Best All time

[Jlighter]

No Bronko Nagurski or Jim Brown?

[steve B]

Eddy Merckx.

1971 he won 47% of the races he was in over a full season not the handful of races some of todays guys compete in.


Hour record 49.431km - Not broken on a normal non aerodynamic bike until after 2000.
Most career victories by a professional cyclist: 525.
Most victories in one season: 54.
Most stage victories in the Tour de France: 34.
Most stage victories in one Tour de France: 8, in 1970 and 1974 (shared with Charles Pélissier in 1930 and Freddy Maertens in 1976).
Most days with the yellow jersey in the Tour de France: 96.
The only cyclist to have won the general classification, points classification and mountains classification in the same Tour de France (1969).
Most victories in classics: 28.
Most victories in one single classic: 7 (in Milan – San Remo).
Most victories in Grand Tours: 11

Plus 80 wins as an amateur.



Or if you want older Major Taylor. Won nearly everything, forced out of competition in the US by racism. Went to Europe and beat 3 national champions. Also raced in Australia.
World records in the paced mile.

Plus at least once where the pacers decided to deliberately go slow so he'd lose. After a couple laps of yelling at them to speed up he simply went around them and won. It's nearly impossible to beat a paced rider while unpaced. Speeds at the time were typically around 40mph paced.

By 1898, he held seven world records at distances from .25 miles (0.40 km) to 2 miles (3.2 km)[5] and he placed first in 29 of 49 races in which he competed. No one else came close to that record. Taylor was entitled to recognition as national champion but formation of a new cycling league that year "clouded" his claim to the title.
In one six-week period in 1899, Taylor established seven world records.[3] These included the .25 miles (0.40 km), .33 miles (0.53 km), .5 miles (0.80 km), .66 miles (1.06 km), .75 miles (1.21 km), 1 mile (1.6 km) and the 2 miles (3.2 km). He did the mile from a standing start in 1:41, a record that stood for 28 years.

And in womens sports
Eileen Sheridan british cyclist
She set pretty much every record for women in timed distance events including some that are still unbroken since the 1950's.

Or Beryl Burton winner of the British all round cycling championship every year from 1959-1983 at speeds that were sometimes faster than the men.

In 1967, she set a new 12-hour time trial record of 277.25 miles – a mark that surpassed the men’s record of the time by 0.73 miles and was not superseded by a man until 1969.[4] While setting the record she caught and passed Mike McNamara who was on his way to setting the men's record at 276.52 miles and winning that year's men's British Best All-Rounder. She is reputed to have given him a liquorice allsort as she passed him. Apparently, McNamara ate the sweet.

She also set about 50 new national records at 10, 15, 25, 30, 50 and 100-mile distances; her final 10, 25 and 50-mile records each lasted 20 years before being broken, her 100-mile record lasted 28 years, and her 12-hour record still stands today. Her prowess led to the rare distinction, for a woman, of an invitation to compete in the Grand Prix des Nations in 1967.

In 1982, with her daughter Denise, Burton set a British 10-mile record for women riding a tandem bicycle: 21 minutes, 25 seconds.

[CW]

While their later careers lost some luster, in their prime Mike Tyson and Tiger Woods were very dominant in their primes.

[alanu]

It's really hard to choose between the different sports, but I chose Jordan, mostly because he's the one I enjoyed watching the most.

If golf were added, it would be hard to choose between Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger, but again I'd probably choose Tiger since he's the one I watched the most.

Babe Didrickson and Jim Thorpe would be good additions as multi-sport athletes and it would be hard to ignore Carl Lewis and Jesse Owens in track and field.

I've been blessed to live in an era that showcased some of the greatest athletes of all time. I followed the careers of Michael Jordan, Joe Montana, Walter Payton, Mario Lemieux, Patrick Roy, Cal Ripken, Rickey Henderson, etc. Out of all of them, the most dominant athlete I've had the privilege to watch has been Wayne Gretzky. I don't know of any player who so single handedly and seemingly effortlessly dominanted his sport like he did. Collecting hockey cards was very popular in the Massachusetts city I grew up in. While all the other athletes were greatly admired and collected, Gretzky was like a god. If you didn't like The Great One you didn't have friends.

[TUM301]

Easy, the greatest team sport player in N American history. Bill Russell !!

[ChiefBenderForever]

Had to go with Gretzky just because he was so amazing to watch and was the greatest, although he did have great teamates which really help. Just like Jordan became the greatest when Pippen and Grant got on board. Without great teamates you are just a great player ( aka Adrian Peterson ) , and then some like Randy Moss think they are the greatest.

[pepis]

Gretzky-Ruth
both somewhat equal choices!
advantage for Gretzky, he did it pretty much in our life time,
advantage for Ruth, he did excel in both hiting and pitching
he still is one of only 2 lefty pitchers to compaile an ERA of under 2.00
while pitching 300 or more innings in american league history
and one of only 4 in modern major leagues (113 years}

[soxfan1986]

most dominant athlete of all-time,
is also the greatest winner of all-time bill russell.
the guy has more championship rings than he has fingers,

he;s got my vote.
and yes i have a boston bias

GO CELTICS

[bfrench00]

Have to go with the babe on this one. Not positive but i think he had more homers than entire teams a few times. He brought back baseball after the black sox scandal and since he would have been a hof pitcher that just adds to his legacy. 714 hr 342 ba and over 2000 rbis. As long as there is baseball babe will always be around.

[Shoele$$]

Gotta go with the "Great One".....nobody will ever touch Wayne's records. He changed the entire sport and it's marketing in this country by himself when he arrived in LA in the late 80's. There will never be another WG

[dabigyankeeman]

Ruth had some years where he hit more home runs that any other TEAM. And this is after being one of the greatest pitchers in the game! The Babe is the man!!