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Anonymous
how would you qualify the 'best athlete of all time' or the 'best athlete of x time period'? what qualities would you compare, especially of athletes that participate in different sports.

i personally think the best way is to compare how competitive they are compared to others within their sport, which leads me to choose either lance armstrong or tiger woods as the best athlete of our era. i also see, though, that these will be very controversial because of course many will bring up the fact that LeBron James (just an example) could kick either of their asses.

what do you think?
>> Anonymous
Gotta be in terms of how dominant they are in their sport. Average placement in contests, or average stats, &c. Federer comes to mind, or Ruth...figures that were/are simply WAY ahead of everyone else. Wilt Chamberlain maybe? Some sort of freakish deviation from the mean in their sport should be the best way to qualify for "best athlete of all time."
>> Anonymous
>>359226
athletes have gotten better over the years though. ruth would not be as great in todays game, neither would wilt. tiger woods comes to mind.
>> Anonymous
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>> Anonymous
Bo Jackson
>> Anonymous
>>359261ruth would not be as great in todays game

not necessarily true. with better equipment and training who knows what he could've done. compare his stats to his peers and he's the greatest baseball player of all time without question. imagine that kind of natural talent being polished by modern training
>> Anonymous
I don't necessarily agree with it, but "Best Athlete" is usually reserved for the winner of the Decathlon.

The 'Best Athlete' has to high-jump, long-jump, sprint, hurdle, shot-put, spear-chuck, marathon, triple-jump (lolhax?), among other things to earn this title.

An American won it this year, btw
>> Horned Frog
>>359261
Considering how big those damn ballparks were back then and with a bit of modern knowledge about the perils of smoking and drinking, Ruth would be even better.
>> Anonymous
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>>359187
> i personally think the best way is to compare how competitive they are compared to others within their sport, which leads me to choose either lance armstrong or tiger woods as the best athlete of our era.

brb breaking records
>> Anonymous
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>>359425
i love phelps, don't get me wrong, but woods and lance just flat out DOMINATE their shit. armstrong in particular. winning the tour once? hard as fuck, there's so many variables

two in a row? legendary status confirmed

seven. IN A ROW? HOLY FUCKING SHIT WE'LL NEVER SEE THIS SHIT AGAIN IN OUR LIFETIME, MAYBE EVEN TWO LIFETIMES.

i know phelps ripped it up, but many people still remember spitz's run. woods is going after jack's records that many considered unbreakable. MJ was a cybernetic organism sent back in time to ball ALL OVER the nba. had he not been injured, bo jackson could be in consideration

naturally i'm picking 'modern' athletes of this time period, otherwise you'd have to include true badasses, like this motherfucker right here