Greatest Athletes of All Time

Quite impressive and commendable an athletic accomplishment ; however, that single feat IMHO doesn’t qualify him as one of the greatest athletes.

I recall one of the Olympics where he won silver after someone stepped on his foot or fouled him. - Kip Keino, I believe.

Bo Jackson’s name has to be mentioned in this discussion not just because he played in 2 pro sports but because he dominated in both sport before his hip gave out. An illustrious Cooke gets career, 4 years in NFL Raiders and 8-9 years with KC Royals and 2 other teams:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Iverson

Allen Ezail Iverson (born June 7, 1975), nicknamed "The Answer", is an American former professional basketball player. He played for fourteen seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) at both the shooting guard and point guard positions. Iverson was an eleven-time NBA All-Star, won the All-Star game MVP award in 2001 and 2005, and was the NBA's Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 2001. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.

Iverson attended Bethel High School in Hampton, Virginia, and was a dual-sport athlete. He earned the Associated Press High School Player of the Year award in both football and basketball, and won the Division AAA Virginia state championship in both sports. After high school, Iverson attended Georgetown University for two years, where he set the school record for career scoring average (22.9 points per game) and won Big East Defensive Player of the Year awards both years.[

And was a punk

I think we are getting off track (no pun there...) here. We are talking greatest. There are a TON of great atheletes. There are people that are doing amazing feats of athleticism and most of us know these people... But, the GREATEST of ALL TIME is what we are talking here, not the "also rans".

Sanders was Great, Payton was better. Payton takes a back seat to perhaps the greatest American Football player, but definitely the best Running Back of ALL TIME, Jim Brown.

Agreed

Basketball GOAT: Wilt Chamberlain with Bill Russel a very close second
Hockey GOAT: Wayne Gretzky
Golf GOAT: Jack Nicklaus
Baseball GOAT: Babe Ruth
Bowling GOAT: Earl Anthony
Soccer (Football) GOAT: Pele with Johan Cruyff coming in second.
Football GOAT: Jim Brown Offence - Lawrence Taylor Defense
Track & Field GOATS
Overall Male: Jim Thorpe
Overall Female: Jackie Joyner Kersee
Sprints: Michael Johnson with Edwin Moses a close second
Long Distance: Emil Zátopek
Middle Distance: Paavo Nurmi
Field "Throws": Al Oerter
Field "Jumps": Dick Fosberry

I agree - He's an interesting honorable mention

He won the Silver in Mexico City. Keino won Gold but not by fouling Ryun. Fearing Ryun's legendary kick, Keino shot out of the start with a blistering pace that everyone (including Ryun) believed he couldn't maintain. Except he did. Amazingly he ran and won that race while suffering an infected gallbladder that later brought him to his kness in the 10,000

Ryun was fouled in the Munich Games and came in dead last in a preliminary heat and so didn't even get to run in the finals. I remember screaming at the TV more than once during those games. Ryun's legitimate appeal was denied and the US Basketball team lost to the Russians in a final game in which the officials were the Soviets' 6th man. It wasn't poor officiating it was malignant officiating. The US Players refused to accept their Silver Medals.

There were some amazing performances during those Games but of course all were cast in shadow by the murder of 11 Israeli team members by Palestinian terrorists

NBA legends explain how good Hakeem Olajuwon was.