Who is the Greatest Sportsman Ever? (w/Poll) Fri Feb 16, 2007 at 08:21:19 PM PDT If you're a sports fan, as I am of several sports, have you ever wondered who the greatest athlete ever was. In late 1999, Sports Illustrated magazine held an awards ceremony to honor the 'Sportsman of the Century.' Among those honored in their respective sports were Muhammad Ali (Boxing), Jim Brown (Football), Wayne Gretzky (Hockey), Michael Jordan (Basketball), Babe Didrikson Zaharias (Best Female Athlete), Carl Lewis (Olympian), Jack Nicklaus (Golf), and Babe Ruth (Baseball). If one were to expand this list, you could add many more athletes - both male and female - whose sporting achievements left a legacy of accomplishment that sets them apart from their contemporaries. More below. Let's look at the accomplishments of each of the candidates - Muhammmad Ali - arguably the most famous athlete ever, Ali was a three-time world heavyweight boxing champion. His colorful personality, outrageous claims, and refusal to be drafted during the Vietnam War made him a hero to millions. Of Ali's memorable appearance at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, author George Plimpton wrote
It was a kind of epiphany that those who watched realized how much they missed him and how much he had contributed to the world of sport. Students of boxing will pore over the trio of Ali-Frazier fights, which rank among the greatest in fistic history, as one might read three acts of a great drama. They would remember the shenanigans, the Ali Shuffle, the Rope-a-Dope, the fact that Ali had brought beauty and grace to the most uncompromising of sports. And they would marvel that through the wonderful excesses of skill and character, he had become the most famous athlete, indeed, the best-known personage in the world. | |
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