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Who is the Greatest Olympian of All Time?
Who is the greatest Olympian in the history of the summer Olympic Games? Defining the greatest in sport is always difficult, and may depend on things like the number of medals won, the number of Olympics participated in and the impact they had on their sport and society in general. If you think that the greatest Olympian is not listed, there is also the final option of 'other'. If you pick other, please use the comment form below to tell us who you think is the greatest. Also see our other Olympics Polls.
Nominees
- Michael Phelps - swimmer, most Olympic medals.
- Carl Lewis - nine gold medals, long jump and sprints.
- Steve Redgrave - five straight golds in rowing.
- Paavo Nurmi - 12 medals in track and field.
- Mark Spitz - 9 gold medals in swimming.
- Larissa Latynina - Soviet gymnast who won 18 medals
- Jesse Owens - ground breaking sprinter, 4 golds at one Olympics.
- Jim Thorpe - all rounder in track and field.
- Nadia Comaneci - gymnast achieving perfect 10s.
Related Pages
- more Olympic Games Polls
- About the Summer Olympics
- see also the poll about your favorite Summer Olympic Games sports
- list of Sports and Fitness Polls
- suggest a poll
Old Comments
- NOT Usain Bolt - he's a show-off! (from Rambux 9, Oct 2012)
- Hercules - from the ancient Greek Olympics! (from rambux 9, Oct 2012)
- What about Chris Hoy??? surely he deserves a mention (from Liam, 16 Aug 2012)
- What about Aladar Gerevich? He won gold in Fencing in six consecutive Olympics (he would have won eight if it weren't for WW2). In the Hungarian Olympic trials for the 1960 Rome Olympics, the fencing committee told Gerevich that he was too old to compete. He silenced them by challenging the entire sabre team to individual matches (even though he was 50 years old at the time) and winning every match. He missed the finals of the 1960 Olympic individual sabre event, and a possible individual gold medal, by a single touch - case closed! (from Peter Lagios, 8 Aug 2012)
- how about Usain Bolt (6 Aug 2012)
- Carl Lewis is most definitely the greatest Olympian of all time. You cannot vote for somebody that only swims (from john shawyer, Aug 2012)
- i think you forgot Muhammad Ali (from zander, July 2012)
- suggestion: Emil Zatopek (from Kyle, July 2012)
