For the 1930s and 40s, recognition should be given to Don Bradman of Australia, widely regarded as the greatest cricket batsman of all time. The statistic that best reveals this is his career average of 99.9 runs in Test matches - second place is 61. Is there another sport where there is such a gap between first and second for perhaps the most significant career statistic?
Again, I say: Joe Montana?
A sizeable chunk of the world would tell you that Diego Maradona would also have strong consideration for being the top athlete of the 1980s.
I have a different take on best athlete in 1980’s:
Bo Jackson.
He’s the only player to make (and start in) both baseball’s and football’s All-Star games and he did things athletically that would seem mythical if they weren’t proven by video recording. The guy once threw out a runner trying to score from second on a double… from the warning track… on the fly, no bounces. (And the runner was a speed demon: Harold Reynolds.) IIRC, he once hit a ball over the waterfall at Royals’ Stadium. And you can ask Brian Bosworth about his combination of speed and power as a running back. Michael Jordan only became Michael Jordan the marketing machine after Bo left due to injury.
Oh, he also is the only athlete to play a major sport with an artificial hip (but that occurred in the 90’s).
Oh, and the best athlete of the 2000’s is Stephenie LaGrossa… uh, never mind. I’ll go along with Tiger Woods. 
A good case can be made that Mantle was better than Mays in the 1950s. Mays ended up playing longer at the end of his career, but Mantle probably had the better career.
And I’d put Jim Brown on top for the 1960s… the best football player to ever play the game and no one will ever come close. It’s like they took a RB from the 1990s and plunked him back into the 1960s… he was just so much better than anyone else.
And for the 21st Century, it’s obviously Bonds so far. I don’t care about the scandels, Woods doesn’t hold a candle to the press and intrigue around Barry Bonds.
Jim Brown wasn’t just a great football player, but apparently was one of the greatest lacrosse players ever (in college), and probably whatever sport he decided to exert himself at.
If we’re going to call him Lew Alcindor, should Ali be called Cassius Clay?
Jerry Rice is in an an awkward spot (for the purposes of this thread) as an 80s/90s 'tweener, but I’d rank him far, far ahead of Montana. If we were starting our decades at a different spot, he’d be a shoe-in. For the ten-year period form 1986-1995, he had 14,195 receiving yards with 145 TD receptions. Wow.
Also regarding Rice, note that that 10-year stretch by itself would make him the all-time leader in career receiving TDs, and a close 2nd in career receiving yards.
How about…
…Pele in the 1960’s - he was to sport in the 60’s as Ali was the '70’s.
…Diego Maradona in the 1980’s. Probably means nothing to Americans but the biggest and most dominant sports star on the rest of the planet by some distance.
…Donald Bradman in the 1930’s. No one has ever dominated a sport to the extent that Bradman did crcket in the 1930’s, nor held such a grip over the legend of their sport since. (although Jesse Owens is an very very suitable alternative)
mm
My vote’s for Gretsky. No one has dominated his sport and re-written the record books so convincingly as The Great One.
But I’ve been hearing a lot about this Tiger Woods guy too. 
I think that for a very signifiacnt part of the world you would probably have to go for the greatest cyclist the world has ever seen
Eddie Merckx - Armstrong can’t begin to compare, Merckx won one ofhis tours even after the rest of his teammates withdrew support half way around, and he still ate them.
The big criticism of Armstrong is that he has always built his season around just the one race, everything else being preparation
You can’t say that about Merckx, he won just abut all the major classics, all the major tours, all the titles available, and still went on to go 6day track racing and win there too, along with the world hour record that still hasn’t been equalled at sea level rather than in the rarified altitude that took Francesco Moser a decade to emulate.
No-one has got anywhere near Merckx domination of the sport, more stage wins, more race wins, more titles more everything.
Merckx was also the highest paid sportsperson in the world too, along with being voted world sportsman of the year 3 times.
As for American athletes, I can’t believe that Ed Moses hasn’t got some sort of mention, tens years unbeaten, I don’t think there is any track athlete who has a record even remotely similar.
Its not all that easy to find sports persons who have dominated their field more thoroughly, maybe Micheal Schumacher, Franz Klammer perhaps.
Joe Montana
There’s pretty compelling anecdotal evidence from fellow world class sprinters that Carl Lewis used performance-enhancing drugs during some of his reign–and certainly during the runup to the Olympics–as did most every other sprinter. Ben Johnson got caught while Lewis flew under the radar. I read a recent account on this and the sprinter’s claims (can’t recall his name), though initially surprising, were equally compelling.
