...that there are actually only five proper sports (football, rugby (league), boxing (amateur), athletics and motor racing), I'd probably go with Juan Manuel Fangio as the greatest sportsman ever (Schumacher was a cheat, as everyone kno).

I think it's got to be Tiger Woods. He's changed golf immeasurably, in terms of skill levels, mental approach & sheer professionalism.

He also dominates his sport in a way few others do. It seems to me that other golfers crumble when they see Woods at the top of a leaderboard, as if there's no possible way of catching him.

Every other golfer should thank him for raising prize money to previously unheard of levels.

I think his crowning glory was his win in this years US Open. Playing on an injured knee he fought throw the pain barrier to win in a playoff. He underwent season ending surgery soon after.

the question at hand but....

The answer is of course Bradman.

Statistically the next best player in his sport is only 2/3 as good.

He larged it over the world in the ridiculously demanding decathlon for nearly a decade, won two Olympic golds and broke the world record four times. And all with a cheeky smile and a nonchalant whistle.

If you want an alternative, it would be John Charles. These are facts.

Not only the architect of stunning World Cup and European Cup victories, which had seemed to be impossible dreams for the teams over which he so commandingly presided, but also the last true gentleman of football, always taking care to remove his dentures before trotting out onto the pitch.

Ray Reardon

...under pressure, it's got to be Jocky Wilson.

It's impossible to make a meaningful comparison between eras within the same sport, let alone pitching athletics against boxing against motor racing (who's better, Big Jim Sullivan or Alain Prost? Well, I know who I'd back in a fight but I don't think he had a driving licence.)

So it might as well be Jocky, after all, who was it that said, "You'll never win anything when you're pissed...?" He proved them wrong.

No-one since has even come close to his domination of cycling.

And not just specialising in one area such as the Grand Tours, but in every area - one day classics, stage races, the hour - from February to October every year.

It's Ali. The man had it all. Check out the first Sonny Liston fight - they tried to blind him and he still won the bout. And for mastery of his art, watch the 1967 bout against Ernie Terrell, the infamous "What's my name?" fight. And refusing to go to Vietnam, then coming back from that enforced hiatus to regain his crown.

And even in his "declining" years, there was The Rumble In The Jungle. Read Mailer's account of that, btw - arguably the best piece of sports journalism in the history of the genre. I'm certainly not the one doing the arguing.

Second Greatest? Chiyonofuji Mitsugu. Here, I'll save you typing it in to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiyonofuji_Mitsugu A demi-god.

And then of course there's Henrik Larsson :o)

All those making the Ali case (and I am a huge fan of the man) seem to be missing the point made in the original post.

Yes, Ali's is an amazing story and he is tremendously charismatic etc etc. But that's not the point, is it? The post was questioning, quite rightly I think, whether the actual career performance of Ali deserves the acclaim of being the greatest ever.

And in comparison to Bradman, Woods, Nicklaus, to name but three who were so clearly miles ahead of their peers, I don't think it does.

Half the appeal of Ali was that things were close, his career wasn't boring (as many would argue Woods' is because of his sheer dominance) and that he wasn't really that much better than Frazier, Norton, Foreman et al.

Ali is my favourite sportsman - but I couldn't make the case that his performance outstripped those mentioned above.

And if you're talking about wider social impact to try and make the case, then you have to stop and take into account Jesse Owens for one.

only kidding.
This is always going to be subjective and biased to your own generation. Who knows how good WG Grace really was? Even Bradman. And personality will come into it as well - which is why everyone in the world knows David Beckham (not even the best player at Man Utd/Real Madrid).

I'm not a golfer, but when people say Woods is the best ever, are they forgetting that Nicklaus has 18 majors to Woods' 14, and 19 runners up places compared to 5 (admittedly so far).

I'd go for Bradman, Ali and Senna (and Kenny Dalglish, but then I'm not even trying to be objective).

...cannot realistically be compared with Ali as he never fought as a professional. There is a world of difference between amateur boxing (a pure sport but not especially dangerous) where the fight gets stopped if one fighter starts breathing too hard, and the professional game where the crowd are usually desperate to see blood, and the much longer contests (15 rounds in Ali's heyday) can prove fatal. Many Olympic champions have found it difficult to convert gold medal success into championship belts at the professional level (Audley Harrison for example).
It is pure conjecture to speculate on what the (admittedly very talented) Cuban might have achieved in the professional game but that in itself is not a measure of his greatness. Ali ducked no one.
However who did he model himself on? He 'borrowed' his style form the legendary middleweight - Sugar Ray Robinson - who was five times champion. Even Jake La Motta admits that he 'was the best I ever fought'.

......but they were damn good. France´s Serge Blanco was one of the finest and most complete Rugby player ever and a big shout out for the Big Man of Norn Iron , the evergreen Pat Jennings, fantastic goalkeeper and played well into to his forties at the highest level. Thoroughly nice man too.

Best golfer ever though his ski-jumping has had room for improvement

I vote for Bradman

Billiards is a little out of fashion in this day and age (well, completely out of fashion actually) but Lindrum won the world championship in 1933 and held the title until he retired in 1950. A reasonable case, I would have thought. :)

I think it's a little hard to everlook michael phelps. Overall hes won 14 olympic medals, has in his lifetime made 37 world records (so far) and i think he is undeniably the best sportsman of this era.

In terms of success and being top of their game for a sustained period, not sure if anyone can touch Phil 'The Power' Taylor. Whether darts is actually a sport is probably another blog entry all together...