5 greatest sportsmen ever

[osprey]

I'd like peoples opinions on who are the 5 greatest sportsMEN of all time.
My choices ( in no particular order ) would be:-
Donald Bradman
Michael Phelps
Daley Thompson
Pele
Jack Nicklaus

[R1Geezer]

Sir Steve Redgrave
Daley Thompson
Michael Johnson
Carl Lewis
Ian Botham

to be fair it was tough so her'es another 5 it could also have been:

Michael Schumacher
John Surtees
Stanley Mathews
Lance Armstrong
Gareth Edwards

[jno]

Muhammad Ali probably belongs in that list, a great boxer and a great man, sadly in poor shape.

Bradman, yes, has any other sportsman ever been so far ahead of anyone else? Average nearly 100; next best 60 or so. That's just astonishing.

Not sure that Nicklaus will stay ahead of Tiger Woods.

I don't actually like Pete Sampras much but he delivered the goods in his day.

[lesblue]

Sir Steve Redgrave, Tiger Woods, Carl Lewis, Don Bradman, Ayrton Senna.

[mrrobbo15]

mine would be..

Mohammed Ali
John Mc Enroe
Tiger Woods
Viv Richards
A.P Mc Coy

[raysparx1]

Ali,
Carl Lewis
ian botham
Mark Spitz
Jesse Owens

[mightyWBA]

Muhammad Ali
Carl Lewis
Lance Armstrong
Michael Phelps
Michael Schumacher
A P McCoy
I'm having six!

[maxximus]

jim thorpe - abebe bikila - lance armstrong - johny unitas - alexis arguello - i'll throw a footy player in at number 6 - pavel nedved even though he isn't done yet. maybe someone can explain how you make a list on here, as i can't seem to make it out. cheers!

[Buzzie]

Bradman number 1 every time, like jno says, to be half as good again as any other batsman ever is just incredible.

Then in no particular order:
Ali
CB Fry
Pele
Bjorn Borg (Quote by someone I forget who "We play tennis, he plays something else")

[sambro]

george best
chris hoy
geoffrey boycott
fanny blanckers coen
john hilton

[Dudley]

Mike Hailwood
Bobby Jones
Jim Clark
Johnny Haines
Gary Lineker

They were all sportsmen in the very strictest sense of the word. There are many more though and apologies to Jack Nicklaus for not making my top five.

[Parsfan]

Jack Nicklaus would always be in my list. The question was about Sportsmen, which incorporates sportsmanship as well as technical ability. You won't find a better ambassador for any sport than Nicklaus. If you came home and switched on the TV just in time to see the prizegiving you wouldn't know from his demeanour whether he'd won or came last. No throwing rattles out out of the pram. And, on the subject of ability, he's still the major record holder, so Tiger may have to wait. Others on my list would be Beckenbaur, Schumacher, Borg and JPR.