Who Is/Was The Most Dominant Athlete Of All-Time? (Updated)
Despite that fact that this is probably a stupid idea I am forging ahead anyway. With the recent dominance of Tiger Woods and Roger Federer, I wanted to take a look and see who is or was the most dominant player in recent sports memory. The nominees include Woods and Federer, as well as Wayne Gretzky, Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Schumacher, Richard Petty, and Jim Brown.
Cast your vote at the bottom of the post.
The evidence:
Tiger Woods has won over $66 million on the PGA Tour with 55 Tour victories. In 2006, at the age of 30, he won his eleventh and twelfth professional major golf championships and has more wins on the PGA Tour than any other active golfer. He has won 12 major championships, including the Masters four times, the U.S. Open twice, the PGA Championship three times, and the British Open three times. Woods also won the Silver Medal as leading amateur at The Open Championship in 1996 before he turned professional. After his victory in the 2000 PGA Championship, Tiger Woods became only the second player in professional golfing history to hold three majors in the same year at the same time. With his victory in The Masters in 2001, Woods became the only player ever to hold all four professional majors at once. Woods holds at least a share of the record for lowest 72-hole score in relation to par in all four majors, and at least a share of the low-72 holes record in two of them. He holds the record for victory margin in two majors: The Masters: 12 strokes, 1997; U.S. Open: 15 strokes, 2000 (record for all majors). Woods has won two or more majors in a year four times. He trails only Jack Nicklaus, who won two majors in a season five times. Woods and Bobby Jones are the only golfers to have won 10 majors before the age of 30. Many courses in the PGA Tour rotation (including Major Championship sites like Augusta National) began to add yardage to their tees in an effort to slow down long hitters like Woods, a strategy that became known as "Tiger-Proofing".
Roger Federer has won almost $30 million on the ATP Tour with 46 victories to his credit. In 2004, became the first man since Mats Wilander in 1988 to win three of four Grand Slam singles tournaments in the same year. In 2006, Federer repeated this feat and became the first man in the open era to win at least ten singles tournaments in three consecutive years. He has won ten Grand Slam men's singles titles in 31 appearances. He is the only player to have won both the Wimbledon and U.S. Open singles titles in three consecutive years. In 2007, when Federer won his third Australian Open title, he became the only player to have won three separate Grand Slam tournaments three times. He won the tournament without dropping a set, the first player to do so in a Grand Slam tournament since Björn Borg at the 1980 French Open. By winning Wimbledon in 2003, Federer joined Stefan Edberg, Pat Cash, and Björn Borg as the only players to win both the juniors' and men's Wimbledon championships. Federer's victory at the 2004 U.S. Open marked the first time in the open era that anyone had won his first four Grand Slam singles finals. He eventually won his first seven Grand Slam singles finals. By winning the 2006 U.S. Open, Federer became the only male player (and the only player in the open era) to win both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in the same year for three consecutive years. Federer is the only male tennis player to have won eight Grand Slam singles titles in three years (2004-2006). By reaching the final of the 2007 Australian Open, Federer became the first man in the open era to reach seven consecutive Grand Slam finals. By winning the 2007 Australian Open, Federer became the first male tennis player during the open era to win three different Grand Slam singles tournaments at least three times each (Australian Open: 3 times; Wimbledon: 4 times; U.S. Open: 3 times) and became the first man in the open era to win three straight Grand Slam singles titles twice in his career. Federer won a record 26 consecutive matches against top ten ranked opponents. Federer has won 46 of 59 finals during his career, for a winning percentage of 78.0 percent. This compares to 72.7 percent by Pete Sampras, 71.3 percent by John McEnroe, and 70.5 percent by Björn Borg.
Wayne Gretzky held or shared 61 NHL records upon his retirement, including 40 regular season records, 15 playoff records, and 6 all-star records. The regular season records include most goals in a season (92), most assists in a season (163), and most points in a season (215). He also holds the record for the fastest 50 goals, accomplishing that feat in only 39 games and the record for most goals in a 50 game period (61, which he accomplished twice). In 1983-84, he had a 51-game point-scoring streak, during which he scored 61 goals and received credit for 92 assists (153 points). Gretzky holds the records in both regular season and post-season play, holding the record for most career regular season goals (894), assists (1,963), points (2,857), and hat tricks (50). The next closest player in total points for the regular season is Mark Messier at 1,887. Gretzky's point total including regular season and playoffs stands at an imposing 3,239. Gretzky also had more career assists than any other player has ever gained total points. His 47 playoff points in 1985 and 31 assists in 1988 are still records for a single post-season round, and he holds the record for career playoff goals (122), assists (260), points (382), hat tricks (10), and game winning goals (24). He won nine Hart Trophies, the NHL's most valuable player award, and eight of these were awarded in consecutive years from 1980-87. Gretzky holds the record for most MVP awards of any player in North American professional sports. He won four Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers and tallied over 100 points a season for 15 NHL seasons, 13 of them consecutively.
