Roman Sebrle - World’s Greatest Athlete
- Filed under: Celebrities
- Date: Jun 20,2008
Roman Šebrle (born 26 November 1974 in Lanškroun) is an athlete from the Czech Republic. Originally a high-jumper, he competes in decathlon and heptathlon for team Dukla Praha. He is a world record holder in decathlon - in 2001 in Götzis he became the first decathlete ever to achieve over 9000 points and set the record at 9026 points, succeeding his compatriot Tomas Dvorak, who scored 8994 points two years earlier. A panel of experts convened by the Wall Street Journal in 2008 also ranked Šebrle as the world’s greatest athlete.
One of the continual questions in sports that annoys me to no end is ‘Who is the greatest athlete currently in sports?’
Look, there is no answer. I don’t care how many eggheads you put in one room, or how many math equations you do, it simply isn’t going to happen. There is no correct answer.
But don’t let my totally rational logic fool you. There are plenty of people out there who would love to argue this until their face turns blue. And apparently the Wall Street Journal is one of them.
Anyway, the Journal put together a panel of sports experts and had them grade athletes on, well, a lot of stuff. Speed; vision and reflex; stamina and recovery; coordination and flexibility; power, strength and size; and success and competitiveness. The final category examined success—records held and victories—as well as competitiveness, based on the sport’s popularity. Soccer, for example, the world’s most popular sport, was judged the most competitive.
Just so you know, Yale statistician John Emerson helped normalize the scores so no single panelist could exert undue influence. I could care less.
Anyway, here’s what they came up with. The greatest athletes in the world, from 1 to 10 are:
1. Roman Sebrle (Track and Field)
2. LeBron James (NBA)
3. Floyd Mayweather (Boxer)
4. LaDainian Tomlinson (NFL)
5. Roger Federer (Tennis)
6. Sidney Crosby (NHL)
7. Liu Xiang (Track and Field)
8. Jeremy Wariner (Track and Field)
9. Ronaldinho (Soccer)
10. Alex Rodriguez (MLB)
USA’s respected financial publication The Wall Street Journal recently drew together a panel of 5 judges, to study the achievements of 79 male sportsmen across all sports, and decided that Czech Roman Sebrle, the World Decathlon record holder, is currently the world’s greatest sportsman.
While the study was “not completely scientific” as The Wall Street Journal itself admits, it asked its panel to rank the sportsmen based on six criteria: speed; vision and reflex; stamina and recovery; coordination and flexibility; power, strength and size; and success and competitiveness.
The final category examined success - records held and victories - as well as competitiveness, based on the sport’s popularity. Soccer, for example, the world’s most popular sport, was judged the most competitive.
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