The Top Ten Athletes Of All Time

Greg Farrand by Correspondent Written on September 02, 2008
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What's the difference between a great athlete and a great player? An athlete can perform various sports at high levels. An athlete is well-rounded and versatile. An athlete gets all that he can out of himself on a nightly basis and uses all the talents he has. Here is my opinion on the top ten greatest athletes of all-time.

10. Charlie Ward: Ward attended Florida State where he led the Seminoles to a National Championship and won the Heisman trophy in 1994. Ward also won 30 other individual awards for football during his stay at Florida State, including two ACC Player of the Year awards. The outstanding quarterback also played basketball in college and was drafted by the Knicks and played in the NBA for ten seasons and was selected to participate in the 1998 three-point contest in 1998. Ward was also drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers even though he never played baseball in college.

9. Rafer Johnson: Johnson, despite having a knee injury, won the silver medal at the 1956 Olympics in the Decathlon. Then came back in 1960 to win the Gold. He was also offered a scholarship by UCLA to play football, but turned it down to concentrate on the decathlon. However because Johnson was such an outstanding athlete, he did have the ability and time to play basketball at UCLA during the John Wooden era.

8. Jesse Owens: Although Owens only really played one sport in track and field, he excelled at several different events. Owens once set the record in 100 yard dash (9.4), the 220-yard dash (20.3), the 220-yard low hurdles (22.6), and long jump (26.67 ft.) in a span of about 45 minutes at the Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor Michigan. Owens also won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Owens used to earn money by racing horses and other athletes. Owens would race the fastest ballplayers and also beat them even after giving them a 10-yard head start.

7. Deion Sanders: "Prime Time" is the only athlete to ever appear in a World Series and a Super Bowl. Sanders is also the only athlete to ever hit a home run and score a touchdown in the same week. He is the only man to score a touchdown off of a kickoff return, punt return, interception, fumble, reception, and rushing. Sanders once played in an NFL game and an MLB game in the same day. Sanders was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1995 where he won the first of his two Super Bowls, his second coming in 1996.

6. Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain:

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written on September 02, 2008 History


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