Top (US) Athletes of the 20th Century (ESPN, 1999)
The ESPN SportsCentury program in 1999 and 2000 created a list of the Top 100 Athletes of the 20th Century. The list was limited mostly to North American athletes. Although athletes from the US have dominated world sport in many areas, there would still be many athletes from the rest of the world worthy of being on the top athletes of the 20th century list.
The list was voted on by a panel of sports journalists and observers. This is just one of many lists you can find online about the world's 'greatest athlete'. We have discussed and compared many of these lists of the greatest athletes in the world.
Michael Jordan is top
The greatest athlete of the 20th century, according to the SportsCentury program on ESPN, is basketballer Michael Jordan, apparently in a close call with baseball player Babe Ruth. You may notice that the list does not include some athletes that may warrant a place on a list of great athletes of the 20th century. The list makers decided to limit the list to athletes who either come from North America or compete there primarily. Consequently, athletes such as Pele were not even considered.
The sport that is represented most on the list is baseball with 23 players. Next is American Football (20), Track/Field (12), Basketball (11), Tennis (8), Boxing (7), Hockey (6), Golf (6), Horse Racing (5 - 2 jockeys/3 horses), Auto Racing (3), Swimming/Diving (2), Speed Skating (2), and Gymnastics(1). If you do the sums, there are more than 100 sports listed here, that is because several athletes on this list played at the elite level for more than one sports. For this sport count, Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders were counted for both baseball and football. Babe Didrikson counted as track and field and golf, Jim Thorpe counted as baseball, football, and track and field.
There are 90 men on the list, just eight women and controversially three horses listed. The highest ranked female was athlete Babe Zaharias who was ranked 10th. As for the horses, Secretariat was ranked 35, with the others Man o' War (84), and Citation (97).
| rank | athlete | sport |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Jordan | basketball |
| 2 | Babe Ruth | baseball |
| 3 | Muhammad Ali | boxing |
| 4 | Jim Brown | American football |
| 5 | Wayne Gretzky | ice hockey |
| 6 | Jesse Owens | track and field |
| 7 | Jim Thorpe | baseball / track and field / American football |
| 8 | Willie Mays | baseball |
| 9 | Jack Nicklaus | golf |
| 10 | Babe Zaharias | golf / track and field |
| 11 | Joe Louis | boxing |
| 12 | Carl Lewis | track and field |
| 13 | Wilt Chamberlain | basketball |
| 14 | Hank Aaron | baseball |
| 15 | Jackie Robinson | baseball |
| 16 | Ted Williams | baseball |
| 17 | Magic Johnson | basketball |
| 18 | Bill Russell | basketball |
| 19 | Martina Navratilova | tennis |
| 20 | Ty Cobb | baseball |
| 21 | Gordie Howe | ice hockey |
| 22 | Joe DiMaggio | baseball |
| 23 | Jackie Joyner-Kersee | track and field |
| 24 | Sugar Ray Robinson | boxing |
| 25 | Joe Montana | American football |
| 26 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | basketball |
| 27 | Jerry Rice | American football |
| 28 | Red Grange | American football |
| 29 | Arnold Palmer | golf |
| 30 | Larry Bird | basketball |
| 31 | Bobby Orr | ice hockey |
| 32 | Johnny Unitas | American football |
| 33 | Mark Spitz | swimming |
| 34 | Lou Gehrig | baseball |
| 35 | Secretariat | horse |
| 36 | Oscar Robertson | basketball |
| 37 | Mickey Mantle | baseball |
| 38 | Ben Hogan | golf |
| 39 | Walter Payton | American football |
| 40 | Lawrence Taylor | American football |
| 41 | Wilma Rudolph | track and field |
| 42 | Sandy Koufax | baseball |
| 43 | Julius Erving | basketball |
| 44 | Bobby Jones | golf |
| 45 | Bill Tilden | tennis |
| 46 | Eric Heiden | speed skater |
| 47 | Edwin Moses | track and field |
| 48 | Pete Sampras | tennis |
| 49 | O J Simpson | American football |
| 50 | Chris Evert | tennis |
| 51 | Rocky Marciano | boxing |
| 52 | Jack Dempsey | boxing |
| 53 | Rafer Johnson | track and field (decathlon) |
| 54 | Greg Louganis | diving |
| 55 | Mario Lemieux | ice hockey |
| 56 | Pete Rose | baseball |
| 57 | Bill Shoemaker | jockey |
| 58 | Elgin Baylor | basketball |
| 59 | Billie Jean King | tennis |
| 60 | Walter Johnson | baseball |
| 61 | Stan Musial | baseball |
| 62 | Jerry West | basketball |
| 63 | Satchel Paige | baseball |
| 64 | Sammy Baugh | American football |
| 65 | Althea Gibson | tennis |
| 66 | Eddie Arcaro | jockey |
| 67 | Bob Gibson | baseball |
| 68 | Al Oerter | track and field |
| 69 | Bonnie Blair | speed skater |
| 70 | Dick Butkus | American football |
| 71 | Roberto Clemente | baseball |
| 72 | Bo Jackson | baseball / American football |
| 73 | Josh Gibson | baseball |
| 74 | Deion Sanders | American football / baseball |
| 75 | Dan Marino | American football |
| 76 | Barry Sanders | American football |
| 77 | Cy Young | baseball |
| 78 | Bob Mathias | track and field (decathlon) |
| 79 | Gale Sayers | American football |
| 80 | A J Foyt | auto racing |
| 81 | Jimmy Connors | tennis |
| 82 | Bobby Hull | ice hockey |
| 83 | Honus Wagner | baseball |
| 84 | Man o' War | horse |
| 85 | Maurice Richard | ice hockey |
| 86 | Otto Graham | American football |
| 87 | Henry Armstrong | boxing |
| 88 | Joe Namath | American Football |
| 89 | Rogers Hornsby | baseball |
| 90 | Richard Petty | auto racing (NASCAR) |
| 91 | Bob Beamon | track and field |
| 92 | Mario Andretti | auto racing |
| 93 | Don Hutson | American football |
| 94 | Bob Cousy | basketball |
| 95 | George Blanda | American football |
| 96 | Michael Johnson | track and field |
| 97 | Citation | horse |
| 98 | Don Budge | tennis |
| 99 | Sam Snead | golf |
| 100 | Jack Johnson | boxing |
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