On Thursday, ESPN dropped an inventory rating the 100 finest athletes on this planet because the 12 months 2000. 70,000 ESPN contributors voted primarily based on performances since 2000, assembling the record of the best athletes of the twenty first century–with monitor and discipline’s very personal Usain Bolt taking the ninth spot.
It’s typically arduous to consider that the worlds of the “Large 4” leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL), tennis, soccer, golf, and the Olympics all exist in the identical universe. How are you going to even evaluate the accomplishments of particular person athletes to these of athletes in a staff sport?
The Jamaican sprinter has a very spectacular resume, amassing 9 Olympic gold medals over his 4 Video games (he needed to return one as a result of a teammate’s doping violation), and nonetheless holds three world information: the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay. Bolt’s 100m report has stood since 2009, when he ran 9.58 seconds to interrupt the report for his third time, deeming him the world’s quickest man.
At his final Video games in Rio 2016, Bolt achieved the triple-triple–profitable three dash golds at three consecutive Olympics. Though he retired in 2018, his monumental achievements will go away a unprecedented legacy within the monitor world.
Bolt is certainly one of three Olympians within the ESPN high 10, bettered by solely swimmer Michael Phelps, who took the highest spot, and gymnast Simone Biles, in seventh.
The illustration of athletics in ESPN’s high 100 doesn’t finish there: sprinters Allyson Felix of the U.S. and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica declare the 63rd and 77th spots, respectively. Felix is a five-time Olympian for Crew USA, with seven Olympic titles to her title, plus three silvers and one bronze. Fraser-Pryce is a three-time Olympic champion and eight-time Olympic medallist. At 37, the Jamaican hasn’t referred to as it quits but–she has certified for her fifth and last Video games later this summer season in Paris.
