Michael Phelps ranked the best athlete of the 21st Century by ESPN

[Juggalo Fred]

Should have been Alex Rodriguez or Lebron James

 

[Baka's Weird Case]

Brady 2-0 against Mahomes in the playoffs. 3 ain't 7

QBs play against the other teams defense. its not like brady was rushing the edge against mahomes

the H2H comparison is just for narratives

edit: brady should of course still be higher on this list because of his accomplishments. honestly i think he has an argument for #1 because of how long he played

 

[MoshpitMazi]

How can you say this when Patrick Mahomes exists.

People get too caught up with that cheating son kisser.

Mahomes got him and soon.

Without the controversy too.

 

[Harry B]

It's never happening in track because the competition is too strong, not because the events are too different.

100m, 200m, 400m, 110 hurdles, 400 hurdles, long jump, and triple jump are all similar enough that a particularly elite athlete could be good at any of them. Plus you can do 4x100m and 4x400m relays too. That's why you see athletes at the high school and even college level who switch back and forth between those events, and sometimes even decathalon too. Back in the day you could have added high jump to that list too, before the technique became more specialized.

The difference between track and swimming isn't the similarity in events. The difference is that there are WAY more people competing at track, so the level of competition is much higher. If there were as many elite swimmers as there are elite runners, then maybe Phelps would have been the greatest butterfly or the greatest medley, but there's no way he would have been able to be both and then win at freestyle sometimes too.

I’m not talking about theoretical and hypothetical scenarios of running a simulation of the sports with repeated sampling. I’m talking about the practical aspects, and in the practical aspects swimming is a lot more similar in terms of how people perform when they do different styles. But we can of course you can design a hypothetical study of adding a billion swimmers, until that they I will rely on reality.

Other than that I have done butterfly and freestyle in the pool, same shyt to me. But I can’t even run hurdles and I basically jog if it’s 400 meters.

 

[Rekkapryde]

It's a list u can't get right. I can do a Mt. Rushmore, but no 1-4

Tiger, No athlete on here revolutionized and changed a sport like Tiger did Golf. The 82 wins and 13 majors while putting golf in everyone's household

Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time, I'll give him that. Not just 1 swimming style, but multiple. He dominated not only the Olympics, but the sport for 14 years.

Serena, the most dominant female athlete of all time with over 20 Majors. Enough said.

Brady, no QB will ever duplicate his success. I can say that honestly. The 7th Super Bowl solidified him winning one with Belicheat. His ring count alone puts him on this list.

SBs and football in general are too much of a team game no matter how good 1 individual may be.

 

[Shadow King]

Mahomes has to win 9 rings to pass Brady

 

[Cladyclad]

He do lol

Tom has 7 and beat Pat in the AFC and the Super Bowl

pat got to offset those playoff L’s to Goat

 

[Shadow King]

He do lol

 

[<<TheStandard>>]

The problem with this ESPN list is that it's blatantly biased towards certain sports. Manny Pacquiao is the only 8 division world champion in the history of boxing with 5 linear titles but he's ranked 71st which is 48 spots behind Kevin Garnett & as great as KG is, he's not even close to Pacquiao in terms of being a better & more iconic athlete. I would put Pacquiao top 20.

Personally, I think Floyd Mayweather should be top 10. He made Emmanuel look like a complete amateur for 12 rounds. Pacquiao landed 81 punches out for 429 and couldn't mount an offense at all to the point where people were literally bored out of their minds by round 2.

Race car drivers are not athletes. Get that guy out of here.

Clayton Kershaw was incredibly dominant as a pitcher but he's arguably the biggest postseason choke artist in the history of sports. He's 31st on this ESPN list. There's no world where a guy with his postseason track record can be the 31st best athlete of the 21st century.

 

[<<TheStandard>>]

I got Brady at 1 personally

That type of longevity and dominance in an extremely physical game gives him higher praise from me

I have him number 1 too for the same reasons.

I actually think he has the quinesstential American underdog story. In my eyes he's still that inspirational underdog who worked himself from being a guy who didn't even start for his college team and needed an injury to get his shot in the NFL to being the greatest QB of all time.

 

[<<TheStandard>>]

Boxing is the only sport where you only have to compete 2-3 times a year and get to pick and choose who you compete against. And every other athlete being considered has to compete against the best people in the world in their sport regardless of size, whereas in boxing you only have to beat the people in your weight class (and sometimes, you don't even have to really beat them if your judges are in the right mood).

Floyd is my favorite boxer ever, but I understand why boxers, especially any boxer other than a heavyweight, wouldn't get the same respect on this list that other athletes get.

There's still mandatories for all 4 of the sanctioning bodies and it's still a sport in which you don't play, you fight. One punch can not only end your night but it can change your career and your life.

I have much more respect for boxers than I do a fukking swimmer.........and keeping it real, the public does too because no one truly gives a shyt about swimming.

 

[King Poetic]

It is what is

 

[Treblemaka]

Phelps has a record 28 Medals at the Olympics 23 of which are gold medals and has 26 world Championships. This across multiple Swim types and multiple distances in a tournament format requiring multiple heats.

If someone can point to anyone that has ever existed with 49 individual international first place finishes at the highest level of their sport globally then they can probably make a decent claim.

More kids grow up swimming than playing golf or tennis. I don't like the guy much personally but I'm not going to argue against his accomplishments.

 

[cornercommission2k12]

JUST SAY HE HAD YOU WATCHING.

I DONT ANY BLACK PERSON IRL
WHO WATCHED A PHELPS RACE.





​

I ain't never watch that shyt

 

[BucciMane]

Phelps has a record 28 Medals at the Olympics 23 of which are gold medals and has 26 world Championships. This across multiple Swim types and multiple distances.

If someone can point to anyone that has ever existed with 49 individual international first place finishes at the highest level of their sport globally then they can probably make a decent claim.

More kids grow up swimming than playing golf or tennis. I don't like they guy much personally but I'm not going to argue against his accomplishments.

I don't think people have an issue with Phelps being up there, but I think the discussion really is more about Phelps or Bolt.

I completely understand the Olympic medals for Phelps, and as @Professor Emeritus pointed out, there are more swimming competitions that exist than just the Olympics.

With that said, I have a hard time not putting Bolt ahead of him because nearly EVERYOJNE can run. The talent pool (no pun intended) is far greater in Bolts sport than swimming. Being the fastest man alive and the world heavyweight champion are two titles that I believe hold the most weight.