Gents,
Bobby Hull? Not to put down hockey skills or any extremely specialized skill in any sports like hitting a slap shot, throwing a world class cutter, or kicking the longest field goals. I don't see how such highly expert but narrow specialized skills can make anyone fit the "greatest athlete" label. I mean what else could Hull, Rivera or Vinatieri do that makes them generally better than others with non-comparative skills. It simply does not work in my opinion. Skating on ice and handling a puck at the same time is incredibly difficult. It's an amazing skill. But it's still limited to a very narrow arena/environment. I hate to call them One-Sport-Wonders, but that pretty much describes the difficulty of the thread question. That's why we are getting some fan favorites here.
Personally I'd take someone with a broad range of athletic skills and to me the closest goes back to decathletes and such like Rafer Johnson, Bruce Jenner (saw both) or any of their competitors rather than one sport athletes. Even swimmers and gymnasts have to learn and deal with multiple disciplines. The greatest baseball players have a case because everyone has to run, throw, hit. Other sports have some aspects that are pretty interesting, but where is the range a decathlete has to go through?
It's an interesting question few will agree on.
Cheers,
Merlot