If you look at the 100 meter speeds over the past 30 years, they seemed to fix at the 10.05 - 10.10 point for some time, until PED abuse became rampant. Since then, times had dropped precipitously.
Yes there is. Gretzky holds the most significant career NHL stats by a larger margin than that. He is not called The Great One for nothing. I tend to consider Gretzky as the greatest of all time, easily on par with Ali and Jim Brown.
I consider those three to be in a class by themselves. Behind them, in the second tier, I would put names like Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods.
You can’t discount Gretzky because his sport wasn’t as popular. If you did, then the first half of the century would be nothing but MLB and boxing, and as you move into the seventies and beyond only MLB and the NFL would qualify. Basketball is basically an inconsequential afterthought by comparison. And since you can’t disqualify the NBA, you can’t disaqualify the NHL, either.
Joe Montana is the greatest winner, not the greatest competitor or athlete. He didn’t even outperform Terry Bradshaw, who I notice was never mentioned, so I’m thinking Montana was a homer pick of some sort. (Otherwise Tom Brady would have to be considered for the 2000s.)
Just thinking about football in the eighties, I’d rate several people above Joe Montana. Bo Jackson, Walter Payton and Lawrence Taylor spring to mind. As far Joe’s zero picks in Superbowl games, much of that is attributable to the West Coast System, with its heavy reliance on high percentage dinks and dunks and dumpoffs to the running back. The same cannot be said about Brady, who throws primarily mid-range passes to his WRs, with a nice sprinkling of deadly accurate downfield bombs while calmly sidestepping the pass rush.
(Though I will admit that Brady’s one pick in three Superbowls was a bad pass through and through. Not just a bad decision, but a poorly thrown ball as well.)
Can somebody tell me why Ali is considered such a great athlete? I’ve seen some shows about his career and didn’t strike me as overwhelming. After his return from suspension, wasn’t he just great, no longer spectacular?
I don’t question his charisma – the 1996 documentary “When We Were Kings” wonderfully exemplifies this – but his political stances are open to question. I’ve heard (or read) that he got in over his head with the Black Panthers/Malcom X and was basically threatened to follow up with his deeds where his mouth left off. In that same vein, I believe (but don’t have the cite) that he made the radical stance against Viet Nam because he just didn’t want to get drafted, wanted to continue fighting instead. Lastly, Ferdie Pacheco said in the “Kings” documentary (IIRC) that Ali didn’t throw his Gold Medal off the Louisville bridge in protest, but simply lost it.
I’m not disagreeing with claim of Ali being that greatest athlete of the 60’s, I’m just asking about it because I don’t know enough about him (although Jim Brown strikes me as the greater athlete).
C’mon, Watsonville, don’t I at least get a chuckle for nominating Stephenie LaGrossa as athlete of the 2000’s???
I agree with Joe Montana. He’s a great competitor, and he’s an athlete, but he’s certainly not the greatest athlete in the sense of his athletic ability.
1920’s: Babe Ruth
1930’s: Jesse Owens
1940’s: Joe Louis
1950’s: Johnny Unitas (as much for putting the NFL on the map, as for his on-field accomplishments)
1960’s: Rod Laver, just ahead of Pele, Jim Brown and Bill Russell.
1970’s: Mark Spitz
1980’s: Wayne Gretzky, just ahead of Carl Lewis & Magic Johnson
1990’s: Michael Jordan
21st Century: Tiger Woods
If the list is based on all around athletic ability, then I have to disagree with some of these picks. Guys like Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson, Jim Brown, Wilt Chamberlain, Jackie Robinson, Michael Jordan, and others, are better athletes than Montana and Gretzky. They played multiple sports well and are far superior athletes. If you are going for great athletes, I would also nominate the following people for honorable mentions:
Charlie Ward, Cael Sanderson, Danny Ainge, John Elway, Deion Sanders, and…
Also Jim Brown is the greatest athlete ever.
I don’t know of anyone who could od the things he did.
LOL. Oh, yeah! I was gonna reply to this one and missed it!
My response was “SHE RAWKS!”
For me, winning is the most important thing. If grace and athleticism is the main standard, it becomes a pageant and we might as well include Baryshnikov!
But it isn’t a homer pick. I live in Texas, which is a far cry from San Francisco. I am a fan, but because of the winning (Holy cripes. I am a bandwagoner!)
But you’re right. Bradshaw should have gotten an honorable mention. I think I always underestimate him because when I think of the dominance of the Steelers, I think Defense. The same could be said of Brady, but in all fairness I did mention his name.
I say it is “premature” because personally, I hate assessing people who still have most of their careers ahead of them. A few years ago, I might have said Kurt Warner.