Accordion to RooiCommie, everyone is weak, stupid, cowardly and a liar ...
There is a universe full of insults to chuck around but the poor guy just can't resist projecting his self-image onto the world.
Perhaps it's worthwhile remembering a guy that never made it onto any of our lists - Warne.
Allow his ability for variation to inspire you, RooiNuts.
Ian Thorpe
5 Olympic Golds
Broke 22 World Records and winning an abundance of medals Ian retired at the age of 24.
Shane Warne is undoubtedly an all time great and possibly the greatest sportsman of all time.
Certainly Warne was one of the watchable cricketers in history.
His wife is pretty watchable too.
Lucky bugger.
I can't believe he hasn't been brought up yet: Ronaldinho, the most naturally gifted footballer I have ever seen.
Shane Warne was the greatest spin bowler ever but not the greatest cricketer. Even cricket or soccer or rugby is segmentated by function...in a wider context the greatest in each sport is separated, ie Jonty Rhodes probably the greatest fielder. So each sport has their greatest in each department. To rate the greatest sportsman in one lump sum is ridiculous. The sportsmen that really get attention across worldwide board are mainly boxers or soccer, or golf and tennis players.
It's really an inaccurate task to be sure because we will have our different perceptions.
I chose Lawrence Taylor because irrespective of position he was the most disruptive presence on the football field. All you needed was him to be present, nothing else. In team sports, attack differs from defence; attack relies of cooperative units to manipulate the defence to create openings. Defence relies on maintaining itself under duress. That's why our rugby is more successful when defence is the emphasis, as it relies more on grit, emotional content etc. Whereas attack relies on gray matter. If you say athlete, then I take it to mean physical specimen. Alexander Karelin ranks very high on that list.
Unfair to claim any sport person the best ever.
Each sport has numerous outstanding players that have really stood out as exceptional.
My choices are.
Soccer: Ronaldinho - Pele - Stanley Mathews.
Cricket: Batting - de Villiers, Bradman, Richards and Pollock.
Bowling - Warne, Donald and Laker.
Fielding - Rhodes.
Swimming: Thorp.
Rugby: F. du Preez and Carter.
Athletics: Bruce Forsdyt (?) Bolt, Lewis.
Boxing: Rocky Marciano.
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