Kelly Slater the best sports figure ever.

Tony Hawk, Derek Jeter, Michael Jordan, every sport is different, but every sport has it's champions. They are all legendary figures in their respective sport

 

Tiger Woods was on his way until he crashed on Thanksgiving... He had the same type of career going until that point. Rivals would come and go, but he always stayed #1

 

I respectfully choose to go against any claims that another athlete has ever had the sheer domination that Slater has had.He is hands down the best athlete to ever grace any sport-IMHO. Nobody compares. Yes, as ThatSlyB stated, those athletes did dominate their sports, but not at the level Slater has dominated surfing. He has so many different 'firsts', and I am not talking just about the act of winning a contest. Dominated at the youngest age, through how many years!? It's just silly even thinking about it. He is a freak. The way he looks at surfing and breaks it down is just insane. If you have not read Pipe Dreams, It is a good read as well.

Dude just gets better and learns anything and everything with increasing age. Like I said, my honest opinion....not knocking anyone else's by any means.....

 

I wouldn't say he is the best of all sports but you do have a good point. Good luck getting anyone other than surfers to listen to you though...

 

the problem with this question is that you can only compare him to athletes that play non team sports...its easy to say names like jordan, jeter or montana but the fact is they play as a team so it is a completely different discussion. Tiger and Federer are two ppl that come to mind in individual sports. Tiger has dominated from a young age and although he has company at the top now he is still the greatest golfer playing right now. Federer hasnt had the longevity so he's not really in the same boat...in my opinion Kelly should be recongized as a top 10 athlete of all time but just hard for "non surfers" to understand his dominance

 

Ricky Carmichael!

 

chaz michael michaels.

 

INFO-GRAPHITI: KELLY SLATER, GREATEST ATHLETE OF ALL TIME?
http://business.transworld.net/101082/news/kelly-slater-greatest-athlete-of-all-time/

^interesting article, although a bit biased with no mention of Jordan or a few others.

All have good points and all the athletes named are no doubt greats. I just look at it like this. Regardless of the sport, wether a team sport or individual, when completely broken down and analyzed from every angle, I just do not believe there to be anyone who has dominated their respective sport quite like Kelly has. There is a lot of new talent coming up and on the tour right now. At 40 years old, he watches these kids like Medina and John John, Wilson, etc....and learns everything he sees with ease and just continually progresses to the point of just being silly.

Happy shredding...

 

shaun white. dominated at a young age, continues to dominate, and reinvents the sport with time.

 

Shaun White may not have the longevity yet, but definitely has dominated. I remember watching the last Winter Olympics. Even if you knew nothing about snowboarding or the half-pipe, it was very obvious he was just head and shoulders above the competition.

Tony Hawke, don't know details, but he seemed to be at the top in skateboarding for a pretty long time.

Kelly is a freak though. Right now, it seems like the only person that can really stop Kelly is him. As long as he continues to have that drive, we may be having this same discussion 5 yrs from now.

 

Hard to say anybody can top what he's been able to do for so long. At the age of 40 the dude is getting better and still dominating, nobody comes close IMO.

 

tough one... Michael Jordan, Lance Armsrtong (F*ck the recent rulings...), Tony Hawk, Joe Montana, Valentino Rossi, Michael schumacher etc. every sport has it's king and Kelly is ours. Apples and oranges, capache?

 

Agree with Shaun White..F* montana Eli is better anyone can throw to Jerry Rice. Easiest way to compare across sports is whether or not you can dunk a basketball. If youve never been able to dunk youre probably not that sweet at sports

 

Great athelete but ask the average American who Kelly Slater is an probably 20% might know.
Ask the average American who Michael Jordan is and 99% would know. No one gives a crap about surfing in the grand scheme of sports.

 

Jack Roosevelt Robinson. Nobody can even come close. The man defined the word "Fearless". Check out the wikipedia page. Lettered in 4 sports at UCLA. He was a freak of an athelete. There is a reason the guys number is retired throughout the game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinson

Robinson's promotion met a generally positive, although mixed, reception among newspapers and white major league players.[116][121] However, racial tension existed in the Dodger clubhouse.[122] Some Dodger players insinuated they would sit out rather than play alongside Robinson. The brewing mutiny ended when Dodgers management took a stand for Robinson. Manager Leo Durocher informed the team, "I do not care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a ****in' zebra. I'm the manager of this team, and I say he plays. What's more, I say he can make us all rich. And if any of you cannot use the money, I will see that you are all traded."

 

Pele re-introduced the worlds most popular sport to the US. He def has a spot on the podium for worlds greatest. However as previously mentioned it is still a team sport so it is hard to ever determine an out right solo top athlete. Slater and Woods would be my candidates if there had to be non-team sport best athlete. Usain Bolt - honorable mention in a sport that has a high turnover rate for fastest in the world

 

Kelly vs the World? ...there are many!

You have to look at sports where the athlete can control the entire game or the entire competition and single handedly change the end result all alone. Remember, Surfing isn't as big and far-far-far less popular then other niche sports such as Pro Bass Fishing, Tennis, Wrestling, Boxing, Cycling, Triathlon, Running, Cross Country Ski’ing (widely considered the greatest endurance athletes on earth), Track & Field, GOLF, etc. ...just to name a few. And these are just NICHE sports that are way more popular then surfing.

My list of greats that I feel are as great as K E ! ! Y that were competing in individual sports: Tiger, Armstrong, Prefontain, Macca, Crowie, The Brownlee's, Mahamad Ali, Zane Holmes, Cael Sanderson, Dan Gable, The Ecklestiens and I have many more that are all on equal terms with Slater and in most cases, all were far more popular then Slater…AND MOST OF YOU never heard of.

I love Slater and I have followed him my entire life. But, I know for a fact that Soccer is 20X bigger and far more competitive and the athletes that circle the "Greats of Soccer," are monumental within each of their own countries. The problem with team sports is that most greats are only known by fans of that sport or simply meager-hometown-fans. No one ever considers a field goal kicker "great," but hell, when they miss they are tarred and feathered in public.
Anyway, I followed Kelly through France and he B L O W S M Y M I N D every single wave!!!

 

ashima shiraishi. in 5 years. google her.

http://www.rockandice.com/news/2194-third-v13-for-ashima-shiraishi

 

Jack Johnson, heavyweight champion of the world.

...no, not the ***** singer..