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Greatest Athlete of All-Time?

Greatest Athlete of All-Time

  • Total voters
    174
Winkathomelygirl said:
Can't buy this argument based on eras. It is like saying that Barack Obama is a better public speaker than Abraham Lincoln because of teleprompters or that JK Rowling is a better writer than William Faulkner because she sold more books. . Greatness lies in how you do within your generation, now how you do against a previous generation.
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Uhhhhh, except that the things you are comparing are subjective, and Thorpe was a decathlete which is completely objective.

Go to wiki and compare Jim Thorpes personal bests in decathlon vs. today's best decathlete, Ashton Eaton. In all the comparable events, Eaton's marks are ahead of Thorpe's by a decent margin. (Thorpe's best long jump was 23 feet, Eaton's is 27 feet, etc etc.)

By that metric it would be hard to say that Thorpe is a better athlete than Eaton, in fact, he's not. Comparing those objective metrics leads to the obvious conclusion that sports/fitness/nutritional science has made modern athletes much bigger, faster and stronger.

Given that Thorpe does not compare to the best decathlete of our era, it's not exactly a reach to say that Bo Jackson or AP would bowl him the fuck over on a football field. Nice try, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashton_Eaton

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Thorpe
 
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You contradicted your own premise by bringing up training methods, scientific insights and nutrition.
 
TheTwinAndreBen said:
Given that Thorpe does not compare to the best decathlete of our era, it's not exactly a reach to say that Bo Jackson or AP would bowl him the fuck over on a football field. Nice try, though.
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But Eaton and Hardee are still better all-around athletes than Bo Jackson and AP -- without a doubt.
 
wakephan09 said:
But Eaton and Hardee are still better all-around athletes than Bo Jackson and AP -- without a doubt.
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I'm not sure they are better than Bo. Decathlon is an excellent barometer for athleticism, but it is only definitively a measure of one's ability to compete in the Decathlon. Bo might have been an excellent decathlete. We will never know, but it is not a reach to assume he would be. Is it more of a reach to assume that Eaton could be a great FB or Baseball player?
 
Eaton's father and grandfather were football players, and he could have played football collegiately as well. I think he would have been a fine football player (or find success in baseball, soccer, or wrestling, all sports that he excelled at in high school), but I have no doubt that he would not have been the best in the world.

Bo Jackson was also an excellent track and field athlete -- his personal best at 100 meters, however, was 10.39. Eaton has run 10.21, and it is one of his weaker events.
 
Athletics are about victory in competitions between people. The only way to measure success is victories against your competition. When someone chalks up better and more victories on the same level as Jim Thorpe against his own competition just as Jim Thorpe did, then he can be considered a better athlete than Jim Thorpe.

By the way, Dave Winfield may be a great athlete but he's a piece of shit for being involved in that on court mugging while at Minnesota.
 
wakephan09 said:
Eaton's father and grandfather were football players, and he could have played football collegiately as well. I think he would have been a fine football player (or find success in baseball, soccer, or wrestling, all sports that he excelled at in high school), but I have no doubt that he would not have been the best in the world.

Bo Jackson was also an excellent track and field athlete -- his personal best at 100 meters, however, was 10.39. Eaton has run 10.21, and it is one of his weaker events.
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But Jackson never focused professionally specifically on T&F.
 
Where does Bob Hayes, with an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring fit into (or confuse and extend) this discussion?
 
I might get roasted for this, but is there a reason Phelps hasn't been brought up here? I mean he's not your definition of an all-around athlete but the thread title isn't greatest athletic versatility either.
 
smallbigtall said:
I might get roasted for this, but is there a reason Phelps hasn't been brought up here? I mean he's not your definition of an all-around athlete but the thread title isn't greatest athletic versatility either.
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He's a fair person to discuss.
 
Bruce Jenner - wins Decathlon, graces front of the Wheaties box for a decade, bangs Mama Kardashian

Herschel - world class sprinter, greatest rb of all time, wannabe FBI agent, minion of Donald Trump, has a personality for every day of the week.
 
Herschel is greatest COLLEGE rb of all time, not pros.
 
HeavyPetter said:
Bruce Jenner - wins Decathlon, graces front of the Wheaties box for a decade, bangs Mama Kardashian

Herschel - world class sprinter, greatest rb of all time, wannabe FBI agent, minion of Donald Trump, has a personality for every day of the week.
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Didn't Herschel also try boxing?
 
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