Top Athletes of the 21st Century (Daily News, 2012)
The NY Daily News posted a list in August 2012 of their top athletes of the 21st century. The list was based on the views of the writers and editors of the Daily News sports staff, who were asked to rank their Top 12 athletes for the first 12 years of the 21st century. This is just one of many lists you can find online on the 'greatest athlete'. We have discussed and compared many of these lists of the greatest athletes in the world.
Michael Phelps is top
The greatest athlete of the 21st century (in 2012), according to the Daily News, is swimmer Michael Phelps. You may notice that the list does not include some athletes that may warrant a place on this list. The list makers decided to limit the list to athletes who either hail from North America or compete there primarily, and so does not represent the 'world' greatest athletes. Great athletes such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Lionel Messi and Ronaldo were not even considered. The only female in the list was tennis player Serena Williams at 8th. The list was published in the NY Daily News in 2012, so it is not really the top athletes on the 21st century, there is another 82 years of sports to find some more worthy athletes!
| rank | athlete | sport |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Phelps | Swimming |
| 2 | Tiger Woods | Golf |
| 3 | Kobe Bryant | Basketball |
| 4 | Tom Brady | American Football |
| 5 | LeBron James | Basketball |
| 6 | Peyton Manning | American Football |
| 7 | Albert Pujols | Baseball |
| 8 | Serena Williams | Tennis |
| 9 | Usain Bolt | Track & Field |
| 10 | Mariano Rivera | Baseball |
| 11 | Derek Jeter | Baseball |
| 12 | Tim Duncan | Basketball |
Related Pages
- Other lists of the greatest athletes in the world
- Who really is the greatest athlete of all time?
- have your say of the greatest athlete
Any comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.
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