

              WHO MOST DOMINATES THEIR SPORT?

  If we can't pick a muti-sport athlete, then let's pick the one 
who dominates their sport by the widest margin.

   How about Michael Jordan?  Many people consider him the best 
basketball player of all time.  Even if he is, does that make him 
the best athlete to ever play basketball?  Well...I think that 
Magic Johnson could play more positions better: center, power 
forward, and point guard.  Also, I think Julius Erving had more 
acrobatic and maybe pure athletic abilities than Jordan, even 
though he wasn't as good a player.  In my mind, none of these 
three were much above the others in athletic abilities. 

  How about the NFL's Jimmy Brown?  I believe him to be the best 
running back of all time, and the best player of his time.  He 
was also an all American lacrosse player.  But was he a better 
athlete than Lawrence Taylor?  Or how about Steve Young?  One
year he had the highest quarterback rating of all time, was the 
team's leading runner, and led them to victory in the Super 
Bowl.  I see none of these three athletics holding a clear 
advantage above the other two. 

   How about Carl Lewis in track?  He has been the dominant 
athlete in track for a number of years.  But was he clearly a 
better athlete than Jesse Owens?  Or Jackie Joyner-Kersee for 
that matter?  I think not. 

   How about Wayne Gretzky in hockey?  He was clearly the best 
player for a number of years.  No one has been as good for as 
long a time.  Gretzky should be a contender for the best athlete.

   How about Pele?  This Brazilian soccer player was a legend in 
his own country, and the best player of his time.  I consider 
Pele a contender as the best athlete. 

   How about the sport of boxing?  Does it require great athletic 
abilities?  Teamwork is not required, but quickness, 
coordination, stamina, hand speed, foot speed all help one to be 
a better boxer.  So boxing should be considered. 

   If we consider heavyweights, who has had the best combination 
of coordination, size, speed of hands, and speed of feet?  I 
think that most of us would agree that Muhammad Ali was clearly 
way ahead of everyone else.  If we ask the same question of all 
boxers, regardless of their weight division, the answer is most 
definitely Ali.  He had the hand and foot speed of the much 
smaller Ray Robinson and Ray Leonard, and the size of a large 
heavyweight. 

   Think of that.  Ali had the coordination and speed of the 
fastest middleweights and the size of a heavyweight.  No one else,
that I know of, is even REMOTELY close.  Now Pele and Gretzy were 
great athletics, but they were not so clearly athletically 
superior to others in their sport. I know of no one who was so 
obviously superior in athletic skills in their individual sport 
as Ali. 

   So, in my opinion, Muhammad Ali was the greatest athlete of all 
time.  He claimed he was the greatest fighter of all time, and he
probably was.  But he was even a better athlete.

        Don Sibrel