Greatest Sportsmen of all Time/New Poll for top 5 to Agree on.

[High Wide and Handsome]

onepoll.com have already decided.

The top five Greatest Sportsman Ever are:

1 Muhammad Ali
2 Steve Redgrave
3 David Beckham
4 Pele
5 Michael Schumacher(ANI)

Democracy doesnt work.

Redgrave. No chance. Fair play. 4 olympic golds. Sure Phelps lifted 8 last year?

[Leo]

onepoll.com have already decided.

The top five Greatest Sportsman Ever are:

1 Muhammad Ali
2 Steve Redgrave
3 David Beckham
4 Pele
5 Michael Schumacher(ANI)

Democracy doesnt work.

Redgrave. No chance. Fair play. 4 olympic golds. Sure Phelps lifted 8 last year?

To delete Redgrave and leave Beckham in is farcical.

Possible football names are Pele, Ferenc Puskas and Beckenbauer - way ahead of all others.

Motorsport (which I like) is hard to justify because so much is about the car but if you want a driver it has to be Fangio or Jim Clark.

Michael Jordan and Eddie Merckx are contenders, surely.

[SidelineKick]

onepoll.com have already decided.

The top five Greatest Sportsman Ever are:

1 Muhammad Ali
2 Steve Redgrave
3 David Beckham
4 Pele
5 Michael Schumacher(ANI)

Democracy doesnt work.

Redgrave. No chance. Fair play. 4 olympic golds. Sure Phelps lifted 8 last year?

To delete Redgrave and leave Beckham in is farcical.

Possible football names are Pele, Ferenc Puskas and Beckenbauer - way ahead of all others.

Motorsport (which I like) is hard to justify because so much is about the car but if you want a driver it has to be Fangio or Jim Clark.

Michael Jordan and Eddie Merckx are contenders, surely.

No chance. One of the worst baseball players I seen.

[muppet]

Personal opinion I know but George Best should be nowhere near this list.

X 2

Why, 'cos he was a Prod?

probably more to do with him being a wife beater.

Should someones private make a difference to them being regarded as a top Sportsman or not?

Would someone rue out an author for the Booker prize because they were crap at golf?

Ali should be in without question. Best should miss out simply because there were a couple better, Pele and Diego IMHO.

I dont think you can be jailed, or looked down upon by almost all of society for being crap at golf.

Would being jailed or looked down upon change the fact that you were the best at what you did?

[SidelineKick]

Personal opinion I know but George Best should be nowhere near this list.

X 2

Why, 'cos he was a Prod?

probably more to do with him being a wife beater.

Should someones private make a difference to them being regarded as a top Sportsman or not?

Would someone rue out an author for the Booker prize because they were crap at golf?

Ali should be in without question. Best should miss out simply because there were a couple better, Pele and Diego IMHO.

I dont think you can be jailed, or looked down upon by almost all of society for being crap at golf.

Would being jailed or looked down upon change the fact that you were the best at what you did?

That depends on what that is.

If you're talking about football then no. But here's a stat for you:

Being good at football - not illegal
Beating your wife - illegal

[delboy]

onepoll.com have already decided.

The top five Greatest Sportsman Ever are:

1 Muhammad Ali
2 Steve Redgrave
3 David Beckham
4 Pele
5 Michael Schumacher(ANI)

Democracy doesnt work.

Redgrave. No chance. Fair play. 4 olympic golds. Sure Phelps lifted 8 last year?

Yeah but he won the 5 golds in five seperate olympics (edit to reflect it was five not four  ) and at one of the most gruelling sports there is.
Phelps got eight but look how many goals are up for grabs, all the different lengths, different styles, relays etc there is probably categories for with or without googles FFS.

[SidelineKick]

onepoll.com have already decided.

The top five Greatest Sportsman Ever are:

1 Muhammad Ali
2 Steve Redgrave
3 David Beckham
4 Pele
5 Michael Schumacher(ANI)

Democracy doesnt work.

Redgrave. No chance. Fair play. 4 olympic golds. Sure Phelps lifted 8 last year?

Yeah but he won the 4 golds in four seperate olympics and at one of the most gruelling sports there is.
Phelps got eight but look how many goals are up for grabs, all the different lengths, different styles, relays etc there is probably categories for with or without googles FFS.

Agree, four golds in four seperate Olympics is unbelievable.

[118cmal]

onepoll.com have already decided.

The top five Greatest Sportsman Ever are:

1 Muhammad Ali
2 Steve Redgrave
3 David Beckham
4 Pele
5 Michael Schumacher(ANI)

Democracy doesnt work.

Redgrave. No chance. Fair play. 4 olympic golds. Sure Phelps lifted 8 last year?

Yeah but he won the 4 golds in four seperate olympics and at one of the most gruelling sports there is.
Phelps got eight but look how many goals are up for grabs, all the different lengths, different styles, relays etc there is probably categories for with or without googles FFS.

This definitely isn't true.  It is up to the individual athlete to decide whether or not to wear goggles.

[pintsofguinness]

What did David Beckham do to be mentioned in this thread?

And Steve Redgrave? No.

Have you boys been spending too long reading the Sun or something?


Muppet, even if you leave out George Best's off field antics he's still not in the list. 

[thewobbler]

Michael Jordan
Usain Bolt
Roger Federer
Tiger Woods
Don Bradman
Michael Phelps

Statistically and visibly the greatest sportsmen of all time in their respective fields, and each playing a popular sport. Almsot everyone else mentioned on this thread requires subjectivity or a lack of genuine competition to be placed on this list.

[gallsman]

What's the criteria? Skill? Titles won? Athletic ability? How popular the sport is?

The horsey lads would tick all those boxes, but I reckon Michael Jordan is the greatest athlete I've seen, and he was undoubtedly a winner and had all the skills for basketball. The fact that he was good enough to be a professional minor league baseball player as well, albeit only for a short time, is another indication of his natural athletic ability.

Dieon Saunders was a two sport stud, football and baseball, he was an incredible athlete.

Another wan has to be carl Lewis, phenominal athlete and a born winner and class act.

You forgot to mention drug user....

[stiffler]

Ali has to be no 1

[gallsman]

In boxing, both Robinson and Armstrong should be ahead of Ali.

[gallsman]

The ignorance in this thread is beyond belief. People dismissing Redgrave offhand for no reason. Accept it or not, there'a a ridiculous bias against British sportsmen on this thread. Redgrave is without doubt one of the greatest. Also, he won five golds you dopes, at every Olympis from LA to Sydney, not four. OK, Phelpls won eight last year and six in Athens, but let's see if he's still winning gold medals wherever the 2020 games are held.

[moysider]

I think we need to look beyond just technical excellence. Henry Armstrong and Robinson arguably better at their craft and better champions than Ali but Ali captured the imagination of the globe.

Lester was a great jockey and Nijinsky a great athlete but it was Vincent O Brien that made it happen and redefined his sport.