Wilt Chamberlain, in his first season with the Warriors (1959-60), set new NBA records in scoring, averaging 37.6 points per game, and rebounding with 27.0 per game. With Chamberlain in the pivot, Warriors improved from a last place division finish in the 1958-59 season to the second best record in the NBA. Chamberlain holds nearly 100 NBA records, including the record for most points in a game: 100. He is still the only player to score 4,000 or more points in one season (only one other time in the history of the NBA has another player scored 3,000 points -- Michael Jordan). He also recorded a phenomenal 55 rebounds in one game, and averaged 27 rebounds per game that season, setting the all-time record for rebounds in a season. From 1959 to 1963 (5 seasons), Chamberlain recorded 5 of the top 7 (including the top 3) scoring averages of all-time. In 1962, he averaged 50.4 points per game, following that with 44.8 in 1963. His closest rival in this category is Elgin Baylor, who recorded the 4th best scoring average (38.3 in 1962). His career scoring average of 30.06 points per game is second-highest in league history, behind only Jordan's 30.12. Chamberlain scored 60 or more points in a game an astonishing 32 times, more than all other NBA players combined (26 times). The closest player on that list is Michael Jordan, who accomplished the feat 5 times. Chamberlain scored 50 or more points in a regular season game 118 times (45 times in the 1961-62 season alone). He also holds the record for consecutive games scoring 40 or more points with 14 in 1961. Chamberlain is the only player to grab more than 2,000 rebounds in a single season: 2,149 rebounds in the 1960-61 season (27.2 rpg) and 2,052 in 1961-62. He led the NBA in rebounding 11 times, in field goal percentage 9 times, and in scoring 7 times. After critics called him a one-dimensional (or even selfish) player, Chamberlain defiantly promised to lead the league in total assists the next season, which he did in 1968 at a rate of 8.6 per game. Chamberlain is also the only player in NBA history to record a quadruple double-double (meaning 40 points, and 40 rebounds or 40 assists in a single game). In 1962, he averaged 48.5 minutes per game, meaning that he played practically every minute of regulation as well as overtimes. His 3,882 minutes played out of the team's possible 3890 left an average of six seconds rest per game. In February of 1967, he made 35 straight field goals over a four game span including an 18-18 performance on February 24 against Baltimore. Chamberlain's 0.727 field goal percentage for the 1972-73 season is well ahead of the second best performance in NBA history — his own 0.683 mark from the 1966-67 season. And lastly, he was a two-time NBA champion (1967, '72).
Michael Schumacher, a seven-time world champion in Formula One, earned as much as $100 million annually and was identified by Eurobusiness magazine as the world's first billionaire athlete in 2005. As of 2006, Schumacher held nearly every record in Formula One, including most drivers' championships, race victories (91), consecutive wins (7), fastest laps (76), pole positions (68), and most races won in a single season (13). He also holds the record for most second place finishes with 43 and most top three finishes with 154. From 2001 to 2002 Schumacher finished in first, second, or third place a record 19 times. Schumacher has led more laps than any driver in history with 4,741. 40 times he both won the pole position and the race in the same event. In 2002, he clinched the season championship with an amazing 6 races left on the schedule. Schumacher also holds the record by winning a race in 15 consecutive season.
Richard Petty won the NASCAR Championship seven times (Dale Earnhardt is the only other driver to accomplish this feat), winning a record 200 races during his career, winning the Daytona 500 a record seven times, and winning a record 27 races (ten of them consecutively) in the 1967 season alone. Petty collected a record number of poles (127) and over 700 top-ten finishes in his 1,185 starts, including 513 consecutive starts from 1971-1989. He also won seven Daytona 500s. On February 27, 1966 Petty overcame a 2-lap deficit to win his second Daytona 500 when the race was stopped on lap 198 of 200 because of a thunderstorm. This made him the first driver to win the event twice. In 1967, Petty won 27 of the 48 races he entered, including a record 10 wins in a row. In 1971, he won 20 more races, became the first driver to earn more than $1 million in career earnings. His 13 victories in 1971 is a modern (1972 to present) NASCAR record for victories in a season, and was tied in 1998 by Jeff Gordon. He was named NASCAR Rookie of the Year, after he produced 9 top 10 finishes, including six Top 5 finishes.
Jim Brown rushed for more than 1,000 yards in all but two of his nine seasons, and set the standard for durability by never missing a game. In 1963, Brown carried for an unheard of 6.4 yards per carry, over 291 carries. He retired as the NFL record holder for both single-season (1,863 in 1963) and career rushing of 12,312 yards, as well as the all-time leader in rushing touchdowns (106) and total touchdowns (126), and all-purpose yards (15,549). He was the first player ever to reach the 100 rushing touchdowns milestone, and only a few other players have done so since then, despite the league's expansion to a 16-game regular season in 1978 (Brown's first four seasons were only 12 games long, and his last five consisted of 14 games). Brown also set a record by reaching the 100 touchdown milestone in only 93 games, which stood until LaDainian Tomlinson reached it in 89 games during the 2006 season. He still holds the career record for yards per carry by a running back (5.2), and total seasons leading the NFL in all-purpose yards (5: 1958-1961, 1964), and is the only rusher in NFL history to average over 100 yards per game for a career. Brown's 1,863 rushing yards in the 1963 season remain a Cleveland franchise record. It is currently the oldest franchise record for rushing yards out of all 32 NFL teams.
UPDATE:
For some reason, the poll code we used from coolwebtoys.com (who were rude when we asked for help and blamed us for their problems) is suddenly not working, so we had to replace the poll with another one.
Nevertheless, the results using the old poll were:
Gretzky 32% 60 votes
Woods 17% 32 votes
Federer 14% 26 votes
Brown 12% 23 votes
Chamberlain 12% 23 votes
Schumacher 9% 17 votes
Petty 1% 2 votes
>160 votes total
Continue to vote below and we'll add the totals together. Thanks for dropping in!
UPDATE #4: Combined tally as of 5/9/2007, 8:18 PM CT
Gretzky 42% 82 votes
Woods 19% 38 votes
Chamberlain 17% 33 votes
Federer 16% 31 votes
Brown 13% 25 votes
Schumacher 10% 19 votes
Petty 2% 3 votes
>198 votes total
(Source: Wikipedia)
