The Greatest Sportsman Ever

Mid-way through the Beijing Olympics, a journalist for BBC Sport wrote an article entitled “Is Phelps Really The Greatest?”, in which he chose to contest the factually accurate claim/fact that US swimming powerhouse Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian ever. Let’s not make an argument out of nothing, he is. With the most gold medals to his name out of any athlete in the one-hundred and twelve year history of the Olympic games, it is by fact that the crown sits atop Phelps dome. With a superhuman tally of fourteen golds, Phelps dwarves his nearest Olympic rival when it comes to the medal table, trouncing Soviet Union gymnast Larissa Latynina by no more than five!
However, before the Russian Embassy get on the phone, it needs to be confirmed that although the greatest Olympian, Phelps does not hold the record for most medals. That honour goes to Latynina. However, her count of nine golds, five silvers and three bronze medals - two more than water-wings - is not enough, as far as I’m concerned, to claim the title of ‘Best Olympian Ever’. The winning consistency and depth in talent that Phelps has shown at both of his Olympic Games, as well his superiority in the gold medal count, stakes his claim to the title. Also, Phelps has competed in one less Olympics than Latynina, and, in watching what happened over the summer, who can deny his credentials four years from now?
After I reached this decision in a matter of seconds, my mind continued along the same road, and I began to ask myself: “If Phelps is the greatest Olympian ever, does that make him the world’s greatest ever sportsman?”. My mind then began to take many roads, and before I knew it, my brain was almost in meltdown. So, I decided to write everything down…
First off, what is the actual definition of the word “sport”? Collins Dictionary defines sport as: “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others”. Well, that immediately rules out snooker, pool, darts and synchronized swimming, as none of these require both, and may I emphasise both, physical exertion and skill. So if you had money on Dennis Taylor as the greatest sportsman ever, then I’m sorry; tear your slip up now.
What I find interesting in the definition of sport is the use of the word “skill”. Does this mean everything that we do naturally is not referred to as a skill? Hence, does this rule out running and walking? I would like to argue that it does rule out movements and actions that we do naturally, resulting in sprinters such as the fastest man ever Usain Bolt being unable to, pardon the pun, be in the running. To further illustrate the point, how often do you hear this during a football match: “Fantastic skill shown here by Cristiano Ronaldo, but if the camera’s wouldn’t mind scanning up just a little bit, we would be able to see the real skill on display here, as Darren Fletcher runs into open space.”. Point proven? Running is natural, not a skill, hence not a real sport by definition! Next.
To be the greatest sportsman ever, you initially need to defeat a heck of a lot of competitors in your own field to claim the number one position there, before being considered on the grander scale of sport in general. Lost me? In other words, the sport in which you are considered the best needs to be participated in on a global scale, thus granting sports such as Football, Rugby, Boxing, Tennis, Golf and Basketball a higher coefficient than sports such as Hockey, American Football, Baseball and Cricket, due to the strength in depth and resulting quality of all those whom you’ve surpassed to the number one spot.
So who does that leave us battling it out for the crown?
Lets look at football first. Instantly, household names spring to mind: Pele, Maradona, Best, Zidane, Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Ronaldo. Each played with phenomenal ability and skill, leaving over five decades of supporters breathless. However, to decide even just out of these seven names who the greatest footballer ever is, is ridiculously hard! On what criteria should this be based? Goals scored unfairly gives an obvious bias to forward players, so it seems the only way to decipher the greatest player is to base it on contribution to honours. FIFA made the decision in 2000 to split the crown of official FIFA Player Of The Century between both Pele and Diego Maradona, hence I feel it is unfair to rule against the governing body of soccer, and I will happily conclude the argument by saying that both players are the greatest footballers ever. However, based on career honours, Pele can justifiably carry the title of best player ever, winning two more World Cup titles than his South American rival, as well as having a higher total medal count.
However, in saying this, it seems as though one would be saying that Pele won all the honours in his career by himself, which is entirely untrue and against the premise of football as a team game. When it comes to sports such as football and rugby, or any team sport for that matter, the title of greatest player is constantly debatable due to the fact that it is solely based on opinion, as it is unfair to judge the performance of one team on one individual.
So it may be fair enough to define Pele as the greatest footballer ever, but again, its based on opinion, and the same would be said when tossing a coin between the likes of David Campese, Jonah Lumo, Serge Blanco and perhaps even Tana Umanga, to conclude the greatest player to chase egg. When it comes to team sport, as much as an individual may be able to swing a game, its down to the team as an entire unit, hence making a fully correct decision on the greatest to compete in said sport, is near impossible. For that reason, football and rugby’s finest cannot be considered for the lead role! Wave goodbye to Michael Jordan too!
The conclusion that I think I may have reached now, is that the greatest sportsman ever is going to compete individually, in a sport that requires both unique skill and physical exertion, which is played on a massive scale globally, and at which he or she is factually proven as the best. I hope I don’t speak too soon, but I think that I may just have squeezed the shortlist down to three.
In golf, I am going to go with Tiger over Jack Nicklaus. At the age of thirty-two, Tiger still has more than enough time on his side to usurp the position of Nicklaus as the greatest ever in golf, with only five more majors required to overtake Nicklaus’ record of eighteen.
On the same grounds, I will take Roger Federer into consideration. However, post-consideration and thorough research, the number-one tennis player in history is Bjorn Borg, whose record stands at an 89.241% winning average in Grand Slam events, currently beating Federer by just over 2%. However, with Federer recently finding his form again, is it too early to write him off as the possible best ever in tennis?
Boxing is difficult. Statistically, the finest pound-for-pound fighter ever is Sugar Ray Leonard, winning 179 of 206 fights. Would anyone choose to argue though, that Floyd Mayweather Jnr, who, although claiming to be retired, has an untarnished 39-0 record, and is considered today’s best pound-for-pound fighter, could go on to smash all records if he chose to keep boxing? Who knows?!
The argument is proving difficult to finalise. Is it possible to find a sportsman with enough sustained and confirmed credentials to topple the might of Phelps? I am starting to think not.
After looking at all the facts and figures, I am finding it difficult to assume a definite ‘greatest’ in each of the three different sports that I believed would find a rival to Phelps. So perhaps I have reached a stage where the answer is staring my straight in the face, yet I seem to be refusing to accept it: Michael Phelps is the greatest sportsman ever!
In contrast to all those who rival him, Phelps is at the peak of greatness in his sport, yet he still has plenty of fuel in the tank. On top of that, he is the best in the world when it comes to the best in the world, the Olympics. He is the most coveted athlete when it comes to the event that defines those whom are best in the world, and surely that should stand aloft in the classification of sporting achievement.
The fourteen gold medals that hang from Phelps’ neck are there because they represent what he represents: the best swimmer in the world, and consistently. The fact that there is fourteen of them however, a number much higher than any other Olympian, represents that Michael Phelps is truly unrivalled when it comes to being the greatest sportsman ever.

Published: September 2008, Strathclyde Telegraph