Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods was dominant on a level that places him among the greatest collegiate golfers of all time.
Woods has four national championships to his name (not including the two shared with Sam Snead) and owns seven titles at the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships.
Tiger Woods became the first player in PGA Tour history to make eight consecutive cuts after making only two cuts in his first 14 events. Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer of all time, and he proved it with a first-round of 62 on Friday at the Hero World Challenge, tying Mark Calcavecchia’s tournament record and only three strokes behind leader Henrik Stenson. Tiger, who’s since announced his intention to play in the 2018 Masters, was in top form with his irons, iron play, iron/wedge play, short game, etc. Not since Tiger played like this in 2007 has he looked as comfortable hitting the ball with every club.
Usain Bolt
Usain Bolt may be finished, but the impact of the man who defined the past decade of athletics has hardly been blotted out by retirement.
Usain Bolt, the fastest man alive, is retiring from athletics with a series of “legends” races in London, Berlin, Paris, Rome and, fittingly, London.
In a career that has spanned 11 years and brought 10 world titles, he has dominated sprinting like no-one else.
The Jamaican sprinter never runs on a track without being lapped.
He won all his 100m finals by the slenderest of margins, never looked fazed by pressure or by anybody, and always pulled out a rabbit from his hat at the end.
Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time, a six-time champion, and not just another NBA player. Whether we want to admit it or not, Jordan was the one player that everyone liked to cheer for, despite the ups and downs in his career. Jordan was the boo-boo kid at your birthday party that everyone wanted to be nice to, and with a magical jump shot, you were confident he was going to hit the rim no matter how hard you tried to knock it down. Jordan always dominated the headlines and captivated the masses, and people couldn’t wait to get to games just to see Jordan back on the basketball court.
Babe Ruth
It’s easy to understand why he’s regarded as one of the most iconic figures in all of the sports, and maybe even popular culture as a whole.
In the 1930s, it was almost impossible to walk down the street without hearing someone (or something) mention the name Babe Ruth, the MLB’s first home run king. He was a hero of the era, a legendary star with the power to conquer the game, to energize fans and to drive records for pitching accuracy and home runs in a single season. He could summon opposing pitchers to their knees with just the power of his bat.
Yet, he was also a controversial figure who changed the landscape of sports in the early twentieth century, and altered the way the public thinks about baseball and major league baseball, forever.
Michael Phelps
If we’re judging by records alone, Michael Phelps will go down as the greatest swimmer of all time. After all, he has 28 gold medals to his name, a total more than any man in the sport’s history. That’s been done at three Olympics and four world championships.
He was also the most decorated athlete at the 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Beijing, winning a total of 28 medals including 9 golds, 4 silvers, and 13 bronze medals. In 2012, Phelps became the first male swimmer to win a medal in the same event at three consecutive Olympic Games since Mark Spitz, who won the same three individual events at 1972, 1976, and 1980 Olympics. Phelps also won the Most Valuable Swimmer Award in 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016, which is voted on by the world swimming media.
Diego Maradona
There are many theories as to why Diego Maradona’s crown is considered the greatest footballer to play the beautiful game. The Argentinan is famous for being able to hold the ball like weight and flick it up into the air with one touch. He also used to play with his toes, and also dribble with the feet. Among his great feats, he managed to score in the same World Cup as Pelé, a record eight World Cup goals in a single tournament, while also achieving the most number of goals in a World Cup tournament. He was the first player to manage that feat.
The man has won the World Cup title more times than any other player and also the European Cup, in 1986.
Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens was an American track and field athlete sprinter, long jumper and four-time gold medalist in the 1936 Olympic Games. He is one of the most famous athletes in U.S. history and gained fame in the 100 meters, 200 meters, long jump, and 4 × 100 meters relay.
Wayne Gretzky
He is a hockey god, able to alter the very fate of his team in the best way possible. He is the original avatar of hockey’s potential and is truly the highest, most unmistakable of examples of the “I want more” ethos. Wayne Gretzky played in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1979 to 1999, and was inducted into the IIHF Hockey Hall of Fame in 2000. The most decorated player in NHL history with over 1,000 career regular season and playoff games, Gretzky won the 1979–80 Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player (MVP). He is one of only three players in NHL history (Mike Bossy and Wayne Crosby are the others) to have won all four major individual NHL awards in the same year (1981).
Wayne Gretzky is the greatest hockey player in the history of the sport. He owns the all-time records in goals (891), assists (1,963), points (2,857), and games played (2,643). He won nine Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers, including six in a row. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1999 and won the Hart Trophy eight times.
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is the greatest boxer in the world, but he’s not one of the greatest boxers of all time. The high level of his resume has made him a household name, which is great for his Ali brand, but it’s really about more than the pop culture significance. He is the only boxer ever to have an Olympic gold medal in three separate categories, and he’s arguably the greatest black athlete ever. Perhaps the most amazing thing about Ali is how he dominated his profession for over four decades with his explosiveness, athleticism, and almost supernatural punching power. Legendary fighters like George Foreman, Joe Frazier, and others had tried to stop Ali during his career and that alone makes his style of boxing so awe-inspiring.
The intangibles he brought to the sport and the way he played his entire life have shaped the sport in a way.
