| Top five athletes |
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| Written by Matt Adams-Wenger - Argonaut | ||||||
| Monday, 02 November 2009 | ||||||
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The thing about professional athletes, especially in America, is that you can't just be good. You have to be stupid good. Even the lowest paid player on the Cleveland Browns is way, way better at football than most of us will ever be. So to not only be a professional athlete, but be recognized as one of the greatest of all time, makes you legendary. Such is the case with these five men. While it is easy to rank them among their contemporaries, how does one rank them against each other, when they are like apples to oranges, skates to swimsuits? To be honest, that would have been really hard, so I cheated. Here is my Top Five Athletes of All Time, with some lies thrown in to make the ranking easier. 5. Carl Lewis Before Carl Lewis was an actor, he ran incredibly fast and jumped incredibly far. He has several world records in track and is credited with popularizing track and field into something more lucrative so people can actually make a career out of running. He set several world records in his day and won long jump competitions 65 times in a row over 10 years. 4. Wayne Gretzky Wayne Gretzky is unanimously recognized as the greatest hockey player ever. His jersey number has been retired throughout the NHL. When he retired 10 years ago, he held 40 regular season records. I can't believe there are even 40 different statistics in which to hold a record in the NHL. In addition to being the best ever and appearing in dozens of movies as himself, he was also a gentleman, spending less time in the penalty box per season than most players spend in a single game. 3. Michael Jordan Besides being the first superstar corporate athlete many of us remember, Michael Jordan was a great basketball player. He led the Bulls to win their first NBA three-peat championships, and then did it again. He probably could have done it consecutively, but he liked the sound of "three-peat" better than "six consecutive championship wins." Let's not forget that 72-10 season. Ugh. Jordan is so damn good it's unfair. 2. Michael Phelps Even if you didn't watch any of the last two summer Olympics, there is a good chance you know Michael Phelps is the best swimmer ever created. He currently owns more gold medals than any other Olympian and if he competes one more time he'll probably have more medals total than any other Olympian. He has broken 37 world records. Thirty-seven. I can't even think of 37 ways to break world records, let alone in swimming. 1. Tiger Woods As long as Tiger Woods doesn't keel over and die in the next few years, he will easily become the greatest golfer of all time. And as long as he keeps playing like he does, he'll soon have all the money in professional golf - and he can't even spend it, as they don't accept money on the planet he is from.  Add as favorites (16) | Views: 437
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